Chop test.

knifejunkie1928

knifejunkie1928

Joined
Feb 15, 2015
Messages
1,369
So I rebuilt my mom's deck over the whole month of July. I saved a bunch of pieces of the old railing. I have a whole wheelbarrow load of these 1"x1"x4' pieces and I thought it would make the perfect material for a chop test. They are all the same wood and size so I thought for consistency this would be perfect.

So this is how I'm planning the massive chop test. I'm keeping it as simple as possible. I'm just going to see how many chops it takes a specific blade to go through one. You guys can extrapolate any data you want from that.

I'm not doing this to be real scientific or to find the ultimate blade. I just thought it would be fun and thought I might share with all you beckerheads.

1-11.jpg

So far the list of blades I'm going to use is:

Stock bk1 from Blackjack
Stock bk1 from Camillus
Cincinnati machax
Stock bk4 from Camillus
bk4 from Kabar
bk6
bk9 from kabar
bk20
bk21 (stock for now)
Blackjack RBK (bk21)

Would also love to find a cam bk9 before this is all over.

I'll blso be using a bunch of my modified beckers like:

Full height convex Cam bk4
Full flate grind Cam bk4
Combo convex/flate Cam bk4
snub noise Saber Cam bk4
Mini bk21 that I based off the mini Reiheardt kukri

There will be some testing of other non-becker blades like:

Tm hunt m18
Tm hunt parang
Tm bowie
Tm hunt patrol machax
Lt Wright overland stock
Bensinger bolo stock
Becker handled case bolo

Will also use a gransfors bruks hatchet that will be stock.

Unless I said a blade was "stock" in that list above, you can assume it has my nice convex edge on it.

I'm not going to do it all in one day, I think may arm would be too tired for a fair test.

Hopefully I will be starting today.
 
Last edited:
Wish I could join you ... I'll be interested in how it goes ...

I set out all my choppers and sharpened them all to kind of do the same just for my amusement ... but I only have about 6 choppers ...

But life got crazy so my little playtime test is on hold for as bit.
 
Last edited:
This should be fun!
Thinner stock like that will tend not to show the disadvantage of overly-obtuse blades, but will be a good test of "up to 1 inch" chopping capabilities!
 
this will be fun to watch
be careful with the scraps -- green treated wood burns with "slowly toxic" smoke (won't kill you today, but can mess up your lungs for later) and can be poisonous to dogs who chew the scraps.
 
So Saturday I knocked out all the bk4s first. I misspoke earlier, the wood is 2"x2"x4'.

So I didn't get the best photos because I couldn't convince my wife to come out and hold the camera.

Results are:

On piece of wood #1

my modded cam bk4 full flat grind- 9
my modded flate/convex cam bk4- 10
my modded snub noise cam bk4- 7
standard kabar bk4- 7
cincinnati machax- 11

Piece of wood #2

stock cam bk4- 19
my modded full convex- 16

1-12.jpg 1-13.jpg 1-14.jpg

Today I grabbed all the TM Hunts and got the wife to come out to take some photos. Also managed to cook some cheap steaks on the cast iron grill.

1-16.jpg

Fire courtesy of LT Wright forest trail and some fatwood.

1-15.jpg

Patrol Machax
1-22.jpg
M18
1-17.jpg
Parang
1-18.jpg
Bowie
1-20.jpg

and the results:

Patrol Machax- 10
M18- 8
parang- 10
Bowie- 7
 
daizee said:
This should be fun!
Thinner stock like that will tend not to show the disadvantage of overly-obtuse blades, but will be a good test of "up to 1 inch" chopping capabilities!
Click to expand...

The wood is actually 2"x2"x4' but your still probably right. Might not be the best test for the really obtuse edges on the cam bk1 & bk4

1066vik said:
this will be fun to watch
be careful with the scraps -- green treated wood burns with "slowly toxic" smoke (won't kill you today, but can mess up your lungs for later) and can be poisonous to dogs who chew the scraps.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the heads up vik, Ill probably just end up tossing it.
 
Boss1911 said:
I haven't had the time yet to put the "Correct" handle on mine but it is at the top of my to do list.
Click to expand...

It's really Worth it!
The "Correct handle" makes it a Machine.... I doubt much could be better than it.
Unfortunately it's my favorite Becker.... :/
 
My grand dad introduced me to the "large chopper" Skrama when I was little. It stuck in my head on what a big knife can do, and my old man was "use a damn ax all the time!" type. But my it stuck in my head till I started getting back to the Finnish part of my heritage and I saw Grand Dad's Skrama one last time before my cousin shipped it to some place in "old country" for some heritage exhibit. That's what got me to Skrama duty type multi-tool knives again. The American forms for that tool use are nice and wide and varied to fit that part of the country they are used in. I keep meaning to order a Skrama but well...I got 3 BK9s aready that do multi-tool big bladed things and other American type large knives for the heavier chopping duties... For multi-use the BK4 seems the most multi-toolie.

For this big chop off I think the bigger heavier metal will win.

@knifejunkie1928 The Dogwood Fire Fly scales look great on that BK4! I find my BK 2 (clear and glowie "Stones" in them) with a set of those scales can work as tough as Mircarta, my BK5 has the other set for its use as field camp knife (like your BK4!)...so it don't get left behind...like both almost got lost but they glowed so I found them...again...and again... I do have other knives that can do what the two Fire Fly handle ones can do but well...when trusting others to use them during camp chores or tooling around in the woods. I never lost them yet. And I don't want to have to resort to spray painting things blaze orange like my old man use to do.
 
Sucks I never got around to testing some of the older Beckers I wanted to. I just put up a few of them in the exchange if any of you Beckerheads are interested.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top