See Dan's comments about his Hudson Bay Knife

Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2009

My name is Dan Abbott and I'm co-owner of Oregon Firearms Academy LLC. www.oregonfirearmsacademy.com I understand you are expecting a quote provided by me about an IKW Hudson Bay knife Mike and Deb made for me about a year ago.

Our Academy offers around 40 different courses in the defensive use of small arms and survival skills. Part of our work also includes a series of courses on "Wilderness/Urban Survival for a Potentially Hostile Environment" of which I am one of the instructors. In my personal life, I prefer a more primitive lifestyle of hunting and training with both muzzleloaders and Black Powder Cartridge Rifles. I needed a period correct knife characteristic of the trapper/mountain man period all the way through to the great Buffalo hunt of the 1870s. I also needed the same knife to be a useful representation of a quality tool in demonstrating modern wilderness survival skills and techniques to our students. This knife must become a sort of "modern meets old" knife.

So last year I ordered a Hudson Bay knife from Idaho Knife Works. I made my choice to order from Mike and Deb based upon a personal recommendation from our lead Wilderness Survival Instructor who has several of their knives. He told me if I needed a period correct, historic, true working knife then I needed to order the Hudson Bay knife from IKW. He was spot on in his recommendation! Working with both Deb and Mike is pure pleasure. They both went to great lengths to make sure I got exactly what I needed to fulfill the mission of this knife. My mission is simple; I require a 19th century period correct knife for use in primitive hunting and camping that would also double as a workable knife for contemporary wilderness survival tasks capable of accomplishing a multitude of tasks from chopping, splitting, to whittling. Also having a knife that is "drop dead gorgeous" doesn't hurt my reputation in elk camp either! Seriously, this knife looks like someone "lifted it right out of a museum!"

Mike worked patiently with me modifying his original knife design to accomplish my specific mission. He started by reducing the blade length down from 7" to 6 1/8" and then thinned the blade. He matched it to my specific hand size and intended tasks. Since this knife is going to be used both for chopping and whittling he needed to reduce the length and weight of the blade to accomplish both equally well. I can testify without reservation, he succeeded! This knife performs well in its dual identity both as a period correct hunting knife and as a modern day "no-nonsense" wilderness survival tool. It splits wood like a respectable chopper and yet is capability of putting a very fine edge on for whittling. I couldn't be more pleased!

I've attached two photos of my knife in a nice setting. I hope you can open them and use them in your article!

Dan