BK5 - Magnum Camp Passround (was Thread Signup)

Ah, Saturday, glorious Saturday!
The day I don't have to get up and be at work before sunrise!
The day I can play wit --- er, I mean test out the BK5!

so we start in the Kitchen - comparison with my 2 favorite slicers/dicers:
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in action - making lunch:
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cutting the cheesy goodness into more portable pieces:
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Once fortified, I was ready to go out in the cold, snowy world...
First I found a piece of dead western cedar:
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then I turned it into my ifrst attempt at a bowdrill set and discovered that my bowdrill-fu is exceptionally weak. (but it looked pretty good, I think)
I used the black cord that came with my BK14 for the bow, but all other shaping was done with the BK5.
splitting/breaking the dry branches was easy and quick.
Shaving the wood/forming all my pieces went quickly, although I noticed some hand fatigue that I attribute to the light weight of the knife. (sounds counter-intuitive, doesn't it?) Because the knife is so light - and that the balance point is in the hand instead of in front of the guard, this is not the best "grunt work" knife -- but it is very serviceable.
I had some serious issues with the cedar spindle, so I switched to a section of sunflower stem -- which did better, but I was still unable to produce a coal. (I think I had too much tension on my bow)
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After all of that, I noticed a golf ball next to my porch steps -- and since these things are a deadly menace, I had to dispatch it...
The BK5 did a pretty good job on the hard frozen ball:
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I was pretty happy with the knife - it's definitely a slicer, not a chopper -- but it will chop, baton, and pierce if need be.
the blade shape makes it a great food prep knife.
It whittled well.
The point will drill, but it tends to make narrow holes - I had to be creative to drill the divots in the hearth board and bearing block wide enough.
carving/whittling was pretty easy - the point would be good for fine detail work if you were to carefully choke up on the blade a bit (pinch grip)
it made nice, thin curly shavings out of the cedar. I ended up with a great pile of tinder and other small stuff for fire building while making my bow set.

I did not touch up the edge on the blade for any of this - I used it as received from SpookyPistolero - and will be sending it on the same way.
Knife will be shipped out on Monday.
 
FREAKIN AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!! HELL YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Was there any edge damage from the frozen golf ball? I gots ta know, because that is a helluva test for the 1095 HT, if anything is gonna roll it or chip it, that would be it.

Why do you think the cedar spindle didn't work? Were you in the heart (red) or the sap wood (white)?

GREAT WORKOUT, brother.

Moose
 
no edge damage - not even a marginally flat spot.

on the cedar spindle - I don't know what was up - it was all white wood - no heart (like in the hearth). I suspect I didn't have it shaped well (a bit of taper from top to bottom) or it wasn't as dry as I thought - it tried to burn in, I had a nice bowl shaped divot fill of dust and could smell hot cedar, just no charring.
I still have all the pieces, I'll play with it again tomorrow or Monday.
 
I got the BK-5 today and it is awesome! I haven't had a chance to take her outside or anything yet but so far I'm impressed. I really like the full flat grind, it looks like its going to cut pretty well for being such a large knife. That nearly full length swedge is pretty sweet too. It feels really good in hand, super manueverable and that handle really locks my hand in. I like the fact that you can slide your hand down onto the butt of the handle when chopping to get a bit more weight into the blade.

I'll save the rest for after I've had a chance to actually use it. Thanks for the passaround!
 
Well guys I've had a ton of fun with this thing this week. For being a relatively thin ground blade (compared to most dedicated choppers) it makes an exceptionally good chopper. I've used it to make cut kindling for my wood burner to keep the place toasty this week. Yesterday it was 23 degrees when I woke up and stayed that way into the night. I'm at work right now today and will get the knife out to the next candidate on monday because the PO will be closed tomorrow on my day off. However I do have one more job for it before I pass it on... After work tonight I'm going to throw our christmas tree off the back deck and then roll it into the woods and deanimate it!:eek: Thanks for hosting the passaround and I'll let ya guys know how it does at delimbing the whole grand fir christmas tree!:cool:
 
nevermind35 said:
Well guys I've had a ton of fun with this thing this week. For being a relatively thin ground blade (compared to most dedicated choppers) it makes an exceptionally good chopper. I've used it to make cut kindling for my wood burner to keep the place toasty this week. Yesterday it was 23 degrees when I woke up and stayed that way into the night. I'm at work right now today and will get the knife out to the next candidate on monday because the PO will be closed tomorrow on my day off. However I do have one more job for it before I pass it on... After work tonight I'm going to throw our christmas tree off the back deck and then roll it into the woods and deanimate it!:eek: Thanks for hosting the passaround and I'll let ya guys know how it does at delimbing the whole grand fir christmas tree!:cool:
Click to expand...

watch those knots... xmas trees have been known to kill lesser knives than Beckers, and even a few of those have been chipped.

yes, we expect pictures. add some ketchup too ;) we want some splash of color on the snow ;)

next person should start planning some antics, eh?
 
nevermind35 said:
Well guys I've had a ton of fun with this thing this week. For being a relatively thin ground blade (compared to most dedicated choppers) it makes an exceptionally good chopper. I've used it to make cut kindling for my wood burner to keep the place toasty this week. Yesterday it was 23 degrees when I woke up and stayed that way into the night. I'm at work right now today and will get the knife out to the next candidate on monday because the PO will be closed tomorrow on my day off. However I do have one more job for it before I pass it on... After work tonight I'm going to throw our christmas tree off the back deck and then roll it into the woods and deanimate it!:eek: Thanks for hosting the passaround and I'll let ya guys know how it does at delimbing the whole grand fir christmas tree!:cool:
Click to expand...

Limbing with a 5 is definately of interest to me. I look forward to your posts.:thumbup:
 
Well I dropped off the Magnum Camp at the PO this morning and its now on its way to the next recipient. Here's the tracking #: 0796 9010 1850 3800 4335.

I'll be making a post soon with some more in depth details of my time with this awesome knife as well as a few pics. Unfortunately I'm the last person on planet Earth to still use a dial up connection so uploading pictures is a real chore. However I will get it up as soon as possible.

Thanks again for letting me get a chance at handling my first Becker, I very much enjoyed it.
 
Thanks, Ryan. I just got this beast in the mail. My first impression is regarding the size. It's larger than I had imagined. It seems somewhat comparable to the 7 - more blade, but with the choil, about the same usable blade length. Somehow, it feels lighter than my 77, maybe because of the micarta.

Anyway, I can't wait to get out and use it. I'll try and stay away from frozen pine knots.
 
you know, i'm looking for stories here. reviews. pictures. let's get it going already, okay? geeze. i'm posting here more than people who have the knife are. go go go!
 
Cleaned, tightened, sharpened, oiled and shipped to the next on the list @ 9:48 this morning. DC# 0309 1830 0000 8010 2098

Regretfully, I didn't get any pictures as my camera is in pieces on my work bench. I wish I could post a pic of that. :rolleyes: The Magnum camp handles really well for a large knife. I was able to get some pretty small curls considering the thickness of the blade. It handled seasoned firewood without any hassles and split up a few fatwood matches. It cut up some leftover ham(I think I got all the ham out of the rub marks in the coating :o) and bread for lunch one day. Sandwiches just taste better when they're prepared by a Becker. :D
Over all, I really liked the knife. Not sure if I'll buy one for myself because of the overlap with the 77, but I'm definately getting one for my sister.

Thanks for the opportunity to handle the Magnum Camp.


P.S. Who am I kidding? I'm gonna get one.
 
Today was a two-knife day for me. Got the BK5 and a Case stockman with yellow delrin handles. Lots to play with. Thinking about making a video for the BK5 as this thread is lacking in them and youtube has only one.
 
My first video review. Filmed with an iPod Touch. The quality turned out a lot worse than I expected. If you ever met me, you wouldn't think that I would be as nervous talking on camera as I was doing this :confused:. Enjoy.
[youtube]p55WYkA69Hs[/youtube]
 
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