BRKT, Condor, Hopkinson Goloks Compared

Horn Dog

Horn Dog

Joined
Sep 9, 2005
Messages
4,363
Now that I own three goloks, it's time to compare them. My first was the British Special Forces Golok I got from BQM. It is made by Hopkinson in Sheffield, England. It weighs 19 oz and has an 11" blade of Sheffield carbon steel. The blade is .20" thick. It has a rubber handle. The steel is softer than the others. I'm guessing a RC hardness around 50 or less. Then I got the Bark River Golok. It has micarta handles and an 11" long blade of .21" thick 1095 steel. It came with a full convex grind. It weighs 17 oz. And my latest is the Condor Golok. It has a 14 5/8" blade of 1070 steel that tapers from about .25" to .125". It has hardwood handles and weighs 22 oz. It came with a convex edge.
Goloks001.jpg

Prior to the testing, I gave each golok a good sharp convex edge.
Goloks002.jpg

Top to bottom: Condor, Hopkinson, Bark River.
Goloks004.jpg

Here is a spine shot.
Goloks005.jpg

I started out on some limber light vegetation. All these can cut it, but the Barkie does it best. The Condor was a close second. The Brit golok is a bit blade heavy for this, but it works.
Goloks006.jpg

Goloks007.jpg

Goloks009.jpg

Goloks012.jpg

Next up, some wood chopping.
 
I selected a piece of hardwood that had a good length of about the same diameter, and went to chopping. The Hopkinson chopped through in 23 chops.
Goloks015.jpg

The Bark River did it in 25 chops.
Goloks019.jpg

And the Condor took 25 chops, but the wood was getting short and I may have held back from full power for fear of chopping my left hand.
Goloks020.jpg

So I went in search of some more chopping wood. This dead Red Bay should do.
Goloks028.jpg

Goloks031.jpg

Goloks034.jpg

One of these limbs should do nicely.
Goloks035.jpg

Goloks039.jpg

Back to the test area for more chopping.
Goloks041.jpg

Goloks042.jpg

More to come.
 
Excellent work Horn Dog! I'm planning on getting the Condor Golok soon, but what I really want is the BRKT Golok, so it's good to see a side-by-side comparison. Thanks for doing this!
 
Should the fact that the Condor chopped down the tree to be used as a test subject be taken into consideration?
 
Now that I have some better test stock, time to do it again.
The Hopkinson took only 14 chops to get through.
Goloks043.jpg

The BRKT took 14 chops, too.
Goloks045.jpg

The Condor took only 12 chops, and the limb was thicker in that place.
Goloks048.jpg

In summary:

The Condor is the most powerful chopper for me. It has more weight and more reach, and that big handle lets me really bear down with it. It cost $40 or so at Blade and came with no sheath.

The Bark River is my favorite for light trimming and yet it can really chop when I need it to. It is compact and easy carrying. It came with a leather sheath and cost a little over $200. It is the "fastest" and least blade heavy golok here.

The British SF Golok is a very good chopper, but I had to reprofile the entire edge. It doesn't hold an edge as well as the BRKT or the Condor. The rubber handle is comfortable for chopping. This knife works poorly as a machete, with a very blade heavy feel. It came with an ill fitting sheath and cost about $70.

Best value? I think the Condor takes that honor.
 
Interesting results on the early part, in my opinion. Although, the others tests I have seen done were with factory edges.
 
TheGame said:
Interesting results on the early part, in my opinion. Although, the others tests I have seen done were with factory edges.
Click to expand...

With factory edges the Barkie would run away with this comparison. But that full convex grind will cost some bucks. The Condor came with a beautiful hand ground polished convex edge, but it needed some touching up to be truly sharp. The Hopkinson came dull.
 
Last edited:
Another reason to love Condor as far as I'm concerned. I have yet to be disappointed. :)
 
Horn Dog said:
With factory edges the Barkie would run away with this comparison. But that full convex grind will cost some bucks. The Condor came with a beautiful hand ground polished convex edge, but it needed some touching up to be truly sharp. The Hopkinson came dull.
Click to expand...

Yep, that is the order I was expecting them to finish in.

But, what really sucks is I was just looking to buy the Condor Machete and it is sold out at the places I checked. :grumpy:

ETA: Sorry, meant Machete to buy, not Golok.
 
Last edited:
where was it sold out? I can't even find any listings for it yet, wasn't aware anyone was already carrying it?
 
Great stuff once again Vic, they are all pretty close in performance eh...just goes to show that cost isn't always relative to performance !!!!
 
The BRKT is beautiful and looks to be a great chopper, but the Condor looks like the best considering the additional reach and the price.
 
pitdog said:
Great stuff once again Vic, they are all pretty close in performance eh...just goes to show that cost isn't always relative to performance !!!!
Click to expand...

Yes, pitdog, they are remarkably close. I expected the larger, heavier Condor to run away with this test, but that was not the case. With a good edge, any of these goloks would serve well for yard work, camping, or survival use.
 
Md 25v said:
where was it sold out? I can't even find any listings for it yet, wasn't aware anyone was already carrying it?
Click to expand...
Sorry, I wasn't talking about the Golok. :o

The Machete. I believe you can only pre-order the Golok. (Not positive on that, only looked at a couple of places.)
 
That Condor is the bees knees. :tumbup: Wicked looking.
Condor blew me away at Blade this year. They had a ton of cool stuff. I just wish I had more dough at the time- because it's hard to find any of their good stuff. If they had higher production capacity and better distribution, they would be dominating in the marketplace, IMO. Great product at great prices. What's not to like?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top