- Joined
- Oct 6, 1998
- Messages
- 2,269
As per M's request:
I took my Battle Mistress with me on a winter camping trip in the Adirondack mountains of upstate New York over the Christmas weekend. The ambient temperature ranged from 10-15 degrees Farenheit at night to about 25 degrees in the morning. About 5 inches of snow on the ground, some ice. Chores I put the BM through included chopping firewood (don't know what kind of wood), whittling sticks for roasting sausages over a fire and pulling out tent stakes from the frozen ground. I split through about 10 logs to make smaller pieces for the fire. I had to use a piece of wood as a mallet to aid in the chopping. I whacked the spine of the BM very hard each time and ended up breaking two of my field expedient mallets in half. After the 10 or so logs, I tested the edge on my arm, ensuring that I used the same section of the edge that went through most of the chopping. It still shaved hair off my arm. The BM's edge would dig deep into the wood on each chop. I attribute this to the convex grind. The hooked butt end of the BM hurt my pinky finger while chopping. Two ways to alleviate this: wear gloves or hold the knife more towards the guard section. Using the latter technique still provides enough forward balance for chopping. With regards to INFI's rust and stain resistance, I placed the BM back into its homemade kydex sheath while still wet and tree sap-stained and left it there overnight. When I drew the knife out the next day, there was a small rust spot on the blade close to the spine, none on the edge. I left the rust on the blade (big no-no) until I got back home. I found a little bit of pitting when I cleaned the rust off. Back home, I decided to retouch the edge with my Tri-Angle Sharpmaker. It was really easy to put an even sharper edge on the knife. Here are my personal ratings:
(5 stars equals best)
-edge-holding *****
-rust resistance ***
-ease of sharpening *****
-factory kydex sheath **
This knife is defintely a keeper. I plan to put it through more tests on upcoming camping trips.
-Greg
I took my Battle Mistress with me on a winter camping trip in the Adirondack mountains of upstate New York over the Christmas weekend. The ambient temperature ranged from 10-15 degrees Farenheit at night to about 25 degrees in the morning. About 5 inches of snow on the ground, some ice. Chores I put the BM through included chopping firewood (don't know what kind of wood), whittling sticks for roasting sausages over a fire and pulling out tent stakes from the frozen ground. I split through about 10 logs to make smaller pieces for the fire. I had to use a piece of wood as a mallet to aid in the chopping. I whacked the spine of the BM very hard each time and ended up breaking two of my field expedient mallets in half. After the 10 or so logs, I tested the edge on my arm, ensuring that I used the same section of the edge that went through most of the chopping. It still shaved hair off my arm. The BM's edge would dig deep into the wood on each chop. I attribute this to the convex grind. The hooked butt end of the BM hurt my pinky finger while chopping. Two ways to alleviate this: wear gloves or hold the knife more towards the guard section. Using the latter technique still provides enough forward balance for chopping. With regards to INFI's rust and stain resistance, I placed the BM back into its homemade kydex sheath while still wet and tree sap-stained and left it there overnight. When I drew the knife out the next day, there was a small rust spot on the blade close to the spine, none on the edge. I left the rust on the blade (big no-no) until I got back home. I found a little bit of pitting when I cleaned the rust off. Back home, I decided to retouch the edge with my Tri-Angle Sharpmaker. It was really easy to put an even sharper edge on the knife. Here are my personal ratings:
(5 stars equals best)
-edge-holding *****
-rust resistance ***
-ease of sharpening *****
-factory kydex sheath **
This knife is defintely a keeper. I plan to put it through more tests on upcoming camping trips.
-Greg
