Thursday, February 26, 2009

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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

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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.

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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.

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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 ®

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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.
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The passaround JK Bushcrafter with a bunch of friends.

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

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

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Some handle comparison shots.

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Quick comparison with a Spyderco Military S90V

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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.

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Here is the JK Bushcrafter with a Blastmatch

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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.

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A close up of the pegs

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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.

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Here is the walk out.

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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

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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

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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.

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Here are the spine pix which explain the trouble sparking.

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

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

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This is shows the scars of surgery.

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Here is an in hand pix.

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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.

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About Me

Happily married to Jenn since 2001, currently driving a 1994 Jeep Cherokee Sport.