Field Archery Knife - suggestions for

[Sion]

Hello everyone. I'm new to this site but thought it looked extremely interesting (I'll have a good look round later). The reason I'm here is I could do with any advice people out there might have. I am a field archer and am looking for a handy all-round knife but one which is particularly suited to the demands of field archery. The main use when on a shoot is prying/cutting out the arrow (not that I ever miss, obviously :wink: ) from the target boss posts. For this I need a knife that won't break, has a thick blade right up to the point that won't bend when widening cracks in the posts, and a good cutting edge for cutting around the arrow when it is deeply embedded. By choice I'd prefer a fixed blade but suggestions for a folding knife will be considered.
I've seen the Ray Mears design and, apart from the price, I like the look of it but don't know if it would be sturdy enough for my specific needs. Does anyone know of a suitable knife - maybe a manufacturer out there does one specifically for field archery?
Thanks in advance
Sion

[FGYT]

STUART ............... SHOP

[grumit]

hi there sion you may find what your looking for here
http://www.heinnie.com/cgi-bin/heinn.../web_store.cgi
hope it helps :-D

[Shing]

For the stoutest blade tip, I would suggest a tanto by Cold Steel, they are very sharp as well. Try Joe at the site below, he has great prices

http://outdoorsuppliesuk.com/coldsteel/coldsteel.html

[Wayne]

Welcome Sion.

I once to used a tanto to pry arrows out of trees and bosses. i now just carry an old screwdriver and a small hammer in my quiver. Cheaper and more robust. i do less damage to the trees and the target without worrying about destroying a decent blade.

[JakeR]

Sion, if you PM me your email, i'll send you a video of a Lapp Puukko being hammered into a tree and then being bounced on!
It is reviewed in the review section and is about £30. I have one, a great knife, certainly up to the job you describe.

www.woodlandorganics.com
www.kellam.co.uk (go to j-line)

Cheers,

Jake

[Nod]

I had a brochure last year from the British Knife Collectors Guild. It had a jknife in there specifically designed for archers, and for digging out arrow heads etc.

They still have them on their site.

Dave Budd Custom: Archer Mk2............it's £189 though.


They are on line at www.bkcg.co.uk
The link to the knife is
http://www.bkcg.co.uk/products/manu/...dd/ssdb14.html[/url]

[Adi007]

Off the page:

Sheffield O1 Surgical-Grade High Carbon Steel

What defines "surgical" steel? :?:

[C_Claycomb]

A screw driver or chisel and light hammer could be the best solution. Not so much fun though!

I used to do field archery and had the same problem finding the ideal knife! I carried a Cold Steel SRK factory second, very strong, tough point, big enough to rake around in leaves or dig with, and pretty cheap. The only complaint was that the edge and point were so thick (for strength) that they couldn’t cut much. I found that most of the time I wanted to cut points from wood rather than pry the wood apart. Less damaging for the target posts etc.

I once thought that a Cold Steel Tanto would have been good, but having handled them, and worked with the SRK, I think they could be among the worst designs for the job. No doubt they are strong and sharp, but they lack enough point to winkle piles out. They are real good for stabbing through car doors, but I have yet to shoot a car, so that isn’t real important to me. I would have thought that a big puuko would have the same problem, not enough point?

The Buck Nighthawk has a longer point than the SRK, it could be better, if you can find a cheap one. The Woodlore would be great for cutting wood, but I would be worried about damaging the edge against the steel pile, and I would hate using it for digging or raking around it the leaves. Cutting arrows out of underground roots is hard on a blade.

For me the ideal would me an SRK with a reground edge to improve cutting ability. The Falkniven A1 or S1 would fill the bill, but both are more expensive than the SRK, but they cut better out of the box.

Screw driver would probably still beat them. :roll:

Sorry not to be able to offer more suggestions. I guess a lot comes down to how often you miss and what you hit when you do. I could never be sure that when I missed all I would hit was the target stake!! : -l)

Surgical steel. ROTFLMAO. BKCG and Attleborough are both full of that stuff. Shame there is no such thing! :rolmao:

[Adi007]

If it's a small knife for prying that you are after what about something like the Busse Assault Shaker ... small, thick and sharp and you can pry with it all you want!

[Stuart]

STUART ............... SHOP

What? :-D

[Sion]

Wow :shock: , I never expected so many leads in such a short time! I have some good starting points now and clearly a lot of websurfing to do. My thanks to everyone for their help and thanks in advance to those yet to post a reply.

Sion

[gurushaun]

I'd Look at the Fjallkinven range at Joe's or Hennie's, the F1 or the S1 are both very robust, have a strong convex edge, and the blade protrudes past the pommel allowing it to be hammered without damaging the handle.

Cheers

Shaun

[Chopper]

Personally I would have thought that a bow would have more effective for archery than a knife :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll:

[sargey]

i'd say an iasaakki jarvenpaa puukko would be plenty tough enough.

it the same knife as in that video.

if you fancy the busse assault shaker styling on a budget, you could go for the becker necker


cheers, and.

[Hoodoo]

Tough question! I think the WS Woodlore come close to perfect for this kind of work. The blade is plenty stout and there is no distal taper so the full thickness extends all the way to the tip. The tip itself is sharp enough to get pretty good penetration which is what you need to dig an arrow out. However, lateral prying MIGHT snap a mm or two off the very tip. I dunno. Personally, I would never pry with my Woodlore unless I had to.

I like sargey's suggestion of the Becker Necker. It's a pretty stout little blade.

In all my years of archery and stump shooting, I've never had to deal with this because my arrows have screw on points. I just unscrew the shaft and screw in a T handle specifically designed for this purpose. I think they even make them with a hammer slider so you can pound it out, much like the tools used to remove dents out of a car body. Are your field points glued on or screwed on?

Personally I would buy a small chisel, maybe grind on it a bit to thin it out, and carry a hammer head. A sharpened punch would work too. These are a lot cheaper than a knife and if you break one, just get another.

These are a little short for prying but something a little longer with some work on the edge might be just what you need.



Add a jarvenpaa puukko for cutting away the wood and you should be able to dig out the toughest field point or broadhead.

[Rob]

Probably going to get volunteered for spotting with no cover for this one, but i dont think that you can beat a good old Frosts Mora 740.

I have been using one for the last 3 years for all my Field Archery (shoot instinctive AFB so I miss plenty) ops: and as a good all-rounder for other stuff.

Previously to that I tried loads of knives from small/multi-tool to something spanish that looked like excallibur. Best less than a tenner you will spend. :wink: IMHO

[Mel]

I also shoot an AFB and miss slightly less often than Rob but have also been relying on the cheap and strong Frosts Mora for a long time. Give it a go. : -l)

[JakeR]

IMHO

What does that stand for?
So Sion, you decided yet? and did you get the video?

Cheers,

Jake

[Adi007]

IMHO

What does that stand for?
So Sion, you decided yet? and did you get the video?

Cheers,

Jake

In My Humble Opinion

[JakeR]

Ahh, i'm learning. UTD (up to date?) with this TL (text language?).

What a laugh.....
Cheers adi!

Jake

[Martyn]

Off the page:

Sheffield O1 Surgical-Grade High Carbon Steel

What defines "surgical" steel? :?:

Nothing. It's a nonesense term. There are some EEC regulations surrounding the validation of surgical items and approval of CE certification, but there are a large variety of steels & materials used in surgery.

[Adi007]

Off the page:

Sheffield O1 Surgical-Grade High Carbon Steel

What defines "surgical" steel? :?:

Nothing. It's a nonesense term.

Cheers! So why do so many knife makers use it? Is it just used to try to fox us?

[Keith_Beef]

Off the page:

Sheffield O1 Surgical-Grade High Carbon Steel

What defines "surgical" steel? :?:

Nothing. It's a nonesense term.

Cheers! So why do so many knife makers use it? Is it just used to try to fox us?

Marketingspeek. I've always seen this term used to describe "stainless", since you'd expect surgical instruments to be of very high quality and be made of stainless steel. This is the first place I've seen O1 (oil-hardening tool steel) described as "surgical steel".

To be honest, I generally steer well clear of anything bearing the following:
"professional" or "professional quality"
"pro" or "pro quality"
"surgical"
since in my experience, such bla-bla generally seems to be synonymous with "grockle-fleecing crap".


Keith.

[Martyn]

Off the page:

Sheffield O1 Surgical-Grade High Carbon Steel

What defines "surgical" steel? :?:

Nothing. It's a nonesense term.

Cheers! So why do so many knife makers use it? Is it just used to try to fox us?

If something is surgical grade, then it should conform to EEC standards, regarding fit & finish, bio-conormability etc. But in the knifemaking community, you can take it to mean, BS designed to fleece the unsuspecting consumer. It's meaningless. Of far more importance is to know exactly what steel the blade is made from.

[Kath]

If something is surgical grade, then it should conform to EEC standards, regarding fit & finish, bio-conormability etc. But in the knifemaking community, you can take it to mean, BS designed to fleece the unsuspecting consumer. It's meaningless. Of far more importance is to know exactly what steel the blade is made from.

Cheers, Martyn. That's very enlightening! :wink:

[sargey]

found this pic over at knife forums, in the bottom of this pic you'll see the baby prybar made from an allen key, perhaps that'd help. oddly enough, digging arrowheads out of trees was one of the tasks in mind during the inception of the allen key prybar thingy. anything to save snapping the tip of your knife off.

use a rock or lump of wood as a hammer head.

cheers, and.

[Adi007]

Why does the idea of a little pry bar appeal to me sooooooo much? :-D ):

What size allen key was that?

[sargey]

5 or 6 mm i reckon...

the long end is a spike, the short end is flat/clipped.

cheers, and.