Handmade Thai E-nep bush knife

[Hedgehog]

I posted this over on Britishblades the other day & thought some of you may find it of interest...

As some of you will be aware I was taken with the E-nep bush knives reviewed by James Koji in this thread,,,

http://www.britishblades.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44041

After reading about some of the testing & seeing some very impressive pictures here...

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=461293

...I was compelled to get one.

I got in touch with James & he put me in contact with his friend Santi Senarat who had a small stock of these E-neps from a smith called Bun Hom. It appears that following some expert input on tempering methods and such, his work is now very much in demand with local users & enthusiasts alike - waiting lists have hit the region of 8 months recently.

Well, mine arrived from Santi last week, here are a couple of pics he sent me when he shipped the knife...

Ok on with my review...

My first impressions upon getting home & unpacking the knife were excellent, graceful lines & good solid feeling simple construction. The binding around the wooden sheath & the handle are very secure & beautifully crafted. The wooden sheath fits like a glove & is secure enough to retain the knife when held upside down & shaken. I also got a Ratan sheath at the same time witch I'm sure you'll agree is a beautiful piece of craftsmanship in its own right, it is loose fitting & commonly used in the field in Thailand (not entirely suitable for cartwheeling I should imagine) being allot tougher than it may appear.

(some more about the Ratan sheats here - http://www.knifeforums.com/forums/showtopic.php?tid/799540/ )

The whole thing is lighter than I had anticipated & feels very well balanced in the hand despite the actual centre of gravity being 21/2" up the blade from the handle. The Blade is 1/16th short of 11" long (277mm) of hand forged spring steel & the Chin Chan (Dalbergia) handle a generous 6 6/8" (167mm) allowing for a good variety of holds from choking up on the blade for fine work to extending the knife forwards for chopping. The blade is around 9 32" or 7mm at the handle with a full distal taper to the tip a 16th shy of 2" or 49mm at the deepest point of the belly.

This first thing I did was take it to the waterstones (as usual for me with a new knife) to remove the adequate but slightly rough edge and give it a good convex grind more suited to chopping. I was pleased to find that the edge was good and strait & needed no real tuning in this respect. The edge is hardened to about an inch before the handle where a slight hamon became visible while I was grinding & smoothing the bevels.

Here are some more pictures...

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I will take this with me to the woods next weekend & put it through its paces properly but from handling it over the last few days it seems to strike a good balance between maneuverability and chopping capacity, I think this will make an excellent large camp knife but I'll reserve further comment until I've found out how it performs in the field.

I'll post some pics & further comments in a week or so when I return from my elephant safari among the wild, untamed, treacherous Bamboo & Rhododendron forests of South East England.

Many thanks to James & Santi, two fine chaps to deal with, please extend my compliments to the chef...errr smith!

 

[scottishwolf]

Once again the threads on here have made me very jealous and I shall have to go to my bed before i'm drunk and start asking everyone where I can get one
Looks amazing mate, hope you have fun with it. great review, thank you

 

[John Fenna]

I picked up a locally made Thai bush knife when I was in a village near Chang Mai this year.
It came with a split bamboo sheath like the one shown and is forged from a truck spring.
I think I paid about £10 for it.
Initially the blade was loose in the rather poor and worm affected handle (a brand new knife!) but a dose of epoxy fixed that. Unfortunately the blade has a "lean" away from the centre-line of the handle so it is not all that acurate to use.
The blade is shorter than your knife - tribal differences, the guide we used was from another village and had a blade like yours though both were on sale in the village we stayed in - and less pointed. The knife, once honed, makes a fair slasher/chopper and is short enough for easy use in fine cutting as well.
However - it is not as "me friendly" as my Scandinavian combo set and is destined to hang on my souvineer wall along with other "interesting" knives that although practical and "keepers" are not going to be my first choice in the field.
Your knife looks much better quality than mine, mine is more rough and ready, but as I bought it in the field means more to me than most knives I own....

 

[Hedgehog]

...as I bought it in the field means more to me than most knives I own....

Thanks for sharing that, I wholeheartedly agree with you here - I bought my Puukko & Leuku in Finland & the are very dear to me & now my most used knives of all. I must be careful with them though - I lost a Kuksa with my name on it that I was given out there, I've been back to the woodland several times looking for it but to no avail.

 

[forginhill]

Excellent review, Hedghog! (Professional photos too.)

The Thai people have developed a design that has been tested and proved. And one worthy of consideration.

I eagerly await the results of your field testing.

Todd

 

[Hoodoo]

That is a real beauty!