Sometimes when you are working outside a lot in hot weather or even in cool weather you just want a good general purpose beater that is highly resistant to rusting, still keeps a good edge and is light weight with enough size to still do some big jobs and enough strength, toughness and reliability to work bigger than it's footprint would indicate at first glance. It helps if its comfortable in all grip types likely to be needed in the field, fairly balanced and has ample handle for good leverage. This folder fits the bill for me. Its a nice frame lock folder with a great blade I made in 440C hardened to 59 Rockwell with teflon washers in the 3/16" pivot for maintenance free use. I'm late getting this one posted actually because its been around a while. I have actually cleaned this one off in puddles with no worries. I clean it under the facet now and then too. Its a care free user compared to my hawkbill with the carbon steel blade. Much as I love the nostalgia of the old carbon blades I do like a care free user. This Ouparator is a bit lighter than my Hawkbill and weighs in at 3.3 ounces. It is 4.25 inches closed and has a 2 and 7/8" blade length. It has a textured G10 overscale for some added grip on the non lock side that adds some warmth to the handle as well as a better thumb purchase to extract it from the pocket.
I also put one of my standard titanium pocket clips on this one that is virtually invisible in the hand due to the way it sits low on the handle. Since this one was done for me I cut the lock short on it, and the lock cuts are left pretty thick where I bend the lock to give it the spring tension it needs to secure the blade when opened. As a result the lock is a bit stout for some folks. Its not so stout that it off centers the blade when closed but its a bit harder to move to close the blade than most folders of this size thanks to the beefy spring tension I incorporated into it when I built it. I like it and wanted it extra stout for my extra stout thumb. Most folks think I tighten the pivot too tight for their tastes. I feel most modern liner and frame lock knives are too close to gravity knives personally and I don't want one opening by accident in my pocket or if I fall down while I'm out cutting down fire wood or something like that. I just made myself get used to a little more umph to open the blades on my own knives. Over time I've just gotten used to that feel and tend to like it best now. Anyone else can adjust the tension to their own liking but for me, I like em stout. This folder works bigger than it is and has taken some pretty extreme tests and went right through them. I'm fairly happy with it overall. It had already seen a good bit of use before these pics so there are already some tell tale signs of that in these pictures. Still I wanted to take some and get them up.
After using this one for about a year I decided to give it to my brother as a gift. Thanks for looking.
By the way, just as a short reminder, you can see and read more about my Ouparator folder in the Sept. posts to the right and above.
STR
First job to start off 2009 is this Emerson Persian that I converted from the standard factory liner lock to a beefy .140" thickness frame lock folder. It is 5.6 ounces of beauty here as shown. I've always loved the look of this particular Emerson but long thin lined folders that flex so easily have always scared me even when done by a great manufacturer like EKI. With the slab lock to make this baby more rigid than ever its a lot harder to flex and twist now than the factory clothes can possibly offer. I think it turned out quite well. As usual this one can be put right back to gether just as it came from the factory. Thanks for looking. . STR
