Knife suggestion and a pukko (puuko?) vendor

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SeekHer
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Joined: Fri Aug 15, 2008 9:27 am

Re: Knife suggestion and a pukko (puuko?) vendor

Post by SeekHer »

rightisright wrote:
The Cold Steel Roach Belly is a piece of Chi-Comm crap.
Got mine from Amazon a few days ago.

First impressions:

It's not Chi-Com, it's made in Taiwan.
The blade finish is a bit rough. There are a few vertical striations above the edge grind and a few very small bumps up toward the spine.
The edge is razor sharp. Shaved my arm hair w. little effort and made multiple thin, non-jagged slices through 20# paper.
The Cordura sheath is simple and it will only fit a small belt (1 3/4" or smaller), but retains the knife pretty well.
I actually like the thumb serrations on the top of the blade. The grip is pretty economical albeit a tad small for my XXL hands.

I can't report on durability yet.

Will this knife win any beauty pageants? No.

But for $13, if the edge holds up well, it's a bargain. Time will tell.
Mea Culpa, then the switch is fairly recent as the ones I saw a couple of years ago in the store where labelled China and not Taiwan...Then again, Lynn has brought a lot of his blades back from Mainland China to Taiwan (where they were originally being made) in the last couple of years due to sagging sales on those models.

The Chi-Comm ones were crap...The Taiwan and Japan made blades for them have always been good to very good...The finish on these are obviousely were he is cutting back or you've got seconds...The thumb notches on the top are called "jimping".

At one point he had over 50% of his blades being Chi-Comm made and his more expensive models being made in Japan and only a very few in Taiwan and some machetes in South Africa and his sales slumped greatly...I know he did a change a couple of years ago just after Buck announced they were dropping a lot of but not all of their Chi-Comm made knives for Taiwan for the same reason--sagging sales...But I had read it was only going to be Cold Steel's mid price range ($60 to $120) that was going to Taiwan and the cheap models staying in China.

I have a bunch of older Cold Steel blades and they are all good value for good quality...I don't knowingly buy Chi-Comm anything for political and labour issues not product quality...When over half the product line was being made there I didn't need the aggravation of looking through all the boxes to see if they were stamped China or Taiwan or Japan as a lot (most) of the Chi-Comms were not stamped on the ricasso only the shipping box when I could be buying a USA or German etc. made knife for the same price and usually better quality then their Japanese models.
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Rich Jordan
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Joined: Tue Aug 19, 2008 5:04 am

Re: Knife suggestion and a pukko (puuko?) vendor

Post by Rich Jordan »

Well my coworker bought a Gerber; don't know the model yet but he says it has a serrated or saw back.

I went ahead and bought a Mora carbon steel service model when I had another order to place at Amazon. It arrived today. I like it quite a bit, though the blade had a noticeable curl on the edge; a steel wouldn't touch it but after cleaning it up on the Lansky it has a very nice sharp edge on it. Surprisingly nice for $15.00
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slowpoke
Posts: 1231
Joined: Sat Aug 23, 2008 4:09 pm

Re: Knife suggestion and a pukko (puuko?) vendor

Post by slowpoke »

SeekHer wrote:
rightisright wrote:
The Cold Steel Roach Belly is a piece of Chi-Comm crap.
Got mine from Amazon a few days ago.

First impressions:

It's not Chi-Com, it's made in Taiwan.
The blade finish is a bit rough. There are a few vertical striations above the edge grind and a few very small bumps up toward the spine.
The edge is razor sharp. Shaved my arm hair w. little effort and made multiple thin, non-jagged slices through 20# paper.
The Cordura sheath is simple and it will only fit a small belt (1 3/4" or smaller), but retains the knife pretty well.
I actually like the thumb serrations on the top of the blade. The grip is pretty economical albeit a tad small for my XXL hands.

I can't report on durability yet.

Will this knife win any beauty pageants? No.

But for $13, if the edge holds up well, it's a bargain. Time will tell.
Mea Culpa, then the switch is fairly recent as the ones I saw a couple of years ago in the store where labelled China and not Taiwan...Then again, Lynn has brought a lot of his blades back from Mainland China to Taiwan (where they were originally being made) in the last couple of years due to sagging sales on those models.

The Chi-Comm ones were crap...The Taiwan and Japan made blades for them have always been good to very good...The finish on these are obviousely were he is cutting back or you've got seconds...The thumb notches on the top are called "jimping".

At one point he had over 50% of his blades being Chi-Comm made and his more expensive models being made in Japan and only a very few in Taiwan and some machetes in South Africa and his sales slumped greatly...I know he did a change a couple of years ago just after Buck announced they were dropping a lot of but not all of their Chi-Comm made knives for Taiwan for the same reason--sagging sales...But I had read it was only going to be Cold Steel's mid price range ($60 to $120) that was going to Taiwan and the cheap models staying in China.

I have a bunch of older Cold Steel blades and they are all good value for good quality...I don't knowingly buy Chi-Comm anything for political and labour issues not product quality...When over half the product line was being made there I didn't need the aggravation of looking through all the boxes to see if they were stamped China or Taiwan or Japan as a lot (most) of the Chi-Comms were not stamped on the ricasso only the shipping box when I could be buying a USA or German etc. made knife for the same price and usually better quality then their Japanese models.
The only blades I've found worse than Chinese are the Pakistani's. Neither seem to care to use good steal. I will not buy a knife made in either. Not even for a dime. I bought a Gerber a couple years ago to replace a leatherman micra that had walked off. Only after it came out of the packaging could you see where it was made in china. I will never buy another Berber(or Fisker) again. I was pissed at how much a piece of crap it was and the trickery that you could not tell it was Chinese until you couldn't return it.
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Denis
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Re: Knife suggestion and a pukko (puuko?) vendor

Post by Denis »

I visited a new-to-me gunshop in Germany over the holidays, and picked up a new-old-stock Pukko knife there. It looks pretty good, though not as nice as the Saami handcrafted ones I found in Norway a few years ago. Pictures when I get a tuit.
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Denis
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Re: Knife suggestion and a pukko (puuko?) vendor

Post by Denis »

Erik wrote:The green knife seems to take over more and more around here as the new favorite outdoors knife these days, I see it for sale everywhere. I've carried it, but I never really liked it. The stainless blade is really hard to sharpen once it's dulled, and the blade is often too big and wide for me. I use knives for fishing a lot and a smaller blade suits me better personally. But that's personal preference, I wouldn't be uncomfortable having it as my only knife on a camping trip.
I have a couple of the green knives. They are certainly sharp and stay that way a long time - so much so that I haven't seriously attempted to sharpen one, other than honing the edge between uses. I find the blade a bit large for certain tasks, like dressing inside the carcass cavity of a small roe deer. I would like to see the same knife with a proper wide finger guard and in orange (the green one is too easily put down and lost).
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Erik
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Re: Knife suggestion and a pukko (puuko?) vendor

Post by Erik »

Denis wrote: I would like to see the same knife with a proper wide finger guard and in orange (the green one is too easily put down and lost).
Like this one?
http://www.outnet.se/never-lost/outdoor-knife.php:

EDIT by Mike adding knife image:
Image

It does have the same handle form, but you'll have a hard time losing it.
"Life is tough, but it's tougher if you're stupid."
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Combat Controller
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Re: Knife suggestion and a pukko (puuko?) vendor

Post by Combat Controller »

Denis, I still have the Saami one you gave me a few years ago! I used it a while back for some whittling I had to do and it turned the trick nicely.
Winner of the prestigious Автомат Калашникова образца 1947 года award for excellence in rural travel.
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Denis
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Re: Knife suggestion and a pukko (puuko?) vendor

Post by Denis »

Erik wrote:It does have the same handle form, but you'll have a hard time losing it.
Indeed. I've seen those orange "green knives". Now all it needs is a decent finger guard, like the Mora boy-scout knife.
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Denis
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Re: Knife suggestion and a pukko (puuko?) vendor

Post by Denis »

CombatController wrote:Denis, I still have the Saami one you gave me a few years ago! I used it a while back for some whittling I had to do and it turned the trick nicely.
Glad it's still working. I'm never sure with you and complex machinery...
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Erik
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Joined: Mon Aug 18, 2008 5:36 pm

Re: Knife suggestion and a pukko (puuko?) vendor

Post by Erik »

Denis wrote:
Erik wrote:It does have the same handle form, but you'll have a hard time losing it.
Indeed. I've seen those orange "green knives". Now all it needs is a decent finger guard, like the Mora boy-scout knife.
Yeah, I have to agree. As I've said before, the lack of a decent finger guard is my main problem with Moras...
"Life is tough, but it's tougher if you're stupid."
John Wayne
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