I bought a bunch of knives

[Big Frank]

One of my brothers bought guns online for Black Friday and Cyber Monday and had them shipped to a local dealer. I can't afford to buy new guns, so I bought a bunch of knives instead. The smallest one is my backup knife that sits horizontally on my belt on the left side, in case I need to use a knife with my left hand. It's the SOG Snarl and it's only 4.3" overall with a 2.3" blade. The biggest one I bought is a Cold Steel Luzon. It comes in Medium and Large. Of course I got the (ridiculously) large one. It's 13 1/2" long with a 7 1/2" long blade. As big as it is, it only weighs 9.3oz, and it flips open easier than most of my smaller flippers. It has a sliding lock that makes it so you can't press the liner lock in to fold it, and a big plastic clip, instead of metal, that won't wear out your clothes. It's named after the largest and most populous island in the Philippines, and the handles are reminiscent of bamboo. I bought a whole mess of knives, but that's the long and the short of it. I'll post more here later.

[Rastus]

Both of those with pics are nice looking. 

I usually buy mine in bulk from Cutlery Corner...nothing so nice as this.

[Big Frank]

I just copy-pasta pics from the websites when they have good ones showing what I want to show. I got a SOG-TAC AU COMPACT- STRAIGHT EDGE and a SOG-TAC AU COMPACT - TANTO, SERRATED. I think AU designates automatic, since they are both automatics. They seem to open kind of slow but I haven't oiled them yet. They're more COMPACT versions of the SOG-TAC AU as the name suggests. They also make a sub-2 inch Californicator-legal version, called the SOG-TAC AU COMPACT CA SPECIAL. It has the same handle as the SOG-TAC AU COMPACT but a short blade. I wouldn't mind having a full-size handle with the compact blades. It's 1/2" longer and a good bit heavier. These all have a lock on them so they don't open in your pocket, which I think is a good thing. You just push the opening switch forward to put the safety on. Pull it back one click to go from safe to "fire", or all the way past the click to open in one movement, with no wasted motion.

Here's what my two knives look like, plus a CA Special and full-size together, along with the specs for all 3 models. The CA Specials come in tanto or straight edges, non-serrated only. The compact and full-size give you 4 choices.

P.S. Some people look down their noses at D2 tool steel as a blade steel but done right as this cryo-treated D2 is supposed to be, it's good stuff. Or so I've read. It seems like just a few years ago it was supposed to be really good steel and only a few custom knife makers were using it. And now, all of a sudden, it's no good anymore.

[Big Frank]

Cold Steel makes a tomahawk called the Trench Hawk, and another one called the War Hawk. The Trench Hawk has been around longer and comes with 3 choices of handle color with matching Secure-Ex sheath. The War Hawk comes in any color you want, as long as it's black. It also has a Secure-Ex sheath made just for it. The $7.99 polypropylene replacement handles are available in all 3 colors, and fit both tomahawks. I bought a War Hawk with 2 extra handles and I have all 3 colors. Plain black is boring so I put the O.D. Green handle on, and the FDE handle is still in its plastic bag until I break the green one. The War Hawk costs $5 more than the Trench Hawk but in a comparison video I watched on YouTube, it looked like it was worth it. The blade is slightly longer and heavier.

I was putting my spare handles away two days ago when I had an idea. I have an 11" x 12" steel plate 1/4" thick, the same thickness as the tomahawk blades. So I took my blade off and traced the outline on the steel plate. I traced a pattern for a double sided axe, rotated the blade 180 degrees, and traced it out 2 more times to make it look like the head of a battle axe. Instead of having a curve like the top of the handle I decided to put a point on the top of the axe head. If I do cut this out, and I think I will eventually, it's going to be difficult and take days to make into a battle axe. After I get it cut out and the powder coat wheeled off, I'll need to taper the last 2" of the tang down to about 1/2 thickness to fit the handle, plus grind both blades. The steel plate was part of the mount for the snow and dirt plow blade on my first ATV. Those who beat their plowshares into swords will end up plowing for those who have swords. I'd rather beat my plow mount into a battle axe. I already have enough swords.

Here are images off Cold Steel's site for the Trench Hawk in various colors, Trench Hawk vs. War Hawk comparison pic and specs, how my War Hawk looks with the O.D. Green handle, and what my battle axe might look like if I do make one.

[Pathfinder]

I've been carrying a Kershaw Ken Onion designed 1550 for years now, actually decades. Like a Sig, it just falls into my hand and works every time. The flip blade has proved invaluable over the years, especially on the ranch.

I lost mine, and temporarily was using a broken-tip factory reject I bought back in the days when I did not know that that's what the XXXX on the blade meant, and I had set aside as a backup.

Anyhow, I went to the site that Derrick of VGG calls "evil-bay", and holy crap, I had no idea what these things are now worth. people were asking - and getting - well over $150 for this knife, when retail they used to be $45 or so. One guy was asking $350 for a new one.

I picked up a used one for about $70, and after blowing it out and soaking it in CLP, I got it to function reasonably well. So my quandary is finding something that fit and worked so nicely as the 1550 that doesn't break the bank. Tough to do these days when knives are sold in sealed packs you need the knife to open.

[Sponsor]

[Jim Kennedy-ar154me]

Anyhow, I went to the site that Derrick of VGG calls "evil-bay", and holy crap, I had no idea what these things are now worth. people were asking - and getting - well over $150 for this knife, when retail they used to be $45 or so. One guy was asking $350 for a new one.

Wow. I have been carrying one for a few years now myself. I have 2 of them, one with a partially serrated blade.  I had no idea they were in such demand. I bought mine new for about $ 35.00 or so if memory serves.

[Majer]

I have a couple Kershaw Ken Onion knives that are EDC, one is a Model 1620H3, the other is a 1620 ST with the 1/2 serrated blade.I need to ship them back to get the spring replaced in one and the safety lock on both.

[Big Frank]

Not knives, but I also got from Cold Steel a Chinese Sword Breaker, and a Heavy Duty Cane. On rare occasions I use my rattan staff when I walk, to ease the weight on one side or the other. I've had knee pain for close to 50 years, I think as a result of my legs being straightened out and put in casts when I was a baby. And for several years it's felt like I have arthritis in both hips. I have it nearly everywhere they check for it, but haven't had x-rays on my hips. So I thought a cane would look better and work better for me. Besides the other bad joints, I have arthritis in every vertebrae, and pull muscles in my back a lot more often than you may think. The handle of the cane is only big enough to hold onto with 3 fingers, but if I lay my trigger finger along side of it I can get a good grip (without a negligent discharge). I put a D-ring in the hole in the handle and have it hanging on a hook. Too bad the only D-ring I had isn't thicker.

I already have an African Walking Stick but the head of it's too big to get a good grip on. I've been thinking about putting it on the lathe and turning it down, but my lathe is only 36" long IIRC, and I would need to buy a bed extension. The sword breaker is light enough to wield one-handed but the pommel allows for a solid hand-and-a-half grip. It's a few inches shorter than my Warrior Series Katana, and my katana is a few inches shorter than my Grosse Messer (big knife). The blade on the Grosse Messer is fairly thin and it's too flexible IMO. I wasn't expecting a floppy bladed sword, and I like the katana a lot better. And my katana looks better than the new model. My guard is a lot fancier looking. It has the same kind of ray skin grip and 2 brass "lucky charms" as I like to call them*. Cold Steel has a boken with a braided look grip on it now that looks a lot better than mine, but it's built the same way. A thick band of rubber is slid over the blade to hold the guard on.

I bought a Secure-Ex Sheath with a neck chain for my Delta Dart, and since the Delta Dart costs less than the sheath I bought another one of those too. Now I have a spare, in case I have to leave the first one somewhere. Like embedded deeply into someone who desperately deserves to be stabbed. Of course I took the steel ring off the handle so it can pass though metal detectors undetected. I have plenty more knives to post next time. Like I said, I bought a bunch of them.


* The menuki are the decorative metal ornaments that are woven under the tsuka-ito (handle wrapping). These ornaments were originally made to hide the mekugi pins that secure the tsuka to the tang of the blade. They are normally positioned forward on one side and back on the other. These are your hand positions with the menuki fitting into your palms. Since it had been attached under the Tsukamaki (the handle of the Japanese sword wrapped by thread), Menuki played an essential role in making it easier to grip the handle of the sword.

[Big Frank]

Does anyone else think the grossse messer sword looks a lot like an overgrown WWI bayonet on steroids? Like the M1917 Enfield bayonet they put on trench guns, or the Pattern 1907 bayonet for the SMLE rifle?

[Pathfinder]

Does anyone else think the grossse messer sword looks a lot like an overgrown WWI bayonet on steroids? Like the M1917 Enfield bayonet they put on trench guns, or the Pattern 1907 bayonet for the SMLE rifle?

It made me stop and look closely, resembles the heck out of the Graz bayonet that somehow my family acquired, not sure how. It sits with my g/grandfather's Civil War sabres from when he was Captain of the 15th US Colored Troop in service at The Crater and in NC.