Thought I would put together a bit of a review of some different cutting tools, some common, some not so! (Some of you may recognise your old knives!)
Any how the candidates are;
Granny B Small Forest Axe
Cold Steel Bushman
Shrade X Timer
Frost Mora
Paul Baker (Not sure of model)
Cold Steel Canadian Belt Knife
Frost Utility Knife
I performed a simple set of tasks with each knife these included, shaving a feather stick, stricking a fire steel on the back edge, and batoning them into a log with a single blow.
Here are the results from each knife
Granny B SFA
Creates Curles easily though has a tendancy to slice them off the wood
There are no edges on the axe that would produce sparkes with a fire steel as they are all rounded, though it would not be to difficult to file an edge to produce good sparks.
I did not use a batton on this as the weight of the axe head would absorbed most of the blow so I lighty struck the block. All of the cutting edge plus an extra few mm where driven into the block.
Cold Steel "Bushman"
The heavily concaved edge is difficult to get good curles from, though with a little practice this is not to much of a problem
The spine of the knife is coated with a hard black finnish, this prevented the knife throwing any sparks, thogh with a file to remove a small area of the coving there should be no difficulty getting sparks from the back of the knife as it is quite square
The knifes felt robust when battoned and was driven into the block for the whole depth of the concave edge. though the thin nature of the blade makes it poor for splitting
Shrade X Timer
Curles where not easy with this blade though it was shaving sharp it was difficult to maintain an angle to shave good curles, this may be due to the curved nature of the blade
The back edge of this blade though squared off nicely is again coated in a black finnish and as such there was nowhere to strike a fire steel. the serrations on the back of the blade also limit the possibilitys for places to strike the fire steel
The blade did not punch particularly well into the wood, this may be due to the curve in the blade but also becuase you have to strike the blade closer to the tip then I would like due to the serrations hear the handle
Frost Mora
The Razor Scandi Grind out of the box on the Mora allowed it to shave feathers easily! you can eaisly achieve paper thin curles with little effort.
Out of the box this Mora did not strick sparks as the back of the blade is poorly finnished however as this knife is commonly used by me the back has been filed up and now sheds showers of sparks with little effort!
The Mora battoned into the wood easily with the cutting edge plus a feww extra mm being buried into the block
Paul Baker
The Paul Baker produced fine curles on this test however it was not sharp when I got it nor was it satisfactorily sharp after it was re-sharpened by the maker. "Longstrider" re sharpened and profiled the edge on this knife and it is now a much more usable tool
The back edge of this knife is sharp and produces a monster shower of sparks
The Paul baker is a robust knife and was driven into the wood past the cutting edge by a few mm this knife has the feel that it could be battoned all day!
Cold Steel Canadian Belk knife
This knife was razor sharp out of the box and with a little use shaved feathers quite well though it was tricky to maintain the correct angle!
The back of this knife is poorly finnished and as such would not produce a shower of sparks
The knife was driven into th ewood up the the cutting edge, but the flimsy handle felt prone to breackage with this kind of use.
Frost Utility Knife
Out of the box this knife will produce curles as well as the Mora or the Paul baker and was razor sharp to boot!
The spine of the knife is finnished poorly and would not produce sparks, though with a file up this could be rectified.
again the blade was easily driven into the wood up to the cutting edge. this knife felt as good as the Mora and I actually prefered the handle over the mora!
I will leave you to draw your own conclusions on how each knife performed!
Please ask any questions you like!
Any how the candidates are;
Granny B Small Forest Axe
Cold Steel Bushman
Shrade X Timer
Frost Mora
Paul Baker (Not sure of model)
Cold Steel Canadian Belt Knife
Frost Utility Knife
I performed a simple set of tasks with each knife these included, shaving a feather stick, stricking a fire steel on the back edge, and batoning them into a log with a single blow.
Here are the results from each knife
Granny B SFA
Creates Curles easily though has a tendancy to slice them off the wood
There are no edges on the axe that would produce sparkes with a fire steel as they are all rounded, though it would not be to difficult to file an edge to produce good sparks.
I did not use a batton on this as the weight of the axe head would absorbed most of the blow so I lighty struck the block. All of the cutting edge plus an extra few mm where driven into the block.
Cold Steel "Bushman"
The heavily concaved edge is difficult to get good curles from, though with a little practice this is not to much of a problem
The spine of the knife is coated with a hard black finnish, this prevented the knife throwing any sparks, thogh with a file to remove a small area of the coving there should be no difficulty getting sparks from the back of the knife as it is quite square
The knifes felt robust when battoned and was driven into the block for the whole depth of the concave edge. though the thin nature of the blade makes it poor for splitting
Shrade X Timer
Curles where not easy with this blade though it was shaving sharp it was difficult to maintain an angle to shave good curles, this may be due to the curved nature of the blade
The back edge of this blade though squared off nicely is again coated in a black finnish and as such there was nowhere to strike a fire steel. the serrations on the back of the blade also limit the possibilitys for places to strike the fire steel
The blade did not punch particularly well into the wood, this may be due to the curve in the blade but also becuase you have to strike the blade closer to the tip then I would like due to the serrations hear the handle
Frost Mora
The Razor Scandi Grind out of the box on the Mora allowed it to shave feathers easily! you can eaisly achieve paper thin curles with little effort.
Out of the box this Mora did not strick sparks as the back of the blade is poorly finnished however as this knife is commonly used by me the back has been filed up and now sheds showers of sparks with little effort!
The Mora battoned into the wood easily with the cutting edge plus a feww extra mm being buried into the block
Paul Baker
The Paul Baker produced fine curles on this test however it was not sharp when I got it nor was it satisfactorily sharp after it was re-sharpened by the maker. "Longstrider" re sharpened and profiled the edge on this knife and it is now a much more usable tool
The back edge of this knife is sharp and produces a monster shower of sparks
The Paul baker is a robust knife and was driven into the wood past the cutting edge by a few mm this knife has the feel that it could be battoned all day!
Cold Steel Canadian Belk knife
This knife was razor sharp out of the box and with a little use shaved feathers quite well though it was tricky to maintain the correct angle!
The back of this knife is poorly finnished and as such would not produce a shower of sparks
The knife was driven into th ewood up the the cutting edge, but the flimsy handle felt prone to breackage with this kind of use.
Frost Utility Knife
Out of the box this knife will produce curles as well as the Mora or the Paul baker and was razor sharp to boot!
The spine of the knife is finnished poorly and would not produce sparks, though with a file up this could be rectified.
again the blade was easily driven into the wood up to the cutting edge. this knife felt as good as the Mora and I actually prefered the handle over the mora!
I will leave you to draw your own conclusions on how each knife performed!
Please ask any questions you like!
