Basic 11, KZII and TTKZ .... marathon session!

[PeterPHWS]

Well my ASM B11 arrived first .... (many thanks to JimmyJones for proxying this and my KZII ) .... and then the KZII .... and all came just after I got back from being away for a while .... so I could'nt wait to give them a try out.

I knew I had two trees which were dead on my land ... no foilage .... and the firewood from these for the winter would be very welcome .... so the idea was to go out with my two new knives and set to work.

When I got to my "allotment area" ... nicely kept and used by the former owners of my home for vegetables and greenhouse plants .... whose bedding pit I had turned into a fire pit for weeds and grass cuttings and hedge trimmings .... I got a bit of a shock at how long I had been away and how nature can quickly take back what you don't use ...

The tree I needed to get to was flanked on all sides by a "sea" of thistles and nettles ....

The whole "area" was a wash with them ....

Even the chair and table I normally use to put the knives on for the initial photo's was inaccessible

So for the first time ever I actually had to start chopping away the overgrown brush to clear some space to show the knives ....:foot: .... not the best of first pic's but it was all I could do ....

 

[PeterPHWS]

I started off using the B11 in my right hand and the KZ11 in my left ... it was that bad you could use both .... mainly using the B11 which with it's light weight and comfy Res C handle and a razor ASM edge done by Jerry .... was "lovin it" ... like a hot knife through butter it soon carved a swaythe of clearance ....

I had decided to do the session without gloves as I rarely use them but with all the thistles and nettles my hands were going to get caught a fair old bit .... but in the interest of seeing how the knives felt properly so I could do a write up and allowing for it raining at the time and having a better grip with my hands I decided to just crack on and forget the gloves ....

I did however discover that a very rearward grip on the B11 around the hook at the end of the handle gave me much more reach and was just as effective ....

Once I had made a bit of progress I decided to swap over ....

I had quickly come to the conclusion that the best technique was to bend over the stems of the plants using the knife in my left hand and then chop with the knife in my right hand ... all was working well .... I started using the KZII with what I would call a normal "mid grip" ....

and then decided to try a grip towards the rear of the handle in similar fashion to the Basic 11 to give more reach and to use the benefit of the palm swelling at the rear of the grip to anchor the knife ....

The long length of the grip made the central or forward grip feel a bit strange as the raised tang at the rear would catch the inside of my wrist when I snapped the knife on a swing .... so I figured the rear grip would help .... and it did at first .... but after a while I started to notice a "hot spot" type of feeling .... where your skin feels a little raw .... and at first I figured it was just a few nettle stings .... but after a while I realised something was really catching on my lower rear palm ....

Here are a few pic's of me looking at the knife to try to figure what was going on ....

As you can see from the top pic there is quite a sharp edge created where the relief is cut for the eyelet on the tang ... basically just above the thumb nail in the pic below ....

This was playing havoc with my skin due to how I use the knife and whilst it is "no biggie" as a problem and something which I can sort out with a trianguler shaped sander which I use to smooth my grips .... given the amount of clearing I still had to do .... I decided to retire the KZII until I could tweak it on the handle and get it working well .... and I went in and brought out the TTKZ ....

I was conscious that the KZII felt a fair bit less blade heavy in the hand and whilst the blade was working very well at chopping weeds as it felt nicely balanced .... I wondered how the TTKZ would do with it's slightly heavier forward weighted "feel" ....

 

[PeterPHWS]

The extra weight of the TTKZ is for me at least off set by the great grips ....

the area near the pommel sweeps downwards and enables a rocking/snap technique to each swing and using the Zilla as a machete was no problem at all ....

The edge on the Zilla cobined with it's weight actually had it cutting through old netting like paper .....

and the thicker vegitation like brambles was a doodle and soon I started to make some real progress into clearing the weeds out .....

It was'nt too long before the green house and table and chair were visible without a curtain of weeds around them ...

well .... actually it was about 3 hours worth of steady work

One of the problems doing this job was that in the area by the greenhouse I knew there were a few bricks which had been used to designate planting areas .... but these were covered over with weeds ....

Inevitably the tip of the blade started to make contact with these hidden bricks ....

The great thing about Infi though is that it does'nt chip out and rolls like this are easily steeled straight ....

 

[PeterPHWS]

Here are some pic's of the rolling after a bit of steeling ....

All I do is take a bit of a breather and sit down and run the steel either side of the blade ....

You can soon get the rolls back into alignment in terms of being able to work with the edge and whilst it has dulled a fair bit towards the tip .... it is still pretty good for sorting out over-grown brush ....

I did'nt have that much more to do to get to the tree and whilst I had decided to stick with the Zilla having pranged the tip a bit rather than prang the B11 as well .... I actually found using the Zilla to be a real joy .... it just sweeps aside this stuff like there is no effort in it at all ....

and eventually we got to the main event .... being able to bring down the tree ....

I had to work a little at sizing up the height of the tree which is quite high in terms of checking where it could be dropped without hitting anything I did'nt want to break .... such as the greenhouse ... and I figured it would be a close call because on the other side of the tree was a dry stone wall and dropping the limb on that would be a nightmare .... they take ages to repair .... but hopefully I had it judged right and as best I could I made a mark as to how low the cut could go before hitting the greenhouse ....

The tree was in two limbs and allowing for the time taken to clear the weeds I figured I would be doing pretty well to get one of them down before it got dark ....

I started off with the Basic 11 clearing round the trunk and getting rid of the dead bark ....

The B11 impressed me with the power you could bring to bear and it was well able to make some deep cuts ....

very pleased and impressed ... this lightweight knife can hit like a full on Battlemistress .... easily up with the BWM CG and BWM LE .....

 

[PeterPHWS]

If you compare it to the Zilla .... which still had a nicely sharp sweet spot .... the depth of cut and progress it could make were suprising ....

Obviously there is some difference in performance .... the B11 simply has'nt the weight of the Zilla which can throw out chunks of wood which are as good as you will get with an axe ....

but reverting back to the B11 it was'nt long before it had really started to make some progress into the trunk ...

The tree had been dead for some time and the wood was certainly dry and hard towards the centre and the B11 could still bite deep ....

 

[PeterPHWS]

Because of the direction I needed to drop the trunk and the two limbs of the tree it was'nt easy to get fully around the trunk and you had to keep perservering with chopping from one side .... I did manage to get something of a back cut done on the trunk and the narrow depth to the B11 blade made it very much "ideal" for fitting through what space was available .... and shortly after taking this pic' the tree then dropped ....

I managed to get it to drop in the right direction and as you can see from the photo's I was just finishing off before it got dark ....

The pic's are a little fuzzy at this stage but I expect my hand was a bit shaky from such a long work out .... by this stage we were at around 5 hours .... the good news though was that I had got the cut height right in relation to missing the greenhouse but it was pretty close ...

The benefit of doing a bit of measurement was also that I could take the tree down at a comfortable height .... although allowing for the extra power you can develop when making swings which impact lower than waist height .... the fact I was having to strike so high up the trunk just made me more pleased with how the B11 did ....

The pic's are bad here on clarity .... I guess my hands were shaking more than I thought and with the poor light it makes matters worse but as a reference they are still useful as the height of the cut was at upper chest height which if you have done much chopping you will know it is a lot harder to deliver a bit of power at such height .... so all told the B11 is by far and away as good a chopper as you could want .... you could put this one on your belt and tackle anything .... the day really was one of suprises .... the Zilla impressed me with the way I could use it as a "machete" as it was'nt heavy to use at all ... and the B11 was well able to keep pace with the Zilla on the heavy chopping .... two really great Busse's and definate favourites for me .... :thumbup:

 

[Volk]

Wow, neat write up. Can't wait to read more.

 

[Bigfattyt]

Looking forward to more!

 

[Volk]

Thanks for this m8,

I have b11 coming my way, hopefully soon, and I can't wait.

 

[PeterPHWS]

Yes .... sorry for the delay in getting this fully written up ... my internet connection decided to freeze earlier on today and then I had to go and do some work .... it's all finished now though .... thankfully ....:thumbup:

 

[jimmyjones]

Splendid as usual Peter !






I always enjoy your reviews :thumbup:

 

[Last Visible Canary]

did you try the kz2 on the tree?

I haven't used mine for anything yet, but that sharp piece of handle scale at the lanyard hole/pommel immediately caught my attention just from handling it.

do you think you'll leave it as is, or sand it down/round it off?

 

[d762nato]

Wonderful write up Peter on the Zilla's and B-11. You really had quite a job there clearing all that brush. Looks like that B-11 is a awesome chopper. :thumbup:

 

[DowntownDM]

I enjoy your use-based write-ups.

thanks for sharing.

 

[Will York]

Just a delight, Peter, both your review and pics, as well as the vicarious pleasure of enjoying your own satisfaction with both these great knives. Thanks so much. :thumbup:

 

[scrumpy jack]

Thanks for an enjoyable write up, for those of us who dont own these wonderful knives its nice to see their use through others.

 

[WILLIAM.M]

I enjoy your use-based write-ups.

thanks for sharing.

Exactly my thoughts!!!!

Thanks for posting

 

[HISknife]

Amazing post. First in-depth user review for these knives, I think. Interesting how B-11 could keep pace with TTKZ. You just don't expect that just by looking at it.
But I'm more surprised how you found KZ2 grip to be problematic. Does it mean the grip is somehow sub-standard? I've been waiting for the day KZ2 would be offered for sale on Busse webstore, but now I'm quite bothered by what you've experienced here. Did anyone else have used their KZ2 and experienced similar discomfort? For someone who thought he found a Grail knife, this is devastating!

 

[richstag]

Thanks Peter!

 

[azwelke]

Thank You for posting that:thumbup:
I would like to read you KZ2 review also when you get a chance:thumbup: