The "Ask Nathan a question" thread

000Robert said:
Hi Nathan! Thanks for all the hard work!
Are the wooden scales on the DEK1's epoxied onto the blades? I was thinking that I might remove my wooden scales on mine since I plan to EDC it to keep them looking like new and just mount them for special occasions when I want to show them off. Is that a bad idea even though I am very capable of removing them? I use my Hot-Air Rework station to heat the Loctite and protect the scales with Kapton tape.
Maybe I should just collect it and buy another DEK1 next month to EDC...
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We used to epoxy them to the tang but not since we moved to the thicker micarta liner, it holds them pretty well.
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
Sure. It is fundamentally very similar to the original utility fighter just some little handle tweaks. It's not ready for photography yet.
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So will it keep its 6 inch blade ? And any ETA for the preorder for "The Utility Fighter 2" ?... I've been trying to get a knife from you guys for years now ever since you released the Light Chopper !
But now i have the funds to get something so the UF2 is my next new knife purchase hopefully !

Frank
 
frc505 said:
So will it keep its 6 inch blade ? And any ETA for the preorder for "The Utility Fighter 2" ?... I've been trying to get a knife from you guys for years now ever since you released the Light Chopper !
But now i have the funds to get something so the UF2 is my next new knife purchase hopefully !

Frank
Click to expand...


Pretty soon I think. We're finished with the DEK1 pre-order and the K18 is past the point where it's a constraint on the manufacturing process here (Peter's and I are the bottle necks on that, not my crew). We're going to start shipping D3V Kepharts in a couple weeks and then we'll be ready to start a new pre-order. Except the timing happens to land on Blade Show.
 
ronnie hood said:
Hi Nathan.
What’s your favourite cheese?
Hopefully not Brie
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Soft creamy stinky buttery strong Roquefort that makes your eyes water and tongue go numb...

I've been enjoying some old smoked gouda that's a little bit crunchy and yummy like a parmesan. Jo's been getting these Rhones that I like and they pair wonderfully.
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
View attachment 1559044
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Good day to you Nathan.

I love seeing MagnaCut steel in your hands.
After small research about it, I'm pretty much amazed. Wanted to know your opinion about it. And have several questiond also. (As youve decided to test it for your knife its obviously great steel)

Okay as CPM MagnaCut is new stainless super steel, some even call it stainless 4V, everything is said with this about this steel. Can hit HRC 64-65 (but we don't need that I guess lol) , its Edge retention and Toughness matches CPM 4V (4V is CPM lent of Bohlers 4VE used for your competition choppers) and stainless like 20CV (which was CPMs equivalent for Bohkers M390).
All this "stock" stats already makes me feel that I need one CPK with MagnaCut.
On top of all this it is said to have some very fine microstructure, so it should be easy to grind and get some crazy mirror polished edge.

And as big red cherry on top of a pie, I've read that it has "wide range of heat treatment options" and this make me feel very very intrigued when this kind of steel gets in hands of evil genius like you Nathan.
So mainly because of highlited fact I want to ask you, as you have decided to try this steel out, if everything will go as desired, are you going to use it in regular production knives? For example instead of Aeb-l which is great performer stainless steel with your heat treat, I remember you where asked if you were going to name it Delta Aeb-l or something like that and you said that aeb-l is pretty simply steel and you havent tweeked a lot in it to cal it delta or any other name. But this magnacut looks very promising and because it has wide range of ht options im pretty much sure that you will beat maximum out of that steel. Ive seen some makers on youtube using it, big brown bears videos where most jmpressive with this steel, with very thin geometry knife he did 2 cuts on nail without any damage, that video was crazy effective and make me remember you and your D3V. Now I think that you will overperform every other HT recipes after some experiments and are we going to see MagnaCut DEK knives or UF paterns or any other?
 
TWO questions (I hope that is allowed :)).

1) Was there a particular reason for using the block "Carothers" lettering instead of the traditional signature for the maker's mark on the Kephart, and if so would you mind sharing that reason? Inquiring minds need to know. :cool:

2) In the eventual UF2 pre-order, do you envision offering any double edge options?


Oh, I think we have the same taste in cheese. Love Roquefort - and really all blue cheeses. In my experience, people tend to either really love these cheeses, or really hate them. For me, the creamier and stinkier the better!! I really like Stilton and Maytag Blue, but I think the use of sheep's milk pushes Roquefort over the top.
 
The Amazing Virginian said:
TWO questions (I hope that is allowed :)).

1) Was there a particular reason for using the block "Carothers" lettering instead of the traditional signature for the maker's mark on the Kephart, and if so would you mind sharing that reason? Inquiring minds need to know. :cool:

2) In the eventual UF2 pre-order, do you envision offering any double edge options?


Oh, I think we have the same taste in cheese. Love Roquefort - and really all blue cheeses. In my experience, people tend to either really love these cheeses, or really hate them. For me, the creamier and stinkier the better!! I really like Stilton and Maytag Blue, but I think the use of sheep's milk pushes Roquefort over the top.
Click to expand...

The block lettering started with the Keffeler comp chopper. It was completely his design work (I added nothing) with my handy work in the finished product. I did not editorialize his design or tweak it to conform to our design standards but made a faithful copy. This is because the knife that I modeled had multiple world championships on it and was developed over time by the best competition cutter in the world. I had nothing to add to that other than to make it properly. It was a real bear to make those knives and to develop the optimized heat treat for the V4E in order to make what I feel was the best competition knife in the world. We put a lot of effort into the low volume project (which is why I was so bent out of shape when we rightly won the world championship with that knife on its first attempt but the win was given to Dwayne Unger due to a scandalous judging error by an inexperienced judge and Dwayne's bizarre inability to recognize what happened and was plainly visible in the videos).

The knife needed our names on it and it was an equal measure his work and mine. It felt right to use the same font. This came up again in the K18. And, if you think about it, the exact same thing with the Kephart. Our Kephart is my work but not my design, so I didn't "sign it" like I would for a normal CPK offering that is both my work and my design. That and it's a relatively basic affordable offering that will fit into the Amazon line.

We're going to try offering some more affordable knives to a wider audience as an experiment. These knives lack some of the finer details we're known for. I wanted a way to differentiate them from our more signature work and the actual signature was a pretty obvious way to do that.
 
TommyGun56 said:
Good Morning Nathan, can you give any information yet on the Subtle differences between the original UF and UF2?

See you are starting a Pre-Order for it on May 28th

Thanks

Tom
Click to expand...
The blade is practically identical. I tweaked the thumb ramp placement a little. The guard is a little larger. But the main difference is some tweaks to the handle. The handle on the OG was very good but there are a couple areas of improvement in the geometry and I also added some jimping like we did on the DEK1. That's a detail that wasn't very feasible with our manufacturing process when we made the original but is just a matter of carbide and cycle time now (no special fixturing) and this seemed like a good application for it. This is one of the ways that Lorien has helped drag us forward. He makes us re-think our manufacturing process in ways that make us better at our job. I'm going to stay true to the original concept of the UF. It was designed as a collaboration with a Green Beret with specific input on dimensions that carry well and function as a utility knife/weapon with some very specific details about the hand grips. We did the job right the first time, so the knife is fundamentally the same, but there is always room for small improvements.
 
Also, we plan to have our second open pre-order for 2021. We're getting ready to start full production of the updated 6" Utility Fighter 2 for a special customer. We will be taking customized orders for this knife than can be piggy backed onto this run. We're starting production now to deliver spring '22.

Pre-order opens at 5:00 eastern time.


^ Jo, Bo, Mark, Fred and I hope to see you there.

Nate,
After reading this am i correct in assuming that the pre-order opens at 5:00pm EST on the sales thread or will it have its own thread ?... Also is this pre-order limited to a set number of blades?... i ask as i work a 12 hour shift on Friday so im not sure if ill be able to access wifi and post for a place in the pre-order so would it be a good idea to get a proxy for the pre-order to make sure i get a spot on the pre-order list ?... My next question is would Royal or Midnight Blue canvas or linen Micarta be a option for the handle ? ... How does one go about looking for and asking for help with a proxy buyer ? Is there a thread for people to offer there services as proxies and for people to ask for help with getting a proxy ... Thanks for your time !

Frc505 aka Frank
 
Last edited:
#notnathan
Sale proxy request thread:

Sale Proxy Requests

If you would like to request or offer a proxy for an upcoming sale, you are welcome to do it through this thread and holler below. No offering or soliciting payment for proxies in this thread. Edit by Nate: This is an "unsanctioned" thread and service. I have stayed out of this up until now...
www.bladeforums.com www.bladeforums.com
 
Odog27 said:
#notnathan
Sale proxy request thread:

Sale Proxy Requests

If you would like to request or offer a proxy for an upcoming sale, you are welcome to do it through this thread and holler below. No offering or soliciting payment for proxies in this thread. Edit by Nate: This is an "unsanctioned" thread and service. I have stayed out of this up until now...
www.bladeforums.com www.bladeforums.com
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Thanks for this !

Frc505 aka Frank
 
Nathan,
Will we ever see a CPK Karambit ? Say with a slightly curved blade of 3.5 to 4 inches long with a reinforced tip so it can be used in a stabbing motion as well instead of only being good at slashes and slicing ?... and what they call cocktail feathers which is a design feature seen on ancient and traditional Karambits and there on the part of the knife where one usually sees jimping for the thumb ! And maybe a liltle bit forward from there ...Cocktail feathers are a traditional design used to help aid in Trapping and catching ... And with a ergonomic handle with a oversized ring with jimping around it...
In both D3V and AEBL 3/16" stock ?

Frc505 aka Frank
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
The block lettering started with the Keffeler comp chopper. It was completely his design work (I added nothing) with my handy work in the finished product. I did not editorialize his design or tweak it to conform to our design standards but made a faithful copy. This is because the knife that I modeled had multiple world championships on it and was developed over time by the best competition cutter in the world. I had nothing to add to that other than to make it properly. It was a real bear to make those knives and to develop the optimized heat treat for the V4E in order to make what I feel was the best competition knife in the world. We put a lot of effort into the low volume project (which is why I was so bent out of shape when we rightly won the world championship with that knife on its first attempt but the win was given to Dwayne Unger due to a scandalous judging error by an inexperienced judge and Dwayne's bizarre inability to recognize what happened and was plainly visible in the videos).

The knife needed our names on it and it was an equal measure his work and mine. It felt right to use the same font. This came up again in the K18. And, if you think about it, the exact same thing with the Kephart. Our Kephart is my work but not my design, so I didn't "sign it" like I would for a normal CPK offering that is both my work and my design. That and it's a relatively basic affordable offering that will fit into the Amazon line.

We're going to try offering some more affordable knives to a wider audience as an experiment. These knives lack some of the finer details we're known for. I wanted a way to differentiate them from our more signature work and the actual signature was a pretty obvious way to do that.
Click to expand...
Thanks.
 
XtianAus said:
Hi Nathan. I'm excited for the slightly tweaked UF2.

• Wondering if you will offer aebl versions in the pre-order?
• Do you have a sneak pic you could share?
Click to expand...
Yeah Nathan, have either you or whomever has the largest hands in the shop hold the knife.. you can keep the handle tweaks a secret.
We just wanna see knives, dude.
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
The blade is practically identical. I tweaked the thumb ramp placement a little. The guard is a little larger. But the main difference is some tweaks to the handle. The handle on the OG was very good but there are a couple areas of improvement in the geometry and I also added some jimping like we did on the DEK1. That's a detail that wasn't very feasible with our manufacturing process when we made the original but is just a matter of carbide and cycle time now (no special fixturing) and this seemed like a good application for it. This is one of the ways that Lorien has helped drag us forward. He makes us re-think our manufacturing process in ways that make us better at our job. I'm going to stay true to the original concept of the UF. It was designed as a collaboration with a Green Beret with specific input on dimensions that carry well and function as a utility knife/weapon with some very specific details about the hand grips. We did the job right the first time, so the knife is fundamentally the same, but there is always room for small improvements.
Click to expand...
Will the scales be interchangeable between OGUF and UF2?
 
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