swivel Knives

[dustin29]

I am looking to upgrade my swivel knife. I am looking for suggestions on what brand to buy. I looked into a Barry King knife, and also a Henley. The Barry King was more in my price range but if it is worth the extra money I could swing the Henley. Does anybody have any input that could help me? Are there any other Knives out there that are in my price range? Please help me I really need some advice!!!!

[heath]

I've used Chuck Smith's Ol' Smoothie. It works well for me.

Heath

[westtxcowboy1979]

I am looking to upgrade my swivel knife. I am looking for suggestions on what brand to buy. I looked into a Barry King knife, and also a Henley. The Barry King was more in my price range but if it is worth the extra money I could swing the Henley. Does anybody have any input that could help me? Are there any other Knives out there that are in my price range? Please help me I really need some advice!!!!

Check out Leather wranglers Inc. I have bought two knifes from them and I could not be happier with them. Ithink they run around 135 but they are worth every penny. they stay sharper longer and quick to take an edge.

[dustin29]

Where do I find Chuck Smiths Ol' Smoothie?

[heath]

olsmoothie@sbcglobal.net

[hidepounder]

Dustin,

King, Henley, Beard, Leather Wrangler, Smith all make excellent knives. The differences between them are really personal preference. The only way for you to be able to make a decision is to handle each of them yourself, and determine what you like. Maybe you could find a leather artist in your area who could let you handle some of what he has. That is really the only way to tell. Also, one knife won't do it all. In the beginning, one knife is okay, but there will come a time when you will begin to accumulate different sizes and blades to do different kinds of work. I have ten knives on my bench, six of which are in use constantly. Sorry there's not an easy answer to your question....a swivel knnife is a very personal tool and you will get a wide variety of recommendations. I know this doesn't help, but you really need to see them to choose.

Bob

[dustin29]

Dustin,

King, Henley, Beard, Leather Wrangler, Smith all make excellent knives. The differences between them are really personal preference. The only way for you to be able to make a decision is to handle each of them yourself, and determine what you like. Maybe you could find a leather artist in your area who could let you handle some of what he has. That is really the only way to tell. Also, one knife won't do it all. In the beginning, one knife is okay, but there will come a time when you will begin to accumulate different sizes and blades to do different kinds of work. I have ten knives on my bench, six of which are in use constantly. Sorry there's not an easy answer to your question....a swivel knnife is a very personal tool and you will get a wide variety of recommendations. I know this doesn't help, but you really need to see them to choose.

Bob

Thanks Bob, I have seven Tandy Knives with all the different blades they offer, but I am afraid that maybe I wasted my money on them. Good thing they are cheap. I dont know of anybody in my area that is into leather, I think it is a rare thing here in Maine. I am going to buy a good knife and hope for the best, it will have to be better than what I have now. I will also buy a couple different blades to go with it. Your help is very muych appreciated and needed. Thank you very much.

[TimKleffner]

Dustin

I own Chuck Smith , Barry King, Henley, and Lancer swivel knives. I like all of them . Lancer knives are sold by Hide Crafter Leather out of Fort Worth. They used to be priced about 59.95 and at times they are on 'sale'.

That's when I bought my last couple of them.

I also bought several blades from Jeff Cook. These blades tune up real nice. I also like the Henley blades, which take no tuning

Happy Tooling

Tim

[hidepounder]

Dustin,

I will attempt to explain some of the differences/similarities. To begin with, I can't really comment on Barry's knives....he's a good friend and I use a lot of his tools but his knives are made of brass which I just don't care for. I have no doubt they are good quality knives. If I'm not mistaken, the shank on his blade is flat, not round like you are accustomed to. I find flat shanks more difficult to fit in a sharpening jig.

Henley is an excellent knife, I have four of them. The yoke is wide and stable with excellent ball bearings. Their checking pattern is the coarsest on the market which is one of the reasons I like them. I also think they make excellent round shank blades, which are available in a hollow grind which I also prefer.

Bob Beards knives are excellent also. He provides a very nice, wide yoke with excellent ball bearings. His 3/8" barrels are not offered in an adjustable size due to the way he constructs the yokes. I would call the checkering pattern, medium fine. His blades are some of the best I've seen, made of tool steel, their edges last a a long time. He is custom maker and will fashion any style blade you can imagine. I use his blades more than any other and they are all round shanked. He made a detail blade for me that is 1/32" thick, it's amazing. He made two custom barrels for me with a coarse checkering pattern that I am crazy about.

Chuck Smith's knives are right in line with Henley's and Beards. Top notch quality, excellent yokes and ball bearings. I have not used his blades so I can't comment, except that they are also made with round shanks. Chuck offers a wide variety of barrel sizes, lengths and colors. The only reason I do not use them is because the checkering on the barrels is very fine and I do not like that style checkering. It's only fair to add, here, that I think I am in the minority regarding checkering....I think most toolers prefer a finer pattern than I do.

I have one Leather Wrangler knife that I won this past spring and I am very impressed with it. Pauls knives are different in many aspects to Beard, Henley and Smith. The barrels are made of aluminum and are very light to handle. I think his blades are excellent. Paul has done a lot of research in selecting the steel he uses in his blades. The blade shanks are flat like Barry's blades. He constructs his yokes very differently than everyone else and offers two basic styles. One is a large rounded yoke similar in style to what Barry makes, the other is a much smaller, flatter version, similar in style to what Beard, Henley and Smith make.

I also have a few knives that came from HideCrafters. They are indistinguishable from my Henleys. I don't know who made them but I don't think they are still available. I don't think they have the same ball bearing as my Henley, but other than that I can't tell the difference. I do not care for the blade that came with them however. HideCrafter carries a couple of other lines of knives and I don't know anything about them.

If you haven't seen any of these knives, here's a couple to look at. The knife on the left is Leather Wranglers, the next two are Henleys, then Smith's (Old Smoothie) and the two on the right are Beard's with custom checkering. I don't know, but, I assume you can see most of these knives on the makers websites.

Hope this helps,

Bob

[dustin29]

Thanks for all of the advice guys. I just ordered a King knife and two different blades to go with it. If I find I dont like it I will order a Henley or a Lancer. I guess its just trial and error from here on out. It sounds like everybody has there own preference, now ive got to find mine. I hope a new knife and some practice will improve my carving. Thanks a bunch Bob for your extra effort in helping me out, it does not go un appreciated.