All About Pocket Knives

This is my DR. Ray Rantanen railroad spike knife. Amboyna burl wood dyed blue Dr. Ray told me that there are 30 different kinds of railroad spikes. This spike knife came from the curve with higher carbon.

Good looking Railroad Spike knife. You should share it here:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=62751

I got this Imperial at a gun show yesterday. A guy had it on his table for $20 so I offered him $10...and got it. It's in pretty decent shape.

That is a good deal in anyone's book! Nice shape too.

tongueriver wrote:This thread needs a bump. This Vic Hangas (Ruana, 1990ish) bowie is in the mail, I hope.
vic6.jpg

I have been gone over a year. A tale of woe and sadness to be related on a bleeding heart forum.

I sold off most of my knives, including two out of three of my Ruana's. I always thought my camping knife was a one off of some other design. Notice the similarity Now I am curious about the knife but do not have the experience to search out the information. This is a two year old thread I found the picture in but it is the only mention of this knife I have ever found. I may have to sell a another sword or knife and more knowledge can only help.

I acquired the knife in 1982. The two skinning knives I sold were from the '40's, I had skinned moose with them as a youngster.
Anyway, the knife is pretty beater, ten full seasons of camping with children. Yeah, I let them play with knives.

Another of the reasons I considered it a one off, it has a slight bend from quenching. At least that is my guess, there is a twist, small but discernible when sighting down the blade. 36 years of use, it has no cracks and holds an edge evenly along its full length, but the twist is there.
At least the signature puts a date on it. But why would a production knife be signed?

Welcome back, Phaeton. Your knife is a 29A and it appears to have a stacked leather handle? If so, that would be rare. Mike and Mark Hangas (R.H. Ruana's grandsons) are still making these for something like $850. They also re-furbish heavily used knives (only in the Spring months) for a reasonable fee, and can furnish correct sheaths, if necessary. If your knife was cleaned up by them and a sheath (if needed), it could easily compete with their newly-made version, because yours was made by the old man, and because of the rare handle. If you go to the Ruanas for sale on ebay you will see some crazy prices, but they are not usually actually bringing those sums. Here are some URLs, possibly of interest.
https://www.ruanaknives.com/catalog-bowies

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/ ... r+Form.pdf

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_sacat= ... na&_sop=10

and here are Ebay completed listings. Many did not sell but you can tell that by noting carefully.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_sacat= ... Complete=1

Meanwhile, Rudy signed many of his knives in his last years, but I don't know why. As far as 'production' knives definition goes, Every one of his knives, and of his son-in-law Victor Hangas, and of his grandsons Mike and Mark Hangas---- They are ALL made from scratch, hand forged custom knives, regardless of how prolific they are.

Thank you, this is a lot of information I had no idea about.
My daughter still likes to do the camping thing when she can, and unlike her older brother, does not have a history of chopping branches held against a rock.
Her D2 camp knife fits my stiff hands better anyway so we swapped. Sheath is broken in just right.
Again, thanks for your post.

Case Rio Grade Camp Knife.

Charlie that one has me pondering at just what size does it cease being a fixed blade knife and become a sword.

Beautiful knife.

What is the overall length ?

philco wrote:Charlie that one has me pondering at just what size does it cease being a fixed blade knife and become a sword.

Beautiful knife.

What is the overall length ?

It's 15" OAL. But it's not as big as this one. This one was actually designed as a "knife" to be carried in place of a sabre and has an OAL of 17 1/2"! It's a Cold Steel reproduction of the 1849 Rifleman's Knife. I'm pretty sure it could qualify as a short sword! Maybe someone out there will be able to tell us where the length of a blade officially ceases to be a knife and becomes a sword. There must be a standard somewhere.

You can't have too much blade with Squatch in the area. Just sayin...

tongueriver wrote:You can't have too much blade with Squatch in the area. Just sayin...

Big feet, big hands, big tools.

Not what I think of when I think of Spyderco but that is a great looking knife.

Charlie that Case is awesome!

+1 on dogleg's comment, great looking FB QS!

Sasquach wrote:

philco wrote:Charlie that one has me pondering at just what size does it cease being a fixed blade knife and become a sword.

Beautiful knife.

What is the overall length ?

It's 15" OAL. But it's not as big as this one. This one was actually designed as a "knife" to be carried in place of a sabre and has an OAL of 17 1/2"! It's a Cold Steel reproduction of the 1849 Rifleman's Knife. I'm pretty sure it could qualify as a short sword! Maybe someone out there will be able to tell us where the length of a blade officially ceases to be a knife and becomes a sword. There must be a standard somewhere.

The standard is - there is no standard. A blade that is a knife for one person could be a short sword for another.

The general rule of thumb is that if a knife blade is too long to be easily used in an "ice pick hold", it is a short sword.

Another "rule of thumb" (or is it "rule of elbow"? ), a knife has a blade length that is the same or shorter than the distance from the tip of the user's middle finger to the outside of the elbow.

Another set in quicksand opinion is "over XX inch blade = short sword", where XX = any integer between 10" and 20", depending on who's making the pronouncement.

Some hold that the difference between a knife and a sword is the handle construction. In German, messer means knife. Peasants couldn't own swords. Peasants could own knives. By German law, if the blade had a "knife handle" and was single edged, it was a knife.

The "grossmesser", or "big knife", could have a blade anywhere from 20" to 36"+ and be a two handed weapon but still be classified legally as a knife.

The "kriegmesser" or "war knife", was a curved blade, similar to cavalry saber, up to around 1.5 meters in length, and could have either a one or two handed handle. It was a knife.

So, "pick your standard and go for it."

I always felt the blade grinds were different. But can’t really put parameters on it. Some swords have very knife like blades. But I’ve never questioned what a blade was. For some reason it is always obvious to me. But I can’t pinpoint a definitive definition.

Perhaps it does have to do with the user. Sting was very much a sword to Bilbo, but is Gandalf was holding it you’d think “nice knife”

Hauled this BL HOWARD MISSISSIPPI in last week from a pawn shop...

Scott, that is one nice looking knife with great lines and a beautiful piece of stag. ___Dave

djknife13 wrote:Scott, that is one nice looking knife with great lines and a beautiful piece of stag. ___Dave

Ditto!!

Scott, that is a beauty!

I'll make it unanimous......That's a real beauty Scott!!!

Thanks fellas.....

zzyzzogeton wrote:

Sasquach wrote:

philco wrote:Charlie that one has me pondering at just what size does it cease being a fixed blade knife and become a sword.

Beautiful knife.

What is the overall length ?

It's 15" OAL. But it's not as big as this one. This one was actually designed as a "knife" to be carried in place of a sabre and has an OAL of 17 1/2"! It's a Cold Steel reproduction of the 1849 Rifleman's Knife. I'm pretty sure it could qualify as a short sword! Maybe someone out there will be able to tell us where the length of a blade officially ceases to be a knife and becomes a sword. There must be a standard somewhere.

The standard is - there is no standard. A blade that is a knife for one person could be a short sword for another.

The general rule of thumb is that if a knife blade is too long to be easily used in an "ice pick hold", it is a short sword.

Another "rule of thumb" (or is it "rule of elbow"? ), a knife has a blade length that is the same or shorter than the distance from the tip of the user's middle finger to the outside of the elbow.

Another set in quicksand opinion is "over XX inch blade = short sword", where XX = any integer between 10" and 20", depending on who's making the pronouncement.

Some hold that the difference between a knife and a sword is the handle construction. In German, messer means knife. Peasants couldn't own swords. Peasants could own knives. By German law, if the blade had a "knife handle" and was single edged, it was a knife.

The "grossmesser", or "big knife", could have a blade anywhere from 20" to 36"+ and be a two handed weapon but still be classified legally as a knife.

The "kriegmesser" or "war knife", was a curved blade, similar to cavalry saber, up to around 1.5 meters in length, and could have either a one or two handed handle. It was a knife.

So, "pick your standard and go for it."

Okay. I figured there was a standard somewhere but I guess I should have expected a plethora of them given the nature of the subject.

While I'm still not certain of the demarcation point, I come away with knowledge I didn't have before.....that's always a good thing!

I'll put my 2 ¢ worth in as well. That is one fine looking knife!