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Shango by Joe produced by TOPS Knives

I was able to join another passaround recently on bladeforums.com. This one was for a Shango by Joe which was produced by TOPS knives. Here is a recap of my forum based review:

Shango arrived today safe and pretty dull (expected). I stropped the edge a bit and it came back a little.

Brings me to my first question which I might have asked before, but how would Joe like this knife to be sharpened? V bevels like on the Spyderco Sharpmaker or bench stones, convex like on a belt sander or leather/mouse pad backed sandpaper, or slightly concave by putting it on the paper wheels? Thanks in advance! This is my first experience with a TOPS knife and I would enjoy the chance to sharpen it up and see what it can do here in Central PA.

Once out of the package and stropped, I did a thorough washing twice and put it to use cutting up some onions and red peppers for Chili. It worked well enough for such a tiny blade (I prefer a 10" chef knife for these chores usually). The handle has a satisfactory ergonomic design that made keeping it in hand easy even when covered with onion juice.

While getting into the sharpening on the Spyderco Sharpmaker, my guess was confirmed, it was pretty much right at 40 degrees inclusive. This edge is a bit thicker than I regularly sharpen, so if felt like it took more time than my sharpening efforts usually take. The blade steel sharpened up well in time. I started with the Diamond rods, then to the brown/gray rods and finished up on the white rods. I did some stropping after the sharpening just to be certain not leave any trace of a burr.

Today is pretty rainy so I have been inside and not out doing what I had hoped I could with the passaround knife. I will say that during the sharpening process, I was wishing for some temporary scales for the knife to stop my hand from cramping. I did not stop to attempt to recreate the sassy para cord wrap that was posted by 42blades, but it did cross my mind a few times.

I have decided that the knife and sheath alone would probably be fine on a neck rig, but with the other goodies on there, I have been having headackes which I attribute to the weight that is on my neck that I usually do not have to contend with on a regular basis. For that reason, and so I do not have to keep popping pain relief tablets, the knife will ride in the sheath in a pocket for the short remainder of my time with the pass knife.

Tomorrow is expected to be partially cloudy so I hope to get into the back yard, or over to the gun club for some actual outdoors use/testing. I will be certain to bring along some friends for the Shango to play with during the testing.

Now I’m going to try to make char cloth out of an old pair of jeans. Not the best source, but it is what I was handed today.

Thanks again to Joe for the chance to check out this knife! I really enjoy the profile, but if I score one, I will have to put some handle scales on it.Okay, today’s effort was mostly fun practice for me on fuzz/feather sticks. It took me a bit to find the sweet spot for the Shango, but after that it went very well.

Here is the group after shot from my tests. I tried to pick knives that were thinner handled or slightly unusual for this type of task which you might be stuck with in an emergency.

A close up with the other participants with the fuzz sticks I made.Koster Kit Knife with Black linen scales

A Case knife that I got at a public auction that had been used to cut through a live electrical wire on a farm which prompted me to serrate the damaged blade. Each blade made its own fuzz and the points are letting you know which one made which fuzzy. Before I serrated the blade I sent the knife back to Case and received it back in the same condition with a note that said they could not replace the blade even if I paid them to do it.

Spyderco Native C41PBK that was reground by Tom Krein with a Full convex and convex micro bevel. It seemed to bite in a little too well for my poor technique.

Spyderco Swick 2 which was just released and seemed to be thin handled just like the Shango, but the ergonomics allowed me to cut with more comfort than the Shango did, but I would still rather have handle scales on both.

Bob Dozier neck knife I traded into a year ago or so which was supposed to be some sort of exclusive short run some time ago. I have not looked into it yet and may not bother since I plan to keep using it.

Here is a couple of spine shots to let you know the relative thickness of each knife.

A comparison pic.

Some late entries: A Ladybug Salt SE, a factory second Spyderco Delica that I bought with a little over one inch of blade left snapped off clean, and …

…a Spyderco Mule wearing Green Canvas Micarta removable scales.

For those wondering, I did try the fire steel, but I was not able to get the striker at the butt of the Shango to work, so I improvised and used a P-38 can opener blade. Oh, and yes, I had a garden hose ready if needed.

That is about the extent of my bushcrafting efforts so far, so the last bit of my time with this knife will be EDC tasks and food prep. The edge did just fine and will likely only need a little stropping prior to the next cutting task.

Like I said when I posted that I would like to participate in the pass, I really have no bushcrafting skill, so I'm certain it was user error. That video would have been a good thing for me to watch prior to today's efforts. I did not think of hammering down the ferro which is probably why it did not work for me. Also, I had the ground out part facing the ferro rod, not facing the small pile of tinder. I will try again tomorrow if the weather holds.

Thanks for the video! My comments on the grip were not really a complaint as much as an observation which was the same on the Swick2. In general I am very pleased with the Shango. If you would like me to start reprofiling it to 30 on the Sharpmaker, let me know and I will see what I can do.

Thanks again Joe for letting all of us play with your knife!No worries here. I was given a chance to sharpen it sooner rather than later. I do enjoy sharpening and was looking for a chance to sharpen something from TOPS.My last entry. This knife was sharpened on the Spyderco Sharpmaker, packaged up and shipped out yesterday along with an email to Joe and the next participant that contained the shipping info.

I did decide to attempt a cord wrap just before shipping it out so feel free to take that off if it is not of interest. I made the one end easy to remove if desired.

The knife made one more feather stick before the sharpening, and I was able to get the striker on the but to work with the fire steel, thus further proving how effective it is since I was able to make it work (once I watched the video).

Overall, for a skeleton type knife, it works very well! If the knife was mine, I would have thinned the edge down the first time I sharpened it. Again, for Joe's intended use, this knife is outstanding, light, and worth your consideration.

My thanks to Joe for the chance to check out his design and knife as well as for the video so I could attempt to redeem myself for my previous firestarting short coming.

Gossman Personal Survival Necker (PSN) Passaround Knife Review

Gossman PSN Review

I received Scott Gossman’s PSN knife (a new model to his line) to check out and review. Here are my initial thoughts and pictures.

The blade steel is CPM 154 and the scales are green canvas Micarta. It is a convex ground blade with a convex micro bevel. It measured 4.65 oz and the sheath was around 2 oz., 6 1/2" overall, 2 1/2" spearpoint blade, 1/8" thick by 1" wide

It came with a kydex necker style sheath which could be on your neck or in a pocket without any trouble.

I noticed a couple of small cosmetic issues. The kydex sheath seemed to be scratching the Micarta a bit on the first half inch of the handle. There were some small perpendicular scratches on the bottom of the choil.

I liked the sheath instantly but the inside edges could be rounded a bit more to keep from scratching the Micarta.

Carving

The past couple of days I have been sick and in the house so I did not get out as early as I had expected. I did keep using the knife! Food prep, opening the mail, and as sundry EDC type of cutting chores all of which I forgot to capture with my camera.

What I did manage to capture was the little carving I did in the basement. Here is my first attempt at a little figurine. I think it turned out funny but okay for a first attempt.









Fire

I managed to get out in the backyard today to give fire starting a try. I did some light baton work with the little knife to make some feather/fuzz sticks. The first couple of sticks I was figuring out how to make finer ribbons. By this time, I was getting the hang of this knife which worked really well in spite of me.







Now I have this little pile of wood on top of my tinder. I had some left over milkweed pods and a cattail as my tinder. I’m on top of a wet stump so I elevated the tinder with some small sticks which also helps air get to the fire.







I tried to catch the spark that was thrown by the spine of the Gossman PSN from my Ferro but I can’t get the timing right with the timer on my camera. The tinder caught on the second spark! The edges of the spine are not as sharp as I would prefer for a dedicated bushcraft, but for the survival necker I think it worked really well.





Here’s a shot of the blade after sparking the ferro rod.



Here is a finer fuzz stick that I made after I had the fire going.



Wrap up

Well after the fire was out I came back inside to do the final glamour pix. Here is one of the spine of the Gossman PSN showing where the two sparks had happened on the ferro.



They came off with a little time on a green rouge charged strop. The blade wiped clean very effortlessly. I enjoyed the edge holding and overall performance of the Stainless steel. I stropped the edge while I had the strop out by habit. It really didn’t need it.

I really enjoyed getting to have this little knife along with me for the past few days. I tried the first night wearing it as a necker, but it put more strain on my neck than I could handle (I get head aches pretty easily), so I wrapped the cord up and made it a pocket carry sheath.



The handle was very comfortable and filled even my gimpy hand well. It was long enough that I had all my fingers on it at the same time which is nice. My Krein PSK is not setup that way. My only suggestion to Mr. Gossman is to take the edge off of the kydex where the knife slides into the sheath and contacts the handle scales. Here are two pix you may be able to see the result of the kydex scuffing the Micarta ®





This is a knife that I would recommend. It is a size knife that you can tell I prefer and it is very well made. For those of you who know me, I typically buy more than one of models that I like and this would not be an exception to my habit. I would be happy to own one in CPM 154 and one in carbon steel.

Again, my sincere thanks to Mr. Gossman for a fine product and the chance to check it out and review it. Thanks to all who have taken time to read my review.

Best wishes to all!

JK Bushcrafter Passaround Knife Review

Knife arrived today! :)

Not killer sharp out of the mailer. The fatwood was not scared in this pic.




The passaround JK Bushcrafter with a bunch of friends.



JK Bushcrafter with some scandi ground Kosters (1st run Bushcraft and Koster Kit Knife Nessmuk)



Closer up view of the JK and Koster Bushcraft(er)



Some handle comparison shots.







Quick comparison with a Spyderco Military S90V



Now I'm on my way to use this bad boy! :)

Response to Bladeforums reply:

Roger that. I did a bit of mouse pad sharpening (150, 220, 320, 400, 800, 1000, and 1200 grit wet/dry paper) then onto a green chrome charged leather strop. That was a really quick sharpening just to get me out of the house. It was good enough for what I had time for today.

Response to Bladeforums reply:

You're not kidding. The handle is really beefy. It's substantially thicker than my usual handles. The scales are beautiful and have some subtle contouring. I had hand surgery a couple of years ago on my right hand and I can't bend the joint closest to the tip of my pinky and ring fingers on that hand. For me the scales are a bit too thick at the butt, and really comfy for my thumb, index and middle fingers.

Here is the walk in to my site along the frozen pond. There were cat tails and milk weed along the pond on the east side, so I collected some on the way.



Here is the JK Bushcrafter with a Blastmatch



I found a sun dried strip of bark on the ground, so I used it as my base/display. Here are some small wood I split, a couple of quick attempts at some fuzz sticks, a little pile of cat tails and milk weed seed, and two little tent pegs I made up with the JK Bushcrafter.



A close up of the pegs



Okay, I did not hear back from Stomper before I left for the woods, so I did not use the JK Bushcrafter to spark this fire attempt. The spin of the JK has had the edges "softened" so I am not sure it will work, but I will be certain to give it a shot and let you know on my next outing.

I had the Blastmatch along and put it to use. Nice tool. Here are the fire picks.





Here is the walk out.



Sorry I do not have any in use picks, as I typically go out on my own. Oh, and the JK Bushcrafter came with a sturdy leather sheath, but that instantly went onto my belt when I opened the mailer so I will fill you in on that later.

So just to start a little list:

- Glamour picks with friends :thumbup:
- Quick sharpening :thumbup:
- Little batoning (with no edge deformation)
- Couple of little fuzz sticks (my skills obviously need to improve, the knife was great!!!)
- Little natural fluff collection for firestarting
- A bit of fire

I'm pretty happy with how day one went. :D

Had a chance to do some kitchen cutting today and here are some shots.

JK Bushcrafter vs. Banana





Immediate oxidation when used to cut the banana. The banana juice turned black and started to stain the blade. I wiped it off quickly so no major damage.

It’s been so long since I signed up for this that I can’t remember what type of steel and wood was used to make this knife. Stomper if you could fill us all in that would be much appreciated.

JK Bushcrafter vs. Lettuce







The edge is convex (mouse pad sharpening) and is a bit thicker than I typically use in the kitchen. Paring the oxidized end off of the lettuce was not as effortless as I prefer. I did accomplish every kitchen task I presented to its edge.

I plan to shoot some final glamour pix tomorrow to show the sheath, current edge, and spine/handle.

First are the sheath pics. This was really comfortable and I wore it all day long everyday since I started this thread.











Here are the spine pix which explain the trouble sparking.





This is how the edge is after I sharpened it and used it for a week.



Here is a little glimpse of the handle thickness and contouring.



This is shows the scars of surgery.



Here is an in hand pix.



So to wrap up:

This is a really well made bushcraft tool. All of you convex edge gals and guys would really enjoy using this knife. I hope this review has been interesting, helpful and informative. If you do not care about measurement details, I would suggest moving on to any response posts so you do not get bored. 

Measurement details

I found it a bit thick at the edge which measured .056 behind the convex edge bevel I put on it. As you may have noticed in my group shots, I have some scandi and “V” grind beveled knives that I am more familiar with right now.

The thickness of the ricasso is .119 and the tallest part of the blade is .9875

The handle thickness at the first fastener closest to the blade is .863, the second fastener is .878 toward the blade and .940 toward the butt of the knife, and the lanyard tube is .935

The handle height at the first fastener is .856, the second is .989 and the lanyard tube is .872

The scale length was 4.180 and the blade/ricasso length is 4.139. There was only about 1.250 distance for a minute distal taper from the point.

Thank you all for sticking with me on this review. It has been my pleasure and again I want to thank Stomper for such a great opportunity.