This is the P.A.C.Knife-Pack And Camp Knife. The idea was to have a smaller, lightweight, and economically priced hollow handle knife that was essentially a knife with a built-in match safe. That has always been the basic idea in my mind for hollow handle knives, and with this one I wanted to do a knife that trimmed away the fat.
Weight on my scale for the knife itself is 5.5 oz. Obviously being handmade, they will all vary a little. The weight for the sheath is about 4.5 oz, for a total weight of around 10 oz.
For this one I used 1/8” stock, with a full flat grind to get the most slicing ability. The edges are run on the thin side for increased performance. This will take very light batonning, things like splitting kindling and tinder, but I wouldn’t recommend heavy batonning or trying to use it as a “hard use knife.” I have no doubt that the handle/blade joint will take it, but I am grinding these on the thinner side at the edge, for good slicing capability.
The guard is stainless. I had thought about going with aluminum to cut weight, but given that the knife is designed to be used in the wilderness, I thought that aluminum would get dinged up too much. The handle tube is also aluminum. I did this to cut weight, and cut weight it did. It is made from 1/8” thick walled tubing that has been slightly bored out for more storage. The handle is also beveled right below the guard to provide a more aesthetically pleasing transition from the 1” wide blade to the 1” wide handle.
Other than that, it shares a lot of characteristics with my other hollow handle knives-cord wrap, cord ring, to both trap the cord and serve as a protective “hood” for the O-ring, and of course the tapped buttcap for the screw in ferro rod, along with the rollup pouch of waxed linen that keeps things from bouncing around in the handle and can also be cut in strips to serve as emergency tinder.
The blade is silver soldered, and bead blasted is currently the only finish I offer on these. The sheath is of a “bushcraft” style, and has a D-ring and dangler (not pictured). It has very good retention via formed leather, and will not come out even with vigorous shaking while upside down.
Steel: CPM 154
Blade length: 4.5″
Blade thickness: 1/8″
Handle length: 4.5″
Total length: Approximately 9 1/4″
