Old Hickory 7" butchers knife

[Draven]

Howdy folks!
Got home to find this Bought it off amazon the other day - well chuffed I found it! Handle is lovely This and my OH skinner will alternate between having the kitchen knife duty of my own "trio" - the svord peasant being the folder when I get it



And a bit farther back to show the set properly...



Sheath will be rawhide and leather when I get some more!

Pete

[dogwood]

Pete, you're going to love Old Hickory... and for the price, well, what's not to like?

[Draven]

Pete, you're going to love Old Hickory... and for the price, well, what's not to like?

Already do mate! Amazing knives and the price is just great. Seems like the UK is one of the few places that hasn't got dirt cheap, high quality knives readily available (imports like Frosts excluded) - it'd be nice to have!

Pete

[Front Room Woodlander]

Old Hickory are quality blades!

[spamel]

That's really nice, not the model I was expecting to be honest. What sort of thickness is that blade?

[Draven]

Old Hickory are quality blades!

Certainly are

That's really nice, not the model I was expecting to be honest. What sort of thickness is that blade?

What were you expecting outta curiosity? To be honest this was the only Old Hickory blade I could find in the UK!
The thickness is just a touch over 2mm, maybe not even 2.5mm - just what I look for in a food prep knife really!

Pete

[spamel]

The one I was thinking of is very up swept. I'll see if I can find the thread and the Nessmukization of it!

[spamel]

Here you go:

http://gbrannon.bizhat.com/skinner.htm

[Draven]

Got it mate

Made from the same Old Hickory skinner too That was my inspiration in fact, though I didn't mean it to turn out quite as similar as it did!

Pete

[spamel]

Nicely done! I'm liking the look of the 7" butchers knife, it really has the old school look about it and should work perfectly in the woods. Tempted!

[Draven]

Nicely done! I'm liking the look of the 7" butchers knife, it really has the old school look about it and should work perfectly in the woods. Tempted!

Cheers mate It really is a nice knife, and I don't usually go for larger knives - it has the feel of a smallish Leuku, but not as clumsy as they can be. If the HT is as good as the skinner, it'll take a beating as well - I used the skinner to split down logs for bonfire barbeque in the spring. Won't need to do that now I have a very packable axe but it's nice to know innit?

Pete

[dogwood]

Pete,

For what it's worth, the Old Hickory butcher knife you have there is almost exactly like the standard utility knife used by the Mountain Men in the 19th century. That and the Russell Green river are living history.

FYI, if you fancy a Russell Green River blade you can buy them unhandled for a song and put whatever wood you want on the handle. There are a bunch of blade styles here: http://www.trackofthewolf.com/(S(4ba...56&styleID=201

Just curious, how much did you pay for the OH in the UK?

[Chinkapin]

Draven; I have the same butcher knife that you are showing, You will love it, they sharpen very nicely and last several generations.

On the Smoky Mountain Knife Works website, it sells for 10.00 dollars U.S. and the "Skinner" is 8.00 dollars. What a buy!

[Draven]

Pete,

For what it's worth, the Old Hickory butcher knife you have there is almost exactly like the standard utility knife used by the Mountain Men in the 19th century. That and the Russell Green river are living history.

Sweet

FYI, if you fancy a Russell Green River blade you can buy them unhandled for a song and put whatever wood you want on the handle. There are a bunch of blade styles here: http://www.trackofthewolf.com/(S(4ba...56&styleID=201

Cheers mate! I had seen that site but lost the bookmark. I'll need to give 'em a try

Just curious, how much did you pay for the OH in the UK?

It was about a tenner + a fiver shipping. Shipping was a bit high but I was ok with it for an OH knife! Still works out as about $25 though.

Draven; I have the same butcher knife that you are showing, You will love it, they sharpen very nicely and last several generations.

On the Smoky Mountain Knife Works website, it sells for 10.00 dollars U.S. and the "Skinner" is 8.00 dollars. What a buy!

Drives me nuts how much stuff costs over here! Maybe I'll start importing and buy a few at a time to make the shipping worth it...

Pete

[caliban]

I've got the 8inch butcher's knife, I think the blade is supposed to be a bit thicker (3mm?) than the 7inch. I use it for chopping up stuff in the garden. It's a good knife. For the price it's a great knife. I'd say that burning the grooves into the handle is a very good idea, cos it is a bit slippy. Ragnar, Ragweed Forge, has factory seconds for sale, very much cheapness!

You can get similar knives in the UK here....

http://www.sheffieldknives.co.uk/aca...ellaneous.html

they look to be flat ground, and they are a bit more expensive, and less old school looking than Old Hicks. It looks like you lucked out on that nice handle Draven, none of the handles on my old hicks are as good looking. There are a couple of basic reviews of Old Hicks on YTube BTW.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X4GwCjRM8k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRxbZe_WuYc

[dogwood]

Drives me nuts how much stuff costs over here! Maybe I'll start importing and buy a few at a time to make the shipping worth it...

Smoky Mountain Knife Works that Chinkapin mentioned probably ship to the UK. I've dealt with them and been well pleased. So if you go back to the well for more, it's probably worth a shot.

Also I think Track of the Wolf ships to the UK too.

All that said, even at $25, the OH is still a lot of knife for the money....

[Draven]

Caliban - A couple of those knives are on my wishlist too Thanks for the youtube reviews too, I'll watch them when I get a chance - dinners on the go atm, the 7" butcher really is a helluva slicer

dogwood - certainly is! I checked out Track of the Wolf's shipping costs earlier, and it's about $15 (not sure if that's standard, I had two knife blades in the basket). $35 for two high quality knife blades is still definitely worth it IMO!

Pete

[Draven]

Howdy folks, figured I'd show the butchers clothes!



Got some "aged" leather off eBay. I don't normally go for things like this, but it was only about £15 for a fair bit, so no complaints. It didn't look quite right until I used some dubbin on it, though. Like the Nessmuk sheath, this has a d-ring for the hawk - well, two.


I find that the two rings help hold the hawk to the sheath a lot better. Common sense I guess! If I'd thought of it I would've stitched the lower d-ring to the bottom of the loop...


Works though!



I'm going to make another one, I think, with stitching down both sides. Since I do want it to be a deep sheath with no fasteners, I think that would hold it better, what with the relatively uniform handle shape and widening blade. RIght now there's a square of leather sewn in near the top of the sheath. An axe mask in this is on the way too, I lost the rawhide one somewhere...

Pete

[Chinkapin]

Historically, the Sheffield made knives that were sold here in the U.S. were considered by most Americans to be of a very high quality, and were often times regarded as superior to the local made knives. When Old Hickory and the Green River people were first starting out the competition nearly killed them.

I think it is safe to say that the American companies basically made copies of the British knives at first. Later you can see the British knife makers copying such knives as the "skinners" and the "bowie" knives.

There was a great deal of cross-pollination taking place across the Atlantic.

By the way I concur with Caliban regarding the handle on you knife. None of mine look that good, dammit.

Someone on here posted some time back that the blades of the older OH knives were somewhat thicker than the current production. I can't say if this is so or not. Some of the older knives are stamped Old Hickory on the handles and "Shapleigh's" on the blade.

The Russell Green River knives mentioned by Dogwood (that are sold without handles) are quite good blades and VERY cheap for what you are getting. I have seen some that were handled beautifully and made a cheap knife look very good. I have had a small one for about 10 years.

[caliban]

Draven, how cool is that knife, sheath, hawk combo? That's brilliant mate, very nice work! What's the "thread" BTW?

[spamel]

That has come out really well! I'm sorely tempted, as a combination it looks like it would be a winner. You just need a small folder for intricate work and you'll have all bases covered, I'd suggest a traditional Barlow to continue the era look!

[Draven]

Chinkapin - cheers for the extra info To be honest only one of the scales is that nice

Cheers Caliban The thread is artificial sinew, I buy it off ebay in 10yd lengths (IIRC) for 2.50 each.

Spamel - Cheers Something like this perhaps?


A tidioute folder (made by Great Eastern Cutlery in PA) with jigged buffalo horn scales Doesn't look so fresh any more though!

I did have a wonderful barlow knife when I was a kid, a very old one I found near the beach where I lived. Wish I knew what happened to it!

Pete

[caliban]

Just BTW, this is my eight inch butcher's. I use it as a small machette, but as I said the handle is slippy, so I "mountain manned" it with a scrap of leather. I kind of like it, good strong knife!