Posts filed under 'Hobbit Hole Knives'
While we regretfully announce the end of the sheath knife program, the Hobbit Hole is proud and happy to announce another Camillus folding knife. It’s the brand-new (so new, it’s not even announced yet) Rescue, an auto-open (NOT a switchblade) knife designed for rescue work. Here it is, along with the trusty Camillus 904S.
Knife collectors will recognize it as based on the popular Camillus Heat, both of which use the “Robo Power” opening method. Once again, this is NOT a switchblade, and is legal in all 50 states.
With the discontinuing of the Camillus 5851 seatbelt cutter, the new Rescue becomes Camillus’ primary rescue knife. The blade is designed to cut seatbelts and aircraft harness, with the tip blunted for safety. The tip is slightly flattened for use as a screwdriver, too.
Other features include a tungsten carbide glass scorer/breaker in the butt, and a pocket clip that can be switched to the opposite side of the knife. They even throw in more tiny Torx screws and a wrench to accomplish that task.
This is NOT your average pocket knife. But if you’re a medic, combat lifesaver, or aircraft crew, this might be just the thing you’re looking for.
We have 40 knives promised to an Army aviation unit headed to Afghanistan, but will be able to get more knives as needed. Like the Camillus 904S, this will be a “stock” knife that we will try to keep in inventory for quick shipment. It costs us about twice what the 904S costs, but we will donate it proudly to any troops that require it.
October 1st, 2005
For all of you troops that now have the Camillus BK3 Tactool, or are requesting one, here’s a bit of history.
At the top is the current Becker Knife and Tool BK3, as made by Camillus. Below it is my personal BK3, bought from the inventory of the bankrupt Becker Knife and Tool. Camillus Cutlery bought the naming rights and designs, and made a few changes.
As you can see, the “old” BK3 is about an inch shorter. It also has cruder handles, a generic sheath, different serrations and hook, and less bevel on the blade. The blade is bead-blasted stainless steel, rather than epoxy-coated tool steel.
The significance of the “old” BK3 is that it has ridden around in my truck for the last five years, tucked out of the way on the floor between the seat cushion and console. The wrist strap allows me to pull the knife out, even when it’s hidden from view. I feel more comfortable when driving, knowing I have the perfect tool for getting into or out of a vehicle in an emergency.
As a side note, I do not recommend a wrist thong on any knife. It’s much better to drop the knife (and move away quickly) than to have a razor-sharp hunk of steel swinging around on a strap.
That being said, I’ll keep my old BK3 in my truck, and will happily send troops the new model made by Camillus. It’s the perfect tool for its intended job, either way.
August 30th, 2005
The Hobbit Hole still owes knives to many troops that asked for them. One “problem” we’re seeing now is that tours in Iraq are ending for some units that have requested knives.
If your unit’s APO is due to be deactivated within one month, please email me immediately. We’d like your home address, so we can mail it there, rather than have it chase you back and forth from your duty station. If we send the knife after your APO is deactivated, it could take weeks for the military mail system to return it to the US. It will still get to you, but it might take much longer.
We really wish we could have gotten the knife to you while you were still deployed, and could get some use out of it, but you get your knife, whether over there, or back home. It’s our way of saying thanks.
August was a busy month for knives. As the Hobbit Hole got mostly caught up on shipping the Gerber LMF, requests for Camillus knives piled up. The good news is, the Camillus knives themselves piled up, and we have them on hand. Here’s one of two large boxes of knives, waiting for me to put the finishing touches on them. Each knife shown still needs about an hour’s work before it’s in the box, and ready to take to the post office, with the customs form all filled out.
If the knives are to be shipped to a stateside address, I can print my own postage, and just drop them off at the post office when I go in to work at midnight. Anything going overseas requires me to stand in line at the post office, and have the customs forms processed.
So if you’re headed back home within a month, please consider having me send the knife to your home address, rather than risking delay by sending it to your APO. Thank you.
August 30th, 2005
Winmag is back in production and has knives to send (he describes the delays in his post below), but there is something of a backlog he is working through from all of the great troops that have requested knives.
It takes Winmag about a week when he gets a shipment of knives, to get them engraved, tuned and ready to ship. Mail transit time to Iraq has been running about 15 days… So those of you who are waiting, please be patient if you can 
They’re coming!
Which brings up something that has come up, if you are a soldier who is within a month of coming home, we might be better off shipping to your home address… We’ve had troubles of knives following troops all over the world on their way home, but always arriving too late.
August 25th, 2005
Thanks to everyone who has participated in our thread at Free Republic and have passed it along or sent donations. I hope our soldiers know how many people support their efforts!.
Free Republic Thread: Help us support our troops! [Knives for Soldiers]
August 8th, 2005
There are lots of steps to take from the time a knife arrives at my doorstep, until it gets mailed to a servicemember. Most of those steps involve getting rid of a lot of excess packaging while turning the knife into a Hobbit Hole “special”. This is a brief summary of what happens to a Camillus BK2 “Campanion”.
First, a photo of the “ingedients” in their original form, with the “finished product” at the bottom of the picture:
We see the nice large green box, the knife, sheath, cardboard safety sleeve, cleaning cloth, instructions, and a very nice business card from Camillus Cutlery. To that, the Hobbit Hole adds a diamond sharpener, and adapter to attach the knife to the loops on body armor, and our own cover letter.
The handles are removed from the blade, the blade is then laser-engraved, reassembled, honed, and put back in the sheath. The adaptor is then put on the sheath. Then everything is stuffed into a plastic bag, and taped shut. Once sealed, I know the knife is ready to put into a heavy-duty shipping box bought especially to house knives of this size.
And all those nice commercial boxes, vital to a knife collector, useless to a Soldier, get thrown away.
The original boxes have to be sacrificed because we would need an even bigger box to put it in, and the troops would just throw away the box when they got the knife, anyway. It’s easier to discard the box here, than ship it to Iraq, only to have it thrown away there.
This process also cuts down on the volume of packaging I have to store until the knife is mailed. Space is at a premium, as is funding.
July 23rd, 2005
While the Hobbit Hole proudly sends out the fine knives from Camillus Cutlery, I’m always on the lookout for other knives from other manufacturers that might fill specialized roles. One of those roles is an escape/survival knife for aircrew. I bought a Gerber LMF II with the intent of studying it closely for possible inclusion with our other kinds of knives.
I was extremely impressed with the thought that went into this specialized knife. The hard sheath is rubber-coated for quiet, the handle is electrically insulated from the blade and the smash-and-hammer butt, and there are tons of straps and adapters, not shown, that allow the knife to be affixed to any form of vest or armor equipped with PALS loops. And there’s even a harness/shroud line cutter in a separate pouch.
I was impressed enough to buy four more, and have our Hobbit Hole logo laser-engraved on the blade.
The knives have been sent out to Army, Navy, and Marine helicopter pilots for their opinions. There are some fine pilot knives already in the military inventory, but the Gerber seems so classy that we expect it to become quite popular.
If a demand develops, the Hobbit Hole will try to get the best deal possible on what might become a runaway hit.
July 7th, 2005
After receiving every last Camillus CQB3 “Black Ops” the factory had left, I sent an email to Michelle Finizio thanking her and Camillus for their support. I also mentioned that the Hobbit Hole would soon be “in the hole”, because we had already sent out almost 500 pocket knives, and the two-dozen-or-so sheath knives would not last long. Especially when Marines and Infantry find out about these superb knives.
She wrote back with an offer we literally could not refuse. Based on their faith in our mission, Camillus offered us the same knives as the US government was buying for them, at the same price. I can’t mention the exact price here, but knowing what these great knives sell for, even at discount dealers, the taxpayer, and the Hobbit Hole, were getting a great deal.
This enabled us to expand our “product line” of knives, and now every knife we give away is a Camillus. Here’s a picture of the knives we offer:
From the top, first is the CQB3. This knife has been discontinued by Camillus, and when our last few are gone, there will be no more. Below that is the “improved” version, the magnificent CQB1SG. “SG” stands for “serrated balde, government packaging”. It’s the same knife, but made with the super high-tech 154CM steel, and a different style of sheath.
Below that is the Camillus/Becker BK2 “Campanion”. This is a bit more utilitarian in nature, while the CQB series is strictly a fighting knife. But don’t let the stubby looks fool you. The blade is massive, and the deep curve of the blade gives just as much cutting edge as the CQB.
The fourth knife from the top is the Camillus/Becker BK3 “Tactool”. It was developed for the FBI as an entry tool that can cut, saw, slice, dice, or smash its way into or out of any tight situation. The knife is quite popular with Combat Engineers. The one shown here has the old Hobbit Hole markings, while the others have the new logo. The story behind the logo is a topic for a future article.
Below the BK3 is the standard Hobbit Hole folding knife, the Camillus 904S. It’s for those troops who don’t want or need a large sheath knife. Small enough to fit in a pocket, but big enough to handle most tasks. Don’t deploy without one.
At the bottom is a specialized knife, the Camillus seatbelt cutter. It can cut away webbing or clothing, and so medics and corpsmen have an interest in it. It can also be used to safely cut off the plastic restraints used in transporting enemy prisoners.
The Hobbit Hole also has some very special knives, intended for very special troops. That will be an article for some future installment in the Hobbit Hole knife department.
June 2nd, 2005
The Hobbit Hole has given away more items to the troops than just knives. When we find a product that the troops like, we often contact the manufacturer to share the compliments, and let them know how well the items were received. Often we would get back nice emails from a company representative, expressing their thanks for sharing the letters and emails. Many times the company will offer us special prices.
Our first Camillus “Black Ops” went to First Sergeant “Iron Mike” K. I was floored by the praise for this knife in an email from the infantryman. Troops are generally delighted with our pocket knives, but this professional soldier made our humble offering sound like a gift from heaven.
With nothing more to go on than the general-contact email address from their web site, I sent Camillus an email telling them about our little group, and the fabulous response to the first Camillus knife we sent out. Normally, this would bring back a polite, “thank you for sharing that with us” email.
In the case of Camillus Cutlery, the person handling emails from their site passed it on to their Government Accounts representative, Michelle Finizio. I received an email from her that was as gratifying and enthusiastic as the note from 1SG “Iron Mike”. After a few more exchanges of email, I got up the nerve to call her, and found her gracious and enthusiastic in her support of our efforts.
The first minor miracle she worked was to convince their warehouse manager to shake down the warehouse, looking for any Camillus “Black Ops” that had not yet been sold to discounters. It was only a handful, but enough to take care of the immediate demand, and offered to us at a most generous discount.
I had since learned that a pocket knife may go unnoticed in a troop’s pocket, but a fighting knife hanging from your body armor draws immediate notice. And word travels fast. Giving away fighting knives to Infantry and Marines is like tossing a raw steak to a hungry Rottweiler. It doesn’t last long. Emails started coming in quickly, and our small supply of Camillus “Black Ops” knives would soon be gone.
Michelle Finizio could not work another miracle in finding more “Black Ops”, but instead proposed a plan that would be an even bigger miracle. That story will be told in the next chapter of “The Camillus Story”.
April 27th, 2005
While the Hobbit Hole was happily shipping out the last of the CRKT folding knives, and the new Ka-Bar, fortune smiled on our efforts again. As usual, it started out small, and continued to expand until it changed the entire “product line” of our knives.
The small beginning was a closeout by an online dealer of the Camillus CQB “Black Ops” sheath knife. Until then, we only gave away small folding knives. They were “priced right”, and could fit in anyone’s pocket. But even in this age of military high tech, a good steel blade provides an extra measure of comfort for an infantryman over and above his rifle and body armor. As usual, the government tends to overlook this simple, non-tech item.
Up until then, sheath knives were out of the question for the Hobbit Hole because high quality doesn’t come cheap, especially for a knife which might be used to defend your life.
The Camillus CQB3 “street price” was $90, which is about the price range that really good combat knives start. The dealer was closing them out for $30! As has now become my habit, I ordered three, right on the spot. This is what we got for $30, about $5 more than what we were paying for our folding knives, when engraving was included:
To put it mildly, I was stuned by the quality. I’m no fan of knife fights, but it was a knife I would unhesitatingly trust my life with. The six-inch blade was superb tool steel, and took a fantastically sharp edge. There was even a small pouch on the sheath where a Hobbit Hole folding knife could be stored. The knife had everything going for it, except quantity. Being discontinued, supplies were limited, and the dealer balked at selling more than six more. Other Hobbit Hole members also bought some, and mailed them to me. This way, we eventually had over a dozen.
The only drawback I saw on the knife itself was the rather smooth and slick micarta handles. Digging around in my tool box, I found a square needle file that matched the notches in the steel tang perfectly. With that, I was able to file grooves in the thumb area of the handle that improved the feeling of a secure grip.
After a quick trip for laser engraving of our Hobbit Hole mark, the knives were ready to ship out to Infantry and other trigger-pullers who appreciate a fine piece of steel. The first knife went to the son of a freeper on Free Republic.
I expected an enthusiastic response, but the actual results exceeded my wildest dreams. The recipient of the first knife emailed back that his platoon sergeant had seen it, and was “blown away” by the practicality and quality of it. The next knives were also seen by other troops, and soon requests came flooding in for Soldiers and Marines eager for a Camillus of their own. The Hobbit Hole pocket knife started out slowly, but the fighting knife literally exploded on the scene, and threatened to deplete our meager stock of knives. It could only be classified as an instant mega-hit. Future installments of “The Camillus Saga” will show how the Hobbit Hole knife project was pushed into new directions, and picked up even more speed.
April 23rd, 2005
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