Ichiro Hattori of Japan made the original series. He started out in 1954 at Masohiro in Japan making knives for export to Tekna. In 1971 he opened his own workshop and made hunting knives. The fighter first appeared in 1978 as a handmade from his shop and could be ordered with a choice of 4 woods for handle material. Mine was ordered in 1982 with Cocobolo. I ordered one in Ebony in 1989 that is slightly different in blade geometry (about 1.5mm longer with a slightly different placement of the blood groove). I think it would be hard to find all the minor variations as there are no serial numbers and no differentiation of lots that I can find. Junglee approached Hattori in 1993 about mass producing his knives in Taiwan. All of the Junglee production has been in 440c while originals can be found in ATS-34 or more recently AUS-8 steels. The big draw to the Junglee was its price at <$75 and its immediate availability. Originals can still be bought if/when he makes a run of them but they run $300-600 depending on materials (still a bargain for the quality) and usually sell out his production runs in less than a day.
Iāve got a couple of those, SanRenMu are starting to use Sandvik 12C27 in some of their new knives, it makes a nice change but they do 8Cr13MoV heat treat so well itāll be hard to beat. They are both good quality relatively inexpensive steels.
What I do find a bit disconcerting is SanRenMu have stopped putting the steel type on the blades of the smaller āhome marketā knives. I trust SanRenMu not to misrepresent the steels in the specs for a knife, they have built a good reputation and I doubt that they would want to destroy that, but the likes of FastTech and Exduct are not too careful in the descriptions.
Couple of strange ones today doing some yard work.
Byrd HB is the only knife I own that is tip down, the clip mounting location for tip-up is exactly where your palm goes. The kershaw has a very cool lock.
Both are nightmareās to sharpen.
Iām presuming that the Byrd serrations are the same, different, size as Spyderedge serrations.
Iāve a couple of items that might help with the sharpening - Lansky make a ceramic sharpener for Spyderco serrations - Lansky Spdyer sharpener.
And for all plain edged blades but especially good on recurve blades - Lansky 4 rod turn box.
Iāve linked to a U.K. supplier, obviously youāll get them for less if you are in the U.S.A.
Thereās also a Spyder sharpener for Cold Steel serrations and a multi sharp for normal serrations, they all sharpen plain blades as well.
A lot less money than a Spyderco Sharpmaker, over here anyway.
I only have one Spyderedge blade so the Lansky Spyder Sharpener was ideal for me
For it (and all serrations) I use a paper wheel. For the kershaw I use my DMT Diamond files in a custom block I made out of Cherry. I have a pretty advanced sharpening setup, I actually enjoy sharpening / maintenance more than acquiring new blades!
I quite like sharpening as well.
I have a lot of Lansky sets with the hones including the diamond set and use them for damaged blades or re-profiling but I had nothing for deep recurves so I decided that instead of paying for a set of the curved hones that a crock stick set would be the way to go and Iām loving it.
The hones are great and I leave them assembled with the rods so itās quicker to set up but the crock stick gives a very sharp finish for little effort. I can stick it in a pocket and take it out and about, Iāve even attached a spirit level to the top so I can be sure if itās level on uneven surfaces.
Iāve seen the paper wheels but at the moment have nothing to put them on to spin them.
I got a 7078 after reading your review here, and Iāve been carrying it all week , mindlessly flipping it open. I like the ball detente lock better than I thought I would. It hasnāt loosened up yet but it is a fun knife.