Martin knives, une alternative à Bayley Knives

* First, the BT developed out of a knife a customer of ours wanted. He wanted a knife like the British maker, Rob Bayley, makes and that Bear Grylls used to carry on the Man vs Wild TV show. I agreed to make him one, but with some design changes that I thought would make it a better knife. He posted it on a forum and since then we have been making a good many of them. I have not tried to market it or promote it, but many guys have found us and have purchased and are using it with great results.
* To keep the price down I offer the knife with an integral hilt - part of the Micarta slabs. But you can purchase it with various metal hilts as an option. The blade is 1 3/16" wide at its widest point, but remember that it is a handmade knife and there will be some slight variations. I cut the blanks out by hand and grind them to shape on a belt grinder. We do all of our own heat treating to make sure that we get it right. I believe the quality is in the heat treating process. You can make any knife look pretty, but performance is where the real quality is tested.
* The blade shape is very similar to the Bayley knife, which is just a clip point blade that many knives have. The clip point is a versatile blade shape favoring a more tactical approach. It has better penetrating ability and is plenty strong for batoning. I put a slight swedge grind on the BT "Special" that appeals to the military guys. I now put large thumb grooves in front of the hilt for better control.
* The balance point on the metal hilted knife is just behind the first pin. I grind out some metal in the middle of the handle tang to lessen the handle weight and put a hole all the way through and epoxy it on. I make the handle a little bigger than the Bayley knife for the American hand. I also put a crows beak on the butt to give it better control when doing light chopping. The grooved lines in the sides of the handle are for better gripping ability in wet conditions. I use Micarta in the base priced knife because it seems to be warmer to the hand, more like wood. It is also a very tough phenolic material that has proven itself over the years.
* The metal hilt goes on over the blade butting up against metal stops and is then soldered on. The hilt is also totally hand made for each knife.
* I like carbon steel like 1095HC or 01Tool for sharpness and toughness. They are more easily sharpened in the field. I also differentially heat treat them, so the edge is around 60 RC and the spine is softer making it very tough - it will bend before it will break. The only draw back with carbon steel is the rust. You must maintain it in the field like you would your gun. It will still turn colors and develop a darker patina. Some people like that, but some don't and therefore I also offer a couple of stainless steels. 440C is an older stainless steel, but is still an excellent steel when heat treated correctly. CPM S30v or CPM S35VN are powder steels that are virtually the same. The S35VN is an upgrade of the S30V. Crucible has added a touch of Niobium to improve toughness and reduce edge chipping. My guess is this will eventually replace CPM-S30V when the military and commercial contracts expire. It holds an edge very well, but requires some extra work to sharpen it. We triple temper all stainless steel and do a double cryogenic treatment to 100 degrees below zero for at least 6 hours on each freeze.
* I do a convex edge on all of the knives we sharpen unless the customer requests the flat edge. I have found the convex edge to hold an edge longer and to be less prone to chip and easier to sharpen. Check out www.barkriverknives for a good tutorial on convex sharpening.
* I do all the sheaths for the Bushcraft style knives. I do have a friend that I farm out some sheaths to if we start getting too far behind. However, the Bushcraft sheaths are fitted to each knife and that keeps me from getting a one size fits all sheath for them. I use English Bridle leather from Wickett & Craig leather company. It has an extra coating of waxes to help in wet conditions.

cardoso5fr a écrit:Cela ressemble vachement au truc de Bear Grill