Thanks for the info Bill and the clarification on the name. I think I am going to purchase a lifting and the sharp point knife from Talus. The sharp point from Talus does look to be a nice blade, I have seen some cheaper versions on the web that do not look as good. The sharp point knife looks identical to what I remember Benedict using. He really appeared to have great control with this knife and he knew how to keep it sharp.
Rory,
I sometimes use my opinel knife and find that the slightly curved portion of the blade allows for greater control in terms of removing little shavings, but it is combersome because the blade is long and you are trying to control that little edge way at the tip - well, difficult for me to contol at least especially when I run out of Whiskey and the delerium tremens set in 
. A straight edge blade will initially have good control because the cane surface is curved and there is only a small contact patch, but as you reduce the curvature of the cane by making the scrape the blade wants to engage a larger area, and sometimes not where you intended it to be. Well, that is my experience at least, others obviously have no problem. Benedict gave me the benefit of a one-on-one demonstration of his reed making method and I am convinced that he could make a reed with a machette if he wanted to. With practice comes control.
I found a Japanese carving knife really cheap at a salvage store and modified it slightly. It is now my tool of choice. I searched for “Japanese carving knife” and found a source on-line…
http://www.japanwoodworker.com/product.asp?s=JapanWoodworker&pf_id=11.200.07&dept_id=13648
I made two slight modifications to it in order to reduce the tendency of the knife to dig in; I removed most of the bevel from the side facing the reed surface (bevel up when cutting) and I gave the edge a very slight curve along its length. Both of these helped the knife behave more predictably. Another nice feature about this particualr knife is that the cuting edge is short so you don’t have all that extra sharp stuff waving in the breeze and threating your fingers.
Bzzzt,
that pointed knife is made by Dexter. I have several almost identical to it, except that they are not pointed, so not as useful in an alley fight 
. The back of the blade is ~0.060" thick, made from a high carbon steel and very sharp; they work well. I don’t use it much now because of the issue I mention above - the blade is so long it is kinda scary. At some point I should just cut the blade down to size so it is more user-friendly because it is a pretty good knife for this step in reed making.
John
The worst cut I had so far was from a slip of cane. I was paring the slip down with the knife when it pulled through my fingers,pain and lots of blood are best avoided so I now hold the slip in a towel while paring it down to size.
RORY