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Post by chuckinohio on Jul 10, 2011 19:02:25 GMT
Here's something that you all may enjoy. This fellow, Lon Humphrey, gave a demonstration at the monthly meeting of the "Southern Ohio Forge and Anvil" club this Saturday. Being a member of the club, and having met Lon before, I attended to see what insights he brought to the knife making game. Actually, I try to attend all of the monthly meetings, but Lon being the demonstrator this month was an added bonus for attendance. Lon is a real personable fellow, and took alot of time going over his heat treatment techniques with several of us. He forged out a small hunting knife as part of his demonstration of his techniques. Look at his site, and be absolutely sure to watch the video at the bottom of his homepage. Do you think that your production KaBar can do what his knife does? www.lonhumphreyknives.com/ Lon works full time for Blind Horse Knives, another great bunch of folks who I have met at shows around the state. www.blindhorseknives.com/index.htm
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ghost
Member
Posts: 1,323
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Post by ghost on Jul 10, 2011 21:36:29 GMT
I absolutely believe that a lot of production knives can do all the tests that he put up there (including the ka-bars) chuck. I don't hold much stock in the manila rope tests - Cold Steel cuts 3" with their cheapest $20 range knives. It's really just the edge that goes on the blade. One 2x4 was not too impressive either. The flex test is much more interesting but properly heat treated knives can do this just as well...and I think a lot of companies are very capable of good HT. Here's some evidence of this. "jason" does some over the top tests...I'm not so sure that Lon's knife would be be able to withstand some of the heavier abuses (hammer to spine, cinderblock chunks). But if I had a choice between a Lon blade and a CS bowie, Lon's would be my hands-down choice. knifetests.com/Personally, custom knives have the higher quality control and vastly superior finish that everyone wants - if only we could afford it (or would rather have swords instead )
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ghost
Member
Posts: 1,323
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Post by ghost on Jul 11, 2011 21:46:47 GMT
lol look what you made me go do chuck. I went and cut through a 5.5" tree trunk with the ka-bar war sword. I thought I broke one of the slabs, but it turned out only one of the hex nuts came loose. Likely ended up with a couple blisters since I did not use gloves. Note tree lovers (I am one of them): Tree had to come down anyways due to mandatory brush clearance and was growing onto the 3rd floor balcony. That post is an 8x8 for reference... No damage to the paint at all but I do have a blister on my thumb... No longer paper-cutting sharp either - 50% of the time it's tearing the paper
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Post by chuckinohio on Jul 12, 2011 1:17:03 GMT
DUDE!!
Thats great. I wouldn't worry too awful much about not being able to shave with it after going through a tree that size. Realistically it would have to have a fair hard edge to retain it after that, and that would in all likelyhood inhibit field sharpening a bit.
As to Lons video. It was basically a demonstration that although he is only an ABS Apprentice Smith, his work is fully capable of meeting the ABS Journeyman Smith criteria for testing, which is exactly what the sequence portrayed. My intent more than anything was to bring his name to attention, and maybe generate a little traffic for his site. He is the kind of guy that you can just run into at a show and babble for 20 minutes about heat treating 5160 as compared to W-2, and walk away feeling that you learned something.
He is a great guy, and free with teaching anyone who asks, anything that he is capable of communicating. I was impressed with his attitude, and thought I would give him a plug.
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Post by chrisperoni on Jul 12, 2011 1:57:57 GMT
That's funny Chuck - something like over a year ago I watched that video while surfing youtube and said to myself "damn, I''d buy a knfe from this guy any day and be proud to have it at my side for ANYthing I might come across. I was very impressed. I never saved the link to the vid and couldn't find it again.. until now.
Good stuff!
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Sébastien
Senior Forumite
Retired Moderator
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Post by Sébastien on Jul 12, 2011 5:16:02 GMT
Thanks alot for the link Chuck.
My custom knives makers list is getting larger everyday ... My poor bank account will suffer ...
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Post by Adrian Jordan on Jul 12, 2011 5:38:54 GMT
That Lon cat makes some awesome stuff.
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