hi everyone i have just been looking at some older posts and sore a lot of chat on ray mears knives and the allen wood one, i am just getting going at bushcraft and i have bought the wilkingson sword one with maple handle which no one seems to talk about have i made my first mistake???? yours paranoid Mal :yikes:
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- Thread starter mal
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ask Adi007 he has one, i thought of getting one, but did not have the funds.
have a look at this thread.
have a look at this thread.
Until the issue with the dartmoor I would have said the service from WS was very good. If you want to sell yyour knife and get something else I think you would get your money back from ebay (just about anyway). Most people start with a knife that costs less if you mess up sharpening it though
Hi Mal! Welcome to BCUK! :wave:
Yes, I do have said knife and yes, I have had trouble with it. Basically, it seems that the wood for the scales wasn't properly sealed on mine and it was easily affected by the elements, especially wet weather. Slowly but surely they swelled up to the point that they were bigger than the actual metal. At this point (6 months after purchase) I sent it back for a replacement, which I received. I've not taken any chances witht he new one and given the handle a good soaking in tung oil, a process that I sill repeat until I get the parts I need to rehandle it (I'm in need of some mosaic pins ...).
The thing I'd say to you to be worried about is that I've bought mine and had a warrant on it but you've bought it second hand and no one HAS to honour the warranty for you, so if it runs into problems, you're on your own
Yes, I do have said knife and yes, I have had trouble with it. Basically, it seems that the wood for the scales wasn't properly sealed on mine and it was easily affected by the elements, especially wet weather. Slowly but surely they swelled up to the point that they were bigger than the actual metal. At this point (6 months after purchase) I sent it back for a replacement, which I received. I've not taken any chances witht he new one and given the handle a good soaking in tung oil, a process that I sill repeat until I get the parts I need to rehandle it (I'm in need of some mosaic pins ...).
The thing I'd say to you to be worried about is that I've bought mine and had a warrant on it but you've bought it second hand and no one HAS to honour the warranty for you, so if it runs into problems, you're on your own
Hi Mal,
You already own a WS WL knife which, in itself, isnt a bad thing as many people like them but I would advise getting experience with something more suitable before you potentially ruin a expensive tool.
Buy yourselve a nice Mora or Frosts or something similar that you can learn to use safetly, make mistakes with and learn to sharpen properly then when you feel ready you can go back to your shiny new WS WL knife - better to spend £10 on a training knife now than another £???? on a new WS later.
Also another top tip is buy yourself a folding saw such as the Laplander - that with a frosts knife will cater for all your needs just about.
Have fun and welcome to 'the craft'.
You already own a WS WL knife which, in itself, isnt a bad thing as many people like them but I would advise getting experience with something more suitable before you potentially ruin a expensive tool.
Buy yourselve a nice Mora or Frosts or something similar that you can learn to use safetly, make mistakes with and learn to sharpen properly then when you feel ready you can go back to your shiny new WS WL knife - better to spend £10 on a training knife now than another £???? on a new WS later.
Also another top tip is buy yourself a folding saw such as the Laplander - that with a frosts knife will cater for all your needs just about.
Have fun and welcome to 'the craft'.
mal said:
Mal, I've had two of em. The first was from the first batch ever made. I think I got mine in the first posting of the new knives. It became apparent after giving mine a bit of a dunking, that the handles were not properly sealed. I reported the problem to WS, they agreed there was an issue and they recalled ALL the first batch. My replacement was much better sealed, but like ADi has said, there has been some movement with the handles, not as much as Adi reports and no where near as much as the first one I had, but still some movement. However, many, many knives with wooden handles show this movement. Wood is a natural material and suseptible to the environment. You have to take care to wax and oil the handle to keep it in good working order and minimise the movement. Alternatively, you can do as Adi is planning, and look for a piece of wood that naturally resists the elements - something very dense, tough and naturally oily. Alternatively, you can look for a synthetic handle material, or possibly a wood that has been synthetically stabalised under a vaccuum.
Pretty much all natural materials swell and shrink with changes in weather/heat/humidity etc. Some materials resist this better than others, but pretty much all natural materials move to some extent.
This is worth reading...
http://www.britishblades.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2262
With thew right treatment, almost anything can be made suitable for knife handles. I've heard of a guy who used stabalised elephant dung. Here is a pic of a knife with a stabalised corn cob handle...
http://www.messermacher.at/fest1gr.jpg
If you are really worried, sell it on ebay and get the micarta version. Personally though, I think you have bought a fine knife which at first had teething problems, and now they are sorted. Enjoy, but get a Frost Mora - great advice 
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