The Quest For The Perfect Round / Head Knife

[RawhideLeather]

Howdy all,

Has anyone used this new style head / round knife or heard anything about it? Looks like an interesting design and it sells for $225. I know that most people prefer a plain old high carbon steel blade but this guy may just have something here. I understand it has only been on the market for a couple of months and is made of "Crucible S30-V, which is a high carbon stainless steel with vanadium added for extra edge retention". They offer a few different options on the knife style.

One of my concerns would be if the handle would still be comfortable when used inverted or flipped over as when cutting with the more pointed end. It looks rather like a Chan Geer style handle to me but I have never held one like that. It can be ordered so that it can be used pull cut style as well as push cut which is pretty cool. A couple more concerns of course would be how sharp it really is, how long it holds an edge and how easy/difficult it is to maintain that edge. I spoke to Paul Zalesak who owns Leather Wranglers and who created the knife on the phone recently and he seemed like a real nice guy and it sounds like it should probably perform quite well. I don't have any affiliation at all to him or his company in case anyone was wondering. I just like well made tools and this looks like it might well be one.

If anyone decides to buy one please post back and let everyone know about it. I'd buy one to try out myself if I hadn't just bought a couple of older head knives that I need to try out and see how I like 'em after sharpening them up.

Richard

Here is the link to their website:

http://www.shop.leat...25&categoryId=7

[Clay]

I have one of LeatherWranglers new round knives and it is THE knife I use now. It holds an edge better than any of the other knifes I have had. It cuts, skives, juliennes, and dices! The pull cut is very helpful, though I did have to change the way I hold my hands when I use Paul's knife, on other knives I would use my thumb from the hand not holding the knife to help push the back of the blade. Don't want to do that with Paul's knife! The curve of the handle is great, makes for a better feel and is easier to control when cutting. The knife is worth the price in the time it will save in not having to strop it as often. Paul is a good friend of mine and I highly reccomend his tools!

Clay Miller

[particle]

Holy Grapefruit Batman!! That's a sharp knife! I'm embarrassed at how dull mine is after watching that video...

[terrymac]

Richard,

I have not tried the round knife, but if it holds an edge half as well as his swivel knife blade, it should be outstsanding. Outside of stropping, the blade holds an edge for a long period of time. I have been using mine for a year, and I think I have had to put it on a stone three times, and then it has only been the super fine grit. It truly is an amazing swivel knife. Hope this helps

Terry

[RawhideLeather]

I have one of LeatherWranglers new round knives and it is THE knife I use now. It holds an edge better than any of the other knifes I have had. It cuts, skives, juliennes, and dices! The pull cut is very helpful, though I did have to change the way I hold my hands when I use Paul's knife, on other knives I would use my thumb from the hand not holding the knife to help push the back of the blade. Don't want to do that with Paul's knife! The curve of the handle is great, makes for a better feel and is easier to control when cutting. The knife is worth the price in the time it will save in not having to strop it as often. Paul is a good friend of mine and I highly reccomend his tools!

Clay Miller

Clay, I appreciate your input, thanks. I can see how the handle would be comfortable when used in the primary position it was designed for but can't really see how it would still be comfortable when inverted??? I would think a normal symmetrical handle would be better for a knife used in both positions but like I said I haven't tried that style handle. Your thoughts? Also, where did you find the pull-cut feature to be useful?

Thanks everyone for the replies so far.

Richard

[gtwister09]

Richard,

I would send Paul a note and ask him his thoughts on the design of the knife. The metal has been quite well received in other areas (other than leatherwork) since it's initial release. You may hear some people talk badly about the CS30-V but generally when you talk with them it was when the steel was first released many years ago. There was some bad numbers given for heat treating and so it impacted the steel but those have been worked out for quite some time. There are a lot of fine knife makers that use this steel now.

My initial thought on the this knife is that it appears to be is a slight derivative of a French Head Knife (not including the handle and pull back).

Regards,

Ben

[Clay]

Clay, I appreciate your input, thanks. I can see how the handle would be comfortable when used in the primary position it was designed for but can't really see how it would still be comfortable when inverted??? I would think a normal symmetrical handle would be better for a knife used in both positions but like I said I haven't tried that style handle. Your thoughts? Also, where did you find the pull-cut feature to be useful?

Thanks everyone for the replies so far.

Richard

Richard,

I don't invert the handle in my hand, I hold it the same way and just turn my wrist to use the other end of the knife. This is done mainly for skiving or cutting the corner off of an edge. Paul shows how he does this at 3:14 into the video. The pull cut is great when cuting out of a tight corner or cutting long straps.

Clay Miller

[RawhideLeather]

Richard,

I don't invert the handle in my hand, I hold it the same way and just turn my wrist to use the other end of the knife. This is done mainly for skiving or cutting the corner off of an edge. Paul shows how he does this at 3:14 into the video. The pull cut is great when cuting out of a tight corner or cutting long straps.

Clay Miller

Ahh, I see. Upon closer inspection it appears that the other point wouldn't be useful for normal cutting due to the extreme angle anyway. I did a bit of research on the handle material and found out that Dymondwood is a laminate material. While I'm sure it is a strong material, I can't say it's very aesthetically appealing to me. I would prefer to have something like real cocobolo personally - I just like real solid wood for the same reason that I prefer leather to synthetics. Still an interesting design. I do like the offset handle as I have an offset head knife and it makes cutting a tighter radius easier but it appears to me that the blade may be a bit too deep to allow for the smaller radius cuts.

Richard

[pabloz]

Hi y'all,

Just want to say thank you for all the kind words about our product and specifically our new knives. We now have 11 varieties of "realwood" (which can be viewed here) along with Cocobolo (to be added tomorrow) -- andwith the three Dymondwoods, we now have 15 different materials that we can usefor handles. Plus… that doesn't include the G-10, Micarta, and other compositesthat we have available.

For more information please let me know.

Best regards and keep on carvin'!

Paul Z.

pabloz@leatherwranglers.com

(505) 269-8563

www.leatherwranglers.com

[Bar C Leather]

Wow... I think I'm rethinking the head knife on my "wish list"... looks like it might just be one of these now!!!

[FlHobbyist]

My Leather Wranglers Mini Lui came in today and here are my initial impressions. It is a beautiful knife with the custom Hawaian Koa wood handle. Not only did I think it was a beauty, more importantly my wife thought it was a beauty too. She really liked the look of it both because of the workmanship and the unique design.

The knife was a little smaller than I had mentally pictured it to be (see photo). I have a small Osbourne and I had expected it to be about the same size. The Mini Lui is about 3/4 the size of the Osbourne, however this suits me just fine because I think it will be easier to control as I continue to learn about leather crafting.

Now for the good part, and what everyone so far has commented on. I can't believe how sharp this knife is! My path with round knives has been somewhat torturous. In June I thought I got "lucky" and bought a Damascus blade from Tandy with a managers special for $65.00 (current price $40.00 and continuing to drop like a rock) At the same time I bought a small Al Stohlman round knife for $24.00. I learned how to sharpen round knives with that small Stohlman knife. I got it razor sharp, but as has been reported here many times, it simply won't hold its edge for more than a foot or so of cutting, which isn't too good if one wants to cut out a purse, much less a saddle.

I upgraded to a small Osbourne that was (I thought) pretty sharp. It had the advantage of keeping its edge. It and the small tandy blade were both sharpened to the same degree. They would move through 3/4 leather pretty easily except on corners, and they could be used on 8/9 leather but I had to bear down on them both a little.

However, with the Mini Lui going through the 8/9 leather was very similar to cutting through a cardboard box with a razor knife. When cutting through the thicker leather the Mini Lui even makes a satisfying sound similar to cardboard being cut with a razor knife, and it glides through without me having to put any muscle into it.

Even though I am an amateur, I do like nice things, and the Mini Lui was worth every penny it cost me. With a little luck, I'm going to buy a full size Deter sometime next year.

Bob

[BondoBobCustomSaddles]

No critique here, in my opinion, a real craftsman, appreciates quality materials and construction in whatever form it comes. The choice of materials here appear to be of the finest quality, and certainly the steel used has it's own attributes. Now it's a matter of how it meets you own individual needs. For me, all looks good except that back edge being sharp. Like someone else on this thread mentioned, Sometimes I like to reach up and push the knife through a curve with the thumb of the hand not holding the knife, I feel I get the best control on tight round and intricate cuts that way, (my personal preference). I am sure that during the course of making a saddle, I would loose the tip of my thumb! So for me the back edge needs to be rounded for comfortable use. In fact, when I ordered my latest knife from Kniperschield, I specifically requested that Terry round the back edges for that very reason. All that said, this appears to me to be a very nice tool that will be welcomed by those that use it. Bob