A short walk in the woods with my new Fiddleback

[HawGorn]

..and also with an old friend.

I received a Fiddleback Hunter from Andy a couple of weeks ago and been itching to take it out since. I had shoulder operation a few weeks ago, and haven't been able to do pretty much anything since. But today was a beautiful autumn day and I decided to gear up and head out with my new friend for a couple of hours outing.

I collected some kindling for brewing some tea in a Swedish mess kit. [Note to self; I need to make a rolly polly style pouch for kollecting kindling. My pocket was full of debris afterwards]

The Hunter strikes wicked shower of sparks. Even so I had problems starting fire using dried fern leaves. It did catch the spark but couldn't sustain the flame.

I changed the tinder to a ball of thin dried grass and vóila the first strike did the trick. Trow in some birch bark and small sticks and we've got this in the base of the mess kit

It didn't take too long to get a nice cup of tea

Unfortunately I still can't use the shoulder properly so I couldn't make fuzzsticks or any other woodwork needing two hands. But chopping requires only one arm...

The Hunter with my old friend, an Iisakki Järvenpää leuku. From way back when I was doing my military service some 17 years ago.

The Hunter did surprisingly well, it didn't fall behind much after the leuku. It is a hefty blade, 210g compared to leuku's 195g, so it has the advantage in the weights department. And it still sliced newspaper cleanly afterwards (as if you didn't know that beforehand...). But to be fair, it was way sharper than the leuku to which I just gave a quick coarse diamond treatment beforehand.

I think I'll be adding a fob style lanyard to the Fiddleback. It will help with drawing the knive and also give more grip when chopping. Which I'll surely do in the future. The Hunter might just be the perfect knive when I don't want carry both a smaller puukko and a big leuku or small Fiskars hatchet. I just need get a dangler setup for it, a belt sheat is akward for us Finns. We are born with puukko's dangling from our hips.

Thanks to Andy for a really nice knife.

 

[WILLIAM.M]

Great Photos

Thanks for posting

 

[ms3902]

Those are some great pics.:thumbup: That Hunter looks great and so does that Leuku. I really like to see well worn sheaths with knives that look so well cared for.

 

[GhostWolf]

Andy aka Fiddleback makes one fine tool. Helluva good guy too.

 

[adaman04]

That's a good looking knife!

 

[KuRUpTD]

That Hunter looks like a sweeeeet knife :thumbup:

 

[Stormstaff]

Thanks for sharing!

 

[Mistwalker]

Nice pics, thanks for sharing. Glad you got out for a while, it's always good for the spirit. I was trapped inside for a while after an accident at work and a couple of surgeries about ten years ago....the first trip out with a kit was wonderfully liberating and therapeutic. I'm really starting to miss my old Swedish mess kit, I think I need to pick up another one.

 

[Masteroffajitas]

Really cool, I like that fiddle back hunter.

 

[Longknife3]

Nice looking knife!! I just ordered a Fiddleback Woodsman and I am curious about the specs on the Hunter and how they compare to the Woodsman.

Thanks!

 

[TheGame]

Very nice looking blae. Thanks for sharing the pics! :thumbup:

 

[texastonydobbs]

Andy makes some Great Stuff !!

 

[mneedham]

Great pics! You'll never go to far wrong with an F-back..

 

[HawGorn]

Thank you for the compliments.

 

[untamed]

Thanks for the great pictures, both of the knife and scenery! That I. Jarvenpaa piece looks like a great user as well.

 

[kgd]

Nice pictures. Andy's blades are very nice. I really like that leuku. I often wonder why we don't see more of them show cased here. The Leuku's, while lacking full tang, are light weight and highly versatile. Particularly the Jarvenpaa's whose price makes them the 7" equivalent of the mora puuku.

Also love that swedish mess kit. That reminds me, I need to make my melita coffee wood stove today. Thank you for your post!

 

[HawGorn]

Thanks kgd. I agree about leukus. A lightweight big blade, what more can you ask? "One pound more to carry, please. My pack is too light."

I guess it's the presumable weakness of the rat tang. But considering that old style moras were, and the newer plastic handled moras and similar are the de facto working knives for pretty much every construction worker, carpenter and alike in the scandinavian countries, the rat tang sure can take the beating. [pun intended]

Back to the Hunter, I made a fob for it. I had laying around some 6mm red climbing cord to match the red in the scales and thin leather to match the brown in the sheat.

I'm not sure if I like the looks of the fob, it's really big. But it does give for easy drawing and good leverage for light chopping.