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- Feb 6, 2000
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Today I decided to do some chopping with my Steel Heart 2 E. I wanted to test the effectiveness of the new D-Guard I had installed, and feel that Busse knives need to do some chopping from time to time.
I went to my garage and picked out some wood to chop. I chose some pieces of old boards, an old 2X4, a 2" diameter oak branch, and a 3" diameter hickory branch.
The pieces of board were a joke. The Steel Heart flew through them, often breaking them with one chop.
The 2X4 was harder, but still easy. The Steel Heart bit deeply and cleanly with each chop, and chopped the 2X4 in half quite quickly.
The 2" diameter oak branch was seasoned and very hard, it was felled last autumn. It was harder to chop than the 2X4, but still quite efficient and didn't take too long.
The hickory (I'm pretty sure its hickory; it was harder than the oak and had bark that looked like hickory bark) was very hard, and was not easy to chop through. I know 3" doesn't sound like much, but go take a look at a 3" diameter branch; it's quite substantial. For seasoned hardwood, 3" is about where I draw the line on the Steel Heart's cutting efficiency. Anything larger than 3" will not be cut very efficiently by the Steel Heart (but that's just me, and I'm not a very experienced or powerful chopper). Remember, however, that we're talking about seasoned hardwood here. For live and softer woods, I imagine that the Steel Heart would be able to chop significantly larger branches/trees efficiently. I'll try that on my next camping trip.
The Steel Heart is also great for most fine work. I did a little fine work, and the Steel Heart couldn't have performed better (I had my index finger in the finger cut-out). I don't know how well the Steel Heart would skin small game, but I imagine you could use your right hand to guide the belly and tip of the blade and hold the handle with your left hand. That way you could do very fine work with the tip of the blade.
The coating finally came off of a small section in the middle of the blade, where I do most of my chopping. The steel under the coating is a dull gray, and the fact that the coating is gone is hardly noticeable. Also, due to the durability of the coating, the coating comes off slowly and very evenly; the coating on my Steel Heart has no scratches.
The only ergonomics problem I had with the handle was as small one. When I was chopping, I choked down on the handle so that my pinkie finger was on the pommel. The pommel has pretty sharp edges from where the coating has been ground off (all new Busses have the coating ground off of their spines, exposed tangs, and pommels). However, I think this is easily fixed by filing or grinding off the sharp edge.
At the end of the chopping, the edge was a tad below shaving sharpness (it started out at shaving sharp). The first thing I did was strop it on my home-made strop (I stropped on both sides), which to my amazement made the edge sharper than it was before the chopping took place.
In conclusion, the Steel Heart is a great chopper, amazing for its size, and I don't think one can fully appreciate that until actually chopping with it, not just handling it. It is also adept at most fine work. And finally, it responds to stropping very nicely. It is the most versatile knife I've ever used.
I went to my garage and picked out some wood to chop. I chose some pieces of old boards, an old 2X4, a 2" diameter oak branch, and a 3" diameter hickory branch.
The pieces of board were a joke. The Steel Heart flew through them, often breaking them with one chop.
The 2X4 was harder, but still easy. The Steel Heart bit deeply and cleanly with each chop, and chopped the 2X4 in half quite quickly.
The 2" diameter oak branch was seasoned and very hard, it was felled last autumn. It was harder to chop than the 2X4, but still quite efficient and didn't take too long.
The hickory (I'm pretty sure its hickory; it was harder than the oak and had bark that looked like hickory bark) was very hard, and was not easy to chop through. I know 3" doesn't sound like much, but go take a look at a 3" diameter branch; it's quite substantial. For seasoned hardwood, 3" is about where I draw the line on the Steel Heart's cutting efficiency. Anything larger than 3" will not be cut very efficiently by the Steel Heart (but that's just me, and I'm not a very experienced or powerful chopper). Remember, however, that we're talking about seasoned hardwood here. For live and softer woods, I imagine that the Steel Heart would be able to chop significantly larger branches/trees efficiently. I'll try that on my next camping trip.
The Steel Heart is also great for most fine work. I did a little fine work, and the Steel Heart couldn't have performed better (I had my index finger in the finger cut-out). I don't know how well the Steel Heart would skin small game, but I imagine you could use your right hand to guide the belly and tip of the blade and hold the handle with your left hand. That way you could do very fine work with the tip of the blade.
The coating finally came off of a small section in the middle of the blade, where I do most of my chopping. The steel under the coating is a dull gray, and the fact that the coating is gone is hardly noticeable. Also, due to the durability of the coating, the coating comes off slowly and very evenly; the coating on my Steel Heart has no scratches.
The only ergonomics problem I had with the handle was as small one. When I was chopping, I choked down on the handle so that my pinkie finger was on the pommel. The pommel has pretty sharp edges from where the coating has been ground off (all new Busses have the coating ground off of their spines, exposed tangs, and pommels). However, I think this is easily fixed by filing or grinding off the sharp edge.
At the end of the chopping, the edge was a tad below shaving sharpness (it started out at shaving sharp). The first thing I did was strop it on my home-made strop (I stropped on both sides), which to my amazement made the edge sharper than it was before the chopping took place.
In conclusion, the Steel Heart is a great chopper, amazing for its size, and I don't think one can fully appreciate that until actually chopping with it, not just handling it. It is also adept at most fine work. And finally, it responds to stropping very nicely. It is the most versatile knife I've ever used.
