Dartmoor WS Knife
- Thread starter TeeDee
- Start date
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I just loved the shape of the one you made. I’ve not seen Frenchies. I like the throwback tactical look on these. It’s all very 80’s badass survival stuff. Antler and wood should stay on my nice gentle bushcrafting knives. Not this nostalgia provoking beastie.
Although I’m not adverse to actual seeing someone do those handles
Have you still got that knife?
Although I’m not adverse to actual seeing someone do those handles
Have you still got that knife?
Might you be exaggerating a tad now. Thais ain’t a big or heavy knife by any means. Unless you always use and carry a micro SAK. But I do like to overcompensate.
That just says everything i like about the knife and its design , i guess you just had to be thereI just loved the shape of the one you made. I’ve not seen Frenchies. I like the throwback tactical look on these. It’s all very 80’s badass survival stuff. Antler and wood should stay on my nice gentle bushcrafting knives. Not this nostalgia provoking beastie.
Although I’m not adverse to actual seeing someone do those handles
Have you still got that knife?
at the time
It’s common knowledge, or used to be at least, that Raymond Paul Mears designed this knife sans the extra blade modifications like the bottle opener and serrated lower part. But there was a good reason for Wilkinsons adding these. They wanted to patent the design as can be evidenced by my post above. So they needed to add unique modifications that hadn’t come before.
The very unique hollow handle wasn’t enough, so they had to add two more features. It still failed after many years of pushing it as the cheaper Chinese brands began adding similar features far more quickly than the British manufacturers and red tape would allow. Wilkinsons still did quite well. But they could have made a much better product had they not been so focussed on that patent. The Dartmoor went back to the original premise. But it was too late. They were selling to a crowd that had long since stopped buying knives and reading magazines, to one that was now going online and posting about where they had coffee in the trendiest place, rather than making coffee and sitting in a field. Or sitting in a field and making coffee. Only a very few were sitting in the woods and sleeping out, making shelters and grinding coffee to put in a billy can over the fire.
And here some of us still are, and we can remember Wilkinsons last shout out and collaboration with a certain, older, wiser Ray Mears and his simple bushcraft knife. Almost a third cheaper than the survival knife he designed two decades before. Far more useful. And it sold hundreds. Worldwide, and began a phenomenon that’s not died to this day But it was too late for Wilkinsons and they were taken over. The rest is dust consigned to a history no one much cares about. Except a few of us still here that lived through it and catalogued that second phoenix rising from the flames, only to watch it softly fall to earth and extinguish its last dying light
The very unique hollow handle wasn’t enough, so they had to add two more features. It still failed after many years of pushing it as the cheaper Chinese brands began adding similar features far more quickly than the British manufacturers and red tape would allow. Wilkinsons still did quite well. But they could have made a much better product had they not been so focussed on that patent. The Dartmoor went back to the original premise. But it was too late. They were selling to a crowd that had long since stopped buying knives and reading magazines, to one that was now going online and posting about where they had coffee in the trendiest place, rather than making coffee and sitting in a field. Or sitting in a field and making coffee. Only a very few were sitting in the woods and sleeping out, making shelters and grinding coffee to put in a billy can over the fire.
And here some of us still are, and we can remember Wilkinsons last shout out and collaboration with a certain, older, wiser Ray Mears and his simple bushcraft knife. Almost a third cheaper than the survival knife he designed two decades before. Far more useful. And it sold hundreds. Worldwide, and began a phenomenon that’s not died to this day But it was too late for Wilkinsons and they were taken over. The rest is dust consigned to a history no one much cares about. Except a few of us still here that lived through it and catalogued that second phoenix rising from the flames, only to watch it softly fall to earth and extinguish its last dying light
My "paddle" with the cover saw blade cover piece. I can fit a pouch onto the front through the Chicago bolts. It's a big blade, I only have small hands.
I mourn the loss of a once great English heritage company like WS.So poetic early on a Sunday morning
No in reality for the last 4 - 5 years most of my outings have been doing amateur radio. No need for a big knife when I already have a pack full of radio. Reluctant to give up my tools though.
The Survival came out in 1984 and that was the one Ray designed. I think it was in production for around five or six years.
Wilkinsons then decided to revive it around 2004 and refined the design slightly by getting rid of the serrated edge and bottle opener and making the saw more effective and aggressive. They also changed the handle slightly and made a new sheath that was completely ambidextrous and had further cavities for more survival kit. They Royal Marines tested it over Dartmoor for a year. That became the Dartmoor.
The Survival Knife is at the top and the Dartmoor on the bottom.
Wilkinsons then decided to revive it around 2004 and refined the design slightly by getting rid of the serrated edge and bottle opener and making the saw more effective and aggressive. They also changed the handle slightly and made a new sheath that was completely ambidextrous and had further cavities for more survival kit. They Royal Marines tested it over Dartmoor for a year. That became the Dartmoor.
The Survival Knife is at the top and the Dartmoor on the bottom.
