Manufacturer:- www.herbst.co.za
Dealer:- www.herbst.co.za
Purchase Price :- R520 £48.54+VAT+Postage http://www.xe.com/ucc/
Blade Length:- 82mm 3.229"
Blade Thickness :- 3.2mm 0.126"
Blade Material:- 12C27 Stainless Steel
Blade Hardness:- ??
Blade Finish :- Polished Mirror Finish
Edge :- Plain Edge
Handle:- Carbon Fibre
Handle Finish :- Hand Rubbed matt finish
Overall Length:- 208mm 8 1/8"
Weight :- 108gm 3 3/4oz
Extras :- Supplied in a hand made leather sheath.

Thanks to British Blades and to Danzo and Circlepknives for bringing this to my attention.

This is an excellent light weight hard working utility knife, designed for a multitude of tasks.

I have been after another fixed blade knife for a little while now. But wanted something affordable with a bit of character about it.

So this custom made knife from Thinus fitted the bill perfectly. It is made from a steel that I was not familiar with till now. 12C27 from Sandvik. This is a martensitic stainless chromium steel that is optimised for professional knives.

The properties given from Sandvik are as follows :-

- Very high hardness
- Good corrosion resistance
- Very good wear resistance

This grade is also suitable for
- hunting and fishing knives
- pocket knives
- skate blades and ice drills

So it looks like an excellent choice for this working knife blade then.

This is my first knife from Thinus Herbst along with the Skeleton Framelock folder. I first saw the Skeleton knife on the BB forum and again in the flesh at the Wirksworth meetup.

I was impressed with the build quality and the price. So I thought I would get the same, but this fixed blade looked rather good as well. So here it is. This knife really is far better that it should be for the price. The fit and finish are really superb.

The blade is a spear point with a non sharpened swedge on the front forward edge. The blade is full tang construction and follows the exact profile of the handle. The cutting edge is hollow ground and has a very slight recurve. A ramp on both the top and bottom of the blade forward of the handle helps protect your fingers with a notched thumb ramp on the top blending into the handle. The lower ramp allows the knife to be rested on a flat surface upright without the blade edge making contact. There are two holes made in the upper and lower ramp sections. Not sure what these are for but I suppose a forward lanyard could be used. Also I suspect that they could be used to lash the knife to a pole or stick to make a fishing spear or similar. The mirror polished finish on the blade looks fantastic but does show every single finger mark. An excuse to get the polishing cloth out.

The handles are made from carbon fibre. The weave on this shows up as a very distinctive pattern. The scales are hand rubbed to a matt finish. This changes as you turn the handle in the light. They are attached with three allen screws per side into tapped holes in the handle. This means you can remove the scales for cleaning. The scales look to have a plastic laminate liner next to the handle side. This has a very fine yellow edge to it and really gives the handles a classy finished look.

With the handle removed it is easy to see the 10off 9mm holes that have been drilled into it to lighten the whole knife. Also I discovered the 6mm hole in the very rear of the handle that looks like a lanyard hole. Although the handle scales would need to be drilled to utilise it.

In use the knife lives up to its name. It is pretty light for its size at 108g or 3 3/4oz. The handle fits my hand pretty much perfectly, although larger hands will probably find it a little small. It feels very comfy with the thumb resting firmly on the ramp. Balance is just behind the first allen screw fixing so it does not feel at all blade heavy.

The edge was not quite as razor sharp as the skeleton folder came. But i am sure a few stokes on my shiny new Tri-Angle Sharpmaker will sort that out. :-)

I must mention the leather sheath that the knife came supplied with as well. It is very well made with nice even stitching and a well finished edges. The outside looks to have been rubbed to expose the texture pattern and the effect works well. The knife sits nice and deep with just the top 25mm sticking out to allow access. the curve on the rear of the handle helps with grasping the knife. I can use my pinkie finger and the knife comes out ready to use by just wrapping the rest of my fingers round it. An excellent well thought out design. I have not tried the belt loop yet as I really don't have a valid reason for this one at work.

As you can probably tell I am more than a little bit impressed with this knife. I can see me going back too see what other items are available at some point in the future.

More info this and other knives here

www.britishblades.com

Manufacturer:- www.herbst.co.za