Saturday, April 30, 2016

Halfbreed Decker Hand Forged Knife

I picked up the following knife on the BushcraftUSA forum a few months back.  

The knife is made by Nate Hardin in Indiana under the name Halfbreed.  This is his Decker style knife which is hand forged 1095 steel with a convex edge.  The handle is green micarta with orange liners.  It has a kydex sheath with a Spyderco belt clip.  

I've only used the knife a little so far.  Its not the normal style knife I would go for but the build quality is exceptional.  If I could change something about it, I would make the clip point end a little more gradual on the to side.  I'm going to use it a little and see how it works for me.






Spine Modification (5/29/16):
I decided to work on the spine of this blade a little.  The clip style end was not very appealing to my eye as it dropped steeply over a short distance.  I decided to make it a little more gradual slope towards the tip of the knife.  

I used an air drill with sanding attachment to take metal off.  I had a fan blowing on it at all times and would just grind for a second and then let the blade cool for a minute.  The blade was never hot to the touch really.  It was probably a little overkill on my part to take so long but I did not want to damage the temper of the blade.  

Once I was done, I sanded with 100, 220, 600, and then 1500 on the spine to get it nice an polished like it was originally.  I considered putting a 90 degree edge on part of the spine for using a firesteel but decided against it.  

I'm quite pleased with the outcome and if you did not know any better you would think it was made this way.  A side benefit of removing the material is that the blade does not look as bulky and thick near the end.  

Before Picture:

After Picture (Traced outline on the paper is of the old blade shape):

A little more about the maker from a local newspaper article:
http://wildindiana.com/a/from-stone-age-to-steel-halfbreed-knives/



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