Geo Barnsley Vs Don Carlos Round Knife.

[Redochre]

Im looking to buy my first round knife.

Ive narrowed it down to a Geo Barnsley at £40 or the don carlos at £35.

Ives used the search but cant find as much info as Id like. Does anyone have any experience with these particular brands?

The barnsley is sheffield and the carlos is solingen so in theory they should both be good steel?

As a fly ball there is an Ivan Leatherworks pro head knife for £25.

[Art]

Is it an old Barnsley, a new Barnsley, or an "in the fire" Barnsley? Don Carlos knives are made by Herder in Solingen, all their tools are excellent, the Spade trademark is for European tools of high carbon steel. After sharpened, extremely good knives for the price.

I have no clue about Ivan.

Bill Buchman made wonderful knives. I have many and the ones I really like are the ones he did for Verlane Desgrange. There were a few of them made in two configurations. they have an BBXV and BXV2 as their numbers.

Terry Knipschield makes really good knives. I wish he made replica's if the BBXV and BXV2 patterns. I have a few of his knives and they take a bleedingly sharp edge (no kidding) and hold it well.

There are a few good pics in this topic.

Art

[Redochre]

Hi art thank you for the excellent reply.

I don't know about the Barnsley knife,the grind looks badly done, I've included a link.

http://www.artisanleather.co.uk/saddlers-round-knife-868-p.asp

[simontuntelder]

I have the Geo Barnsley knife, and I've handled an old Don Carlos knife. I don't think there was much difference between the two. Both are descent knives and good value for money, however nothing spectacular.


I would definitely not buy anything from Ivan.

If you want to spend a bit more and get something that you'll not want to replace down the line, I would buy something refurbished from Bruce Johnson or something from Terry Knipschield like Art recommends. Though I've never handled the Knipschield knives, you can tell that they're excellent quality. Quite often you'll be able to find old Dixon knives on fleabay - they're pretty damn good too.