BBQ Pit Boys on YouTube - Old Hickory knives

[YetiDave]

I've had one for 6 months now, ordered it from here - http://www.moonrakerknives.co.uk/oldhickory.html - the 7.7" butcher

I was looking at Bronze Moon Outdoors but I read some very bad reviews of that place, but I'm glad someone had a positive experience ordering from them. The steel is fantastic but don't expect to get a knife that's ready to use, they're very roughly ground and it took me a good couple of hours on a 300 grit stone to grind a decent edge out of it, followed up by a 2000/5000 grit hone. I've not had to resharpen it since and I've used it to split wood, hack at bone... It's still sharp enough to pop hairs off my arm. Just make sure it's dried thoroughly after every use or you're gonna get one very rusty knife

[keith157]

Just had a look at the site, the knives do look "rustic" with a decided lack of blade polish. I would try to do something about that at some stage, but if the edge is good and it holds it well as you suggest they seem to be good value.

Besides if it all goes rusty you could probably get a rack of ribs smoked off the handle ,

[YetiDave]

Only problem with high carbon steel is that it tarnishes easily, your polishing efforts would likely be for nothing after a couple of weeks of cutting! The patina looks very cool however eventually the blade will turn a dark grey which will actually help to prevent rusting

[Riverrat]

I used the 10 inch butcher knife last night to slice up a hunk of sirloin hot of the grill, it almost went through on it's own and its not truly sharp yet, well pleased with the purchase and might have to get the smaller one to keep it company.

From my readings, if some rust starts to develop it can be buffed off with some steel wool, the patina will develop over time ( I have an old carving knife like it ) Yes, they are a bit rustic, but at the price I'm not going to be to worried about abusing it a little, I never know what might come wandering past the grill over here that might need something thrown at it - snakes, poisonous ones at that, black widow spiders and even alligators are possible

[keith157]

The polish has nothing to do with prettyness, its to do with performance. I meant polishing out the roughness to enhance cutting performance, the knife will cut better than if it hangs up (even minutely) on surface imperfections you probably wouldn't even feel it hang, but if you were to do a side by side comparison you may well notice. I have a beautiful Victorian carbon steel carving set, yes it has a lovely patina but the knife is as smooth as silk over the surface of the blade and cuts like a dream.
I may well be totally wrong about the blades, having only seen the pictures on the website but they don't appear to have much of a finish. The more uneven a surface the quicker rust will adhere to it, and any other nasties as well.

[YetiDave]

The indentations along the blade act as a kind of granton edge, which is pretty cool, so you won't notice much sticking. I'd worry about polishing up that edge more than the main blade body as the blade is very fat, so it separates whatever you're cutting with ease. It's the actual edge geometry that will need some pretty serious work when you get one new as the edge itself is practically non-existent straight from factory. The tip of the blade in particular on mine was so convex that it rendered it completely useless. A cheapo 300/600 grit carborundum stone is enough to do a basic regrind. Great knives, so long as you don't mind putting in the work to finish them off I'd like a whole set, but the thought of having to regrind the bevel on each one...

[keith157]

PM Smokey Joe his wife runes OTE sharpening and they are excellent. I don't know if they would do a mail order service they did some of my knives and re-ground them to 15 degrees and they are shaving sharp+. They charge £1.20 per knife as a base with 50p per inch. I gave out all the flyers so the prices may be incorrect at time of sending

I think Gavin said they used a Tormek or similar sharpener, several of the forum members have had their knoives sharpened as well with narry a problem.

[YetiDave]

Man, that is reasonable, I may well bite the bullet and do just that if I invest in a set I started restoring, sharpening and shaving with straight razors a few years back and after that I got a bit obsessive about my kitchen knives. My knife skills aren't anywhere near my razor sharpening skills, so having someone else do it for me would be good!

[keith157]

Honestly the only thing I have that is sharper than the knives they did for me is a brand new IO Shen and to be honest I wouldn't want to live on the difference

[YetiDave]

Those are some real purdy knives I've been eyeing up these for a while http://www.edenwebshops.co.uk/en/ct/ede ... damast.htm