Contracted to build a survival knife prototype for a search and rescue team pilot, Jim Allen, of Three Sisters Forge, built this concept knife. The second-generation blade will have a dual face grind and a change in the tip architecture.
THE
ON SAFARI
LONG BLADE
AN EXPERIMENTAL COM AND ACHANCE ENCOUNT
T 46
when I accepted a blade, on loan, to car- ry on safari in South Africa. Three days before I boarded the plane for South Af- rica, I got a call from Jim Allen, a knife- maker from Three Sisters Forge in Bend,
There was a moment when one of my partners started to chide me about bringing a big knife, but he stopped when I handed him the blade. Some- thing in his combat training past told him this was no knife to trifl e with.
The TSF Field Utility Knife Jim Allen, the knife’s creator, calls
it a multi-use survival tool, designed to
he quickest way to get branded a greenhorn is to carry a big belt knife on a deer hunt. This was in my mind
Ore. He wanted to loan me a knife. It was no trouble to add another tool to my kit. It packed easily alongside my rifl e in the case. But this was not just any knife; it was big. At over 17" from tang to tip, it was the longest edged weapon I have carried since I had to cut brush with a machete as a teenager.
chop, cut, pound, trench and pull rope and cord. If it was easy to describe the blade, we would call it a tanto; 11.675" of 1095 steel, with a clipped angular tip and a uni-facial grind. At .135" thick across the back of the blade, the knife has the weight to carry a stroke through a thumb-sized limb on the fi rst try. The angled tip is ground to a chisel point for penetration. In
hand, the knife balanced a little tip- heavy, as a fi ghting knife should. With over 5-1/2" handle, it’s suitable for use with two hands on the grip. The butt is oversized, to accommodate a generously sized lanyard hole that can do double duty for pulling or for tightening rope. The handle is clad with black tex- tured-linen/resin scales and pinned
PERSONAL DEFENSE • FALL 2011 SPECIAL EDITION
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