Jack Black Knives U1, Pat Mitchell Made

[Stuart Mitchell]

Another blast from the past, the U1 was developed through '93 and the very few that were made were made early '94.

Jack Black was the pen name of a local outdoors writer, mountaineering, hiking, kayaking, that type of stuff, he wrote for a few national magazines at that time.

Jack and we developed it jointly, he put a lot of work in behind the scenes, in particular talking to HT companies in order to attain the very best from the SF77 steel, I mean cryo quenching in '93, it was almost unheard of.

He marketed the knife through the magazines that he wrote for and it was taking off (even though we thought him crazy going in with a starter price tag of £130, in 1994), he was a visitor to the workshop most days, definitely every week, then one day just stopped, never heard from him, never saw him, like he'd fallen from the face of the earth.

Anyway, here is the knife...

 

[Stuart Mitchell]

Original marketing material and the mark used to stamp the blade...

 

[sh1kar]

Another blast from the past, the U1 was developed through '93 and the very few that were made were made early '94.

Jack Black was the pen name of a local outdoors writer, mountaineering, hiking, kayaking, that type of stuff, he wrote for a few national magazines at that time.

Jack and we developed it jointly, he put a lot of work in behind the scenes, in particular talking to HT companies in order to attain the very best from the SF77 steel, I mean cryo quenching in '93, it was almost unheard of.

He marketed the knife through the magazines that he wrote for and it was taking off (even though we thought him crazy going in with a starter price tag of £130, in 1994), he was a visitor to the workshop most days, definitely every week, then one day just stopped, never heard from him, never saw him, like he'd fallen from the face of the earth.

Then a good while later whilst watching the local news the 'Pomona Incident' had run it's course in the courts and was covered, we then discovered that Jack's real name was Mark.

The Pomona Incident....

Anyway, here is the knife...



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Interesting. Have you ever thought of lining up the screw slots like H&H do on their actions?

S

 

[Stuart Mitchell]

Interesting. Have you ever thought of lining up the screw slots like H&H do on their actions?

S

Yes, and that would be common place today, it wouldn't get out of the 'shop like that these days, that is of a time and a place though.

 

[Klenchblaize]

It’s why hex head coach screws/bolts were invented!

K

 

[Stuart Mitchell]

It’s why hex head coach screws/bolts were invented!

K

There is a deal of truth in that, they and Torx make life much easier

 

[Stuart Mitchell]

Interesting. Have you ever thought of lining up the screw slots like H&H do on their actions?

S

Even then though you can see I knew that as the goal, if you look at the line drawing on the pamphlet, I drew that, front screw ever so slightly raked forward, centre one at 90 degrees with the centre line of the knife and rear screw raked backwards, that was the ideal.

There was a lot of brute force and ignorance fitting those screws in those days though, when they were tight, they were tight, a backwards turn would have been loose and a there was no forwards turn

 

[sh1kar]

Even then though you can see I knew that as the goal, if you look at the line drawing on the pamphlet, I drew that, front screw ever so slightly raked forward, centre one at 90 degrees with the centre line of the knife and rear screw raked backwards, that was the ideal.

There was a lot of brute force and ignorance fitting those screws in those days though, when they were tight, they were tight, a backwards turn would have been loose and a there was no forwards turn

Yea I see that. My ocd would need them
All parallel with the line of the handle

 

[Stuart Mitchell]

Yea I see that. My ocd would need them
All parallel with the line of the handle

I think your OCD would be wrong

 

[Shaun Goss]

Given the nature of his offences, perhaps he had spent a little too much time discussing knife ergonomics!

 

[Stuart Mitchell]

Given the nature of his offences, perhaps he had spent a little too much time discussing knife ergonomics!

I have no idea what happened outside that pub, obviously various stories were circulating.

From what I gather though I don't think he did himself any favours 'on the inside'.

 

[terrier1]

Looking at the blade I see alot of similarity to the .muntjac x. Did the idea for muntjac and muntjac x come from the Jack Black.

 

[Stuart Mitchell]

Looking at the blade I see alot of similarity to the .muntjac x. Did the idea for muntjac and muntjac x come from the Jack Black.

No, not at all.

If you were to compare side by side you'd see they are very different animals, this U1 is a big and heavy lump of a thing.

 

[finnbear270]

If true, some of those court proceedings could match an Iranian trial set up.

 

[Stuart Mitchell]

MuntjaX comparison…






Aligned where your forefinger would sit…






Here aligned with the plunges of the grinds…

 

[terrier1]

Thanks for the comparison I see what you mean by bigger.

 

[VSS]

Interesting. Have you ever thought of lining up the screw slots like H&H do on their actions?

S

The trouble with lining up screw slots is that each screw ends up either being backed off slightly or over tightened in order to match its neighbour, with the result that the strength of the finished item is compromised.

 

[Stuart Mitchell]

Thanks for the comparison I see what you mean by bigger.

No worries.

I got a couple more comparison shots whilst I was at it, I’ll post them up later.

 

[Stuart Mitchell]

The steel of the U1, at 5.5mm, is almost twice as thick as my ‘go to’ for the MuntjaX…

 

[Stuart Mitchell]

Just for the hell of it, against a Portland90…