A shot of the Bob Dozier Agent :
The review consists of :
The Agent from Bob Dozier is a custom fixed blade weighing 140 g, 170 g in the Kydex sheath. The blade is handle heavy with the center of mass 3.5 centimeters behind the blade, 2.5 centimeters behind the center of the index finger in a hammer grip. The knife is made by stock removal out of 0.140" thick D2 tool steel, the maximum blade width is 2.5 centimeters, the overall length is 19.4 centimeters, and the blade is 8.4 centimeters long with 7.4 centimeters of sharpened edge.
The Agent has a primary hollow grind 1.65 centimeters high, the edge is 0.015-0.022" thick and 35 (2) degrees included. Measuring the profile in 1/8" increments back from the edge gives 0.032, 0.047, 0.070, 097, and 0125" thick respectively. The tip has an almost full length swedge, which is 0.18" wide at maxium which is 0.045" thick at the halfway point down the blade, angle of the swedge is 14.6 degrees.
The fit and finish is high overall outside of issues with blade sharpness, the tang is flush with the Micarta slabs as are the pins. The laynard ring could be champhered however.
In the sharp region near the base of the blade, push cutting the 3/8" hemp required 31 +/- 3 lbs with no aggression on a on a two inch draw, outside of some bite near the choil. An attempt was made to cut the hemp with the regions of blade reflecting light, the cuts failed at over 100 lbs, it was very difficult to apply such a high amount of force, mainly due to the swedge.
With the initial edge, and a 50 lbs push the Agent sank 129 (5) pages into a phone book and with a hard vertical stab reached 557 (30) pages. On the stab, the penetration was a bit lower than optimal for the profile because the grip security was not high enough to allow full power on a stab, a hooked thumb over butt grp was needed to keep the blade in hand.
The Dozier was sharpened including some reshaping and the stock tests showed significantly better performance. An overview :
| Condition | thread | hemp | phone book | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| push | stab | |||
| NIB | 110-380 | 31 +/- 3 | 129 +/- 5 | 557 +/- 30 |
| Honed | 90-100 | 27 +/- 2 | 183 +/- 4 | 602 +/- 17 |
With the reprofiled edge, the Agent worked decently well in the kitchen for work such as peeling vegetables, cutting meats and working with small pieces of bread, the centered point also works well for coring and such. Of course there are more opimal patterns for this type of work, but the Agent does well for a "tactial" knife.
For precision carving and shaping the Agent works well. The edge profile is not optomized for wood work, however the small handle is an asset as it can fit in the hand which allows the thumb to be hooked over the end which aids in precison tip work as does the center pointed tip. It is for example far easier to drill a small hole in a piece of wood with the Agent than a Ratweiler. It is also easier to work with the point hollowing out sections of wood for a spoon bowl than a larger knife like the Safari Skinner or H1. As well, it works nicely scraping wood for tinder and making shavings to fuel the initial blaze.
However, during an attempt to make a bowl in a piece of pine, the tip of the Agent snapped off readily under light force. The knife had been pressed a quarter inch into the wood and an attempt was made to pry the chip up. About a half a centemeters of blade was lost, the knife was 0.05" thick at the break point. The blade had a very slight bend in the tip, just a degree or two, barely visible. Thus when working with woods, either cut / score the surface to weak it, or keep the digging very shallow. A shot of the broken tip :
The Safari Skinner was used to clear the wood (same piece) to a similar and slighter greater depth without harm.
As a chopping tool, the Agent is too small to generate any power on a swing. It can be used with a baton on small woods, but its short blade length makes such work inefficient. The point can also be used to weaken wood to the point of making it readily breakable, but it takes time. On a 1x4 inch piece of board it takes on average 40-50 seconds to make enough holes to make an easy break and a Felco pruning saw this board is cut in 4.5 seconds. The performance difference grows as the wood gets larger. On some fairly dense 2x4s, the Felco averaged 9-11 seconds and the Agent 4-6 minutes. Due to the leverage issue with thicker woods, less wood has to be left in the center to allow an easy break. It is also easier to break if more of the cutting is done more from one side and then that side placed so it will be the part that opens when the wood cracks.
Of course a lot of wood can be broken if just placed over a rock on an angle and just jumped on, however for building materials clean cuts are sometimes necessary and breaking larger woods in that manner ins't practical. Similar problems regarding performance restrictions due to length come up when gathering grasses and light weeds, shrubs for tinder and/or construction material (insultion for clothing/beds, padding for shelter walls, etc.), the short blade length increases time involved. The functionality can be greatly increased by attaching the Agent to a small stick making a pseudo small bill-hook. With a little cord, perferably elastic, and a few minutes time, a decently deft tool can be made. Care needs to be taken here as the steel isn't designed to take impacts well like the steels normally used in such tools.
The Agent was lashed to a piece of hardwood with some twine and used as a bill-hook on some weeds and grasses for about half an hour. No problems with security. However just a few test chops into some wood quickly snapped the twine. Even heavy gauge copper wire broke readily when it was used as a wrapping. The Agent is also hard to lash to woods because of the round handle (which of course makes it ergonomic). Some shaping of the wood beforehand would make tha attachment easier.
Similar as to noted in the wood shaping when exploring the Agent for brush work, the knife performed well for a number of tasks which required precison point work. For example drilling small holes in plastic to serve as attachment points for copper tubing, used to lash a broken plastic container together.
The Agent was compared to a Safari Skinner on cardboard and no siginificant difference was noted in edge retention for both push cutting and slicing over multiple finishes. The Agent was also compared to a Paramilitary in S30V on used carpet and did well when dry, however fell behind when the carpet was cut wet.
Under 10x magnification large teeth were visible on the initial indicating a finish left by a coarse belt. To reset the edge, it was honed for 15 minutes with a 200 grit silicon carbide waterstone, then finished with a 800 and then 4000 grit waterstones for about three minutes each. The edge was now free of defects and at a decent polish, catching a few hairs on an attempt at shaving. However a test run on the Sharpmaker set at 20 degrees revealed the edge angles were uneven, 10-15 degrees on one side, 25-30 on the other.
To even out the edge, the blade was given a few passes on a 40 grit ZO belt, followed by a few swipes on a 100 grit AO belt to smooth out the scratches. This reduced the included angle to 30 (2) degrees, with all the drop being from the one side to even out the edge profile. The blade was honed on a series of waterstones, starting from 200 silicon carbide and ending at 4000 AO. A final edge bevel was applied using the fine rods on a Sharpmaker set at 20 degrees, to produce a fine polish.
With the modified edge profile, the microbevels could be removed with 100 passes per side with the silicon carbide hone and the blade polished with 100 passes per side with the 800 and then 4000 grit AO waterstones to a fine shaving finish. The edge was later made more acute, evening up the bevels almost prefectly which were now ground at 11.8 +/- 0.6 degrees per side. The edge was from 0.024-0.030" thick (on the right side).
While D2 has a poor reputation for ease of sharpening due to its low grindability this isn't an issue if the tasks are suitable for the steel and appropiate stones are used. For example even after the Agent was extensively blunted by cutting up sods it was completely reset in 1.5 minutes with an x-coarse waterstone, and then finished to a razor edge in above five minutes.
The Dozier Agent was stabbed it into a concrete block 12 times. There was no effect on the tip aside from some impaction. The edge chipped up to 0.015" thick when it smacked a fairly large rock in the concrete. The stabs were as hard as possible, full shoulder swings, the knife is so light though that the impact energy is of corse still fairly small :
The impacts were hard enough so that the Agent was actually getting stuck into the block :
The tip was thick enough to prevent bending, but thin enough to get good penetration, about 1/4" on each stab. The grip had to be reset after each couple of stabs as there was little to no guard nor traction on the handle. The Agent was then chopped into the side of the block fifty times, first were light impacts, just wrist, and the second full effort from the shoulder. The edge chipped the same in both cases as the light ones whacked into a couple of large rocks and the heavy ones cut mainly the cement. The damage was up to 0.020" thick. A shot :
The edge had been reground to ten degrees per side before the above, it was then reground to 22 degrees per side (five passes per side on a worn 100 grit AO belt) removing all the damage and leaving a shaving sharp edge, about 30 s. The chopping was repeated with heavy swings and no significant depth of damage was evident, the edge was just blunted. The knife is just too light to impact with any energy.
The Agent was also later used alongside a Howling Rat to chisel cut the hinges off A SUV. The Agent broke readily before making even a partial cut while the Howling Rat was able to cut through several of the thick sections of steel before breaking as the steel is far more resistant to impacts.
The handle is made from Micarta with a slight index finger cutout, which isn't so deep that it limits grip versatility. The ergonomics are high in general but the security low, without a guard and the smooth finish, it was difficult to maintain control of the grip when lubricated with fats or oils. hard stabs were not possible without using the thumb over the butt to prevent the hand from sliding forward onto the blade.
In general the handle worked well for precision work, and tended to fall short for heavy cutting. For light cutting, the slim grip fit well in hand, which could easily encompass the entire handle. This made the knife more controlable for most of such work, especially point work. However when the Agent was required to do a lot of extensive cutting, such as roughing out a large piece of wood to shape, a much more hand filling grip would be of benefit. Specifically the H1 was much more ergonomic.
As an "extended" aspect of the grip, the unsharped region of blade in the choil allows full and smooth cuts, without any possibly for catching on deep penetration. However unlike a finger cutout like on the Safari Skinner, it is somewhat difficult to sharpen right to the end of the edge on the Agent, plus comfort in choked up grips is more limited, and of course the finger is not as protected from the edge.
The Kydex sheath is very slim, and fits the blade well, no rattle. To draw the knife it has to be pulled up slightly to split the sheath and relax the hold on the blade. The belt loop is even molded to the shape of the sheath and thus appears integral. It is attached only on one side which allows it to be placed on the belt, or removed, without taking off the belt. This does lower security of attachment somewhat obviously. However the sheath blunts a section of the blade, a one centimeters region of the edge near the tip is readily impacted after the blade is sheathed and drawn.
The Agent has the profile of a small tactical or heavy use utility knife, as the primary grinds are fairly thick and the edge decently robust for a small knife. However the steel is fairly brittle and inflexible so care needs to be taken to avoid flexing and hard impacts. Though D2 has a high hardness and wear resistance which allows it to cut abrasive and hard materials for a long time. Know what you want the knife to do and choose accordingly.
Comments can be emailed to cliffstamp[REMOVE]@cutleryscience.com or by posting in the following thread on Bladeforums :
More information can be obtained at the Bob Dozier website.
| Last updated : | 01 : 25 : 2006 |
| Originally written: | 04 : 05 : 2005 |