The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details:
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is $300 $250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Well, I've had my opportunity to play with them. I didn't pull out my light box as I can't quite remember where I put the damned thing (it folds up really small, which fortunately/unfortunately makes it tuck really well into corners when not in use) but got some shots all the same. I put them on an old Brute that I've fully convexed and decided to see what they felt like with about twenty minutes of fast-as-I-could-swing chopping.
These first pictures are rather superfluous given prior postings, but the darned things are just pretty and deserve (I feel) to be seen from as many angles and in as many different lights as possible.
Now, off to the woods!! Traveling up the creek bed that is right behind my house...
After an epic journey of more than 50 feet, I come across an impassable oaken barrier!
Moving the impassable barrier (....shut up) to an obliging cutting board/log, I paused for reflection and allowed the barrier to do the same as it looked up at the steely beast which surveyed it with calm resolve.
Ten minutes later (it was dry oak, give a guy a break) it was all over. The barrier will never be able to impede travels again, and the Becker glistens in the evening light--daring other pieces of tree to cross its path.
Okay, the review:
1) As has been said, they're gorgeous.
2) I actually was out for about an hour and a half, but ran out of batteries in my camera (forgot to check before I went) and so just have the first target recorded. In regular cutting work such as planing, slicing, making fuzz sticks, etc. they're actually much more comfortable than I was expecting. The texture of the machined sides really does give something to hold onto even when hands are sweaty, without ever being so sharp or abrasive as to cause discomfort.
3) There's a bit of overhang on my particular Becker tang, but the inside edges of the aluminum scales have just enough of a tiny radius to prevent any discomfort.
4) In impact, they do transfer noticeably higher shock to your hand than the factory composite grips or aftermarket G10, but then again, not having the flared butt on the end, I find that they don't dig into the heel of my hand the way the standard Becker grip does. I've always felt that the Becker grip design was extremely comfortable in almost any use EXCEPT chopping. After having really wailed away with this thing for a bit wearing its aluminum scales, I didn't have the irritated wrist/heel of hand that I associate with almost all Beckers, and would have to call it almost a draw in terms of comfort between the contoured scales from the factory and these.
Suggestions:
1) I noticed upon returning home that the scales were moving ever so slightly if you squeezed them. Although put on with a healthy twist of the wrench, the nuts had worked loose under repeated blade impact and it would be difficult to tighten this up in the field unless you just happened to have the appropriate hex bit with you. The reason for this, of course, is that the aluminum doesn't compress at all under the tension of the bolts as compared to the composite or even G10 grips, and so isn't supplying a constant force against the bolts or nuts to keep them from turning. I'd suggest adding either appropriately sized rubber gaskets or lock washers to the underside of the nuts to keep the things tight. Such could be had for less than a dollar at Lowes or Home Depot, and should entirely eliminate the problem.
2) This is just something to think about: Currently, the scales are flat on the edges out to about 4mm before the radius starts. The feel is good for me, but still a tad on the boxy side, and especially so for those with smaller hands than mine (a couple of women-folk mentioned this). If you haven't, you might experiment with increasing the radius on the grips so that the flat portion is only about 2mm on the edge. Of course, this wider radius would cut into the decorative machining on the sides a tad bit but you'd still have a large area, and the overall feeling might end up being much more of an oval than a rectangle without drastically changing the girth of the grip.
I've got 'em removed, washed off, boxed up and ready to go! Thanks very much for the opportunity of playing with them and congrats on a finely crafted product.
Warren H.
That's the kind of review I would expect from you
That will make it harder for the rest of us to write a review worth reading
They should have sent you the grips last
actually - you never sent me your contact info, so I have no way to include you in the passaround -- yet...
