Clifford Begnaud

[Clifford Begnaud]

Saw this at Blade Show, I wonder how we can sharpen it on the WEPS?
😉

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[Clifford Begnaud]

Thank you Curtis, this helps.

[Clifford Begnaud]

Clay,
Would you please post a picture with a handle/stone in place, being gauged by the swat device? I’m trying to figure out how the plastic handle is placed on the upper part of the L bracket (pro 2). The tightening knob on the L bracket gets in the way. It appears that the handle must be placed perpendicular to the degree bar so that the Pin on the Swat can contact it. What am I missing? Or is my early production Pro 2 different from what you show in the picture (the knobs on mine are black plastic)
thanks,
Cliff

[Clifford Begnaud]

I’ll share a tip I got from Bob Nash of Oldawan; when switching from diamond to chosera, start at the same grit. For example, my smallest grit diamond stone is 600, I then go directly to 600 Chosera. The chosera cleans up the inconsistent scratch pattern of the diamond stone and provides a very nice even scratch pattern on which to proceed. The 600 does it’s work very quickly, so you don’t spend a lot of time trying to remove large scratches with your finer stones. This trick has greatly reduced the amount of time it takes to sharpen a knife, with improved results. The 600 chosera is aggressive, it’s one of my favorite stones.
Contact Bob, or Clay about a handle set with just the 600 grit chosera stones, not very expensive.
best regards,
Cliff

[Clifford Begnaud]

Clay,
Thanks for your reply.
After lots of input here and quite a bit of discussion on our part, my wife and I have come up with a system very similar to yours.
I already procured a Spyderco Stretch with ZDP-189 steel for her pocket knife. For the majority of the skinning and deboning work she’ll carry this Shun Elite knife with SG-2 Steel (HRC 64-65), it will be carried in a homemade sheath.
http://www.amazon.com/Shun-SG0410-Gokujo-Boning-Fillet/dp/B0016GX8UQ/ref=pd_sxp_f_pt
That exact model is discontinued, but they have the Classic model in Damascus with a VG-10 core.
http://www.amazon.com/Shun-DM0743-Classic-Gokujo-Boning/dp/B001JPGZRW

This knife has a thin blade and takes the absolute sharpest edge imaginable (when sharpened with the Wicked Edge system, of course) and it will hold that edge until the sun burns out in a few billion years.

Seriously though, this knife is very high quality and I’m looking forward to seeing it in action on an Elk. I have never seen a knife cut a chicken in half as easily as this Shun knife. It just glides through the breastbone and backbone so easily that I was absolutely startled by it the first time (and I used to be in the restaurant business and have cut up thousands of chickens) While it will cut up chickens, it’s not really designed for that purpose due to the thinness of the blade and the hardness of the steel (possibly brittle, though I have had NO chipping at all).
I think that there are many thin blade Japanese style knives that would work well for processing game. Perhaps a 4” paring knife or even a small chef (gyuto) knife would work.

I plan to get the wifey a survival blade, but have not yet decided which one it will be.
Finally, for good measure she’ll probably throw one of these gut hooks, with changeable blades, into her day pack (me too).
http://www.amazon.com/Gerber-45924-E-Z-Zip-Sheath/dp/B000W0EW9I/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=1T691AJAKBR3D&coliid=I6ETH51KAK8F5

For me this year, I think I will carry my Tops BOB knife as my primary game processing/survival knife (not ideal for game processing, the blade is thick at 3/16”) If I really get ambitious, I may get the Spyderco Wilson Southfork, thank you KenBuzbee for the suggestion, I had not seen that knife before you mentioned it.

My wife informed me that she had recently pre-ordered a new folding knife for me as a gift:
http://www.bladehq.com/item–Zero-Tolerance-0770-Knife-Aluminum–15193
I’m eager to try out the Elmax Steel and something about this design really appeals to me.
She got this because I had fallen in love with the knife that inspired the 770, the ZT 777:

It may be that the 770 won’t arrive in time for Archery Elk season, which means that I would have to get another folding knife, isn’t that a shame ;-). (sure, I have several folders that would work, but what a great excuse to get some super steel)
All the best,
Cliff

[Clifford Begnaud]

Babo,
I was fondling some Bark River knives today (as I have done before).
They are very tempting, I was admiring many of them. My wife likes the Nessmuk, and I like that form factor also.

[Clifford Begnaud]

Philip,
You have great taste in kitchen knives, I enjoyed the diversion.
I really appreciate all of the suggestions from everyone and will investigate each one.
Cliff

[Clifford Begnaud]

Those are all great suggestions. While I like D2, for this project I want to stick to a PM type steel. I would like to try something in M390 so let me know if you see any other options with that steel.

johpe, there are a few Gyuto (chef) knives with m390 available. I don’t know if you have used Japanese style chef knives, but once you do, your western style chef knives will go mostly unused.
visit http://www.chefknivestogo.com
Use the search box and input m390. You will see a few choices. My preference for a Gyuto is a length of around 240 mm. There is only one around 240 mm on that site that I could find in m390, this one:
http://www.chefknivestogo.com/riulm3st.html
The others all appear to be 210 mm. Some people like the shorter length, but these knives are very light weight and balance well at 240 mm. You really should scale up the length when choosing a Gyuto. Having said that, I would still pick a 210 mm Gyuto over ANY western style chef knife. Also search youtube for Richmond Ultimatum, there are several reviews. See this one:

Just fyi, I would pick a Gyuto with the worst steel in the world over a Henkels/Wustof/Sabatier or other thick,heavy western style chef knife, with the best steel in the world. (is that a dramatic enough statement for you? 😉 )
If you want to discuss Gyuto knives, just pm me.

[Clifford Begnaud]

Ken,
I like it…. thanks.
Keep em coming.

[Clifford Begnaud]

I re-sharpened back to 1000 grit at 12 degrees, it rolled.
I re-profiled the edge to 15 degrees, sharpened to 600 grit choseras, it rolled.

I’ll continue the experiment to see just what it takes for this 1075 steel to hold an edge.
I know you want to see the knife, but I’ve tried so many different things on it that the blade is a mess and I’m embarrassed to show it. This is no longer a knife, it’s an experimental piece of steel.

I complained about how awful this knife is and I may have been overly harsh because I do like the shape of the blade and the length at 4.25″ seems ideal for a bushcraft knife. The cutting edge comes all the way back to within 1/16″ of the handle. I know that many bushcraft knives are shorter than 4″ but the extra length is great for batoning and I don’t think finer work will suffer from this length. If I were to make a bushcraft knife, or commission one, I think I would go with a little less drop to the point so it would work better for skinning, thus making it a more all around knife.
The knife also comes with a decent sheath, that alone is worth $20. The handle shape, well, it’s not bad. If this had 01 tool steel that was 5/32″ thick and cost $50 instead of $33 it would be a great bargain, IF and only if they could get the hardending and tempering done right. You would still spend a lot of time re-profiling the edge because at the factory it’s done by hand on a sander. My big gripe with this knife is the steel. Maybe it’s me and the way I’m sharpening it that is the problem, but I’ve sharpened Japanese kitchen knives on my WEPS at 10-12 degrees and the results are exceptional (easily HHT 5). It’s amazing what you can do with great steel.
There are pics of the Condor Bushlore knife on their website: http://www.condortk.com/productsdetail.php?prodid=11
and there are video reviews on youtube.

Mark, my wife had the injections in her elbow and her description scared me off. She is tuff as nails and has the highest pain threshold of anyone I know. I may yet give in and get the injections because recover is very, very slow and it’s interfering with using my WEPS. There are knives that need sharpening!
all the best,
Cliff

[Clifford Begnaud]

I made an extension for the WE vice so that I could achieve a lower angle.

PS – do you have a photo of your vise extension?[/quote]

Bob, I’ll make a video in the next day or so of my setup.
We plan to attend the Denver Custom Knife Show part of the event in Aug. Cya there.
Cliff
here is a link to the Denver Custom Knife show for those not familiar with it:
http://www.proknifemakers.com/2010showpage.htm

[Clifford Begnaud]

Hi Bob,
Good to hear from you. I was looking for you at the Tanner gun show last weekend.
Sailboat racing is mostly on the back burner because I have severe tendinitis in my left elbow. Too bad, it’s been very windy. I did get out several times though.

The model I have is the Bushlore, 2nd gen., It’s really quite a piece of junk. I’ll try bringing it back to a courser grit and see what happens. I wouldn’t recommend wasting $33 (at Amazon.com) on one. If you get one, it will never be something you would actually take into the woods and depend upon for anything. I got it just to work out the issues of sharpening a Scandi Zero.
I actually have a very slight convex on the Scandi edge simply because of the small amount of slop between the handles and the rod (yes, I’m using the Subway Straws and have modded the pivots). When you mount the knife high enough in my homebrewed low angle jig, you get more slop because you are working closer to the end of the rod. This has no ill effect on the edge. I could probably prevent that from happening if I was careful enough, it was faster to just let it convex.

Hopefully I’ll hear from some other guys that have knives with a Scandi Zero. I would really like to know how the edge holds up at what angle with which steel.
all the best,
Cliff

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