vltor17
Gold Member
- Joined
- Dec 5, 2008
- Messages
- 363
When I saw Bryan Breeden's 12" chopper in Preacher Man's chopper thread, I knew I had to have one. I am a very amatuer sheath/handle maker (just make my own stuff), and wanted to make the knife mine. I had him build me a blank, he did all the grinding except sharpening. The handles for the Warden and fire steel were an afterthought, I had to use mycarta scraps so they did not turn out as well as the should have, but they work. The knife handle is still covered in sap when I took the crappy pics, it looks a little better in real life when all cleaned up. Here is the email I sent Bryan, and he suggested I post up here, so here you go.
Bryan,
I don't know if you remember me. I've been following you a bit on BF and it looks like you've been very busy lately! I received the knife "blank" you built me in early December 2011. Life got in the way, but I finally got it finished about 2 weeks ago. I made the Mycarta handles out of red wranglers and black carhartts, with stainless tube pins. First time I ever made handle material, turned out ok. I used the same material to build the handles for the Swamp Rat Warden and the firesteel that accompany it in the sheath I made out of kydex. I used the "gun blue and bleach" treatment on the blade. I'm not super happy with the fit and finish of my work, but hey it's a user, not a safe queen!
Anyway, got out in the woods last weekend to give the setup a test run. I cannot express how satisfied I am with the blade you made. I call it my poor mans Busse, and although I'll probably never own a Busse, I can't imagine it doing anything any better than your knife. I do not consider myself an abusive knife user, but I definetly abused this knife in my initial test run. I chopped down a couple of trees with it and made a baton out of one of them, 5 to 6 inches in diameter. I split several 11-12 inch plus diameter rounds with this knife. I went through 3-4 huge batons in the process, I'm a good sized fella and I was beatin the dog snot out of the knife. There was a couple of times the blade was bent at a good 20 degree angle, going through/around some nasty knots as I wailed on it. I was not trying to break it, but I would not have been suprised if it had broken. After working it over for 3-4 hours, I was tired out. The knife won! Then I gave it the post abuse inspection. Absolutely zero edge chipping or rolling. I put it to my arm, and it promptly removed an 1.5" by 4" swath of hair! I was just as astounded as my friends. They are not knife guys, and had no idea a knife could perform this kind of work. I will probably never beat the knife this bad again, but I had to know if it could take it, and it highly surpassed my expectations. Sorry, no action pics, but here is some pics on the table after I got home. (holy crap sorry for writing a book!)
Thanks for looking, here is some pics.
Bryan,
I don't know if you remember me. I've been following you a bit on BF and it looks like you've been very busy lately! I received the knife "blank" you built me in early December 2011. Life got in the way, but I finally got it finished about 2 weeks ago. I made the Mycarta handles out of red wranglers and black carhartts, with stainless tube pins. First time I ever made handle material, turned out ok. I used the same material to build the handles for the Swamp Rat Warden and the firesteel that accompany it in the sheath I made out of kydex. I used the "gun blue and bleach" treatment on the blade. I'm not super happy with the fit and finish of my work, but hey it's a user, not a safe queen!
Anyway, got out in the woods last weekend to give the setup a test run. I cannot express how satisfied I am with the blade you made. I call it my poor mans Busse, and although I'll probably never own a Busse, I can't imagine it doing anything any better than your knife. I do not consider myself an abusive knife user, but I definetly abused this knife in my initial test run. I chopped down a couple of trees with it and made a baton out of one of them, 5 to 6 inches in diameter. I split several 11-12 inch plus diameter rounds with this knife. I went through 3-4 huge batons in the process, I'm a good sized fella and I was beatin the dog snot out of the knife. There was a couple of times the blade was bent at a good 20 degree angle, going through/around some nasty knots as I wailed on it. I was not trying to break it, but I would not have been suprised if it had broken. After working it over for 3-4 hours, I was tired out. The knife won! Then I gave it the post abuse inspection. Absolutely zero edge chipping or rolling. I put it to my arm, and it promptly removed an 1.5" by 4" swath of hair! I was just as astounded as my friends. They are not knife guys, and had no idea a knife could perform this kind of work. I will probably never beat the knife this bad again, but I had to know if it could take it, and it highly surpassed my expectations. Sorry, no action pics, but here is some pics on the table after I got home. (holy crap sorry for writing a book!)
Thanks for looking, here is some pics.
