Benghazi Warfighters put to work: Feral hog #578

I got these pictures today in my e-mail from the customer who had gotten a matched pair of Benghazi Warfighters for himself and his wife.  This is the 578th feral hog that the wife has killed since the spread of the porcine plague reached their ranch in early 2008.  It's around 220 pounds.

 

If you haven't seen the damage a herd of hogs can do in a single night, it is amazing and devastating.  They have reached my family's farm in the last couple of years and when they hit it looks like someone got drunk and went plowing, tearing up acres of ground as they search for grubs and other edibles.  They are a terrible infestation here in Texas, and I rejoice at every one killed.

 

Since these are killed for population control (and due to their huge numbers), the wife typically cuts out the backstrap and disposes of the rest of the carcass.  She commented on how the blade cut effortlessly through the tough hide "like butter" and how the handle fit her comfortably.  Both are things I like to hear from a customer.  :)

 



 

New tooling

If you haven't seen it yet, head over to the stock removal side of Helm Enterprises and see the new heat treatment furnace that I just got set up for use on tomahawks and other fun projects:  www.helmgrind.com

Pair of double-edged Benghazi Warfighters

This was a commission for a husband-and-wife pair of sharp-and-pointies.  5160 steel, triple normalized, triple hardened, triple tempered.  Canvas Micarta handles with flared stainless steel tubing rivets. 

And Kydex sheaths with TekLoks.

They shave on the tops and bottoms, which impressed the customer.  He said he hadn't gotten a knife with a sharpened top edge that was that sharp before.  :D  They ain't his first custom knives, either.

Forging ahead

Just to show you I'm still out there working on some sharp-and pointies:

Also, check out the Helm Enterprises, Grinding Division blog to see some of the tooling that I've been working on to use in building my tactical tomahawks:  www.helmgrind.com

Hiatus from commissions

Hi, folks.

It's been one crazy summer.  Three knife shows, family medical stuff, the wheels falling off of my poor old pickup (well, almost; the brake booster and wheel bearings went out in rapid succession), and work to launch my stock removal line of blades (Helm Enterprises, Grinding Division  www.helmgrind.com).

So I have gotten behind in taking care of custom orders.  There's a lot of communication involved in building a custom knife, so even if I have you written down on my list, discussing new commissions divides my attention and can make it hard to keep track of what I need to work on right now.

To help with keeping focused on taking care of the customers who have already made commissions with me, I am taking a break from accepting new commissions until I can get more caught up.  I am working on them right now in batches, which is more efficient than working on one at a time.  I'll be posting the new work as I finish it up, just like usual.  I'll also be continuing to work on prototyping and streamlining the process of building my line of stock removal blades as I do that.

1.  If you're active duty military and you're looking for a knife, go ahead and contact me.  You go to the front of the line.
2.  If you've commissioned a blade from me and we haven't communicated in a while, drop me a line.  I'm only human and I sure want to make sure that I have you on the list of blades I'm working on.
3.  If we're in the process of discussing a commission, don't worry.  You got in under the wire.  :)  We'll get everything hashed out and you'll be added to the list.

Thanks for all your patience and for taking an interest in my work.  It is greatly appreciated!