General - Though I am not much of a duelist or a knife fighter, I liked the original knife called the Duelist when Jerry Hossom first introduced it at Atlanta Bladeshow 2000. I've ordered scaled down version of it couple months later. Though it may sound simple, I guess
it's not very easy for the knifemaker to make just a smaller version for you, but Jerry acomplished this task perfectly. Like I've mentioned in my Gator review the entire project took several months, but in the end it all was well
worth waiting, not that i wouldn't be glad to get them sooner, but anyways ;)
The duelist is more of a fighter, straight blade, with fully sharpened false edge. Very light and fast. The blade measures 7 inches, with 12 1/4 " OAL.
Once again, I have nothing but positive to say regarding the craftsmanship of both blades from Jerry :) Very nice done blade, every single detail was completed with close
attention. Grind lines are very even, everything matches perfectly. Sharpening job is also great. The top edge is shaving sharp too, let alone the primary edge :) And of course,
the balace is very good.
As with The Gator, the handles on the duelist Jerry made for me. Thus the same result :) Perfect fit and comfort. Since the project
consisted of two knives I've decided to go with identical haandle material and shape :) I think it worked out very nicely. Here's the pair :)
Blade
- The geometry is probably what one would call classic. Especially for the fighting knife. Though I think Duelist will do just fine as an all-around knife :) May be it's just me, but I don't see why not :) Of course the sharp false edge isn't the best for the utility use, but, and that's an important but, duelist has couple unches of unsharpened spine, plus the nothed thumbramp. So, I think it's gonna be allright. Definitely Duelist is no heavy duty blade, it's light weight and the blade geometry are not really optimized for those kind of tasks.I've written about CPM 3V in my review of another blade from Jerry, The Gator. I won't be repeating myself here, you can check the details there :) I'd say this alloy is a very good choice for fighting blades from what I know.
As with many of my other knives I have't really used those too :( As usual, no time. Though with Duelist I've managed to perform some tests with stabbing the old phone book, along with the 5 other blades ;) As soon as I find some more time, I'll be posting the resuilts. For now I can say Dualist performed very good :)
To be continued...
Specifications:
- Blade - 177.80mm(7")
- Thickness - 5.08mm
- OAL - 311.15mm(12.25")
- Steel - CPM 3V 60HRC
- Handle - Micarta
- Acquired - 05/2003 Price - 600.00$
Last updated - 05/19/19