Best 7-8 inch Blade for Chopping

Rob_Mob

Rob_Mob

Joined
Oct 16, 2013
Messages
2,087
Hey All,

First off, I'd like to state my appreciation for this forum and the willingness of each member to provide their insight and experience. Secondly, thank you Jerry and crew for producing an incredible line of tested products that had grown men acting giddy. I recently got my hands on a NMSFNO and decided it was going to be my all around Survival/User knife. I wanted to know if any experienced members were able to help me rank this knife in chopping ability compared to other blades in the 7-8 inch range. I need the knife to be able to do all (i.e skinning, chopping, batoning, cutting, and minimal finer bushcrafting) the necessary things for camping/survival. I'd love to be educated and hear different peoples' views. Here's mine:

 
While not designed to be a dedicated chopper I believe you will find that the NMSFNO will more than hold its own in the chopping arena. Are there better pure choppers, yes. Is there a better all around knife for a do all situation, in my opinion, no. Go out and give it a go. You will be pleased.

Garth
 
Garth Reckner said:
While not designed to be a dedicated chopper I believe you will find that the NMSFNO will more than hold its own in the chopping arena. Are there better pure choppers, yes. Is there a better all around knife for a do all situation, in my opinion, no. Go out and give it a go. You will be pleased.

Garth
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Thanks Garth! Will do!
 
Garth Reckner said:
While not designed to be a dedicated chopper I believe you will find that the NMSFNO will more than hold its own in the chopping arena. Are there better pure choppers, yes. Is there a better all around knife for a do all situation, in my opinion, no. Go out and give it a go. You will be pleased.

Garth
Click to expand...

Thanks Garth! Will do!
 
Hard to beat the NMSFNO! A great all arounder for sure. :)

My go to blade in that length is my Steel Heart E. I've literally beat the living daylights out of this knife and its only asked when I was going to get serious. :eek:

Here is one of my favorites, after driving it through several parts of that hood, and trying to drive it through the hardened nut in the hood, well, its not damaged. My leather maul (think really heavy hammer with a nylon head) was damaged. I had to try at least once just to prove a point to myself that it was my go to knife, yep!
 
leatherman said:
Hard to beat the NMSFNO! A great all arounder for sure. :)

My go to blade in that length is my Steel Heart E. I've literally beat the living daylights out of this knife and its only asked when I was going to get serious. :eek:

Here is one of my favorites, after driving it through several parts of that hood, and trying to drive it through the hardened nut in the hood, well, its not damaged. My leather maul (think really heavy hammer with a nylon head) was damaged. I had to try at least once just to prove a point to myself that it was my go to knife, yep!
Click to expand...

Lol awesome blade! Thanks -- yea I keep hearing amazing things about the Steel Heart variants and I was wondering if I should trade up for one (especially ones like the HHFSH or HOGFSH). However, I need this Cary knife to essentially be able to do everything -- not just obliterate boulders :)
 
The NMSFNO and the FSH have almost exactly the same size blade. So it comes down to handle preference. I found that the Fusion style handle makes for better chopping than the Special Forces style handle. YMMV. Some folk like the older SHE, again it's a handle thing. I find the Ergo handles to tall (wide?) for comfort, but love the EU style handle.

As a carry knife the HOGFSH may be too heavy. The original CG HHFSH with the sabre grind blade at 0.27" is great, and CG FSH with the very slightly convex (not quite a full flat grind) at 0.25" is lighter. Then there were some show special variants of the FSH, with satin blades, 0.27" thick but full flat grind. Very nice knives.

If you like the Ergo handle, then consider the MoJo/Mofo blades. They are certainly under appreciated for their all around performance.
 
resinguy said:
The NMSFNO and the FSH have almost exactly the same size blade. So it comes down to handle preference. I found that the Fusion style handle makes for better chopping than the Special Forces style handle. YMMV. Some folk like the older SHE, again it's a handle thing. I find the Ergo handles to tall (wide?) for comfort, but love the EU style handle.

As a carry knife the HOGFSH may be too heavy. The original CG HHFSH with the sabre grind blade at 0.27" is great, and CG FSH with the very slightly convex (not quite a full flat grind) at 0.25" is lighter. Then there were some show special variants of the FSH, with satin blades, 0.27" thick but full flat grind. Very nice knives.

If you like the Ergo handle, then consider the MoJo/Mofo blades. They are certainly under appreciated for their all around performance.
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Thanks for the thorough response! Yea the mojo blade is pretty amazing also. I personally prefer the NMSFNO over that one. The HHFSH is probably what I'd pick if I didn't get the NMSFNO. Can't wait to sharpen it up a bit with my Spyderco Sharp Maker and then strop it with white and green compound before I fully test it out :). I'll definitely provide a video if I can.
 
For a Busse "chopper" in that range you would be hard pressed to do better than a Chopweiler from the swamp. Lighter and chops way above it's weight class due to the excellent handle design. The NMSFNO is a fantastic do it all blade. Congrats!
 
leatherman said:
Hard to beat the NMSFNO! A great all arounder for sure. :)

My go to blade in that length is my Steel Heart E. I've literally beat the living daylights out of this knife and its only asked when I was going to get serious. :eek:

Here is one of my favorites, after driving it through several parts of that hood, and trying to drive it through the hardened nut in the hood, well, its not damaged. My leather maul (think really heavy hammer with a nylon head) was damaged. I had to try at least once just to prove a point to myself that it was my go to knife, yep!
Click to expand...
2thumbs up on the SHe, I have two was gonna sell one then changed my mind . Love this knife
 
I am liking the zombie green finish. Stump Buster beat me to it in voting for the B8 choiless. Enjoy your awesome knife.
 
HHFSH or HOGFSH. I've only handled a NMSFNO so I can't compare but I've chopped with a HHFSH and HOGFSH.
 
Rob_Mob said:
Lol awesome blade! Thanks -- yea I keep hearing amazing things about the Steel Heart variants and I was wondering if I should trade up for one (especially ones like the HHFSH or HOGFSH). However, I need this Cary knife to essentially be able to do everything -- not just obliterate boulders :)
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Oh it does a lot more than destroying things. Skinning, chopping bone and joints, deboning is a breeze as the edge geometry with the full flat grind is very good. Slicing large pieces of meat into nice thin pieces is so easy. The blade is narrow enough to choke up on for detail work, making fuzz sticks, slotting for traps, and debarking wood.

No thick edges on my user knives, even if I have to remove lots of steel to do it, knives are supposed to cut first and foremost. My most used pairing is this one and the BAe, both have nice fine edges and are still strong enough to chop through a leg bone on a 400 pound pig. A little sharpening and it makes paper ribbons.

The NMSFNO is a bit larger, by a little over an inch in length, and a little wider. Other than that they are right in the same category.
 
I had some NMSFNOs and a chopweiler at the same time, and I found with the factory edges, the NMSFNO bit deeper. The chopweiler edge was pretty thick though and it would have probably kept up fine if I thinned it out or took the shoulders off with a convex edge.
 
voracious1 said:
Sarsquatch!
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SARSquatch is a very nice knife blade with really good edge geometry, but a little shorter than Rob asked for. SQ is not so great a chopper, and the swedge makes batoning more difficult. I still want to mod mine to a clip point like Horn Dog did.
 
darkaether said:
I had some NMSFNOs and a chopweiler at the same time, and I found with the factory edges, the NMSFNO bit deeper. The chopweiler edge was pretty thick though and it would have probably kept up fine if I thinned it out or took the shoulders off with a convex edge.
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Thing I love about the Chopweiler is its blade shape is so close to the SHe. Strip that coating off and thin out the edge and show off that temper line. Future plans that will probably take forever to get to. :p
 
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