Stub Hunter/Skinner

[Brad Johnson]

All,
I had posted this over on S.R. Johnson's site last week. Its my take on one of his knives I saw while attending my first Guild show as a maker in 1991. D-2, Rc 60, Bone Stag
Enjoy, Let me know what you think! This will be moving to the For Sale by maker page this week, $185 plus shipping

[David Broadwell]

Brad,

You've made a neat little knife. Nice size that would be handy for a lot of cutting chores. Even thought the "stag" is not stag, it's still classy looking.

The only thing I would complain about is the blade finish. You've gone to the trouble to add bolsters and nice scales, and it looks like you've tapered the tang. Those are not basic features, but are more associated with a higher end knife. It would be more fitting for the blade to have a nice hand satin finish instead of the machine finish.

Other than that point, the knife looks to have a good fit and finish, the shape looks comfortable, proportions are good, and your grinding is well done.

In my opinion, Steve is (arguably) the best in his specific area of knifemaking, specifically the old school Loveless style. Yeah, other guys do it well, but Steve's been doing it this good for decades! You could not pick a better maker for inspiration. So do your best to be even better than Steve - he'd be pleased!

David

[Brad Johnson]

David,
I would agree that a hand rubbed finish would look better, but with D-2 at Rc60 ,and the fact that the local folks would rather have a 600 grit (I think the reflection makes it appear rougher that it is) satin finish. All of my D-2 is finished this way. I do put a high finish on my CPM 154 and ATS-34 and I have attached a thumbnail of one of those. Thanks for the comments, I have heard that Cruicible is putting out a CPM-D2 that finishes well, have you used it?

[David Broadwell]

Brad,

I've used D2 only a few times. Even on a few tactical sub hilts it took a good hand finish. Not a fine high end hand finish, but a coarser one for the field. Honestly, I could tell it from 154cm or another stainless just by the way it looked, and I didn't find it any harder to do.

I could tell that your machine finish was on the fine side. Here is my reasoning for a higher grade of finish on your knife. A machine finish is what you would find on any typical FACTORY made knife, and it's usually on a more basic utility knife. You and I are individual artisans making knives in our small shops, not a 20000 square foot manufacturing facility with lots of workers. One of the things that will differentiate our work from the factory knives is our finish. If we are making knives that look like the factory knives, there's little difference, so why bother? In addition to that, you've made a knife that is well ground and has a more complex handle than a basic utility piece, and has much nicer materials than a cheap plastic handle, yet you've left part of that knife unfinished. That's like buying a car with a leather interior, a good engine, and no paint, just naked steel! You have been inspired by Steve Johnson. Would Steve leave a knife partly unfinished?

The blade is to the point where all that's left is hand stroking it with sandpaper. It wouldn't take that long to lay down a decent hand finish. Even if it was only a field grade hand finish it would still be elevated above the level of a factory knife. They stop where you did. I think we should go that extra step in finishing our knives, not leave them undone.

Here's another point, your sheaths. They are nice! You or someone else has gone to the extra trouble to tool them, to make them at a higher level than your ordinary stamped out and riveted factory leather. I bet they fit the knives well, too. It would seem to be a poor match to put that nice leather around a basic factory utility knife.

I recently made a fixed and folder hunter set. The fixed blade has D2 for the blade, the folder the new CPM-D2. Both were hand finished and looked good with a medium level finish (not field grade and not high presentation). Might have been able to tell the difference if I'd taken it to a higher level. Paul Long did the leather work.

While you probably couldn't get the same level of finish on your D2 hunter as your 154 B&T, you could still have gotten a nice subdued finish.

David

[Brad Johnson]

Thanks for the comments David