THE Hollow Handle Knife Thread

Assorted Gaeta's hollow handled knives of different periods:

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Very cool and interesting knives, some i remember seeing years ago and haven't seen since. I do have a question for you, what is that camo pattern pair of pants called, I can't place it and it looks pretty cool.
 
TAH, Ilten and Gotgot, I'm glad you guys like it.

I beeing a fan of this type of knife since the 80's. I'm not a collector with many knives and the great majority of the knives of the pictures (except for Paz&Pazini and the Commanders) are not mine. But I like to see, use some HH knives I have or had and collect magazines, books like a crazy since the 80's. I don't know if I can comment it here, but I have a Facebook page named 'World's hollow handle survival knives', dedicated to good quallity made HH knives, made in many countries that is a non commercial purposes page, to share photos of knives (mostly already out of production) and I would be happy if you guys and anyone who like this subject join on the page.

Cricketdave, thank you. About the camouflage pattern, I'd love to know that pattern's name too. I searched on Internet but I didn't find anything identical, just some very similar ones like Brushstroke of the 'Marine Commando Corps of Indonesia', the 'British Dpm old Pattern paratrooper to smock', The Portuguese Helicopter Pilot Camo Flight suit from Angola or Mozambique and a Rhodesian camo pattern I do not found the name. Sorry, this pattern of the photo is a mystery to me too.
 
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HH knives from other Brazilian knifemakers of the 80's

Milton Padilha (retired many years ago and passed away about two years ago) made hollow handles and buttcaps with stainless steels and the blades in D-2 steel or few other good tool-steels. He also used stainless steels in the blades, such as the 440C, if the customer asked for it.

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Antal Bodolay was making hollow handles knives since 1984. He used stainless or carbon steels and in his carbon steels blades he used to do mixed tempers, with tangs and ricassos with flexibility hardnesses and higher hardnesses on the other portions of the blades. He retired and his son Alexandre Bodolay continued his workshop (not with the same quality nor finishings) for more than 10 years after the retirement of his father Antal. Alexandre left the knifemaker profession a few years ago.

Antal Bodolay HH knives on the 80's:
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Alexandre Bodolay (son of Antal) knives of 10 years ago:

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Piotr Zakharov of 'Facas Zakharov' had been making handmade knives since the mid-70s, he created some very unusual models of HH knives, with different opening systems in the 80's. Some of his knives have been adopted by select and important police and military corporations in Brazil and in few other countries (such as the police of Tokyo in the 90's). Their knives used to be very hard (many models had hardnesses of 61 Rockwell C). Piotr died and his son currently manages the 'Facas Zakharov' and also a brand of semi-handcrafted cutlery called Arkhip.

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This model (developed to the GOE, an elite military force) manufactured in the 80's had a concavity carved into the tang of the handle to turn the knife into a spear, wrapped with real high-strength Kevlar rope and survival itens inside the fiberglass sheath:

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This similar model had an opening leaked in the tang, containing some survival items inside and the tang and a fitting system for the slingshot (fork and rubbers contained in the sheath) was covered with a resistant kevlar rope. The other survival items (some of this was very original ideas) went inside the sheath that was in two versions (leather version or fiberglass version).

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That other 80's camping (and outdoor cooking style model in my opinion) already showed on the fist photos of this post, had a hollow handle with a concealed opening system that, in the 80's, was an opening system revealed only to the buyer of the model. According to Piotr Zakharov, the intention was the user can really hide useful things (not just carry) to emergency situations. Many years later, some owners revealed the "secret" opening system.

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Paz & Pazini brand, the division of handmade knives managed by the knifemaker Eduardo Navarrete in the 80's, The Paz&Pazini company still exists doing only culinary production knives, but the handmade division (to sportive and tactical custom knives) closed the doors in 1.991 when Eduardo passed away. Some of these photos already presented in this thread.

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Lastly, these two HH prototypes (one of them with the blade copied from the blade of the knife 'Cuchillo de Monte' from the Spanish Army) were made by a Brazilian fire guns company in the of 1990, when this company wanted to enter on the cutlery, unfortunatelly the prototypes was never série produced.

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It's just two days before I leave for my trip in the Brooks Range. I thought you might like to see one of the introductory videos we filmed about the knife I will be carrying on my trip. Here's a link to it.

We started a web site so people can follow along on my trek. On it we will post new videos and a daily journal report from the trail. Here's a link to it. https://www.markknappalaskaadventures.com/
Wish me luck. Mark
 
Well, if you've been to my blog, you will know that I am back in Fairbanks. I feel a little like Evel Knievel when he attempted to jump Snake River canyon. Regretfully, due to weather, I felt like the only safe thing for me to do is call off the project.

Three things led to my decision;

When I first landed I fished the river for four hours and never caught a fish. I had fished that river before and found an over-abundance of fish there, both grayling and dollies. I know the species and I know how to fish the river. Something was wrong. I continued to fish the river for three days, and still did not catch a fish. Next I tried ground squirrels they were not there either, I found one.

The edible greens were not green, everything was still brown, from the winter, no new growth.

The forecast was calling for a winter storm warning, 5-14 inches of new snow with 35 MPH winds.

The problems; I was counting on fish from mid-river, where I was, to carry me over the upper river and the continental divide. I was going to catch a surplus, smoke and dry them for food to sustain me till I found fish on the other side. The fish just had not reached the middle river yet. If there's no fish in mid river, there's no fish in the upper river. No fish, game over. Grayling over-winter in the lower river and all but a few Dollie Varden spend the winter in the ocean. In the spring both species migrate up the river to spawn.

You can't eat brown edible plants. Well, you can, they just don't taste good and they have little nutritional value. I did find and eat some freeze dried cranberries from last fall. They were sweet but not plentiful and were mostly seeds.

I was not really afraid of the weather, I had already spent the first night in blizzard like conditions. My concern was that with all the new snow, the rivers would all go up making my river crossings too unsafe.

My mistakes; It's important to analyze what went wrong so you can learn from it. My mistake if I made one was in timing. Either I was early or it was a late spring in the arctic. It's probably a little of both. None of the river guides I spoke to up there can remember such a late spring. Two or three weeks could have made a world of difference.

The solutions; I could have tried to get a report on the conditions of the river before I started. It's hard to do when you're one of the first people to go there in the spring, and it's remote.

In hind sight, I could have brought a weeks worth of freeze dry with me to hold me over till I figured things out. I think that would have just postponed my problems in this case.

If it had been a true survival situation, I could have headed down river till I found fish. Not an option for me here, I needed to go up river.

Also, there was a small herd of caribou just over the hill from me for the whole three days. In a true survival situation I could have shot one of them. In my situation I could not legally shoot one.

With some food I could have waited for the storms to blow over and the rivers to go down enough for me to cross safely.

You make the best decisions you can with the information you have.

I was able to keep warm and dry, all my gear worked like it should have. I was never in danger. I carefully weighed all my options and made a decision to end it before it became dangerous.

To be sure, this was an ambitious thing to try. My confidence, perseverance and ingenuity have carried me through lots of exciting adventures. To me it's boring to do things I already know I can do. I have already camped with all the gear, freeze dried food and rafts etc. Without the challenge it's not exciting or interesting to me. Because I am always challenging myself with new things, I'm bound to fail at some of them. Nothing worthwhile was ever accomplished from the easy chair.

There were lots of things I wanted to show you on this trip;

Carving eating utensils and bowls from sheep horn and antler.
A multitude of traps an snares, both primitive and using more modern materials.
Primitive fishing techniques, making fish hooks and nets and traps.
Ways to cook things that you may not have thought of.
Edible plants.

I'm not one to pretend and do these things in my back yard, the setting is everything. It's my hope that I can do all these things and more on future trips.
In the next couple of days, there will be video from the trip on my blog if you'd like to see it.

Thank you to my supporters here.
 
Sounds like a blast. Good weather near Mt. Hood, even though the fish were a little small in this lake.

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Sam
 
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I'm glad you could get out some Sam. Beautiful pictures, nice fish and nice knives. I'm not too familiar with the lower 48 trout, is that a Brookie?
 
Well, if you've been to my blog, you will know that I am back in Fairbanks. I feel a little like Evel Knievel when he attempted to jump Snake River canyon. Regretfully, due to weather, I felt like the only safe thing for me to do is call off the project.

Three things led to my decision;

When I first landed I fished the river for four hours and never caught a fish. I had fished that river before and found an over-abundance of fish there, both grayling and dollies. I know the species and I know how to fish the river. Something was wrong. I continued to fish the river for three days, and still did not catch a fish. Next I tried ground squirrels they were not there either, I found one.

The edible greens were not green, everything was still brown, from the winter, no new growth.

The forecast was calling for a winter storm warning, 5-14 inches of new snow with 35 MPH winds.

The problems; I was counting on fish from mid-river, where I was, to carry me over the upper river and the continental divide. I was going to catch a surplus, smoke and dry them for food to sustain me till I found fish on the other side. The fish just had not reached the middle river yet. If there's no fish in mid river, there's no fish in the upper river. No fish, game over. Grayling over-winter in the lower river and all but a few Dollie Varden spend the winter in the ocean. In the spring both species migrate up the river to spawn.

You can't eat brown edible plants. Well, you can, they just don't taste good and they have little nutritional value. I did find and eat some freeze dried cranberries from last fall. They were sweet but not plentiful and were mostly seeds.

I was not really afraid of the weather, I had already spent the first night in blizzard like conditions. My concern was that with all the new snow, the rivers would all go up making my river crossings too unsafe.

My mistakes; It's important to analyze what went wrong so you can learn from it. My mistake if I made one was in timing. Either I was early or it was a late spring in the arctic. It's probably a little of both. None of the river guides I spoke to up there can remember such a late spring. Two or three weeks could have made a world of difference.

The solutions; I could have tried to get a report on the conditions of the river before I started. It's hard to do when you're one of the first people to go there in the spring, and it's remote.

In hind sight, I could have brought a weeks worth of freeze dry with me to hold me over till I figured things out. I think that would have just postponed my problems in this case.

If it had been a true survival situation, I could have headed down river till I found fish. Not an option for me here, I needed to go up river.

Also, there was a small herd of caribou just over the hill from me for the whole three days. In a true survival situation I could have shot one of them. In my situation I could not legally shoot one.

With some food I could have waited for the storms to blow over and the rivers to go down enough for me to cross safely.

You make the best decisions you can with the information you have.

I was able to keep warm and dry, all my gear worked like it should have. I was never in danger. I carefully weighed all my options and made a decision to end it before it became dangerous.

To be sure, this was an ambitious thing to try. My confidence, perseverance and ingenuity have carried me through lots of exciting adventures. To me it's boring to do things I already know I can do. I have already camped with all the gear, freeze dried food and rafts etc. Without the challenge it's not exciting or interesting to me. Because I am always challenging myself with new things, I'm bound to fail at some of them. Nothing worthwhile was ever accomplished from the easy chair.

There were lots of things I wanted to show you on this trip;

Carving eating utensils and bowls from sheep horn and antler.
A multitude of traps an snares, both primitive and using more modern materials.
Primitive fishing techniques, making fish hooks and nets and traps.
Ways to cook things that you may not have thought of.
Edible plants.

I'm not one to pretend and do these things in my back yard, the setting is everything. It's my hope that I can do all these things and more on future trips.
In the next couple of days, there will be video from the trip on my blog if you'd like to see it.

Thank you to my supporters here.

You dont mess with Mother Nature - especially not in your neck of the woods.
Wise, to call it off.
For a positive slant on the whole thing: Good thing, that you realized early.
 
Two or three weeks could have made a world of difference.

Certainly a wise decision, Mark. Thanks for the report back. Very interesting! As stated above, how about postponing your trip two or three weeks and starting over?
 
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