Great thread Brian! You have the gift for capturing photos that show knives performing the way the makers intended. I love the motion shots. That is a big bad-ass knife that performs as good as it looks.
Thanks for posting this series of photos. Awesome blade and performance!
Phil
Thank you Phil! Dylan and I go back a ways. We both joined BF the same year, we talked quite a bit through the forums and then met at Blade the first year he was offering his knives for sale. I got the honor of getting to put one of his earliest knives through hell for a while, and was really impressed with his work as a whole. His ergonomics were awesome, his grinds were fantastic, and his heat treat was spot on. We have had a lot of discussions on knife use and functionality over the years and we have a lot of similar thoughts on the matter. This knife came about from a discussion on the tools we would want in an apocalyptic environment. I have and use axes, and though I do like using hawks some, I am really not a big axe fan. I really prefer a large knife. machetes tend to run a little thin for my tastes in most cases, and then in large knives most production knives seem to either be too thick and have too much mass for my tastes, or they are thinner but not tough enough to handle the hard work that I wanted one to handle. Dylan has a great talent for blending his blade geometry together for the right combination of balance, cutting performance, lateral strength, and overall durability. He knows where to remove unnecessary mass without sacrificing strength. When I described the knife I wanted, I thought about what environmental elements I might encounter in such a world. I wanted it to perform in a variety of cutting tasks, in a variety of environments from temperate forest, to the swamps in the deep south.
So I drew out a knife with a 10 inch blade to give me reach, but still be small enough to tuck away in a pack for discretion if needs be. I wanted the elements I liked most about the Bowie, Kukri, and Barong blended together without the elements I didn't like about each. I wanted a slight re-curve for the mechanical advantage of enhance cutting ability in a fatigued physical state, an oval cross section to the handle for good blade control in finer work, and Dylan's awesome contours for both the secure purchase and hand comfort in long term use. I wanted a forward weight distribution for good inertia development with enough mass in the front half of the blade to bite well in chopping, combined with a point sharp enough to penetrate tough hides. I wanted it to function well as a tool in an organic environment, to make other tools with, shelters, fire prep, and general camp work. I also had to take into consideration how I would want it to perform well in an defensive / offensive role as well. These conversations between Dylan and I always flow very smoothly. He has a lot of knowledge in that head of his, and it is really easy for us to get on the same page blade wise. So he took it from there. He refined the drawing and put it to steel in his usual stellar fashion. Though we needed to tweak the handle just a bit for the final version, he essentially nailed it right out of he gate and produced exactly what I needed and wanted.
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