James grew up on an Ozarks farm where tools like axes and picks were still used in the daily routine and the blades of stockman's pocketknives served their original functions. Receiving his first pocketknife at age four he got it open by himself nearly a year later and spent his formative years wandering the woods with a succession of ever larger knives, a book of matches and a rifle.
A veteran of Vietnam, James also served in Alaska during a stint in the Army, receiving his first intensive culinary training by setting a record for extra KP at Ft. Richardson.
Settling in the Pacific Northwest after his discharge, James crewed on sailing yachts in local races, backpacked hundreds of miles of mountain trails in search of good trout fishing, and occasionally attended college.
His first serious job as a civilian resulted from answering a Seattle Post Intelligencer want ad requesting someone who could lift 120 pounds repeatedly and wasn't afraid of fire. James apprenticed to John Frazier -- the most knowledgeable traditional foundryman in North America at that time -- for the next six years.
Returning to the Ozarks James made his living by growing ginseng on a hand-terraced wooded hillside and selling handmade wood turnery, furniture, sculpture and architectural carvings. James harvested trees from his own land, processing logs into posts and beams and turnery billets with saws, axes, froes and planes. Since many tools he needed were no longer available, James built his own forge from a barbeque grill, a vacuum cleaner and a 55 gallon steel drum, found a chunk of railroad track for his first anvil, and taught himself blacksmithing -- creating his own knives and tools from scrap steel and sweat.
Changing economic pressures eventually forced James back to the restaurant industry in Branson, Missouri, and later to even more success as a maintenance engineer for one of Branson's largest condominium resorts. Finally escaping to Indiana, James now makes his living telling true stories as a freelance writer.
Cutting roughly a third of length and weight out, compared to the large version of the SOG Woodline, the Woodline WD02-L still provides plenty of knife. In fact, you may not miss that extra inch of blade at all.
Overall length of the small fixed blade Woodline is 8.7 inches, meaning almost two inches total was evenly trimmed from both handle and blade. At 5.9 ounces, the small Woodline also dropped about two ounces of weight — if you travel where every ounce counts, that means a lot. Four inches of high carbon 8Cr13MoV stainless steel ought to be enough to handle anything up to the size of a whitetail if you’re careful. With an edge hardness of 57-58 on the Rockwell scale, you can expect good edge-holding but should be prepared with a whetstone or diamond hone if working on something big.
Since the Woodline doesn’t have the usual SOG tactical style there’s no false upper edge, and you can drive the blade with a wooden baton if necessary. The flat grind gives the knife more strength than a hollow ground style and still takes a razor-sharp edge for the fine work. There’s also plenty of jimping on the spine for applying thumb pressure or fingertip control of the blade.
The Woodline’s unusual bead-blasted stainless steel bolster provides a deep finger choil for extra grip and gives the knife a distinctive appearance. Instead of a rat-tail or full tang, here you get a blend — a wide tang holds the handle slab fittings securely, but the hardwood grip fully covers the tang for a seamless look and a comfortable handhold.
The Woodline includes a belt sheath of real leather, and with the sheath’s security strap snapped, you won’t need to worry about the knife getting lost. With the strap around the finger choil, the knife is securely locked in place. String a wrist lanyard through the heel of the handle for extra safety.
See the Woodline Folding Knife if you’d prefer a compact version of SOG’s new civilian survival blade.
James grew up on an Ozarks farm where tools like axes and picks were still used in the daily routine and the blades of stockman's pocketknives served their original functions. Receiving his first pocketknife at age four he got it open by himself nearly a year later and spent his formative years wandering the woods with a succession of ever larger knives, a book of matches and a rifle.
A veteran of Vietnam, James also served in Alaska during a stint in the Army, receiving his first intensive culinary training by setting a record for extra KP at Ft. Richardson.
Settling in the Pacific Northwest after his discharge, James crewed on sailing yachts in local races, backpacked hundreds of miles of mountain trails in search of good trout fishing, and occasionally attended college.
His first serious job as a civilian resulted from answering a Seattle Post Intelligencer want ad requesting someone who could lift 120 pounds repeatedly and wasn't afraid of fire. James apprenticed to John Frazier -- the most knowledgeable traditional foundryman in North America at that time -- for the next six years.
Returning to the Ozarks James made his living by growing ginseng on a hand-terraced wooded hillside and selling handmade wood turnery, furniture, sculpture and architectural carvings. James harvested trees from his own land, processing logs into posts and beams and turnery billets with saws, axes, froes and planes. Since many tools he needed were no longer available, James built his own forge from a barbeque grill, a vacuum cleaner and a 55 gallon steel drum, found a chunk of railroad track for his first anvil, and taught himself blacksmithing -- creating his own knives and tools from scrap steel and sweat.
Changing economic pressures eventually forced James back to the restaurant industry in Branson, Missouri, and later to even more success as a maintenance engineer for one of Branson's largest condominium resorts. Finally escaping to Indiana, James now makes his living telling true stories as a freelance writer.
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Cutting roughly a third of length and weight out, compared to the large version of the SOG Woodline, the Woodline WD02-L still provides plenty of knife. In fact, you may not miss that extra inch of blade at all.
