When I picked up the current (May 2011) issue of Tactical Knives a couple of weeks ago I read a piece Steve did called Iron Age Cutters. The subject matter is bushcraft and U.S. made bushcraft knives. Looking at the photos I realized I had somehow completely missed a TOPS knife that I really like the looks of. With it's 5 inch blade of 3/16 1095 steel, micarta handle scales, and a tang extension on which the end surface is flat and perpendicular to the line of the spine, and therefor the tip, it looked like a design that I would really like to carry on trips to the field.
The specs taken from the TOPS website
Blade Length:......5.0"
O/A Length:........10"
Cutting Edge:......4 3/4"
Thickness:.........3/16"
Blade Color:.......Black Traction Coating
Handle:............Black Linen Micarta®
Steel:.............1095 High Carbon Alloy RC-58
Sheath:............Kydex With a Rotating Steel Spring Clip
Weight:............9.1oz
Weight.............w/ Sheath: 12.0oz
Mfg................Handcrafted in the USA
The balance point is just to the rear of the first finger, or roughly on the first handle bolt.
The knife came with a nice edge.
I've done a little whittling and notching with it and i like how it handles.
I like the nice pointy tip a lot.
I put it to the test starting fire under very wet conditions about 10 minutes after getting it out of the mailbox. I went down to check out the damage after a series of severe storms had past.We had some high winds and torrential rains pass through the area and I was pretty sure I had heard at least one large tree falling close by. I learned later there were trees down on and in houses, across roads, and on power lines all over town. Some people were without power for over 60 hours. On the way back up the driveway I checked the mail, found the box and headed to the fir pit in the woods out behind the house. Everything I used for tinder and fuel were soaking wet after the storm that came after days of off and on rains.
I started by finding a piece of fatwood up on the side of the ridge.
and gathering a lot of dead twigs scattered over the area brought down by the storm.
First I split the fatwood into smaller pieces. It was a nice rich piece.
Then I whittled a pile of shavings for tinder, put them on a couple of wet leaves in the saturated fire pit, sparked them to life with a fire steel, then added some of the smaller pieces and let them catch up.
I broke some cardinal rules of fire starting by placing my tinder on wet leaves and using wet fuel off of the ground, as you can see by the steam, but fatwood saves a lot of work when you just want or need to get a fire going... and I had a lot of debris to clean up out of my yard so the little one could run and play without tripping over a LOT of limbs.
The knife was really no worse for the wear and abuse. I love how micarta is so durable and cleans up so easily just being washed in a pool of rain water.
I was right, I do really like this one a lot. It is a great size, it gives me the controllability I like along with the strength I prefer to have in my field knives. It handles well and so far my only problem with it is that I don't care for belt clips or high-riding knives when I am carrying a pack with a waist belt, so I'll likely make a webbing drop system for it.
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The specs taken from the TOPS website
Blade Length:......5.0"
O/A Length:........10"
Cutting Edge:......4 3/4"
Thickness:.........3/16"
Blade Color:.......Black Traction Coating
Handle:............Black Linen Micarta®
Steel:.............1095 High Carbon Alloy RC-58
Sheath:............Kydex With a Rotating Steel Spring Clip
Weight:............9.1oz
Weight.............w/ Sheath: 12.0oz
Mfg................Handcrafted in the USA
The balance point is just to the rear of the first finger, or roughly on the first handle bolt.
The knife came with a nice edge.
I've done a little whittling and notching with it and i like how it handles.
I like the nice pointy tip a lot.
I put it to the test starting fire under very wet conditions about 10 minutes after getting it out of the mailbox. I went down to check out the damage after a series of severe storms had past.We had some high winds and torrential rains pass through the area and I was pretty sure I had heard at least one large tree falling close by. I learned later there were trees down on and in houses, across roads, and on power lines all over town. Some people were without power for over 60 hours. On the way back up the driveway I checked the mail, found the box and headed to the fir pit in the woods out behind the house. Everything I used for tinder and fuel were soaking wet after the storm that came after days of off and on rains.
I started by finding a piece of fatwood up on the side of the ridge.
and gathering a lot of dead twigs scattered over the area brought down by the storm.
First I split the fatwood into smaller pieces. It was a nice rich piece.
Then I whittled a pile of shavings for tinder, put them on a couple of wet leaves in the saturated fire pit, sparked them to life with a fire steel, then added some of the smaller pieces and let them catch up.
I broke some cardinal rules of fire starting by placing my tinder on wet leaves and using wet fuel off of the ground, as you can see by the steam, but fatwood saves a lot of work when you just want or need to get a fire going... and I had a lot of debris to clean up out of my yard so the little one could run and play without tripping over a LOT of limbs.
The knife was really no worse for the wear and abuse. I love how micarta is so durable and cleans up so easily just being washed in a pool of rain water.
I was right, I do really like this one a lot. It is a great size, it gives me the controllability I like along with the strength I prefer to have in my field knives. It handles well and so far my only problem with it is that I don't care for belt clips or high-riding knives when I am carrying a pack with a waist belt, so I'll likely make a webbing drop system for it.
.
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