The History of the Chute Knife

You know ... a serious collection is not complete without an SRJ in it. I mean, you guy's can debate that all you want, but if someone is trying to build a legendary type of portfolio now days, it has to include at least one SRJ. Without it, it's truly incomplete.

I talked to a man last week ( I won't mention the name ) but, he owns Loveless, Warenski, SRJ and a couple of others that you'd all recognize. His collection is valued at $500,000. This same man said "I've held all the great's work side by side, and SRJ is as good as it get's."

That's from someone who does more than talk ... he owns! Where I come from, that's the man you listen too most!

Alex

Taz,
You know that the next "CKD Fusion Project" will be starting soon!The blade design is in your court this time!
But I am not adding any presure.:evil:

We just mailed a jpg to Mr. Bob of the SRJ Archer 'Chute, so it ought to show up here anytime.

Thanks for the patience, Bob. We're gonna update my scanner pgm. today, maybe that'll help.

(I sent Bob 2 photos that wouldn't open.)

Can Alex remove the "Official Nerd" status he bestowed upon me last year, without a 2/3 majority vote???? Hey, I clicked "send" shouldnt that be all a guy's gotta do to send a photo?

If you want photos, Steve Lindsay just finished working on a pearl-handled "Big Bear and sent me photo, plus a close-up of the guard and sub-hilt.

It's on the way to Bob, and maybe he'll get some time to put it up for us, along with the 'Chute knife.

Sheesh, that Lindsay kid is great! I'm sure the few hrs. he spent in Manti, many years ago, had a lot to do with developing his talent. Great water here!

I agree with you, Steve- Lindsay is about the best engraver on the planet. If you all have not been to his web site, you are missing some serious art. Check it out at www.LindsayEngraving.com. Knock your socks off.

Steve,

All you have to do is save it as a "Bitmap or Jpeg" file once it's scanned and it'll open. The scanner software you have is converting the image to a specialized format that is not very common. Just convert it with the "save-as" and tell it one of the 2 above formats and you'll be good to go.

Alex

BTW - Mark Hazen just listed three of his Chute's on the CKD main site in the Fixed Blades section. Pretty clean little knives.

That feller's amazin', ya gotta admit.

But Julie Warenski www.warenskiknives.com (For beautiful work and a cool "Dogget-designed" site) and Firmo Fracassi, and Ron Skaggs, Jon Robyn........well we could go on, are far out too. Don't forget MdKenzie, though, sadly he's gone now, and Winston Churchill.

What a great pleasure and blessing, in my life, to have met and seen the work of so many great artisans.

There's a lot of talent out there.

Here is the Archer-design Chute Knife:

Look close and you'll see the hole in the bottom guard.

Thanks, Bob for posting this and the Big Bear.

You'll note that the angle of the top clip is more abrupt than the Loveless design and that there is more belly in the bottom cutting edge. Also, the thong tube is 3/8" with checkering on top and bottom tang, behind the guard.

This may have been asked and answered already;Is the 'chute' knife a thin knife or is made of 3/16 or heavier stock?

Also Mr.Johnson,
I would like to ask if you could give us newer/lesser known makers tips on how to keep the grind lines 'so' clean and crisp.The knife you did with Velarde also brings up more questions but they can wait till later.

Thanks in advance,
Mike K

The typical "Chute knife is made of 3/16 stock. However, the 5" Loveless version shown above, with the Mammoth Ivory handles, is 1/4" stock.

3/16 is adequate and Harry didn't want them any heavier than necessary, no need to add more to the weight of the many things the soldier's carrying.

The closer to a polish you can get before buffing, the less "wash-out" of the grind lines you'll have, because you'll do less buffing. It's the buffer that blends the grind lines, as a rule. With the way I polish, the blade is buffed in 1-2 min. (But then the photographer has something to do with how the centerline looks, too. Lighting is a big part of every photo.)

There are hundreds of knifemakers and many of them have their own, somewhat different, polishing technique(s). All of them work, some better than others. You need to try different ideas and see how they work for you.

Thank you very much.Are these grinds normally done with a smaller wheel than a 8 in.?

Originally they, on the SRJ Archer version, were ground on a 3" wheel. I think a 4" wheel would be fine, though. That helps a lot on keeping a crisp-looking centerline. You do have to feather the edge out from the centerline toward the bottom edge, however and be careful that you don't grind too deep with that small wheel near the center of the blade.

One the Loveless Archer version, it was ground with an 8" wheel on the bottom and a 3" wheel on the top clip. This may not be the policy with Bob any more, but that's the way it was, way back when.