Matt Roberts Camp Knife Review

[Stephen F]

PART ONE

Custom knife collecting, a strange yet compulsive pastime, consuming and rewarding on many different levels. There is a tremendous amount of satisfaction to be had from collecting, and displaying, pristine, mint condition knives, and that will continue to be the primary way I collect for the foreseeable future.

But there is an equal, yet different satisfaction to be had from using a custom knife, in particular a unique, functional, and aesthetically pleasing hand made tool, exploring the application of design theories, construction techniques and good old cutting power, oh and it makes you grin as well. Now let me qualify myself first by saying that there are many knives in my collection that I would never use, their value is too high for my personal means, in either a monetary or intrinsic sense. So when I look for a custom knife to be used and (not really)abused I am looking for that magical combination of:

• Good value for money.
• Balance of form and function.
• Good materials
• Good to high level of Fit and Finish.

For a user the collectability of a "name" is not as important, what I am looking for is someone with a growing reputation and clear pride in their work. Late last year I decided I would like to get hold of a nice all round camp knife for general work around the house, camping and field trips. Being an avid forged blade fan I wanted the knife to be such, and I had also developed an interest in finding out how good sheephorn (which, yes, I like the look of) would perform in use, as it strikes me as having a nice balance of natural looks, colour, texture and durability.

As luck would have it ( as is often the way), a young maker who I had exchanged emails with in the past, happened to post a knife on these forums which fitted the bill perfectly. Matt Roberts (Longrifle) is a part time maker (and tells me he will always remain so ), based in Ohio, he has been making knives for around 2 1/2 years, he is also a law student, but don't let that put you off . Matt's work first came to my attention when I saw an earlier hunter of his and since then I have watched his work continue to go from strength to strength and at a very quick rate. In my email exchanges with him his passion for knives and desire to improve and continuously better himself came across strongly.

So before long I took delivery of a new Matt Roberts camp knife, sheephorn handle and, a real selling point for me, a wonderfully radiused spine. Heres a brief summary of the specs:

• Blade Steel: 52100
• Blade length: 8 in
• OAL: 12.5 in
• Blade width (max): 1 1/2 in
• Blade Thickness (spine): 0.25 in
• Weight: 12 oz
• Balance point: 1/4 in in front of ricasso
• Fittings: Stainless Steel
• Handle Material: Morticed Sheephorn with single stainless pin.
• Design Features: Radiused Spine, unsharpened top clip ideal for firesteels, polished and durable finish.

This first image is of the knife as delivered, fondled but still virgo intacta as far as use is concerned.



Now I will be the first too admit that I can be a bit over critical, and when it comes to knives I look at each with the same eyes, and those eyes seek perfection, symmetry, flatness of grinds, matching plunges, symmetrical clips, precise joints, smooth transitions, even finish, perfect curves, and good balance, both physically and visually. Any knife I examine is treated the same, the only thing that varies is my expectation level. My expectation is determined by factors such as price, reputation, experience level, ABS rating etc. But my expectations are also on the high side.

Put simply, Matts knife far exceeded my expectations, yes there are areas to be improved, Matt is developing his skills and we shared our views on some of the finer details of the knife ( and he only swore at me once), but I have no doubt that those aspects will be long gone from his future offerings, his quest for perfection appears very strong. I would not be overstating the matter my saying that if you where to pick up this knife from a well known JS, at a price 2 times higher you would not be disappointed. :thumbup:

The feel of the knife is also very good, the sheephorn handle is warm and the rough texture provides good grip. The balance and heft is about right for a general purpose knife, not too heavy with a forward momentum to aid chopping. Matt has done a superb finish on the blade, which is supremely durable and easy to maintain (see end of review), its highly polished and flat as glass, the radiused spine is both visually pleasing and immensely practical for manipulating the blade for close work, but also putting pressure on the blade comfortably. I want to also comment on the top clip, both its understated appearance and the spine transition are really well done, giving the blade a really strong and purposeful look. Matt also supplied his own sheath, which was a friction pouch design, high riding, but with plenty of movement in the belt loop to position in the most suitable way. I tend to wear my knives on the right hip or lower down on the thigh, and found this sheath easy to get along, if a touch too high for my tastes.

So, I have a knife that is good value, the fit and finish are very good, and higher than I expected, and visually the knife "floats my boat". But you bought it as a user I hear you cry, does it meet your criteria for function and performance, ............ well that's part two of this review!

[Stephen F]

PART TWO: Life in the Field (well the back garden, kitchen and study to be precise, but you get the idea!)

Now before I go any further, let me add a caveat ....... I am not a knife tester, I am not a reviewer, I did this for my own satisfaction and thought it would be interesting to share the process. This is not a long term test, I have not climbed up a wall by driving my knife into breeze blocks with my right testicle, whilst somersaulting single handed onto the roof, I have not used the knife to perform open heart surgery, castrate a wild boar, or to carve my initials 1/2 in deep into the side of a Chieftain Tank, and as far as any de-animation is concerned ........ well I did slice up a pretty mean looking joint of beef, a stick of corrupt celery, and a particularly tiresome tomato .

So what did I do, well I tried out the knife doing the sort of things I would use if for on a field trip or camp.When I think of a camp knife I think of a good all round blade, not designed for a specific purpose, but able to turn itself to most of the tasks that it may be called upon if it was your only knife. So heres what I did, and the order I did it in:

• Cut up some paper
• Slice and dice salad for lunch.
• Chop up a log.
• Sharpen a stick for stabbing vampires, err, I mean sharpen a stick for use in various camp site constructions!
• Chop up a piece of 4x1.
• Pry apart a pallet.
• Make some firewood.
• Eat my lunch.
• Slice up some beef.
• Cut some more paper.
• Gave the knife a clean and put it to bed, I mean put it in its case!

Well slicing paper the first time was fairly straight forward, ran the blade across the edge and it sliced into no problem, so far so good , the knife is sharp. As tasty as paper can be I knew it would not go down too well with the wife and kids in terms of lunch, so it was off to the kitchen to prepare a salad. The knife performs well chopping and dicing peppers and celery with ease. When it came to the cherry tomatoes the blade did not bite easily into the skin, but worked well if you first pieced the skin with the tip then continued forward along the blade to slice, similarly the cucumber required a gentle back and forth slicing motion to control the delicate slice.

It was apparent that the edge did not have the "teeth"of a fine flat ground kitchen knife, but it worked and it worked well. I put this down to the compromise needed to retain a strong edge to prevent rolling on the heavy chopping tasks. To do this Matt gives the edge a convex grind to maintain thickness, sharpened up with secondary flat profiles at around 20-25 degrees. The edge is also polished up with simichrome, so I suspect when it comes to touching up the edge myself, my preference for a rougher finish will add a few teeth.

What really struck me however during all this is just how easy it was to use the knife , easy to manipulate and control, the radiused spine being comfortable and accommodating. Using the tip to slice out peppers with a high up hand position was a piece of cake!

Heres a picture of the some of salad I prepared, you can start to see how the acids in the fruit and veg are tarnishing the carbon steel, its strangely pleasing to watch this happen and develop over the course of a day:



A quick wipe down of the blade and I am out into the back yard to assault a log, and within a minute I had managed to put a good sized wedge into the log as shown in the picture below. Without a doubt a bit of elbow grease and a few more minutes would have had the log through. The cuts where quick and clean, the forward balance of the knife helping the process tremendously, the sheephorn keeping a secure grip without overly tightening. The knife absorbed quite a bit of the shock and the shape of the handle allows for a limited release at impact to prevent too much transference to the joints. The only real issue I had here is that I normally prefer a slightly longer handle to "keep hold of" when chopping, and found the handle here a touch short, this could be remedied with a hole and lanyard, but I should add that I am not average sized and generally require a larger handle anyway.



So after hacking a log to bits for giving me the evil eye, I must now prepare for night time and the certain onslaught of vampires and demons. Or as I like to tell others, I need to sharpen a few sticks for ground pegs and various camp constructions and utensils. Picking up a small branch I proceeded to do short lateral chops around a knot to develop the point, choosing a knot specifically because its harder to cut and retains a point better. Getting the basic profile was easy, but final shaping and sharpening was where the knife really came good, again the radiused spine aiding control and comfort when chocking up and applying pressure/guiding. Again my physical size was a bit of a problem as my large fore finger was a cosy fit into the choil, but thinner fingers would not struggle.

The images below show the closer manipulation and shaping work, together with Mr Pointy at the end!

[Stephen F]

PART TWO Cont'd....

Anyone camping in Europe will know that you always come across a wooden cargo palette whenever you set up for the night Luckily I had one lying around from my last camping trip so I thought it would be a good idea to smash it up for fire wood for the patio burner, err, I mean, for spit roasting wild boar! Having watched the cutting comp at Blade I thought I'd try to emulate one of the challenges ........... all I can say is well done guys, you make it look very easy ........ so I set about cutting through one of the 4 X 1 (smaller than ABS) planks in the palette and again was pleased with the way the knife handled itself, if also a little perplexed with my cutting style, never the less it performed well, with similar comments as the log chop holding here as well. The image below shows the product of less than a minutes work.



Next task was to pry apart the palette which is held together at each joint by two large 3 in nails. I must confess to being just a little nervous about this, but reality is you do have to use a knife in this way from time to time. I needn't have worried, again the radiused spine made it easy to push down on the spine and start the initial leverage on the joints, then turn the knife point first into the joint and a few taps on the butt and the knife was in sufficiently to start levering it apart. I put a fair amount of effort into this, and in the picture below you can just see a bit of flex in the knife. The job got done with no splinters and no noticeable adversity to the knife which was strong and durable.



With a few planks off the palette I could now split them up for burning, a quick chop into the end, sufficient to bed the blade, and a couple of knocks on to a hard surface and a plank was split with little effort.



Having worked up an appetite, its in for lunch, and much to the amazement and wonder of my eldest daughter I proceeded to eat the meal using the camp knife (after a quick wash of both the knife and I of course). Yep its big, and just a bit of over kill, but it worked and I ate my lunch with a big smile on my face, just wish I had taken a picture of the faces of my daughters as they realised their father was as mad as snakes!

Much to my wife's surprise I then offered to prepare the beef for that evenings dinner. Again the task was performed perfectly the knife still sharp and able to cut and slice beef effortlessly, chocking up the blade aided control and felt natural. Heres a picture of the beef, and the now blackened blade, a combination of food,vinegar acids and blood. Looks great!



And so we come full circle, after a few jobs will the knife still cut paper, has it retained its edge? A picture speaks a thousand words:



But what about that beautiful finish that Matt sweated over, had I destroyed it? Given the fineness of finish I must confess to fearing the worst, but a few minutes with a small amount of Flitz and Ballistol and the blade that dazzled me that morning was once again shining bright. Yes there are a few handling marks and very fine vertical tracks if you catch the light at the right angle, but I am ####ed if I could get them to show up .............




So there you have it, a very enjoyable way to spend a day, which has also served to reinforce my trust and belief in the forged blade. Functionally this knife delivered, and delivered better than expected on all my criteria.

Would I say it is my ultimate camp knife? - Its good, but, No, I am still working on that, but this one is more than sufficient in the meantime, and I have learnt a lot from this little exercise, its a knife I would confidently and proudly take out with me anytime.

Would I change anything? - Of course I would, that's what custom knife collectors do A slightly longer and thicker handle and wider choil, purely to accommodate my bigger hands.

Am I pleased with my choice? - Delighted! :thumbup:

Would I have another knife from Matt? You better believe it, which reminds me. Matt, hows that utility knife coming along .....................................?

Cheers,

Stephen

[markd]

Great review, great lookin' (and obviously performing) new toy... I mean, tool.