|
Post by woodeye on Jan 4, 2023 16:32:05 GMT -6
hmoosek , Sorry to hear about a thief taking your knife. It's disheartening for something like that to happen, things like that are not replaceable. I remember how things were back when locked doors were optional, boy those days are long gone. Sad!
Yep, that's right. There is no shortage of hobbies. Let's just hope there's not a shortage of time to work on them. I used to do quite a bit of leathercrafting back in the 70's. Made a lot of western belts, billfolds, and made my mom a leather purse. I don't even know if there's still a "Tandy Leather Store" anymore, but boy I used to be a major customer of theirs.
|
|
|
Post by macmex on Jan 5, 2023 7:48:41 GMT -6
Nice! I too have a good many favorite knives. Our family has a long tradition of giving knives as gifts. Seems fairly frequent that someone will give me a knife and my first impression is, "Um, I'm not sure I like this," only to discover with time that it's really good!
Some years ago I noticed a bin of these Bahco knives, at our local feed store. They were selling for $14 each. I'm not a great fan of hunter's orange but that was all they had. When I picked one up and handled it, I realized that this was a really good knife. So, I bought one, taking it home and using it to process poultry. Well, long story short, within two weeks I ended up buying one for Jerreth and each of our kids... for Christmas. If one looks around they can find this knife for as low as $7.50.
Bahco knife on eBay
Here is what I love about this knife:
1. The steel is superb. It's stainless but takes, keeps and restores an edge very easily. 2. It's durable. 3. The rubberized handle is great when working in slippery material. 4. The blade is the perfect size and shape for general purpose work. It's used by some as a "carpenter's knife." I'm not sure what that means, But it would be a good general purpose camp knife. I use a knife like this for most of my butchering. It's a good fishing knife. 5. The plastic sheath is FABULOUS for butchering. With my other sheath knives, when I butcher, once I get them dirty, I will not sheath them again until the job is done. I can't afford to get the sheath dirty. But with these, I can sheath the knife any time it's convenient. At the end of the day I wash the knife and run a bottle brush through the sheath. Everything cleans up great. 5. The orange color is actually quite practical. If I set it down, I can spot it quickly.
A couple years ago we butchered our own steer. My wife's sister and her husband drove out from Georgia to help and to retrieve part of the meat. Ron and his son Josh helped too. We had a meat processing party for two days. Jerreth and I, as well as my brother-in-law carried Bahco knives for the whole time. In fact, my Bahco was practically the only butcher knife I used during those days. My brother-in-law is a meat aficionado and was in his glory, though he had never had opportunity to butcher before that. I loaned him a Bahco. Then, as he and his wife were loading up to drive home, I presented him with mine. I thought it fitting that he have such a memento from our time together. I knew he'd treasure it.
That gave me the excuse to try a carbon steel bladed Morakniv.
Morakniv Knife on eBay
Again, one can find better prices, looking around. I liked the color better and I had extremely fond memories of carbon steel blades, when I was in my youth. Back then carbon steel always beat out stainless when it came to holding and taking an edge.
So, I tried the Morakniv and concluded, that it's as good as the best knives I remember from my youth, but, stainless steel has come a long ways. My conclusion is that the stainless Bahco takes and holds an edge just as well as the Morakniv, and it's easier to maintain. I've also concluded that if I had it to do again, I'd opt for the orange handle. It's just so handy when one is looking around, thinking, "Now where did I set my knife?"
I've seen these knives sold at Atwoods. Also, I've noticed that they've come out with a lot more models, most with larger blades. But 3 1/2" to 4" is, by far, my preference, for practical butchering and camp work.
So, this is another favorite, one which I would highly recommend.
|
|
|
Post by woodeye on Jan 6, 2023 14:33:29 GMT -6
I'm not much of a knife connoisseur, but I do have a few knives, mostly fillet knives. I don't know if mine qualify for Homestead & Gardening knives or not, but I thought I would post a picture of my favorite fillet knife that I used a lot years ago, because it can be used for cutting most anything. Fishing was one of my hobbies back in the late 70's & early 80's. Due to life changing events in 1983, I had to hang up my Striped Bass fishing gear.
This Western Cutlery fillet knife has a 9 inch blade, it is 14 inches long with the handle. It has a stout backbone, which is a must for filleting Striped Bass. The fish pictured was 37 lbs., I caught it trolling with a live shad, Garcia 5500C reel & 5'-2" Ugly stick rod, 20 lb. text Trilene XT fishing line. The largest one I filleted with this knife was 35 lbs. Oh I miss that hobby!
|
|
|
Post by heavyhitterokra on Jan 7, 2023 20:20:48 GMT -6
Wow, Woodeye! That was a big stripper! I've never caught anything remotely as big as that on a rod and reel. I did noodle a 40 pound flathead catfish on the 4th of July once though. If that striper was anywhere near as much fun as that was, I don't know how a person could stand it.
I ended up letting the flathead go. After I caught it, I tied it to a 20' foot nylon stringer and the kids turned it into a pet dolphin by nightfall. When evening came, they had that fish where it would charge you when it saw you walking toward it in clear water. It didn't even swim away when I let it go, choosing instead to wait until I had turned my back on it and then it swam full on into my shins in the dark. The kids got a pretty good laugh hearing me scream like a little girl when that happened. That was a good day on the creek. That fish definitely earned its freedom.
|
|
|
Post by woodeye on Jan 7, 2023 22:59:31 GMT -6
heavyhitterokra , Your big old catfish never had to worry about me degrading its quality of life. A noodler I am not, nor will I ever be. I've watched in awe as people noodle for catfish, with "watched" being the key word. I commend you for such an effort as that.
Catching those stripers on the lower Illinois river was good in a lot of ways, but once I had done that I was never again enthusiastic about going fishing in ponds and so forth. When we first started fishing for them, we used Cotton Cordell Red-fin lures, which float, and fished only at night. I could hear fine back then, and when one of those stripers would hit the lure, it made a crashing sound exactly like a beaver slapping its tail on the water. So when we heard that sound we didn't know for a little while if it was a fish busting the water or a beaver tail slapping the water to make all the commotion. In subsequent years we trolled during the day exclusively, using live shad most of the time, but live trout when we had them. (live trout are the best bait possible) It was legal to use live trout for bait as long as you had a trout stamp and didn't have over your limit of 6 per day in your possession. I remember one day that I took my 6 trout with me and caught 5 stripers with them. I missed one. The stripers that day were from 17 to 25 lbs. each. Another thing that improved the odds was to cut one barb off of a 5/0 treble hook and use it that way. When the stripers swallowed the shad or trout, you could set the hook and be sure that you would hook him. When just using a single hook, sometimes the hook would turn right back into the bait, then when the striper swallowed it and you set the hook, it would pop right out all the way from the striper's belly. I had that happen a few times before I started using a double hook...
|
|
|
Post by heavyhitterokra on Jan 11, 2023 21:58:38 GMT -6
Trading trout for stripers sounds like a pretty good deal to me!
|
|
|
Post by hmoosek on Jan 18, 2023 16:57:52 GMT -6
Newest addition to my belt. D2 steel with Black & Red G10. It reminds me of a Nessmuck in a way.
|
|
|
Post by woodeye on Jan 19, 2023 7:49:33 GMT -6
That is a very good looking knife, hmoosek. I can't say as I have ever seen one like that, I like it! There's no way that one will slip out of your hand...
|
|
|
Post by macmex on Jan 19, 2023 9:53:37 GMT -6
That is a beauty! What is G10? Is that a synthetic material? Jerreth is making some sheath knives for family members. I just ordered her a set of bone scales.
|
|
|
Post by rdback on Jan 19, 2023 10:14:50 GMT -6
That is a looker hmoosek! It does look a lot like a Nessmuk.
How long is the blade?
Gotta say, with that handle tapering toward the blade, I'd be tempted to cut myself, lol.
Be careful!
|
|
|
Post by hmoosek on Jan 19, 2023 18:23:58 GMT -6
woodeye macmex rdback This one is on the small side. 6 1/2” overall with a 3” blade. I like the knife, but I’m not sold on the sheath. I’m looking for the perfect necker, but still haven’t found it. George, G10 is a made made material. I’ve never worked with it, so I don’t know much about it. I like linen micarta for man made stuff. This feels ok in the hand.
|
|