pmcimagazine.com
GRAY’S CUSTOM
KNIVES:
THE WANDERER
A
36
t this year’s Blade Show in Atlanta, Georgia, I
was fortunate enough to meet Craig Burhart,
the founder of Skallywag Tactical. Since
meeting, Craig and I have had the opportunity
to develop a great working relationship and
friendship through the love of great blades and
field testing some of the rock solid creations
built for the Skallywag crew by a small,
hardcore knife shop called Gray’s Custom
Knives. Craig generously offered to introduce me to the owner
of Gray’s Custom, Javan Roberts and I couldn’t say YES fast
enough. Javan’s company has been cranking out awesome
knives over the past few years under by the Skallywag banner
as well as Gray’s Custom Knives that have really started to get
noticed by current and former top SPEC OPS warriors. The latest
of these top shelf knives has been geared towards the growing
population survivalists or “bushcraft” community, titled “The
Wanderer”. Javan was kind enough to send a sample of this
new blade to me a couple of months ago to give it a whirl
and report my findings for our readers. Unlike most other
companies, Gray’s Custom Knives listens to the end users and
takes what they have to say to heart in providing the best
product they can for those whose lives may one day depend on
a Gray’s blade. In the cold business world of selling knives or
anything else for that matter, this is a rare gem!
Like its Old English poetic namesake, this Bushcrafting tool
conveys the meditations of a solitary exile in which is often the
case of this unique hobby of honing one’s wilderness
By Trampas Swanson
survival skill set. In the simplest of forms, the Wanderer holds
the key to sustaining life along one’s travels into the wild when
wielding by the properly skilled individual.
As the guys with Gray’s Custom Knives state, the Wanderer
was very much inspired by the Ray Mears “Woodlore” knife,
but I can assure you, this blade is definitely cutting its own path
through the industry. With its wide spine and razor sharp 4.5
inch blade, each knife is made from CPM4V heat treated to an
aim hardness of 62/64hrc. The overall length of the Wanderer
is right at 9 inches, hollow ground with a deep etched Gray’s
Custom makers mark. The handle scales are made of green
micarta with vulcanized fiber red liner and attached with Gray’s
Custom brass hardware.