I really like what I bought. It’s top class & made heavy duty & doesn’t get any better. This knife will do it all from easy to the toughest of wood-species of any diameter.
Schatt & Morgan has several steel types on these Cotton Sampler’s as they’re called. In a title that states “Queen Steel,” that’s 440 Stainless Steel. Any Cotton Sampler with “file and wire tested” on their blades are AWS-30 steel which is what I purchased. And these knives are made of D2 steel also. The only problem with D2 steel is if you’re prying on something while the steel has an extremely hard steel on the Rockwell Hardness scale, you could potentially break the blade. 440 Stainless was the strong stainless until AWS-30 came along. There’s nothing wrong with 440 Stainless steel. It has a Rockwell Hardness of 58 for Schatt & Morgan made knives. AWS-30 has almost unheard of Rockwell hardness of 60-61. Both 440 and AWS-30 will hold an edge for a very long time.
Queen Cutlery bought Schatt & Morgan in 1946 I think so Googling “Queen Cotton Sampler” may get you more results.
Here’s the best deal on the internet for an AWS-30 Schatt & Morgan knife. I know because I searched for about a week.
Or, you can find some awesome ones on eBay that continuously pop up… not in large #'s though… I don’t believe. And, they sell for premium prices on eBay.
I bought mine from TSA Knives.
The blade is very sharp but is sharpened on both sides so will require some work to get it to one side sharpened only. But, I have the Work Sharp Ken Onion Edition Knife and Tool Sharpener coming this Christmas to do exactly just that.
Wood is hard for pecan and a box cutter is likely to jam up during your cut. It’s also quite possible to break the blade off. It’s just not a good idea.
As we were leaving Shepherd Pecan orchard, Dan Shepherd said, “gotta go big or go home.” See what the wife says & let me know. EDIT: I missed your post above about the goofy.
For 7-bucks you can send it to ‘The Art of Sharp’ and he’ll do it. His name is Frank Surace and I’d put my brand new knife in his hands with all the confidence in the world. 7-bucks to sharpen + he charges 10 for return shipping.
You have to write a note that it’s a grafting knife and that when opened which side needs a beveled edge and which edge should only have the burs knocked off and not sharpened. I would definitely make it very clear if that means putting a piece of tape with a note on the side that needs to be sharpened and fold the knife up and ship it.
I’ve used a Klein cable splicers knife as a grafting tool for years. Ebay has them with a sheath for about $30. A few years ago, I made a cleft grafting tool from an old 10 inch diameter table saw blade. Between the two of them, I’ve been able to make any graft desired. Budding requires a double blade knife. One of these days I’ll sit down with some old planer blades and make a couple of double blade budding knives.
Hey Darrel that’s a nice tool there. Never saw one of those but I’d prefer it over a utility knife any day of the week @Fusion_power
@marknmt no thanks, haha. I’d like to see you do that though for pure entertainment purposes. I’ll take your word for it aye?
@alan I’ve read at least one long thread where you’ve contributed about that tool. I just can’t see in my mind how it’s ergonomically efficient and safe. I just don’t get it.
It’s what you do too. I have to have something to walk up to a tree that’s 20 feet tall and cut it off with a hand saw and make nice, straight cuts to open up a flap in more than one way. Sometimes one vertical cut is enough and other times I make two vertical cuts and peel that down and stick a scion behind it. Plus I make long cuts on scions that are an inch caliper; you know 4-5 inches long and I have to whittle that wood. So it’s a must for me to have something powerful and the correct tool.
For me it’s 10 times more dangerous to clean the knife than to graft with it. I cut myself real good one time removing sap from conifers off my blade. The same damn day I was reading an email that morning and I was bragging that I had never hurt myself in more than a decade. Then I did that while not grafting.
Just sliced really deep is all I did. But it was a dandy.
I don’t know anything about grafting other types of trees than commons fruits besides paw paws and mulberries. I still don’t get a lot of success with native persimmons so maybe a splice graft isn’t for all species.
A splice graft isn’t complicated but it works best on 1 year water sprouts (spring after the spring they formed). It’s just about cutting two slanted, pointed pieces with single cuts of a pruner- I used to do it OK with a Felco bypass. Your fingers are no where near the blades when you make the cuts. How high in the tree you go doesn’t matter- although it is easier to do from a stable step ladder than standing in the tree. If scion wood and water sprout are the same diameter it allows the maximum amount of cambium match up between the two but a match on one side is usually adequate. .
So the pruner opens up wide enough to be placed on top of a branch so you can slide it down vertically to set the scion in. That’s what I don’t see is how wide your pruner can open. It would have to open very wide for you to rest it atop a branch and slide it down with pressure rocking back and forth. And without the other blade getting in the way and able to cut into the rootstock branch or jam up the whole process. Those pruners must open real wide(?)
I know you don’t do photos. I read that somewhere too. I’d be curious to see how wide those open so I can at least see exactly what it capable.
