8" Blade Camp Knives Compared

Horn Dog

Horn Dog

Joined
Sep 9, 2005
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It had been bothering me for a while. I have this thing for big old camp knives. I have done 7" chop offs and 9" chop offs, but I have five 8" blade knives. I just wondered which one was the best at chopping. Here they are top to bottom:
Busse NMSFNO with a .25" thick blade of INFI steel and a full convex grind. Wt 20 oz
Entrek Destroyer with .25" thick blade of 440C. It has a saber grind on its recurve blade and a sharp convex edge. Wt is 16 oz.
Old school Ranger RD7 with a saber grind and convex edge. The .25" thick blade is 5160 steel. Wt is 17.5 oz.
Ranger RD7 with a full flat grind. Wt 16.5 oz.
Bark River Hudson Bay Camp Knife, full convex grind .215" thick A2 steel. Wt just under 17 oz.
All have micarta scales.
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I selected a piece of Red Bay that was about the same thickness for all along its length for the test. The Old RD7 chopped through in 46 chops.
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Yes, RD7s have 8" blades when measured from scales to tip.
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The newer flat ground RD7 took 50 chops.
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The Entrek was horrible. It hurt my hand to chop with that skinny handle, and the cool-looking recurve took 61 chops to get through.
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The much more comfortable Bark River bit deep and took 48 chops.
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And the big 20 oz Busse was the easiest to chop with, taking only 43 chops to get through.
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All were good choppers except the Entrek. Here's how they rated top to bottom in chopping:
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How can you call that a proper test when you didn't baton through a cinder block or pry a bulldozer apart? Just kidding. Good review and I'm not surprised at the results.
 
Hey that looks like fun HD! How did the edge's hold up on the knives?

I'm not surprised the Busse came out on top, I haven't seen a knife yet that will hold an edge longer. I use the same knife to baton all my bbq wood 2 or more times a week... (I really like bbq...) and it still shaves hair off my arm. :thumbup:

Big choppers are great fun... thanks for posting!

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It is amazing to see how close the score was on these. :eek:

All decent performers, making personal preference the big difference; except for the Entrek, of course.

Nice work Vic. :thumbup: :cool: :thumbup:




"If you're not living on the edge, …you're taking up too much space."

Big Mike

Forest & Stream
 
Horn Dog(love that name)

The Entrek has always appealed to me. Thanks for including that one in the test:thumbup:
 
Horn Dog, hola

Would you comment on the basis of “user feel” as well as your findings on functionality. I ask because I firmly believe that the most efficient is not necessarily the one I'd pick for the most joyous interaction.

If you had to pick one of them for a flat out two hours of chopping would it be the NMSFNO over the Hudson Bay, or is there something else, perhaps intangible, about the user feel that sways it another way?
 
kdstrick said:
Hey that looks like fun HD! How did the edge's hold up on the knives? ...
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All the edges were just fine. It takes more than chopping through one limb to dull a good camp knife. :D This Busse continues to impress me. But I knew the old Ranger was good and of course the Hudson Bay is a fine chopper, too. I just didn't know for sure which was the best chopper until today. The Busse is easily the most comfortable one to chop with, with the Barkie a close second. The Rangers are tolerable. The Entrek was an abomination.
 
Carolina River Rat said:
How can you call that a proper test when you didn't baton through a cinder block or pry a bulldozer apart? Just kidding. Good review and I'm not surprised at the results.
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Well they can all baton and smash cinder blocks, I'm sure. I was fresh out of cinder blocks. :D These are all rugged knives, but the Destroyer has to be the most uncomfortable and poorest chopping knife that I own in that size, and I have worked and worked on its edge. It has been a big disappointment. You would think that cool looking recurve bolo would kick some butt, but it doesn't.
I honestly thought that my old Ranger might win this. It gave the Busse a run for its money, but its handle is not as comfortable and it is 2.5 oz lighter. Still a great knife.
 
HD,

I'm with Dr. Bill, I like your tests, keep them coming. There is nothing like taking a blade and beating it on a piece of wood to find out it is really all about.
 
Great stuff horndog! I love my old Ranger RD-9! Betcha the SOD would give some of them a run for their money also!
 
Great comparison/ review! I'm not a bit suprised about the results. I was trying to guess what the order would be before I read the review. I thought the Barkie would have done better, though. Maybe it's too light? The edge geometry should be good.

You think that NMSFNO chops well? I'd like to see the same test with the NMFBM. The NMFBM is a force of nature. I bet you could get through that thing with 20 chops, max.
 
G'day Horn Dog

Thanks for the insight into their chopping ability.

Were any tests done comparing their slicing / cutting abilities, or is this something a camp knife isn't expected to do?




Kind regards
Mick
 
Great test. I thought the Busse would have beat them by more than what it did though! Surprised to see them so close!
 
I have some 7" and 7.5" choppers that are very competitive with most of these 8" blades, like my SOD LE, Camp Tramp, Chopweiler, Ratweiler and Sarsquatch. But the NMSFNO already bested all of them in chopping. But a bigger chopper, like that behemoth NMFBM or even my FFBM would stomp the NMSFNO. All I measured today was which chopper in my hands did best. There is more to a good camp knife than just chopping. For all-around use, the Bark River Hudson Bay is hard to beat. You could skin with it, stick with it, slice with it. It's a superb camp knife. This little chop-off only tells me one thing: the Busse NMSFNO chops better than the others. It should. It's heavier. None of these knives has the factory edge, either. I put sharp convex edges on all of them, and even did a full convex grind on the Busse, so I am sure it chops better than a standard one. The Bark River came with a full convex edge. If you want the sharpest one out of the box, get the Barkie.
 
SouthernCross said:
G'day Horn Dog

Thanks for the insight into their chopping ability.

Were any tests done comparing their slicing / cutting abilities, or is this something a camp knife isn't expected to do?




Kind regards
Mick
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I only did a little chopping comparison today, Mick. You are quite right, a good all-around camp knife should be able to do slicing and notching and make fuzz sticks and all that stuff. The Busses and Rangers are hard use military type knives, but they can slice, too. For all around camp chores, though, I'd go with the Hudson Bay.
 
Excellent little chopping comparison, Horn Dog, and great pictures. :thumbup: The NMSFNO is my favourite Busse and one of my overall favourite knives, and for a 8" blade it is a chopping machine.

Then on to one of my usual subjects, so to speak, being the whole variable thickness thing on Busses. Horn Dog, you said your NMSFNO was 20 oz. How thick is yours? Mine are both .236", but some folks I hear have NMSFNOs much thicker than that, and such things will affect weight and may somewhat affect chopping performance, too. So it's interesting to know. :)
 
Elen said:
Excellent little chopping comparison, Horn Dog, and great pictures. :thumbup: The NMSFNO is my favourite Busse and one of my overall favourite knives, and for a 8" blade it is a chopping machine.

Then on to one of my usual subjects, so to speak, being the whole variable thickness thing on Busses. Horn Dog, you said your NMSFNO was 20 oz. How thick is yours? Mine are both .236", but some folks I hear have NMSFNOs much thicker than that, and such things will affect weight and may somewhat affect chopping performance, too. So it's interesting to know. :)
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Well I did grind all the rough steel off mine. But at the tang it is just under .25" according to my daughter's high tech wooden school ruler. :D
 
Ah, those school rulers! :D By the way, a very nice job with stripping that NMSFNO and giving it a nice full convex / satin finish. It looks just as good as the LEs. :thumbup:
 
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