I have gone through so many knives in my life and more then likely 1/2 of them have been misplaced or lost in the bush. Good kinves are very much like good sunglasses for me. Neither last very long once I get them.

Over the years working in Africa I have managed to collect quite a lot of bizzare scraps and odds and ends. I had a sheet of tanned White Rhino skin and made binocular cases. I had my Buffalo hide tanned and also had custom made bino cases for my leicas and several of my friends with the Leicas and the Swarovskis. I had the same guy make me some 6 shell belt pouches for the 375 and 30/06 shells as well.

All these things are really nice and mean something to a guy like me who works and spends so much time in the bush. A few years ago we killed a few Bull Rhino on the consession. I took some of the bones and stored them away for a whole year. They were picked clean and dried safely in the rafters of the barn. This past year I was able to get a custom knife maker to use the bone to build me a few knives with the Rhino Bone as a handle.

At first glance the fact that the Rhino bone is actually the handle is cool, off the charts cool. Who has this in a hunting knife? However while mezmerized by the "coolness" of the handle I realized the thick heavy blade was sharper then a factory made broadhead blade. No surgeons scalpel could be more sharp. I never knew what sharp actually was until I held this knife in my hands. To be 100% honest with all of you, .......It scares me! Sure all knifes brand new are pretty sharp but this has gone to the next level. It's "sticky" sharp. Who amung us has not lightly drawn a finger across the blade of his knife to feel that edge? Who has not shaved hair off their arm?

You won't with this one! It's way to spooky to risk a filet of your forearm sliding off onto the floor. I'm not sure you would even feel it! To say I'm impressed with the construction of this would be a massive understatement. I now know what it means to have a custom knife. This is worth every penny of the price!



Is this awsome or what? Rhino bone, how cool is that!
If you want to see the guy who built this for me check this out:
http://www.javelinaknives.com/

Cool. good knives are a wonderful thing. Only person I know with scary sharp knives is my stepfather, and he has the guy that sharpens their scalpels at the hospital do his knives. I get my pretty sharp here on the electric, I can't hold a steady angle worth diddly squat so can't sharpen by hand very well. My tiny stag handled folder I carry to work will shave your arm, but it doesn't have the cool Rhino horn. :-)

Red

I saw a custom knife made by a fellow from RSA at the Dallas show last year. It was a folding blade and he had carved bushmen figures into the top of the blade recess.
It was a Damascus blade. A beauty!

Now I already own a Randall Big Game/Skinner, however those Damascus blades are beautiful. Do they hold an edge?

Now THAT is a COOL knife!!

Nice knife JJ, I sent Mike an e-mail for some add'l. info. Another nice knife, for off the shelf, are the blades by Dozier. Is yours D-2 steel? The blade I have from Dozier is D-2 & is very, very sharp.

I have a few high dollar knives, but like JJ they are easily lost and besides that they are hard and slow to sharpen in the field..

I like a softer knife that will take a quick edge, but not hold it long, but I can sharpen it with a few licks on a stone...

I like the Puma Game Warden real well, A good case suits me fine and those cheap wooden handled Swiss knives of laminated steel work real well...

I have some neat knives that the South Africans make and you can buy them at SCI for little of nothing..

My latest favorite knife is one I got from our own Mims Reed at Safari Club last year, but it wasn't exactly cheap as he charges me double and tells me its a discount, brother in law type deal, I bought off on it and am pleased

It is a Lovelace design made by some Italian outfit, and its just right..Another nice knife is a Lynx from So. Africa with Wart hog Ivory handles that Saeed gave me and its just the right temper, about 55 R I think..I use it a lot...

And never sell the cheapo Green River knives down the drain, they work fine...The butcher knives the comm. butchers buy by the dozen are great knives also.....I use them to skin and butcher...

Well, I'm agreeing with Ray on this. I like a softer knife also, even the Buck knives seem to hard to easily touch up in the field. One of my favorites is an old Shrade Sharpfinger.

excellent...

can I order the same, 2" longer blade with 1" of serations at the hilt?

d2, o1, 4140, all work for me... i like a HARD HARD HARD blade, well tempered, with the edge proper shaped before hardening.

were it to me, the blade (ground) would be about 23degrees, and the edge at 17... that's pretty close to a scapel in shape, but with a nice thick knife, you would never know...


just remeber, stone it BEFORE it's dull, and wet knives do NOT cut...

why longer?
heh, I am a texas pig hunter, and 6" or so will get into the heart of a pissed off boar.... btdt, both with a long enough and a too short!!

jeffe

Ray...
Are the Green Rivers still around ??
Used to see a lot of them on the American drilling rigs when they crowded the North Sea oilfields..
Guess I used and lost more than a dosen of them.
I would love to get my hands on one again.
Any adress to someone who can ship overseas, or perhaps one of you guys could send me a couple ?? I pay in advance of course.....

Arild,

I sent you a PM.

I have a "Ruffin Johnson - El Lobo Solo" which was a gift from a good friend. It is probably the most beautiful knife I have ever held. Handle is aged warthog ivory. Blade is 440C at about 56R hardness. Much better than I deserve.

Arild,
I am sure they are or at least a knock off of them..Probably Sportsmanswarehouse or cabelas...I have not bought one in 10 years, still have the old one..Maybe someone on this board will spring fouth with an answer and I will look around and see if I can find you a Green River knife...I recall all the muzzle loading stores had them at one time..You might post over on that board for an answer.

I own one Damascus Steel knife that was made by Damascus USA down in North Carolina. It's a high carbon steel blade with a slight drop point. I bought it about 10 years ago, and just love it. It's the JRS Hunter model It takes a great edge using only ceramic sticks. My only regret is that his knives are less expensive now, than when I bought mine, because he doesn't advertise anymore, and no longer does the convention circuit, so that holds his prices down. www.damascususa.com

Blank,

I have one of Ruffin's also, it was ordered before he went "El Solo Lobo" he figures it must have been around 1973 when my uncle purchased the knife, I field dressed my second Whitetail buck with that knife 30 years ago, as my uncle watched over me. It came up for auction at his estate sale last year no one was going home with it but me. I sent it back to Ruffin to sharpen and it went to Alaska and made all the first cuts on a really big Brown bear this spring, i like to think my uncle was watching over that time aswell.

HBH

Thank you Ray...
Dawid W has already been in contact with me and it seems like he will be able to get me a couple of the Green Rivers.
This AR gang is really somthing unique and special !!!

A simple Google search shows a number of sellers of the Green River Knives.

My best friend handed me my Christmas present early. We have a new custom knife maker on Long Island. His name is "Pattay" from Long Beach New York. I've seen some of his stuff and it's all top notch.

This present is a two knife set on one sheath made left handed. The larger knife is a 4" general purpose knife similar in blade design to the first one posted here. The second knife is a twin built on a 50% scale. Everything about it is 1/2 the size of the first one. It looks like it will be a very useful set, If I get the nerve to take it into the field. It's much to pretty for work.
After the holidays when I get a minute I'll try to post pictures.

HBH: Congratulations on both the knife and the bear. Like so many people here realize, memories are the real trophies we bring back with us from the field.

What steel off of his list did he use?

I believe he used the D2 steel but he will make it with what ever you like. I'm not knowledgable about these things so I have to go with what is recommended but the "experts". The Blade is really nice and holds an edge for longer then I really need it to.

I took a knife made for me by a rather well known knife maker named Tim Wegner to Africa Last year. He asked me to test it for him using it in my business. He is calling this knife the "PH" model. I did add one change to it which is the blaze orange handles so I can find it easier. It can be made several handle colors, but I want the blaze orange for myself. I also prefer the lock back over the locking sleeve. The sleeve can get stuck open with meat or other "stuff" and just when you think it's locked the blade can close on your fingers. Keeping this spotlessly clean and making sure it "snaps" when opened is very important.

I handed it over to my lead skinner to use on the trophys. It was several days later that he asked me to see if I could resharpen a little bit. During this time of year we are shooting 4-5 animals a day and I have 2 and sometimes 3 skinners working for me. This Knife would have skinned about 8-10 big animals during this time without being resharpend. Once I used the special diamond hone Tim Gave me to touch it up the skinner used it again the same amount of time. Now he would have done, ......I figure close to 20 animals with this one touch up sharpening. However the third time I tried to get it sharp again was more difficult. I worked really hard and never did get it as good as new. My skinner used it agian until the day I returned home to the states.

What this tells me is that for a sportsman who will be skinning their own trophies regardless of species this knife will hold an edge long enough to get the job done including caping and delicate work( with ease!) When I returned to the states Tim was anxious to see the condition of the knife used in my hunting camp for about 2 months to skin game every day. Many dozens of animals were skinned with this knife during this time. It was also used by my skinner who is not the most gental and caring guy in the world when it comes to knives. He was surprised to see scratches on the side of the blade and the edge looked horrible. I did explain the type of duty it saw and the capability of the user to sharpen and care for it.

I'm not sure you guys have ever seen this but most skinners will resharpen their knives on a flat rock they find laying near by. Or any other rock or brick that is handy. It is actually impressive to see one of these black fellas take a dull knife and sharpen it on a plain old rock the find laying in the bush. Tim Resharpened the knife at his custom knife shop and it's been perfect again.

For future reference I will bring my skinners cheaper disposable knives, which is the typical annual plan. I have no intention of supplying them each with 150.00 knives!

This year I had an internatioal hunt for European wild boar with three other hunters in the camp. I used this same knife to skin all three and never needed to resharpen it. Although I did a few swipes over the diamond hone when I did the delicate caping of the heads. The hides on the European hogs is unreal in thickness and in how stiff it is, but I did three of them. What that tells me is that anything you shoot which will require you to skin it on your own is easy duty for a knife like this. Why bring one with a soft enough blade that you can re-sharpen it? Why bother with that when you can get one that lasts the whole trip? Just put it on the Lansky or other quality sharpener when you get home and your back in business.

Look at the thickness of this hide!


These were not little wild boar these were huge buggers!


If one knife can manage three hogs like these any deer or elk is a piece of cake!

My knife of the year is a Larry Davidson darkstar double action, with eggerling damascus blade and bolsters. It is a high dollar knife for me at $1800 but I suspect it will get sold to purchase more knife making equipment.

I love D2 steel for knives and it holds a damm good edge. YMMV of course. My EDC knife is a simple Benchmade 710 that works for everything and for around 100 you can loose it and not cry..

John