Having received the Condor Nessmuk knife in the post today from a trade I figured I'd do a tiny little bit of work on it to make it bit more to my liking.
Now this isn't a review as such but more of a 'see it for yourself' and so you could see how I lightly reworked a few bits of it.
For the price of £30 (http://www.heinnie.com/Knives/Condor-Knives/Condor-Nessmuk-Knife/p-92-130-4831/) it is very affordable and great value for money, the sheath is fantastic and alone would probably cost about £20.
With hard wood scales and a good quality carbon steel blade make this a simple no fuss knife based on a famous woodsman's design but I felt I could tinker with it very slightly to improve it.
So here are some pictures of the knife..
And next to a SAK for size comparison..
And in the thick and strong sheath..
Now as you can see the blade is covered in a rough coating and is a boring kind of grey colour so I decided to remove it and allow the blade to look more natural and rustic (and later on form a patina). For this I used very fine grit sandpaper and some spit and this is how it came out..
If you look closely at the lowest blade section.. the 'ricasso' (the unsharpened part just above the finger and to the start of the edge) you can see that it sticks out quite a bit and actualy hurts my finger when doing harder cuts so I got out my dremel and gently removed it so that my finger could sit up high when I choked up on the blade.
So here's what it looks like after that..
Now to protect that blade since I removed it's coating! To do this I gave it a vinegar bath to form a patina and to get that old knife look!
You can use other acidic foods like lemons (my favoured method), mustard, tomate sauce and even potatoes!
It sat wrapped in tissue soaking in vinegar for about and hour and after that I took it out and washed it with soapy water to remove the gunk and vinegar then dried it and lightly oiled it to keep it better protected.
This is what it turned out like..
Not bad! I might give it another bath to deepen the patina colouring but for now it's not bad.
And the new knife in the hand..
So that was what I done to the knife to make it look and feel better for me!
My opinions on the knife: It would make a very good general use camp knife as it is strong and has alot of belly for big slices and cuts! It's not the best wood working tool but it can still cut notchs and sharpen stakes just fine. If you want to baton with it you can as it's strong and has a thick blade. I also think it would make a great skinning knife with all that belly, but most of all it's alot of knife for your money!
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it!
Now this isn't a review as such but more of a 'see it for yourself' and so you could see how I lightly reworked a few bits of it.
For the price of £30 (http://www.heinnie.com/Knives/Condor-Knives/Condor-Nessmuk-Knife/p-92-130-4831/) it is very affordable and great value for money, the sheath is fantastic and alone would probably cost about £20.
With hard wood scales and a good quality carbon steel blade make this a simple no fuss knife based on a famous woodsman's design but I felt I could tinker with it very slightly to improve it.
So here are some pictures of the knife..
And next to a SAK for size comparison..
And in the thick and strong sheath..
Now as you can see the blade is covered in a rough coating and is a boring kind of grey colour so I decided to remove it and allow the blade to look more natural and rustic (and later on form a patina). For this I used very fine grit sandpaper and some spit and this is how it came out..
If you look closely at the lowest blade section.. the 'ricasso' (the unsharpened part just above the finger and to the start of the edge) you can see that it sticks out quite a bit and actualy hurts my finger when doing harder cuts so I got out my dremel and gently removed it so that my finger could sit up high when I choked up on the blade.
So here's what it looks like after that..
Now to protect that blade since I removed it's coating! To do this I gave it a vinegar bath to form a patina and to get that old knife look!
You can use other acidic foods like lemons (my favoured method), mustard, tomate sauce and even potatoes!
It sat wrapped in tissue soaking in vinegar for about and hour and after that I took it out and washed it with soapy water to remove the gunk and vinegar then dried it and lightly oiled it to keep it better protected.
This is what it turned out like..
Not bad! I might give it another bath to deepen the patina colouring but for now it's not bad.
And the new knife in the hand..
So that was what I done to the knife to make it look and feel better for me!
My opinions on the knife: It would make a very good general use camp knife as it is strong and has alot of belly for big slices and cuts! It's not the best wood working tool but it can still cut notchs and sharpen stakes just fine. If you want to baton with it you can as it's strong and has a thick blade. I also think it would make a great skinning knife with all that belly, but most of all it's alot of knife for your money!
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it!
