Vivi's Others

[Scandi Grind]

Neat! I have a soft spot for Dexter-Russell knives. The fact that they have kept manufacturing in the U.S. primarily and yet still produce no-nonsense tools that actually work, at value prices, makes them a favorite of mine. I have been enjoying my Dexter paring knife for use as a thin utility knife. It is too bendy to use on wood, but for most everyday stuff I do, the very thin blade makes it more efficient than most anything else I have. I am considering getting one of their hawkbill fixed blades, they call them a shoe knife or linoleum knife, just to try out the hawkbill shape. I figure it could maybe make a good gardening knife, but I would be curious to see what else it might do well. And it would give me the chance to learn to sharpen recurves.

[Capt'n Boatsalot]

Vivi,
I love this thread, and really appreciate you putting down your thoughts on the different models you're putting through their paces. Another not to be missed thread.

So far, I've picked up a Buck Folding Hunter LT and a CS SR1 Lite, based on this thread. Those two are more similar (in blade shape particularly) than I had anticipated.

Wanted to again say thanks and please keep writing!

[SpyderEdgeForever]

Vivi you are a great person. Thank you for this thread.

[vivi]

Glad you guys have been enjoying it!

As I get time in with my latest knives I'll post more about them. Currently testing out a Mercator and Douk Douk.





Trying to get away from posting about them right as I unbox them, and spending a little time using them first.

Speaking of, the dexter russell worked well on some salmon last night. Used it to cut some filets.

I guess the silver lining to the things I'm vocal about in general discussion ($$) is it led me back down the traditional rabbit hole. This is where I got my start knife collecting....picking up used SAKs, Okapis, Opinels and things like that. It's been a great pleasure exploring that area of knives again.

[Bill1170]

Responding to Vivi’s posts on page 1 of this thread about Victorinox knives and knockoffs of the same:

Like Vivi, I carried mainly SAK’s for most of my 20’s and 30’s. They are wonderful tools very reasonably priced. As his review of the small Swisstech reveals, the Victorinox slip joints have a lot of thought that went into making them. The only things I wanted that they didn’t offer were pointy tips, locking blades (they offer them now), and easy one-handed opening. Spyderco brought me that, along with great serrations when I was ready to try them.

It is instructive that no company has created a long-term sustainable business copying Victorinox, despite Switzerland having higher wages than most everywhere else! How do they do it? They focus on quality, they lean hard into automation in production, and they stick to what made them great, eschewing modern fads. Most of all, it is evident that they care deeply about their products and refuse to make junk. In that way they strongly resemble Spyderco, Knipex, and Makita.

Edited to add: I just read the entire thread. This is a great effort, feels like a love letter to the past, admiring older designs through newer eyes.

[vivi]

Edited to add: I just read the entire thread. This is a great effort, feels like a love letter to the past, admiring older designs through newer eyes.

Thanks! Glad others are enjoying this thread.

I just browsed through some of my oldest knife photos for a post in general discussion, and wanted to share some in this thread. It's funny looking back at these and thinking about how my interests have come full circle again. I'm back to buying Buck 110 variations, Swiss army knives, simple puukos and scandi fixed blades, etc.

While that tiny Ruko with the LED was my first one handed folder, this CRKT Kit Carson liner lock in AUS8 was my first full sized one handed folder that wasn't a gas station special:





Photo of how I used to mod my Opinel handles, here's a #8 VS the garden model



What my knife collection looked like around the time I got into Spyderco



You can see one of my old Buck 425's there.

I'm trying to track down another of those Brusletto scandi grind fixed blades for nostalgias sake.

I hate that those Victorinox Nylon Solos are so expensive now. They sold for something dumb like $8, but they've been discontinued for ages and go for $60-100 now.

This was back when I took clips off every folder I bought. Actually thinking about trying that again with a few of my modern folders since I've been carrying my Buck 110 LT clipless.....

[vivi]

More old stuff

Wnger SAK, Nylon Solo, I think an Alox Bantam, Opinel Garden model, clipless $40 walmart Native



S60V Military (My first Millie, and 2nd Spyderco), Kershaw Junkyard Dawg, Griptilian, Byrd Cara Cara reprofiled flat to stone, Kershaw ???, Cyclone and Leek, $40 Walmart Native reprofiled flat to stone, Boker Trance I won in a give away and a Boker Subcom



Modded tip up wire clip Paramilitary model, carried during the flip phone era



BG42 Millie, ZDP189 Endura, Paramilitary, OG UKPK. You can see I used to be more extreme with my reprofiling than I am these days.



Some of my early fixed blades. Ontario RAT7, Ontario SP05, Bruletto scandi grind fixie



Old spread of Spydies



First Izula, before they made the better Izula 2





Buck Hartsook, Queen stockman, Victorinox farmer, some benchmades, S60V Military, Byrd Cara Cara, Yojimbo 1 etc. I remember helping some dude off craigslist move and buying that Buck stockman at a walmart on the way home.

[vivi]

I had one of these in the past but wasn't crazy about it. The slimmer handle wasn't as ergonomic to me as the regular handle, and one handed opening can be a little cumbersome.

Decided to give it another shot since the Buck 110 Lightweight is one of my favorite knives these days.

It just came in the mail this afternoon so I haven't done much with it, but it sure carries well. Opening action is smoother and requires less effort than I remember from the green one I sold a few years ago.

I think one handed closing will be fine this time around since I'm used to closing my regular 110's against my leg.

I got this to carry to work where when I'm busy one handed opening is a nice convenience to have. the clip is also handy because belt sheaths aren't an option in chef pants.

deciding whether I want to get a slim trx next, or the ranger sport. both look nice, but leaning towards the thicker ranger. looks like the perfext modern expression of the 110, micarta and all.

[vivi]

My kid borrowing my Buck 110 LW for food prep, and honing her wood carving skills with her own Mora 511:



It was a fun trip. My Buck 110 Slim Select cut some rope and sausages, while my Recon Tanto and a folding saw busted up firewood.



If you look closely you'll see I recently gave it a thinner edge. Suppose I should post it to the sharpening journal.

I've been warming up to it lately as a bushcraft tool. It has a lot going for it despite being an unusual choice.

- With a thinned out edge bevel the overall geometry is pretty good for carving. Not quite up to my convex reprofiled SRKC or a Mora, but its a competent carver.

- The slightly upswept blade works fantastic for batoning. It makes it easier to keep the knife oriented perpendicular to the log. The saber grind also has good wedging action, so once you get the blade sunk in it takes pressure off the thinner edge.

- It has more weight and reach than an SRK, making it a decent little pocket chopper. It'll never replace a hatchet or machete, not by a long shot, but it can do some of what I'd use those tools for. Like I can chop the ends of branches to point them like I'd do with a hatchet, and clear out some briars and saplings sprouting up on trails.

- The thick, sturdy tip lets me pry apart fatwood stumps without a second thought. It is very stout up front.

It's a fun knife to bring when I want something more versatile than a small knife like a Mora, but don't want to be weighed down by a hatchet or machete. It's a pretty capable little tool. They can be found under $30 too. I've got one coming friday or ssturday in flat dark earth I paid $29 for.

[twinboysdad]

You ever need to sell that blue Yo1, I’m your huckleberry

[vivi]

You ever need to sell that blue Yo1, I’m your huckleberry

you're about 12 years too late, sorry!!

[vivi]

browsing old pics again. this was back before the merger between frosts and ericsson into morakniv. while that mora had the worst sheath ever, I liked the grip. 760. also had the 760mg, the military green model.



don't know what came of them now that I think about it. Maybe gave them away to friends.

[vivi]

Lately I've been browsing different bushcraft knives. Looking to see if skookums are still being made. Trying to find anyone that has a decent selection of 4-6" LT Wrights in stock. etc.

Didn't find a ton to choose from, so thought of another option. Breathing new life into an old knife.





I once owned two of these, the Landi Bushcrafter.

One in O1 & walnut with scandi grind. The other a full flat ground in A2 and natural micarta.


The former had a nice scandi edge for wood carving, but I wasn't wild about the wooden handle. Too slick for my tastes. Sold it and planned to buy another scandi version in micarta, but never saw the full sized for sale.

The A2 & micarta version was a really, really nice knife except for one problem. The edge was way, way too thick. At least 4x thicker than I would run. It felt terrible to cut with. Everything else on the knife was great, but the edge was brutal.

I tried thinning it out but he heat treats his A2 pretty hard, 61-62rc or so, and it felt like it'd just skate off the stones. It took a long to grind time for such a simple carbon steel, and I never finished the bevel.

I put it on the back burner.

At one point I took it to my belt sander and gave it a much thinner edge, but it was really uneven and I never got around to cleaning it up.





It was pretty ugly at this point. Handle was pretty grungy too. Clean micarta grips much better.



Last night I decided to try to make it work before buying anything new.

I gave it a full convex grind by hand with some 100 grit sandpaper.





Polished it up with 400 a bit then sharpened the edge free hand on my medium then fine ceramic bench stones. Got it cleanly shaving from heel to tip, and quite thin.





Cleaned the handle up a bit and scuffed it up with 80 grit sandpaper for better grip.







Eyeball estimate puts it around 18-20 degrees inclusive, with some light finishing strokes on the fine ceramic at about 15dps.


Tried carving some simple feather sticks and it cuts as well as anything else I own now.





Sliced up some fruit too so I could get a fresh patina started.





Gotta clean out the sheath better when I get home so it stops scratching up the blade. Didn't mind before but after polishing up the convex grind some more later on, I want it to look nice.






Happy with how it turned out. This'll do nicely for my next backpacking trip.



That said, if you know of a good bushcraft knife in scandi and green micarta with no wait list, let me know

[Halfneck]

browsing old pics again. this was back before the merger between frosts and ericsson into morakniv. while that mora had the worst sheath ever, I liked the grip. 760. also had the 760mg, the military green model.



don't know what came of them now that I think about it. Maybe gave them away to friends.

I've got a carbon steel 760MG that I bought from Ragweed Forge for around $12 as a beater knife. I used to own 2, but I used one to experiment with - proved you can baton with it using proper technique, then screwed up using a lighter to mod the handle & guard. The other one was carried along on numerous Cub/Boy Scout trips & is probably one of my most used knives. Fully agree on the horrible sheath. I still debate about getting a decent Kydex sheath made for it. Probably my favorite Mora design & I wish I'd have picked up one of the Black handle, Triflex steel versions when you could pick them up for cheap.

[SpyderEdgeForever]

Vivi, the Frosts Triflex 740 and the Opinel Garden knife and the Buck Slimline. How tough are they for emergency combat and survival?

[u.w.]

What's: emergency combat?

u.w.

[SpyderEdgeForever]

What's: emergency combat?

u.w.

If an assailiant initiates a violent assault upon someone, the person protecting themself or others is involved in emergency combat.

[vivi]

Here's my latest, an Ontario Bushcraft Machete:



I bought this as a step up from my cold steels with plastic handles. I've been looking at the fiddleback forge and lt wright machetes, but they're sold out everywhere.

I think these normally went for $80-100 or so, but chicago knife works has them for $44 and change. At the price I paid I may order a second if it impresses me this week.

Here's the sheath:



The sheath is pretty basic nylon fare. It has a half open back construction which makes pulling the machete out easier than sheaths riveted all the way up:



The snaps do a good job of keeping the machete from sliding around. I mostly pack carry machetes but this one works well on my belt. It's a bit easier getting the blade in and out VS my go to cold steel machete, the 18" slant tip.

Here's the two of them compared:



On to the handle.



The scales are natural micarta with medium texturing. No palm swell but they do get thicker towards the rear of the handle:




They have nice contouring for the most part, but the corners could be radiused a bit better. Here's a close up showing how there's a small strip of micarta that's a bit more squared off than is ideal:




My plan is to radius the scales better, then scuff them up with 80 grit sandpaper for better grip. Then I'll try dying them green.


The blade is one of the most common machete shapes, with maybe a little more of a trailing tip than typical. I'm a big fan of the wharncliffe style machetes for hacking through undergrowth, but the belly on this machete will lend itself well to chopping up wood on a stump.

The edge came quite sharp, just able to shave on most parts of the edge.




It's very,very thick in spots though, especially towards the tip:



I was tempted to reprofile it right away but I'm going to evaluate the factory edge before I take it to my belt sander.

Overall my initial impressions are positive. For about $50 shipped I'm not butthurt about needing to put a better edge on it. It's certainly functional as is but I know performance would be bad on wood with the current edge. It'd do well enough on long grasses, thorny growth and vines though.

I'm planning to take it and my Landi Bushcrafter out for a two or three night backpacking trip soon, where I'll get to put it to some use. I know of a particular trail that has been completely overgrown since last summer that I may try to clear. I figure it'd be a good way to really test out my new machete.

I'll update this thread soon with pictures of the handle mods.

[vivi]

a splash of white vin, splash of dawn dish soap, 1 quart of boiling water, 2/3 a cap of kelly green, 1/3 a cap of sage.

before:




after:

[vivi]

here's a report on how my A2 flat grind Landi bushcrafter held up during my last trip.



My knife selection as they looked prior to hitting the trails.



drop holster > high ride g clips. This way I could carry my knife on my belt the whole trip instead of taking it off my pack and clipping it back on. Looking for a way to add one of these to my spyderco temperance as I'm thinking about bringing that knife next.



as expected the thin convex edge carved wood great. Everything was wet from storms so I used fatwood shavings instead of any old seasoned twigs I could find.



steaks were delicious as usual. the knife got a blue hued patina on the front half of the blade from slicing them up.





i know its heavy but i like carrying fresh fruit for breakfast




here it is with the machete I was testing out. I'm going to bring the machete again next time but with an edge a little over twice as thin.





these two images are wild. this is how the knife handle looked simply from the humidity. the micarta constantly looked soaking wet even when there was zero rain and I hadn't touched it in hours. it also got a layer of rust on the exposed tang (one more reason hidden tang knives are under rated for the outdoors, and unfairly maligned due to overblown concerns of strength)

for comparison here's what the handle looked like after simply letting the knife sit inside my house for an hour:



Which shows it wasn't oils built up causing that look, but the micarta literally sucking up moisture out of the air itself.

I've never seen such humidity while camped out. I had brought some powdered electrolyte drink mix to help avoid cramps and I spilled some on a perfectly dry rock at my camp site. I literally watched it turn to goo over half an hour as it also sucked up moisture from the air.

It was wild.

Final look at the knife, including some shots showing off the patina








Overall I was very happy with the knife for this role.

- the handle is very comfortable and remained perfectly secure despite always feeling wet. Very good ergonomics.

- cutting ability was great, it had no issues cutting apples without wedging them apart, and wood carving perferomance was neck and neck with a scandi Mora.

- sheath worked really well. I'm not a fan of leather for such wet conditions, so the kydex was welcome. the drop attachment worked much, much better than a G clip setup. I like g clips for urban carry edc fixed blades but not in the woods.

- Not too heavy on the belt for long hikes but felt more substantial and rugged than a Mora.

unfortunately landi seemed to stop making knives years ago or I'd definitely order another direct from him like I did this. I do see some bushcraft jr's still for sale and I'm tempted to grab one, but I'd rather have another full sized or two.

these were a great value when they were around. I think they were made in A2 and O1, maybe a few in 1095. All hardened higher than most makers (60-62rc IIRC). Some scandi ground, some full flat like this one. They hold an edge well and have great contouring on the handles.

They were a really good value, with prices in the $75-120 range depending on if your ordered direct from John Landi or bought from a retailer, and which scales and grind you picked.

If anyone knows of someone selling a full sized one please let me know! I would love one in green micarta scandi grind in particular.

debating between carrying the same combo out next time, or swapping the landi out for my spyderco temperance sprint or cold steel SRKC I gave a thin convex edge to as well. I also have a Mora Bushcrafter that's never been carried on a real trip I may opt for to shed a couple ounces.