Shiv uses

I unfortunately missed Blade this year. I live in Atlanta and had every intention to bee line to Nathan's table and score a Shiv..........

But.......a business conflict had me in Las Vegas :confused:

After several days of trade show hell.....I found myself dreaming of "toe-jam" relief using my un-acquired Shiv.............I know I'm sick
 
Mark that's because most folks in het are vanilla and aren't S&M type of bad boys like (put your own name here :D).
 
IMO, Pig Stickin seems to fit the best .. but thread needs more pics .. ;)

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SHIV: A2 vs 3V.....Commentary by Nathan

Very recently I was confronted with the opportunity to add another Shiv to the pack. I've had any number of them over time, first starting when it was introduced, in A2, of which there were around 60, from a total of about 250 made, the remainder being from 3V. The last Shiv in the case is an A2. When Nathan switched Shivs over to 3V, I decided to buy a couple 3V's, then trade the A2's. From there, the pack remained only 3V. Over time, the differences between them went overlooked or were forgotten. Now having another A2, I've had the opportunity to do some comparisons, though not much from memory but more through Nathan's help with Shiv facts. Rather than repeat details I've been told over time and recently, here is an excellent explanation of Shiv facts that only Nathan could have written, directly below the images:

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"A2 and 3V were both ground and unground. A2 grinds nicer but 3V benefits from it more due to removing deeper tool marks from milling a relatively difficult material.

When I moved from A2 to 3V I updated the design. There are different kinds of toughness and durability, but gross toughness (the ability to resist large blowouts or breaking) is better in 3V due to alloy, manufacturing process, and microstructure. This leads to a thinner blade, and that led to a trickle down in design tweaks including changes to the fuller, the plunge, the swedge and the internal skeletonizing for balance issues. There was a significant reduction in weight. At the same time I shifted the thumb ramp slightly forward and added the chamfers. The changes to the location of the thumb ramp and the internal skeletonizing are visible tweaks that I'm not sure anyone has ever noticed before.

Another tweak was the hand grip. It is designed to sit across your palm at an angle and the sculpting is designed so that it extends straight out aligned with your arm. This is important when stabbing something in the dark. Try it with a Shiv then try it with someone else's "fighter", you'll see slab sided knives jut out at a weird angle, not in line. The Shiv grip is tuned. Well, it was tuned for me, I have big chunky palms. The first few were more extreme, I dialed it in for more of a 50th percentile male after the first run.

Fun fact: the scales on the Shiv and the UF are interchangeable, but different. The UF is thinner to carry flat. The Shiv is a full on stabbing weapon without those concessions.

The flares on the scales align with your palm when indexed against the guard and thumb ramp when held in a reverse grip. That reverse grip is one reason the butt end of it looks like it does. The distance from the butt to the flares are tuned for an average size thumb to get around the butt. Try holding other knives in a reverse grip and you'll see what I'm talking about.

At some point in the process I changed my signature slightly, moving a letter over a tad and changing the relative depth of some areas. The depth of the signature varies to simulate the variations in width of the actual signature that it was scanned from and these tweaks were done during the Shiv runs.

The first Shivs had a thicker point and edge and were sharpened at 23 degrees per side then convexed. They're very durable but didn't cut great. They were a sharp pry bar that could open a hole in a brick wall. As time went on the Shivs got thinner and sharper. I transitioned into a 20 degree V edge and brought the swedge up to meet the edge near the point. In testing this geometry can be thrown into a 1" decking board or 3/4" plywood and penetrate through for a couple inches, but can be thrown into a brick paver with the same force without losing the point. I feel we've hit the sweet spot for penetration vs durability.

Fun fact: The very first Shiv was a test knife. It was finally broken a few days ago. It has been a rough use knife in the shop all these years. It tore down part of a brick wall, cut the steel strapping on pallets of incoming materials and opened all the incoming crates by batoning through all the nails. Cutting though the nails is easier than prying. Years of being hit with a 4 pound hammer finally caught up with it a few days ago. It was A2. To my knowledge the only 3V Shivs that have ever broken were done intentionally in a vise with a cheater bar."
 
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A2 is good stuff fo sho...thanks!

So, I wonder if a 3V Shiv has now assumed the task of crate demo?

Inquiring minds want to know...

SHIV: A2 vs 3V.....Commentary by Nathan:
Fun fact: The very first Shiv was a test knife. It was finally broken a few days ago. It has been a rough use knife in the shop all these years. It tore down part of a brick wall, cut the steel strapping on pallets of incoming materials and opened all the incoming crates by batoning through all the nails. Cutting though the nails is easier than prying. Years of being hit with a 4 pound hammer finally caught up with it a few days ago. It was A2. To my knowledge the only 3V Shivs that have ever broken were done intentionally in a vise with a cheater bar."
 
My understanding is that there are simply no more Shivs to be had from Nathan, the handful that had existed untouched and uprocessed sold at Blade Show.

Any demo of the Shiv since the introduction of the model in 3V would, one would think, have been using the updated 3V Shiv. You might want to do some Bladeforums searches to find out, unless Nathan knows if and where it or they exist.
 
Great post, Bob. Love this kind of information! Thank you. Mike
 
Great post, Bob. Love this kind of information! Thank you. Mike

Thanks, Mike (he who owns a few Shivs himself). I myself had never noticed the change in thumbrest. And until an earlier conversation with Nathan, I was unaware that the skeletonizing changes had made some of the unused scales, in some cases, in need of some slight refitting.

But I think this discussion of the Shiv above, thanks to Nathan's gift for really superior explanations, adds to the history of it's development, which is something that has always been of interest to me, too.
 
Great job to have preserved that piece by Nathan. Sadly, some of his earlier writings have gone missing (but I hope not lost forever in cyberspace) due to the server transition :mad:
 
Ha, ha, ha! The sound effects were by default - and they changed from the original iPhone clip. Above my pay grade at this moment. But thank you anyway. Cecil

^ sound effect too? Nicely done Mr. Cecil. B. DeMille :D
 
Great job to have preserved that piece by Nathan. Sadly, some of his earlier writings have gone missing (but I hope not lost forever in cyberspace) due to the server transition :mad:

That piece by Nathan, as quoted, comes not from my memory or server memory but from Nathan's memory. I had asked him a few questions over time but had more to discuss about what turned out to be the switchover from A2 to 3V. That piece was quoted directly from the conversation with Nathan, so certainly no credit is due me for the content or quality of presentation, both highly informative. All credit due to Nathan.
 
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