Dark Neandertal steel

[Bladeophile]

Has anyone been tempted to buy the MOD Survival knife? I was. First I bought a wooden handled one but changed my mind because I saw the model with black handles and info all stamped in the blade - makers name/ Nato part numbers etc
Anyways I was hooked by this dark slab of steel despite all the endless critcism. Curious, I took it into the woods My brother agreed with me that it chopped quite well even with no edge mods.
Interested to hear your comments/experiences with this apocalyptic looking blade.

 

[Samon]

Once you sharpen it properly it's a good tool.



I removed the coating, reversed the sheath loop, cut the back guard off and shaped the handle and rubber tubed it for better grip. I won't trade it, unlike all the manyother tools I have owned!

 

[Bladeophile]

Mmmm interesting mods - you did a good job. Makers name etc really stands out. What did you do to sharpen it? How's the handle re comfort now?
And..........last Q - why wouldn't you trade it unlike many other tools. Just my curiosity because this blade gets slagged off so much.

 

[Samon]

Mmmm interesting mods - you did a good job. Makers name etc really stands out. What did you do to sharpen it? How's the handle re comfort now?
And..........last Q - why wouldn't you trade it unlike many other tools. Just my curiosity because this blade gets slagged off so much.

The edge from the factory is terrible and can't cut anything. It needs thinning out so it conforms better with the actual grind and I did this with a cheap diamond set from lidl to remove the majority of excess steel then took it to a decent cermaic stone and stropped. It's now shaveing sharp and perfectly usable as a chopper or knife.

I found the handle ok to begin with, but fancied changeing it anyway, I filed the plastic then covered it in heat shrink tubing.

I won't trade it because it offers something no other knife I've came across can - a British over built tank of a knife! It's a unique tool too, and few people actually get to use one because they insist on lending their ears to people who can't sharpen a knife!

They haters love to call it the 'prybar' which is funny because it certainly can be used as a pry bar, yet it can still shave your arm and make all the little woodcraft bits around your tent!

Either way you look at it, £50 gets you alot of good tough carbon steel and 3/4's of decent knife out the box, the other 1/4 can be completed in about an hour with minial tools and skill. Then you've got a pry baring, chopping, cutter.. and you'll be having fun defying the norm!

 

[Bladeophile]

Good answer Samon - I sure love mine!

 

[Bladeophile]

Sorry to bug you Samon - when you say you thinned down the metal with diamond stones - do you mean 1. you thinned down the primary grind keeping its angle the same, which would have narrowed the secondary grind towards a 'zero edge'. Or - 2. did you totally reprofile the primary grind to make it deeper (sounds like many hours work)
or - 3. did you simply work on the heel of the secondary grind to blend it into the primary, thus creating a convex edge?
Many thanks for your help - I don't want this to be a dockyard job!

 

[Will_]

I bought one recently. What a knife!

It came with a really bad edge. I don't mind putting in the hours sharpening, even touching up the grind, but this had a different grind on each side.
I did the unthinkable. I left a bad review on Heinnie Haynes. Within hours of writing it, they were in touch. They wanted me to send it back to them. They then sent it back to John Nowill Knives who put an absolutely amazing convex edge on it. Now it is perfect.

I'd been debating getting the knife for ages. I'd even put one guy off buying one, encouraging him to go with a smaller knife. For shame.
Now I've got one (and now it's sharp) I love it.

I'm going to take it out soon and do a review of it. A practical one. I think it aims to be the "one knife to rule them all". I know people don't like that concept, and nor do I in many ways, but if it's a survival knife, then it should be pretty good at everything. So I'm going to try and do everything with it. Not just heavy work too, but some fine work as well. Build a shelter, make some small & large traps, skin a rabbit, make some feathersticks, split some roots for cordage.

For sharpening you might want to check this out: http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=110013&highlight=reprofiling
I started a thread requesting advice on reprofiling the knife, and I got a great answer.
Before I could get started on it though, Heinnie got in touch. They redefine good customer service. The speed with which everything got done was incredible & they even paid the postage.

Oh and you might like this video on the MOD Survival Knife: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJtiqYwigtY
What a legend! :theyareon

 

[Bladeophile]

Thanks so much for the reprofiling info Will. I'm still in a quandry re keeping its original form/coating. Anyways - this thunderbolt of a knife certainly polarizes peoples opinion. LOL

 

[Samon]

What I done was worked the primary cutting edge to a much finer convex edge, leaving the inital and much larger total grind untouched from the stones. That's why it didbn't take long, because I didn't do a massive scandi conversion on it, just the cutting edge. If you did want to spend hours on it you could easily turn it into a full scandi ground blade, and just add a tiny convex secondary for strength, then you'd have a heavy duty - stout leuko!

I'm not one for technical terms but I hope that helps!



Before I removed the back guard and thinned the boxy handle!

 

[Bladeophile]

Yeah - I'm all in favour of your method Samon - getting the max performance from the blade whilst doing the minimum of change to it. I can see why people end up with two though! The original styling esp with black handle is truly appocalyptic! The only other bad boy in the history of knife making I've seen which evokes **** all out disaster is perhaps Busse's NMFBattle Mistress - but even that has less rugged styling. Interestingly, unless Heinnie are sensoring all their buyers comments, there seems not much room for the haters of this bombshell!

 

[Will_]

Samon, how did you go about removing the back guard? Did you just angle grind it down?
Also, do you have to leave it a couple of mm thick so it isn't just the welded spots holding it on?
Thanks, Will

 

[palace]

These are 2 of mine the top one carried from late 1960's to the 80's by a RM/SBS member pride of my collection it is marked JR1979 127/8214 , the lower one is my camping knife of choice, handle shaped to fit my hand then treated with Tung oil. The blade is Marked 127/8214 then JR 1984 & MOD arrow makers name; I believe they are both Joseph Rodgers it is a different blade shape to the 127/8214 1999 Adams owned by Samon mine has more of a skandi grind & in the photo recently oiled & prior to wiping dry; As has been said elsewhere a pry bar that can shave your arm; I love it. Though very sharp my toe is still attached.

 

[Will_]

Nice. I love the way they nailed the design so long ago and then just kept it the same. Most companies then feel the need to bring out new models and end up ruining what made the product so good in the first place.

 

[petrochemicals]

face shaving sharp ?