Knives Illustrated – August 2019

The Hambone was

needed several times

while cleaning a tough

old rooster in a recent

Randall’s Adventure

and Training survival

class.

Legendary Pack Mule

I love a good backstory behind a product and this one has a good one.

The Hambone is named after a legendary hard-working U.S. Army pack

mule, Hamilton T. Bone (a.k.a. Hambone), who served a 14-year military

career (1943-1956) carrying artillery and supplies for the Cavalry. He

served two combat missions during World War II and gained notoriety

with appearances in three Hollywood films, and a July 1949 issue of Life

magazine.

In his post-retirement life, Hambone’s silvery white coat and spectacular

jumping ability made him a popular celebrity at equestrian shows and

rodeos. Hambone died March 29, 1971 and was laid to rest during a

military ceremony at Fort Carson, Colorado — where Hambone, Clint and

their Cavalry teams were stationed.

— Case Knives

In this photo, students

are batoning through

bone to quarter up a

rooster.

one features two pieces of Kydex

sandwiching a Micarta liner. It seemed

very well-designed with plenty of

eyelets for paracord, aftermarket

ferro rod holders, and so on. Retention

seemed very good and there would be

no issue of it unintentionally coming out

of the sheath. The front of the sheath is

adorned with the green and black star

to symbolize military service, while the

lightweight clip holds the Hambone

securely in place on your belt.

I knew there would be plenty of

opportunities to put the knife through

its paces over the next several days and

I was looking forward to seeing whether

its performance would live up to its

looks.

Field Use

A big part of the class is spent on safe

and ešcient knife skills. I stress using

the right tool for the job if you have

it, but if you don’t, your fixed-blade

knife should be able to handle some

heavy use. I used the Hambone for a

variety of tasks while demonstrating

di™erent grips, notches, snap cutting,

and batoning.

A good way to determine if a knife

is going to work for you is to use it

for a multitude of tasks; such as fire

prep, shelter building, making traps,

processing animals and so forth. After

a full day of use, you will know if there

are any features of the handle or scales

which have caused blisters or hot spots.

Although I don’t have as much

experience using a knife with this much

of an upswept blade for these types

of tasks, I quickly learned how to use

it to its full potential. The 80CrV2

steel blade performed flawlessly, as I

expected it to, easily cutting through

green wood while cutting a variety of

commonly used notches.

If you aren’t familiar with 80CrV2

(and I wasn’t), it is a carbon steel

similar to the composition of 1080,

with the addition of small amounts

of chromium and vanadium. A close

inspection of the edge, after doing

some cross grain batoning, and also

splitting some seasoned oak with the

aid of a beater stick, revealed zero

nicks or edge rolling.

The blade shape and thin profile

seemed ideal for animal processing, so

when the time came to teach students

how to safely and properly clean and

cook an animal, I knew immediately

which knife I wanted to use. After

“THE FIRST THING I NOTICED WHEN I PULLED IT OUT

OF THE BOX WAS THE BEAUTIFUL CURLY MAPLE

SCALES AND HOW GOOD IT FELT IN THE HAND.”

knivesillustrated.com JULY/AUGUST 2019 • KNIVES ILLUSTRATED 69