I scoured the internet for 1/2 the day yesterday. First of all these Portuguese knifes are terriffic. You can get a gorgeous and what looks extremely comfortable knife for less than 6$. Shipping may be 18$. It is for one beneath this that I’m likely to purchase.
I’ve written to the man that makes it. I had several questions. I’ll report what he says when he return my email.
Here’s another Portuguese knife for 11$ for gosh sakes. These are all folding knives.
And the most expensive at 34$. It looks like a very nice knife. Unfortunately even though it’s a grande/large knife the blade dimensions are not given. That would be an email question.
Then I stumbled onto this American website and scoured it for hours. These are the best blades they have for grafting:
This website was still in my browser. Many excellent shaped handles and blades.
While I’m not a fan of the Pruning Blade, I know some grafters are. I like Lamb Foot, Wharncliffe, & Pen blade shapes. Lamb Foot is usually what a grafter should have.
I have too many pockets and too much other stuff in them for pocket knives to be practical. My hand pruners are always there as a crappy substitute, but when I expect to need a knife I find a fixed blade in a holster much more practical to use and someone sent me a version of this one in exchange for some graft wood. It is really ingeniously designed with a special snap on the holster that absolutely secures it but makes it easy to remove without unbuckling you belt. It is exceedingly sharp and light weight and the price is right.
It’s main use for me is to remove black knot from plums. Be careful, plum wood is very hard and this knife, very sharp.
I carry the Mora rescue knife for every day stuff, I dulled it for garden work. My small Okatsuna pruners actually fit into the sheath, and I have an extra, so that was nice to not have to buy a sheath for them.
For a dedicated grafting knife though, Mora makes laminated carbon steel carving knives that are a better choice I think, I own a few and do fine with the short sloyd for grafting. Although the blade is thick so it can cause the wood to flex and crack when making chips. If I were to buy one for the job, I’d get the straight sloyd and maybe grind the tip.
The sheath is not as nice though, I actually keep the ones with wood handles in sections of 1" plastic black plastic pipe because it retains them better.
I also like the look of this chisel knife, don’t really need it though. My gut says it would be great for making flat cuts on bigger stuff. And the bevel is opposite most grafting knives, I find it safer to cut away from myself rather than towards when my arms are extended… And the chisel tip would be great for cutting against flat surfaces like twine on a stake, or e tape on a graft.
p.s. the best thing about Mora knives is the grind, each side has a wide flat bevel so sharpening is simple without any sort of special equipment. All it takes is a flat surface (glass) and increasingly fine wet dry sandpaper and then something to strop them on (leather, color newsprint ads, wood, cotton, etc.) to get them shaving sharp.
Thanks Dax for the info! And you are absolutely right about high carbon steel vs. stainless steel. It seems so many knives today are made of stainless steel. Makes a real pretty blade, but not nearly as good when actually using it for it’s intended purpose (sort of like the trend in commercial fruit). High carbon 1095 steel is easier to sharpen than stainless and holds an edge better.
Alan, I got one of these as a gift as well (perhaps the same person?) I really like it. I hang the holster off my pocket. It is stainless, but for a cheap knife, it can’t be beat. I also like these knives because the case and handles are of a color which really stands out (Why tool makers put black or dark blue handles on tools is beyond me. Just makes them easy to lose.)
It is $94.41 shipped. The website is kind of sketchy but it is a US based company and they offered paypal as a payment option. Buy good tools once, you wont have to buy them again (or for a very long time).
Midwest vineyard supply has it currently for $113 and Frostproof growers supply has it for $109.
When I was looking last year it was around $85, I don’t think it will be cheaper anytime soon.
He does have a good looking Tina (and a few other really nice looking knives) but not the model I’m currently looking for unfortunately. If you are looking for a chip budding knife that would be a great route.
I hope they send my order and I don’t have to go through the process of a PayPal refund… Their Facebook page says they’ve been in business for over a decade so hopefully they are just having website issues.
Glad to hear another person confirm it’s worth the investment, thanks for sharing!
Update on my 605- It finally arrived after some back and forth with the gentleman at Greener Gardens. I have a feeling their site was hacked or something like that, because they were not back up and running the last time I checked. However, I would recommend them as Jon was very responsive.
For the little use many folks are going to be grafting it might be easiest and for sure the best edge you’ll ever see to have Frank Surace sharpen your knife for you via postal to Chicago.
I put a piece of paper with an x on the beveled side and write a letter stating the back side of the blade may never be sharpened & that only the burrs are to be knocked off. Then I tell him it’s for tree grafting on, that note. I send a return pre-paid shipping label in the box and that saves you a couple bucks. Or, Frank will print one and charge a couple bucks extra. It only costs like 12 bucks but I send him a 20$ and say “thanks very much, Frank.”
I sharpen my own knives now, but, I’ll send them to Frank anytime I want it corrected perfectly or whatever. Once I cleaned a knife with CLR and it left an unwanted film on the blade so Frank did some sort of a dip and got that off so it was back to original… so lots of things Frank does. He’s a professional knife sharpener that learned an ancient art of how to sharpen knives on stones…
Hello,
I have a bunch of knives. One thing I like is either fixed blade knives or locking knives. I do not like knives that don’t lock. Years ago I cut myself really bad closing a Swiss army knife. Stephan Hayes turned me onto Opinel knives. I probably have 10 of them or so. Some of them I have ground one side flat. I also have a Tina fixed blade knife but don’t use it much. For other tasks I always have a spyderco knife in my pocket.
I sharpen my own knives. I learned from my Dad when I was very young. He was a wood worker so we sharpened all kinds of things like chisels, plane irons, drill bits, lathe tools etc.
That work sharp works excellent. I’m glad I got it. I’ve screwed up a knife learning it so I’d recommend a cheap knife to learn with. I’ve kept my extra large grafting knife perfect with it though as of the past 2-years. No warping anywhere (yet!) That thing really sharpens well if you use all 5 or 6 belts that come with it. I’m still using all 6 belts to “keep an edge”. It takes less than 10 minutes to use all 6 belts.
