Vintage Tandy Head Knife.

[StrigaMort]

I just won the bid for a US made Tandy knife. Cost $50 so I'm not out much if it's crap. Still,I'd like to know if these are any good. I'll find out for myself, but curious to know what you guys think.

[jfdavis58]

I have two. Sitting in a drawer in the toolbox. Sharpen and strop-a lot. If you don't know better, they work OK. Sharpen and strop some more. Is the ferrel un broken--that's good-the brass band around the handle where the tang of the blade penetrates. Sharpen and strop. Hope you're getting the message. Sharpen and strop. $50.00 is/was right near MSRP; not bad if your needs are modest. Sharpen and strop. Quality varies some from year to year; later years less than earlier. (I won't say it again.)

[StrigaMort]

So you're saying that it's pretty much maintenance free? :D

Kidding.

I'm good with a stone and strop so no worries there. It would be nice if it would hold the edge, but hey it's $50.

I'm no knife maker but I have made a knife and ground a few more. If the steel is half way decent I can probably put a more acute bevel on it, but that sounds like the last thing it needs.

Thanks for your view.

[WyomingSlick]

So you're saying that it's pretty much maintenance free? :D

Kidding.

I'm good with a stone and strop so no worries there. It would be nice if it would hold the edge, but hey it's $50.

I'm no knife maker but I have made a knife and ground a few more. If the steel is half way decent I can probably put a more acute bevel on it, but that sounds like the last thing it needs.

Thanks for your view.

There is no point is having a tool that doesn't make you happy to have it. If this knife doesn't take and hold the edge you want, you do have the option of trying a re-tempering of it.

Since a head knife is generally not subject to the shocks and stresses that other knife blades encounter, it may be worth your time to remove the handle and try retempering to a higher temperature than is generally used for knives. If you haven't any experiance with that skill, there is a lot of info on the internet that will get you started in aquiring that very useful skill

[StrigaMort]

I could re-heat treat it if I knew what kind of steel it was. Tool steel isn't much of a description. I built a small propane forge for knife making, but without knowing the steel I'm more likely to bin it. I could maybe treat it like o1, but I'm not positive.

I friend of mine who is a full time knife maker and leather worker mentioned that he plans to send me one of his (aeb-l steel, very thin and 64hrc I think he said) and he does just gorgeous work. If that happens, the Tandy knife will be used for practice using, sharpening etc.

[jfdavis58]

I make holsters and belts and small molded cases. The biggest factor in this type of work is the 'waiting time'; waiting for dye, glue or protective coating to dry, waiting for the leather to dry. So... I cut many projects at once. This saves material and helps to fill the waiting times.

I don't make knives, so I come at this strictly from the POV of an end user; I don't know the technical jargon so I hope you can understand my explanations.

Leather being a natural product has all the normal natural attributes (expected and unexpected variables). For cutting the one to understand seems to be the variation of material density: some areas of a hide are soft, others hard. Low and high density. Generally neither a visual or hand tactile inspection will fully reveal these areas.

A good quality knife cuts both areas very well. You can feel (with a little experience) this variation in density as you cut. Low density areas cut easy, high density areas cut harder-the biggest 'feel' coming in the sense of forward velocity. Critically the knife continues to cut as it passes through each area! What's important is that as the blade dulls you can feel an overall slowing of cutting velocity----time to strop! A few passes on a stop on both sides of the blade and you're back to speed.

A low quality blade doesn't afford that 'feel'. You will be cutting along, nearing a critical junction or curve and the blade will slow as if encountering a dense region. You'll push harder, the leather puckers and the blade stalls-it just stops cutting. No real sense of slowing of the cutting velocity occurred. Stropping helps some, providing you didn't bury the blade tip in the supporting cutting surface when you bore down with more force. That situation will require some honing to correct! Overall though, the 'stalling' seems random: this area of medium density cut fine but that thin leather I cut subsequently, puckered and tore (yes with all the attendant cussing). I'm 75% thru the skiv and the edge goes and the moment is lost. I 'tip' three strap ends but the fourth just gets a deep dent. On and on.

This became such a problem I took to cutting holsters blanks on a woodworkers skill (table top scroll) saw! Which actually works pretty well; if you don't mind the leather dust, and tool noise. And the waste! I knew something had to change when I nearly sawed through a thumb!

I live and work and most importantly buy LOCALLY as much as possible. A very talented knife maker lives in my town. I took a chance on his (high quality equally high price) leather round knife. After significant practice with the knife in all the ways I intended to use it, I left a testimonial which ended with the word Euphoric. I did manage to nick both hands; once on a palm and once on my little finger-both bled nicely. He is an incredible consummate professional and a lot of fun to visit. His wife is a wonderful and enchanting individual. Now I own four of his knives. I am aware of other such talents in the craft, many are members here. I'm sure if you wanted any would provide the details of their wares.

I don't recall where the Skil-Saw is stashed.

Edited August 1, 2014 by jfdavis58

[StrigaMort]

What a thoughtful post. I really appreciate it!

My experience with cutting leather is probably a fraction of what most here have done. I've watched a number of videos on using these knives and only one fellow mentioned what you are describing. His advice was to keep your off hand out of the path of the knife!

It's interesting that I've never noticed this density issue, but then I've done very little push cutting, and even then, with an incorrect tool for the job.

I'm pretty careful with blades in general. I *really* shouldn't say this, but I very rarely cut myself. I'll be certain to keep the knives razor sharp and try to be mindful of my hands and fingers as well as the issue you describe.

May I ask who the knife maker is that made your blade? I suppose there's a chance that I might know him.

[Trox]

You still loose 50 $

I had an early one from the Leather factory stamped "Tool Co Inc". when I got it (several years ago) it was "new", the steel was broken off inside the handle so I had to change the handle. The blade was just "crap" and the tips broke off.

No, try to win a CS. Osborn Newark (or early Harrison) rosewood and brass (type # 70) round knife instead. I have seen them as low as 40$ on EBay.com. I have many round knifes, but these are among the best and to a decent price too. These "low priced" knifes often need some work (remove pittings and rust). If you need a perfect one you can visit Bruce Johnson tool site and you will have one cutting right out of the box for about twice that money. But then you never need an other knife again.

Tor

[Colt Hammerless]

And a picture of that custom knife would be cool as well!

[StrigaMort]

Thanks Trox, and I second that Colt!

Oddly enough, while I was typing the above, my daughter brought me the mail and it included the knife. Very well packaged and a day early I might add.

Here's the knife.

There are no markings that might give a clue as to age. I think it's likely that the knife was made for Tandy by another US company, but I'm not sure if anyone can tell which company that may have been. One thing that stands out is the use of wood colored epoxy to hold the walnut handle on.

The blade itself is very thin and "sings" when tapped. It's probably sharp "enough", but I'll definitely sharpen it. It has a secondary (very acute, though not measured) secondary bevel and a more obtuse primary bevel which I'll fix. Grind marks on the primary bevel are present so I'd guess that it was applied with a belt or stone.

The sheath may have been okay when new, but the flaps want to stay in a closed position from age. I'll make a new sheath for it otherwise I could see cutting myself trying to get the knife in and out.

Aside from the possibility that the steel is not hard enough I'm happy enough with the thing. I won't truly know if it's good or bad until I get a known quality blade in hand.

I now need a chunk of hydroma for cutting on. Right now I use an Olfa green cutting mat, but I don't think that will last long using head and round knives.

[StrigaMort]

The instruction sheet is well written and illustrated.

Blade is thin and tapers nicely, although I feel like the primary bevel could be more acute, that all depends on how stable the steel is though.

Poor quality pic, but it's the best I could do with my phone.

[StrigaMort]

It just occurred to me. Was craft tool its own and separate company from Tandy? I'm not well versed on this stuff, but I seem to remember seeing that somewhere. If they were, and aren't now, did they make quality stuff?

[Trox]

Hi Strigamort, yours look much better than the one I have. Perhaps its a much better knife, it hard to tell from the pictures alone. Does it have a micro bevel? It looked like that to me. It typical Tandy to put the "professional" on it to add value. No professional bought their knifes from them, when you could have a CS Osborn for the same price. I am afraid the steel cant take a normal bevel without breaking off the tips, you are officially warn about that now. I would keep it in the box as a collector item, it looks very good. In some years collectors will want it.

[StrigaMort]

I appreciate the advice. It does have a micro (small primary) bevel. Do you think that the tips are prone to breaking because the steel is over hardened?

A funny thing about knives in general... High carbon and tool steels are cheap. I can buy a 4' length of 1095/o1 for much less than I can any normal stainless cutlery steel. Not only that,but the heat treat for any stainless alloy is vastly more complex than the heat treat of any normal carbon or tool steel. That's why I'll never understand why the new inexpensive knives are made from a crappy alloy. The junk stainless may be super cheap (I have no idea), but dealing with it is gonna take a lot longer and be a lot more trouble than if the company just used a high carbon steel to begin with. Maybe a poor ht regimen is so automated and cheap that it offsets the cost of a low grade of steel, again,I don't know, but they aren't doing their customers or reputation any good by doing so.

Is the end user (customer) so corrosion stupid that a stainless is mandatory? Maybe a superior steel that has the possibility of rusting is too much a warranty liability.

Anyway,I'll just use this sucker until it's unusable. I can appreciate the idea of keeping it for fun, but I bought it to cut with.

I made a quick sheath for it last night.

Hopefully the sheath doesn't out live the knife!

[billybopp]

There's only one way to find out if it will work well and hold an edge .....

Stainless kitchen cutlery tends to be more in demand for home use .. and for people that don't take care of their knives. Most kitchen pros that I know prefer to use carbon steel knives, and they take care of them.

Bill

[StrigaMort]

That's exactly right. Most Japanese kitchen knives, even when they are clad in stainless have a high carbon core.

I don't mean to put down stainless. I have a Santoku made with powder stainless (cts xhp) at 64hrc and it's a beast. Lots and lots of great chromium containing alloys. Just seems like a lot of tools are made unnecessarily with low grade ss when carbon makes more sense.