Uncle Henry – The ExhaustNotes Blog

By Joe Berk

Sharpfingeritis is a disease, and I have it. To the tune of 15 of these knives, 12 of which I ordered today. My affliction is severe, but I don’t care.

My disease stage is probably what healthcare professionals would call tertiary Sharpfingeritis. It started innocently enough with one of the Sharpfingers entering my system. I didn’t even recognize it as a Sharpfinger until Dr. Feelgood pointed it out. Then I stopped by Bass Pro and saw the Bear and Son Sharpfinger, it was cheap enough, and I bought it. Then I saw the Old Timer Generational online, it’s made in America, and Amazon had it on sale. You know, Prime days. Bam! Just like that, I owned three of the things (the three you see in the photo below). I didn’t recognize my deteriorating condition at the time, but these purchases marked the early onset of my Sharpfingeritis. The symptoms were beginning to reveal themselves.

Then my Sharpfingeritis deteriorated even more rapidly. I found my way to the Smoky Mountain Knife Works site (they’re great people to work with), and I started poking around for other Sharpfingers. Boy oh boy, they had them!

One of the Old Timer Sharpfinger variants has brown and caramel colored Delrin handles instead of the normal black. Got to have one of those to match my other Old Timer knives. What’s that? Add to cart? You bet!

Oh, wow: They have an orange one, too. And it was cheap. Add to cart. Got it.

Oooh, an Old Timer combo pack with yellow handles and a matching pocketknife. $21.99, but it includes that matching pocketknife. That’s cool. It’s a good deal. Add to cart. That was easy.

Oooh again: Another one, this time an Uncle Henry, with Staglon handles (fake deer antler) and a challenge coin. I don’t know what a challenge coin is, but I took it as a challenge to hit that “add to cart” button. At $19.99, I was in.

Then the Rite Edge world opened before me. Laminated wood handles. $7.99. How could anyone not buy this?

Another Rite Edge, this time with more fake deer stuff. And it, too, was only $7.99. Hey, I figure every time I buy one of these, I’m saving a deer’s life.

Yet another company jumped into the Smoky Mountain mix: Frost. Oooh, this one is pretty. I thought it was another fake stag knife, but on closer inspection, it’s got wolves scrimshawed into the fake ivory handle. I like it. $10.99. Add to cart.

Frost has a fake jigged red bone Sharpfinger. I’m not too sure what jigged means, the red bone is probably really plastic of some sort, but at $7.99, how could I go wrong?

Then the heavy artillery opened up. Oooh. Double ooooh. A Sharpfinger with mother of pearl and turquoise and some red stuff inlaid on the handles. A bit more than most of the others at $19.99, but this disease is relentless. Add to cart. Got it.

I told my buddy Paul about my ordering all the above (he’s the guy who gave me this disease), and a few minutes later he told me he ordered the blue lightning model. Blue lightning? What’s that? It was back to the Smoky Mountain Knife Works site. Wow, how did I miss that one?

Paul also mentioned he ordered the antique green jigged version. Damn, I had missed that one, too, but at $9.99, it was a no-brainer for me to hit add to cart. I’m real good at no-brainer stuff. I’m not sure why.

And finally, there was the Marbles Sharpfinger. Marbles makes great knives. This was the deal of the day: $6.99. Add to cart and I was done.

Well, almost done. I’m going to have to explain all this to Sue. But that’s a tomorrow problem. Today, my Sharpfingeritis notwithstanding, I’m feeling good.

By Joe Berk

For a guy who doesn’t collect knives, I sure seem to have a lot of them laying around. The one you see above came to me as part of what is perhaps the greatest sales gimmick of all time: The “$100 Ships Free!” offer.

You know, the MidwayUSA.com come on…orders over $100 ship free. I ordered a Safariland 1¾-inch wide belt in a smaller size because I lost weight, I got down to the last belt buckle hole on my old Safariland belt, and my pants were still loose. The new belt was $71 (a lot, I know, but it works well when carrying concealed and Safariland makes a very high quality item). If I could kick the order over $100 the belt would ship free. Shipping if I didn’t make the $100 hurdle was $15. So this Uncle Henry knife popped up, and it was like getting the knife for half price, because it ordinarily cost just over $30.

Bam! Add to cart. A no brainer, if ever there was one.

The knife is a Schrade, part of their Uncle Henry line. I don’t know if that means it’s good or not so good. I couldn’t find anywhere on the knife that says it’s made in China, but I guessed that it was. A quick Google check confirmed it. That’s not a bad thing, though. The knife appears to be well made. A lot of things that are made in China are good.

The Uncle Henry knife came with a sheath and a tiny sharpening stone in another piggy-backed sheath (the idea being that you’ll always have a way to sharpen your knife), not that I’ll ever use the sharpening stone. The stone is small enough that I could see myself slicing my hand open trying to hold it.

The Stagalon grip material is some sort of plastic that is supposed to look like, you know, stag. That’s okay by me. For just over $30, I wasn’t expecting real stag. I wasn’t expecting the Stagalon to look as good as it does, either. That was a nice surprise. Stagalon. I guess I could make a video of the knife and call it a stag film. Maybe just saying stag film will result in a lot of hits. Do they still call them stag films these days, or is that no longer politically correct?. Isn’t that terminology kind of insulting to all the deer out there sweating out this hunting season? Anyway, to get back to Stagalon, the handle doesn’t quite match the look and feel of real stag, but it is kind of cool and it is nice.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do with my Uncle Henry Stagalon knife, other than look at it for awhile and write a blog about it. If I was a camper I suppose I could wear it in the woods, but I don’t camp much these days (in my golden years, I find I like motels a lot better). No, this knife will go on the shelf, along with a bunch of other “$100 Ships Free!” knives. It is kind of cool, though.

Join our Facebook ExNotes page!

Never miss an ExNotes blog: