My O-1 testing blade

[Pmlknives]

So a while back I did some post of me testing one of my O-1 blades. I was thinking 'why tale my word for it'. So here is the guy, 10.5" with a 5.5 inch blade 1/4" thick. I'd like to get this in some of the devils hands and see what you guys think. I'll keep this up and running till the 11th of July, I would like to see you guys have it for no more than 2 weeks(14days:madaddy:)
Paul
http://www.jerzeedevil.com/gallery/files/2/3/8/3/knife_012.jpg
http://www.jerzeedevil.com/gallery/files/2/3/8/3/knife_013.jpg
http://www.jerzeedevil.com/gallery/files/2/3/8/3/knife_014.jpg

as always the rules, stick to em
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thanks guys

[Mr.LaBella]

VERY COOL! I shall have MadDaddy summoned back from his vacation early to aid you in any way!


Thanks Paul!

Ronald Paul LaBella Jr

[jimmyjo]

sign me up, I would love to test that design. It looks like a work horse.

[Pmlknives]

VERY COOL! I shall have MadDaddy summoned back from his vacation early to aid you in any way!


Thanks Paul!

Ronald Paul LaBella Jr

thanks alot although I have been in comms wiht Maddaddy, but help is always welcome.

jimmyjo sure thing:gzb:

[BennytheBlade]

didnt see this first time around.
Id like to check it out.

[Pmlknives]

didnt see this first time around.
Id like to check it out.

sure cool, sign up for the pass around is still on, we can fit you in.
Paul

[Manganr]

It looks like a great knife! Unfortunately I am overseas or I would be all over this passaround:manganr:

I look forward to reading reviews though. It looks like a great chopper!

[Pmlknives]

It looks like a great knife! Unfortunately I am overseas or I would be all over this passaround:manganr:

I look forward to reading reviews though. It looks like a great chopper!

Is there a way to get you involved? I'd hate to see you miss out.
Paul

[Manganr]

Is there a way to get you involved? I'd hate to see you miss out.
Paul

Well if you're happy to send it overses Paul, I will take care of it this end and give it a healthy workout.:manganr:

[Pmlknives]

Sure I think I can handle that.
Paul

[nate3993]

Is it still open? I've always wanted to try an O-1 blade.

[Mr Yarrow]

Well if you're happy to send it overses Paul, I will take care of it this end and give it a healthy workout.:manganr:

If Ray is in on it then Im sure he can be persuaded to send to a few more UK Devilz :D

Rgds

[Pmlknives]

If Ray is in on it then Im sure he can be persuaded to send to a few more UK Devilz :D

Rgds

sounds cool to me
Paul
:jdspam:

[Manganr]

sounds cool to me
Paul
:jdspam:

Well if it's cool with Paul then i'd be happy to let you have it after me Si.

If any other UK folks want a play with Pauls chopper :madaddy: then let it be know and Paul can have the final say:manganr:

[jimmyjo]

I'm going postal now with the knife so it should be on the way to Benny in the AM. The knife has a cloth with stuff on it to wipe it down if it gets wet. Thanks for letting me try it out. It is a cool design.

[BennytheBlade]

PML- you want me to send this back to you or across the pond?
Send me an address and this will go out today to whoever PML wants it to go to.

[RoyalM]

I'll jump in on this passaround if I can? Looks a beefy blade to give a thrashing to.

[Manganr]

If Paul is okay with it then your on RoyalM:manganr:

[Pmlknives]

I'll jump in on this passaround if I can? Looks a beefy blade to give a thrashing to.

yeah no problem you're in
Paul

[BennytheBlade]

this will go back to paul tomorrow for him to get it overseas I believe.

[BennytheBlade]

this will go back to paul tomorrow for him to get it overseas I believe.
err, it went out on monday back to paul.
sorry for the delay.

[Pmlknives]

Glad to know thanks
Paul

just checked the mail and it's here thanks. I'll try to get it out and over the pond by the weekend.

[Pmlknives]

Ray
I got the package in the mail today. Should be there in 5-10 days. Let me know when you get it thanks
Paul

[Manganr]

The Transatlantic post delivered today Paul.
A great knife! Review to folow when i've had a proper play with it!:manganr:

[Manganr]

What a knife! I've had a good go with this now so as soon as I get the addy of the next in line it will be on it's way.
Review to follow soon.............

[Manganr]

This knife was posted today to RoyalM where no doubt it will get another workout:manganr:........................

[Pmlknives]

cool, thanks for the update!
Paul

[RoyalM]

Got the knife and spent the day in the woods yesterday trying it out, sadly the rain came in and my digital camera ran for cover in my pocket.

Will do some more tests this week in a slightly more controlled environment (a workshop) where I can get some pics.

Who will I be posting this knife to once i've finished reviewing?

[Pmlknives]

royalM you are the last stop as far as I know
Paul

[Manganr]

I think this still needs to got to Mr Yarrow then back to me for it's return journey across the pond Paul. If that is all good with you?

[Pmlknives]

I think you are right manganr, Mr Arrow is next, my bad.
Paul

[RoyalM]

Review is posted in review section:
http://www.jerzeedevil.com/forums/showthread.php?p=496096#post496096

Clicky then scroll up to top.

In summary a great medium knife and a solid worker. If you have any questions about how it performed feel free to ask. I did other stuff with the knife when I was in the woods but couldn't put any more into the review as it was getting just a little long.

[Manganr]

Thanks for doing a fine review RoyalM. Can you PM mr Yarrow and get this knife to him next?
Thanks.

[Pmlknives]

thanks for the review.
Paul

[RoyalM]

Mr Yarrow has been poked and i've got the blade wrapped and ready to ship.

Was really good fun testing this blade and I got to try a knife I otherwise may never have had my hands on.

I don't know if it came across in the review but I will say that the edge retention was superb. It arrived at me sharp as hell and left the same way. I don't know if it's the heat treatment or something else but whatever gives it that edge keep doing it.

[Mr Yarrow]

Mr Yarrow has been poked and i've got the blade wrapped and ready to ship.

I have...DOH!!!

Sorry mate, will PM you my details in a sec...apologies for the hold up.

Rgds

[Manganr]

Do you have this now Si?
Whaddya think?:manganr:

[Mr Yarrow]

Right, I finally found a good way to use this knife for an hour stretch :ernie:

Ive had this for a long time and not had the free time to actually do anything but like the look of it, so a big soz to all for that upfront.

The test was de-animation of my Christmas tree :D Ive found that using a knife is so much more fun than a saw :umberto:

Needless to say this knife did rather well at the task in hand and here are a few thoughtson the knife;

Ergos - now I know an ugly knife can work well, but here are thoughts on looks and dont reflect on performance

- the swedge at the top isnt 100% symetrical. I know its a small thing and I didnt notice it until a friend pointed it out, but its an observation none the less

- the handle proportions dont look quite right compared to the blade, not sure why though

- the sheath and its 27 whelts looks a little chunky to be honest. I know its a style for larger knives, but personally I prefer a single whelt and a rounder back to the sheath (if that makes sense)

- the whelt is I think a little too large as its been cut into a fair bit by previous users. It does however mean a nice fit with no problems holding on.


Ok, now thats over with lets talk about how it worked;

The knife came to me witha working edge on it. Im no great sharpener and didnt want to dull it any more so I left the edge as is.

As previously mentioned the job in hand was to get the Christmas tree ready for the recycling bin. This involved 3 tasks;

- de limbing the trunk of all branches

- cutting the turnk into sections

- splitting the largest trunk section into two lengthways

1 - with a swift swipe most branches were cleanly severed. In many cases my poor aim meant I was hitting too high on the trunk and needed a few hacks, but the cutting action was good and clean. Was only a 5 foot high tree but didnt take long and had plenty of branches to go through.

2 - with a nice clean trunk I preceeded to hack it into 3. Again a noce easy job. The weight of the blarge blade made it easy to swing and ger momentum, yet not being too big meant I could also prevent over swinging into my femeral artery :jdsmokin:

3 - the final part involved battoning :devilroll: Im not very good at this, wasnt any good last year, still arent really any good this year :devilroll: I used the middle section of the trunk as a baton and managed to hammer the blade a good 3 inches into the trunk and through a few knots before deciding it was way to sodding cold and life is too short to continue such a fruitless exercise. Needless to say I think the fact the baton was rater small and light had a much larger impact on the prefoprmance than anything about the knife. In fact the blades large depth and high grind coupled with a thick spine mean it should work well in the hands of someone well equipped and competent :jduh:


So, how did it do overall? Well reading RMs rather more detailed review (sorry chaps) I note he said the handle was a little small. Well im only 5'9" and have medium hands, so the handle length was actually spot on for me :) Whilst swinging at the branches on the trunk I actually held the knife behind the last cut out in and almost 3 finger grip. This kept my fingers away from the surprisingly sharp needles on said branches. I also find being able to do this lengthened the blade arch as I swung for hacking cuts into the trunk. Id looped my little finger through the lanyard as well so the grip was nice and secure still.

Whilst the handle lenght was spot on though, I actually found the cross section a little too big...Id did say my hands wernt big. The shape was fine, the scales were literally just a few mm too round/wide though for my hands, to the point that were it my knife Id get a suitably skilled person to thin em a little whilst maintaining the shape and smooth flow.

The edge coped well with all the hacking and slicing. I thought id seen a roll, however it was just a flat spot where oit had been hit upon repeatedly and blunted more thsn elsewhere. My limited knowledge of O1 tells me than that the HT and temper have been well managed and are spot on for the intended use of such a blade.



Well i hope this makes a little sense and its worthy of me bing let into PAs in the future ;). Just want to say a massive thanks to the maker/donor for the kind gesture and to Ray for organising us brits.

Its packed in the box and will be sent back to Ray this week by RMSD.

Rgds

[Pmlknives]

Thanks for the review and glad you got a chance to handle it. I look forward to having it back state side.
thanks to all who participated.
Paul

[Mr Yarrow]

Thanks for the review and glad you got a chance to handle it. I look forward to having it back state side.
thanks to all who participated.
Paul

Hi Paul,

Nay probs and thanks once again for trusting your work to a bunch of guys you really dont know from Adam. Shows how swell a place the mighty JD is :gettinghorns:

I must say that I am now suffering from the testing in that both my hands are cramping badly and ache from whacking the baton and holding the knife when it was -1C outside...not my brightest idea :onoesdevil: :evilness:

Rgds

[Pmlknives]

I got the knife back today. Thanks to everyone for taking really good care of it.:jdsmokin: Just a little bit of patina on the tang(to be expected). I'm glad you got a chance to see and handle some of my work. So I took some of your feed back and modified the blade...
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj59/pmlknives/O-1redux001.jpg
before...
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj59/pmlknives/knife012.jpg
If I took the grinds any higher I would have taken out the logo.
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj59/pmlknives/O-1redux003.jpg
I couldn't find a picture of the handle origanally, but I thinned it down alot! It's not so much like a baseball bat now:ssmile:..
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj59/pmlknives/O-1redux002.jpg
I also took the edge down from .025 to just under .02, doesn't sound like much but it'll do.


So alittle I learned here on this first pass I did. I thought if I put a knife with a really good heat treat, people would see that I could treat a blade proper. That the heat treat would "carry it". They did, although I now realize that I should've put a knife with the whole package. I wasn't really concerned if I lost or the knife got damaged, because it wasn't a knife I was thrilled with. I made it out of a piece of steel too small for the handle design I had. I rounded the handle more made it fat to fill the hande better, maybe make up for the shortness of it. So I would definately make a top notch blade all around, next time and there will be another pass. I am not trying to make excuses, it was a funny shaped blade with a fat round handle and a sheath that needed a couple welts because the handle was fat(BTW I need to fix that as the sheat is too big).
I would like to thank eveyone for their reviews. It takes time and I appreciate it.
thanks
Paul

[jimmyjo]

I loved that knife, the design was new and very fat with the weight of a baseball bat.

[RoyalM]

Very nice makeover there Paul.

The new thinned handle looks very much improved as it was just a little to fat for me before. Although the handle was a little short I reckon the slimmer handle will help how the knife feels in the hand by a huge amount. The swedge also looks good to my eye and with the thickness of the blade it shouldn't damage it's chopping powers too much.

[Manganr]

Super re-profiling work Paul!
An improvement on the original but still with the same superbly HT'd steel!
Thanks again for the passaround. :manganr:

[Mr Yarrow]

Blinkin flip, the make over is even more awesome :D

Seriously, the knife looked nice before, now it looks super sleek and ready for action :jdsmokin:

In regards to the handle, I cant remember if I said so in my small review, but thinning it down would be a definite bonus for me and my small mitts :devilroll:

Tha nks again for the opportunity and the prospect of a future play as well :popcorn:

Rgds

[BennytheBlade]

I believe this is coming to me for some long term testing.

Thanks Paul
GREAT passaround.

[RoyalM]

Nice score Benny, post some pics when you get a chance to use her.