Cliff Stamp
BANNED
- Joined
- Oct 5, 1998
- Messages
- 17,562
Specifications :
This is a 7 1/2" bowie style blade, made by stock removal out of SR101 ("enhanced" 52100), with a synthetic grip of "Resiprene C". The blade is differentially hardened to enhance the durability and flexibility with a spring tempered spine for strength. The primary grind is high sabre flat and tapers to a light convex edge which is difficult to distinguish from flat by eye. The edge is about 0.058" thick and ground at slightly below 16 degrees per side for the main body of the blade and swelled out to ~18 degrees per side in the tip. The knife weighs 390 g and balanced about 2.2 cm in front of the handle, about an inch, so it has a decent blade heavy heft. It has a hard black crinkle coating which will enhance the corrosion resistance of the flats but of course offers no protection to the edge.
Stock testing :
The NIB edge sharpness was a little less than optimal scoring 207 +/- 22 g on light thread. A blazing sharp finish can approach ~100 g. The edge was able to shave, but scratched a little. The knife cut paper well on a slice but had little ability for such push cuts. The edge aggression was decent near the base, taking about 0.6 cm on 1/4" poly under a 1000 g load, however it was completely slick out near the tip and was unable to cut the poly even after a dozen back and forth passes (<0.25 cm is optimal). Checking the edge closely under magnification a slight roll was present.
Push cutting 3/8" hemp the knife required between 31-33 lbs out near the tip, and up to 41-43 lbs near the base. The force is higher near the base as more of the edge is in contact with the cutting board as there is little curvature along the edge at that point. The level of slicing aggression is decently high, the knife was able to slice through the rope on a two inch draw using only 24-26 lbs much reduced from its push cutting performance. On pointing sections of hardwood dowel the blade performed very well and was able to rough off the necessary wood in only 7.9 +/- 1.0 slices.
[these were repeated after the blade was sharpened to a high polish, no significant difference (< 5%) in cutting ability was induced]
A quick comment on slicing aggression, using rolls of cotton fabric I did some slicing with the Camp Tramp as compared to an Opinel and Twistmaster, with both folders having very aggressive finishes, left rough by a 100 grit AO belt. Both folders could cut the fabric on a slice with much less passes than the Swamp Rat blade, but when I just pressed all the blades through the material the Camp Tramp jumped ahead. This is the tradeoff of blade finish, leave it coarse and the slicing ability jumps ahead but the push cutting ability goes down.
[later on I tested the Camp Tramp on that material with a 600 DMT edge finish, the slicing ability had improved many times to one, but the push cutting ability decreased as well, though not as much]
The Camp Tramp chops at about 55 (4) % of the Tramontina bolo on small wood, scrap as well as felled wood (2-3" pine and spruce mainly). The Tramontina bolo is in the same class as the Gransfors Bruks Wildlife Hatchet so it is a high baselines for ten inch class blades not to mention seven inch ones. The Camp Trap was slightly more fluid in the wood, but this wasn't a real advantage time wise as it could not overcome the time or effort disadvantage of the significantly lower penetration. After the chopping, which was done in the cold (~0 F), the Camp Tramp could still shave, but needed more of a slice / draw, and could still slice newsprint well. The Bolo had significant visible edge damage after both chopping sessions.
In regards to the rippling on the Bolo this is just a case of low quality and/or soft steel limiting cutting performance. If both blades were used for extended periods of time without sharpening the Camp Tramp would pull ahead due to the edge staying in much better shape. I repaired the damage on the bolo as soon as it happened which meant stopping the cutting, as otherwise the damage would grow with successive impacts. You could of course raise the edge angle on the Bolo or simply chop with less force, but that would raise the relative ability of the Camp Tramp significantly.
The point on the Camp Trap while quite robust given its geometry (no extended clip) has very solid penetration due to the military or penetrator tip. This is essentially small sharpened section of the spine only a quarter inch or so long. Using a phone book to gauge its abilities, I ran into a problem as it would go through the book, all 864 pages, the best I have seen so far. The point is also by no means weak. I then dug through a 2x4 with 28 stabs in under three minutes. This was going as hard as I could with the only limit on the prying being that I had to hold the wood down with my other hand.
[this needs to be repeated when I get a few more phone books and some scrap]
For comparison, the CU/7 from Camillus could could section the 3/8" hemp requiring between 40-44 lbs on the flat blade section near the choil, and 34-36 lbs near the tip. Pointing some ends on a hardwood dowel (basswood), the CU/7 took 9.9 +/- 0.4 cuts. On scrap and light woods, using a hook grip around the end of the handle, it performed at 28 +/- 2 % of the Tramontina bolo, with a full grip around 20 +/- 3 %. So in short, the Camp Tramp cuts as well as the CU/7 and chops more than twice as well. The point penetration abilities are similar with the Camp Tramp's point being far stronger, however outside of full strength prying the tip on the CU/7 isn't likely to break. The Camp Tramp also has a choil to allow neutral balance gripping for light work, though I had to do some work to make this one more comfortable, round it out a little.
[the blade had been sharpened before the following usage]
Kitchen
Using the knife on trimming fats, cutting up meats and the like it did as well as any of the other kitchen blades I had as these kinds of tasks are just determined by the sharpness and since I had sharpened all the blades they were equal in that regard. The same goes for soft fruits and vegetables. It is however awkward for many of the precision tasks such as peeling potatoes, and because of the blade thickness it can fracture stiffer vegetables if you try to get thin slices. For reference it can cut a medium sized carrot with 5-7 lbs, in comparison, a Japanese styles utility knife, at the extreme end of kitchen cutlery does it in 2.5 - 3 lbs.
Misc cutting
Cutting a variety of light materials like bubble wrap, plastics, paper and fabrics, the Camp Tramp did as well as any blade I had as these materials are too flimsy to exert any pressure on a blade so as long as it is sharp it will cut that kind of stuff very well. Using a couple of other blades as well, Patrol Machete and 52100 MEUK, 1/8 inch cardboard was sliced up. All the blades cut it very easily. No real preference exists in that respect. Moving on to 1/4 inch cardboard the force jumped ahead significantly and none of the blades did that well. The Patrol Machete would be favored simply because it allows a larger draw. I popped in with a Swiss Army Knife (Rucksack), which could not cut at all because it was lightly blunted, showing the extreme importance of sharpness. With a quick honing (a few passes on a crock stick), it was much ahead of the other blades. Cutting up some rubber tubing of various sizes, the performance was again similar with the Patrol Machete being significantly last because the curvature interferes with the cutting unless you attempt to "whittle" the tube to make the cut.
Using the Patrol Machete and the Camp Tramp for a bunch of wood and light vegetation cutting the distinction between the two was of course very large. Both could cut light vegetation with equal ease, but the Patrol Machete was just much longer and thus had better reach. The Camp Tramp could be used with the finger cutout to limit fatigue, but unless the work is over a long term usage of a lanyard and a rear grip tends to save time. Moving up to light wood like Alders the Patrol Machete had both better reach and much better penetration, far less bending and much more work done in a given time. However on harder wood work like limbing, the Camp Tramp can do it without problems, but I have had two Patrol Machetes suffer gross failures so it can't handle that class of work unless you go very light at which point it loses any penetration advantage over the Camp Tramp. Doing lighter wood work like making shavings and kindling in general, the Camp Tramp is much easier to handle and does many things much better (splitting and such) as it is much more robust both in blade body and in the tip.
Handle
The grip is made of a dense rubber like material which is more durable than Kraton, but far less than Micarta or G10. It has a decent texture (I would prefer it more aggressive but then comfort it decreased), and handles shock better than the more dense grip materials. It is contoured in all dimensions. It does have a couple of problems, and these are pretty much the only real weak points of the knife. The front of the grip is rather squarish and this really limits how much force you can use when cutting as the corners produce high pressure points quite rapidly with heavy cutting. The grip should ideally be blended into the blade so as to give a nice form fitting shape. A longer guard would also be nice for more security in extreme circumstances. The rear butt hook is a large positive being at enough of a slope to torque off of, but not so much that it is uncomfortable, it is also flared out to decrease pressure and thus raise comfort with extended usage, both attributes combine to increase the chopping ability among other aspects.
Sheath :
The sheath is Cordura with a Kydex insert. It came with a very tight fit. Nice pouch on the sheath with an elastic tie down. Secure and quality stitching.
-Cliff
This is a 7 1/2" bowie style blade, made by stock removal out of SR101 ("enhanced" 52100), with a synthetic grip of "Resiprene C". The blade is differentially hardened to enhance the durability and flexibility with a spring tempered spine for strength. The primary grind is high sabre flat and tapers to a light convex edge which is difficult to distinguish from flat by eye. The edge is about 0.058" thick and ground at slightly below 16 degrees per side for the main body of the blade and swelled out to ~18 degrees per side in the tip. The knife weighs 390 g and balanced about 2.2 cm in front of the handle, about an inch, so it has a decent blade heavy heft. It has a hard black crinkle coating which will enhance the corrosion resistance of the flats but of course offers no protection to the edge.
Stock testing :
The NIB edge sharpness was a little less than optimal scoring 207 +/- 22 g on light thread. A blazing sharp finish can approach ~100 g. The edge was able to shave, but scratched a little. The knife cut paper well on a slice but had little ability for such push cuts. The edge aggression was decent near the base, taking about 0.6 cm on 1/4" poly under a 1000 g load, however it was completely slick out near the tip and was unable to cut the poly even after a dozen back and forth passes (<0.25 cm is optimal). Checking the edge closely under magnification a slight roll was present.
Push cutting 3/8" hemp the knife required between 31-33 lbs out near the tip, and up to 41-43 lbs near the base. The force is higher near the base as more of the edge is in contact with the cutting board as there is little curvature along the edge at that point. The level of slicing aggression is decently high, the knife was able to slice through the rope on a two inch draw using only 24-26 lbs much reduced from its push cutting performance. On pointing sections of hardwood dowel the blade performed very well and was able to rough off the necessary wood in only 7.9 +/- 1.0 slices.
[these were repeated after the blade was sharpened to a high polish, no significant difference (< 5%) in cutting ability was induced]
A quick comment on slicing aggression, using rolls of cotton fabric I did some slicing with the Camp Tramp as compared to an Opinel and Twistmaster, with both folders having very aggressive finishes, left rough by a 100 grit AO belt. Both folders could cut the fabric on a slice with much less passes than the Swamp Rat blade, but when I just pressed all the blades through the material the Camp Tramp jumped ahead. This is the tradeoff of blade finish, leave it coarse and the slicing ability jumps ahead but the push cutting ability goes down.
[later on I tested the Camp Tramp on that material with a 600 DMT edge finish, the slicing ability had improved many times to one, but the push cutting ability decreased as well, though not as much]
The Camp Tramp chops at about 55 (4) % of the Tramontina bolo on small wood, scrap as well as felled wood (2-3" pine and spruce mainly). The Tramontina bolo is in the same class as the Gransfors Bruks Wildlife Hatchet so it is a high baselines for ten inch class blades not to mention seven inch ones. The Camp Trap was slightly more fluid in the wood, but this wasn't a real advantage time wise as it could not overcome the time or effort disadvantage of the significantly lower penetration. After the chopping, which was done in the cold (~0 F), the Camp Tramp could still shave, but needed more of a slice / draw, and could still slice newsprint well. The Bolo had significant visible edge damage after both chopping sessions.
In regards to the rippling on the Bolo this is just a case of low quality and/or soft steel limiting cutting performance. If both blades were used for extended periods of time without sharpening the Camp Tramp would pull ahead due to the edge staying in much better shape. I repaired the damage on the bolo as soon as it happened which meant stopping the cutting, as otherwise the damage would grow with successive impacts. You could of course raise the edge angle on the Bolo or simply chop with less force, but that would raise the relative ability of the Camp Tramp significantly.
The point on the Camp Trap while quite robust given its geometry (no extended clip) has very solid penetration due to the military or penetrator tip. This is essentially small sharpened section of the spine only a quarter inch or so long. Using a phone book to gauge its abilities, I ran into a problem as it would go through the book, all 864 pages, the best I have seen so far. The point is also by no means weak. I then dug through a 2x4 with 28 stabs in under three minutes. This was going as hard as I could with the only limit on the prying being that I had to hold the wood down with my other hand.
[this needs to be repeated when I get a few more phone books and some scrap]
For comparison, the CU/7 from Camillus could could section the 3/8" hemp requiring between 40-44 lbs on the flat blade section near the choil, and 34-36 lbs near the tip. Pointing some ends on a hardwood dowel (basswood), the CU/7 took 9.9 +/- 0.4 cuts. On scrap and light woods, using a hook grip around the end of the handle, it performed at 28 +/- 2 % of the Tramontina bolo, with a full grip around 20 +/- 3 %. So in short, the Camp Tramp cuts as well as the CU/7 and chops more than twice as well. The point penetration abilities are similar with the Camp Tramp's point being far stronger, however outside of full strength prying the tip on the CU/7 isn't likely to break. The Camp Tramp also has a choil to allow neutral balance gripping for light work, though I had to do some work to make this one more comfortable, round it out a little.
[the blade had been sharpened before the following usage]
Kitchen
Using the knife on trimming fats, cutting up meats and the like it did as well as any of the other kitchen blades I had as these kinds of tasks are just determined by the sharpness and since I had sharpened all the blades they were equal in that regard. The same goes for soft fruits and vegetables. It is however awkward for many of the precision tasks such as peeling potatoes, and because of the blade thickness it can fracture stiffer vegetables if you try to get thin slices. For reference it can cut a medium sized carrot with 5-7 lbs, in comparison, a Japanese styles utility knife, at the extreme end of kitchen cutlery does it in 2.5 - 3 lbs.
Misc cutting
Cutting a variety of light materials like bubble wrap, plastics, paper and fabrics, the Camp Tramp did as well as any blade I had as these materials are too flimsy to exert any pressure on a blade so as long as it is sharp it will cut that kind of stuff very well. Using a couple of other blades as well, Patrol Machete and 52100 MEUK, 1/8 inch cardboard was sliced up. All the blades cut it very easily. No real preference exists in that respect. Moving on to 1/4 inch cardboard the force jumped ahead significantly and none of the blades did that well. The Patrol Machete would be favored simply because it allows a larger draw. I popped in with a Swiss Army Knife (Rucksack), which could not cut at all because it was lightly blunted, showing the extreme importance of sharpness. With a quick honing (a few passes on a crock stick), it was much ahead of the other blades. Cutting up some rubber tubing of various sizes, the performance was again similar with the Patrol Machete being significantly last because the curvature interferes with the cutting unless you attempt to "whittle" the tube to make the cut.
Using the Patrol Machete and the Camp Tramp for a bunch of wood and light vegetation cutting the distinction between the two was of course very large. Both could cut light vegetation with equal ease, but the Patrol Machete was just much longer and thus had better reach. The Camp Tramp could be used with the finger cutout to limit fatigue, but unless the work is over a long term usage of a lanyard and a rear grip tends to save time. Moving up to light wood like Alders the Patrol Machete had both better reach and much better penetration, far less bending and much more work done in a given time. However on harder wood work like limbing, the Camp Tramp can do it without problems, but I have had two Patrol Machetes suffer gross failures so it can't handle that class of work unless you go very light at which point it loses any penetration advantage over the Camp Tramp. Doing lighter wood work like making shavings and kindling in general, the Camp Tramp is much easier to handle and does many things much better (splitting and such) as it is much more robust both in blade body and in the tip.
Handle
The grip is made of a dense rubber like material which is more durable than Kraton, but far less than Micarta or G10. It has a decent texture (I would prefer it more aggressive but then comfort it decreased), and handles shock better than the more dense grip materials. It is contoured in all dimensions. It does have a couple of problems, and these are pretty much the only real weak points of the knife. The front of the grip is rather squarish and this really limits how much force you can use when cutting as the corners produce high pressure points quite rapidly with heavy cutting. The grip should ideally be blended into the blade so as to give a nice form fitting shape. A longer guard would also be nice for more security in extreme circumstances. The rear butt hook is a large positive being at enough of a slope to torque off of, but not so much that it is uncomfortable, it is also flared out to decrease pressure and thus raise comfort with extended usage, both attributes combine to increase the chopping ability among other aspects.
Sheath :
The sheath is Cordura with a Kydex insert. It came with a very tight fit. Nice pouch on the sheath with an elastic tie down. Secure and quality stitching.
-Cliff
