Garland vs Stubbs

[DoctorSpoon]

I made a spoon with my new whittling knife from Bernie last night to compare it with my usual Del Stubbs large sloyd.

Robin designed this blade shape and asked Del to make it up because we liked so much his small sloyd knife (on the right in the picture) but it was only really good for the fine finishing work I do. To do power cuts when roughing out spoons you need a bigger knife. Prior to this we tended to use the Frosts on the left - a general purpose bushcraft knife (like a clipper) tends to feel clumsy being too deep in the blade.

So, here's the two together (we just got blades from Del and put our own handles on - this one's laburnum) ...




So, I swapped backwards and forwards between the two last night, trying out the same cuts with both to compare. I found Bernie's worked easily as well. It came really sharp and held a good edge - even after Robin had been using it on some really dry ash he was making an adze handle out of. The profile felt right and I could happily work both power cuts near the handle and finer cuts near the tip.

Improvements? Well, nothing major. As I said when I gave my first impressions, I like the way Del really rounds the back of the blade as it is much kinder on your thumb when you're pushing there. The handle is also a little sleek and smooth. Whilst it looks great (you should have seen my daughter's eyes light up when she saw it last night - I'm going to have to hide it from her!) it doesn't give a very positive grip. For the sort of power cuts I do with a larger knife it needs to feel firm in the hand.

So, it's a great knife Bernie, thanks soooooo much
Nicola

[JP]

Great post, and lovely knives nice one!

[Rancid Badger]

I was tempted to suggest roughing the handle a bit

Note to self: STUPID BOY! An extra 20 strokes of the carpet gripper strip flail should sort that glitch out I think
Nice straight forward review anyway, I'm wondering what one of these little beauties would cost now

Cheers
Steve

[DoctorSpoon]

Originally Posted by Rancid Badger

I'm wondering what one of these little beauties would cost now

He's off at the midlands bush meet at the moment roasting a hog - they'll be needing something hot if it's anything like it is here at the moment Its very cold and wet here and I'm just off out to walk the dog!
Nicola

[Bernie Garland]

Glad you like it Nicola and thanks for the honest appraisal

Bernie

[ZDP-189]

I'd like your labernum handle shape with the ferrule in the top pictured knife, but polished like Bernie's, sporting a fine bladed rat tailed tang like the bottom pictured knife and the Stubbs' rounded blade back.

[ZDP-189]

Bernie, why don't you make rat-tailed tangs? I know you could.

[Bernie Garland]

Originally Posted by ZDP-189

Bernie, why don't you make rat-tailed tangs? I know you could.

Hi Dan,i only really make bushcraft knives,but had the girlie scales in the workshop and said to Nicola a bit ago i'd make her a knife,and asked for a pic of the style she liked and said i'd make her a full tang one.thats how it came about
But if people want a stick tang and theres a market i'll make a few
I'll Update my website and put them on there.

Cheers Bernie

[robin wood]

Nice knife dodgy photos, it deserves better so here you go. It has done quite a lot of work already before these photos were taken, they were very sharp but I think they have lost something in compressing for the web.

[Bernie Garland]

Thanks for the pics Robin,perhaps have to get together and show me what you think is the right blade shape and style and i'll start making a few at affordable price's,blades only or made up thanks again

Bernie