Cutting Competition

Gentlemen, I would like to say "THANK YOU" to every one of you! :thumbup::thumbup:

Please keep reporting on these competitions. This has been the most imnformative thread I've read in several years.

This kind of thing really moves the technology of knives forward. But only if folks like you keep reporting the results so the rest of us know what is being developed, and how it works out in actual hard use.


Again, thank you! :):):)
 
dphillips said:
The dimensions of the Browning are correct, however, for most of us cutters it is too light. IIRC it weighs 15 oz. most comp knives in use now start at 19-20 oz. Most are also more blade heavy. I have one that I put rubber handles on. I did not thin the blade any just put a higher convex edge on it. It is a great camp knife. I know the weight difference does not sound like much but it is. I use the analogy of a baseball player preffering a bat that weighs 31oz compared to one that weighs 33 oz. It is only 2 oz, but to the user it means alot. If you added 2-3 ozs to the Browning knife biasing that weight toward the tip that would give a better representation of what a comp. knife is like.

Hope that helps.
Donavon
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I have the Browning Crowell Barker and intend to use it as a camp knife, I love the way it looks and feels.

I have questions : )

When chopping is speed or power more important?

Can speed and technique give the same result as brute force?

Is there a technique you use when the blade strikes the wood; such as twisting, pulling or pushing the blade as it strikes?
 
syltetoy said:
I have the Browning Crowell Barker and intend to use it as a camp knife, I love the way it looks and feels.

I have questions : )

When chopping is speed or power more important?

Can speed and technique give the same result as brute force?

Is there a technique you use when the blade strikes the wood; such as twisting, pulling or pushing the blade as it strikes?
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Chopping the 2X4, I think power with technique is best. Technique being key.

To muddy the waters, yes speed and technique can give better results than brute force and no technique.

The technique I try to use is to hit hard and hit right. Follow through, you want to imagine you are chopping the bottom 2X4 and the top one is not there. That way you hit it as hard as you can. I try not to twist the blade at all.
 
dphillips said:
Chopping the 2X4, I think power with technique is best. Technique being key.

To muddy the waters, yes speed and technique can give better results than brute force and no technique.

The technique I try to use is to hit hard and hit right. Follow through, you want to imagine you are chopping the bottom 2X4 and the top one is not there. That way you hit it as hard as you can. I try not to twist the blade at all.
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So you just concentrate on a area and angle and let the knife push and chip the wood?

Do you alternate side to side with each strike or do try to move wood from a specific area each strike?
 
Just curious, I can only find the HSM in 1/4". Like Longstrider said, it is hard to get it in 5/8". Anyone know where? I only need enough for one knife.
Oh, I am going to try my hand at a comp with my Browning. The size and weight work well for me. See you guys soon!!!
 
d.weglarz13 said:
Just curious, I can only find the HSM in 1/4". Like Longstrider said, it is hard to get it in 5/8". Anyone know where? I only need enough for one knife.
Oh, I am going to try my hand at a comp with my Browning. The size and weight work well for me. See you guys soon!!!
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dude 1/4" HSM is to small??? wow mazeltov, you got some catchers mitts there!!!


IIRC Raw power without control generally loses to technique and controlled power

err Yoda said so anyway
 
I find 1/4" slabs too thin on any fulltang :o Most of my fixed blades have handles that are the best part of, if not a full inch in thickness at their thickest point measured from side to side across the tang. Maybe I should have been born on your side of the pond and taken up baseball ? No-one has ever called my hands 'catchers mitts' but they have been referred to as 'shovels' a few times :D

The 2x4 cut is about the accurate use of power combined with good technique in my book. It's no good just hacking away at it with little or no thought to where the blade will strike, just like it is useless to cut it with too narrow a 'V'
You need to hit those timbers hard, but you also need to hit them accurately, hopefully 'blowing chips' to clear wood from the area for the next cut with every cut you make. Twisting the blade, or even allowing it to twist (like it will often want to) during the cut will only result in either a poor cut or at worst a chipped or deformed edge, especially if you hit a knot in the wood at the same time as the twist occurs. I've seen what we all thought to be a perfectly good, well heat-treated knife loose a chunk of edge the size of a jelly bean because the cutter let it twist when the edge was hard into a knot in a piece of pine 2x4.
 
syltetoy said:
So you just concentrate on a area and angle and let the knife push and chip the wood?

Do you alternate side to side with each strike or do try to move wood from a specific area each strike?
Click to expand...

Like Longstrider said, you have to pick and choose where to strike next. If you just alternate sides you will lose time. If you pick and choose where to strike, you will remove the chips more effectively. The first cut, let's say to the left side should go as deep as you can, ideally when you strike the right side the chip will pop out. If it does not you are better off hitting the right side again to remove the chip before going back to the left side.
 
dphillips said:
Like Longstrider said, you have to pick and choose where to strike next. If you just alternate sides you will lose time. If you pick and choose where to strike, you will remove the chips more effectively. The first cut, let's say to the left side should go as deep as you can, ideally when you strike the right side the chip will pop out. If it does not you are better off hitting the right side again to remove the chip before going back to the left side.
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Got it. The objective is to move wood out of the way.

I just want to be the best wood chopper in the camp ; )

Thank You
 
Longstrider, can you tell me where I can get the thicker HSM? You seem like you know. lol.
Still can't find it thicker than 1/4".
 
Ben Dover said:
Gentlemen, I would like to say "THANK YOU" to every one of you! :thumbup::thumbup:

Please keep reporting on these competitions. This has been the most imnformative thread I've read in several years.

This kind of thing really moves the technology of knives forward. But only if folks like you keep reporting the results so the rest of us know what is being developed, and how it works out in actual hard use.


Again, thank you! :):):)
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+1. This thread deserves to be stickied. Very, very informative. THANKS! :thumbup: :thumbup:
 
It is nice to see real world (con)tests of knives. It truly shows what a knife can do. The other video's and 'tests', really have no bearing on what really matters.

What really matters is how well a knife blade holds and keeps an edge during hard use.

I'll never pry so hard with a knife that I bend it more than a few degrees.
I'll never need to chop through concrete with a knife, for any reason.
I'll never need to pound through steel pipe using a hammer and a knife, for any reason.

I will need to chop wood.
I will need to make clean slicing cuts in all softer media.
I will need to alternate between the two, over and over, without edge rolling and/or constant resharpening.

Thank goodness some sanity is prevailing.
 
bearcut said:
I'll never pry so hard with a knife that I bend it more than a few degrees.
I'll never need to chop through concrete with a knife, for any reason.
I'll never need to pound through steel pipe using a hammer and a knife, for any reason.
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You must live in some kind of fantasy land where there exist tools meant specifically for prying (what'd they call 'em? "pry-bars"?!), cutting concrete ("concrete-saws" perhaps? :rolleyes:) and steel pipe ("pipe-cutters"? Pfft! Yeah right!)
 
d.weglarz13 said:
Longstrider, can you tell me where I can get the thicker HSM? You seem like you know. lol.
Still can't find it thicker than 1/4".
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I'm sorry fella, but my sources might be a little too far from (your) home to be of any real useto you. I live in the UK and I can't find decent stuff here, but have managed to source some rubber matting 2" thick through a friend in Holland.

If I want slabs for a full-tang blade I just run the piece through the bandsaw and cut it roughly to thickness (using the manufactured smooth outer surface as the inners of the slabs). For through-tangs I can simply drill and file through a big slab before sliding it onto the tang and shaping on the grinder. I find it shapes really easily and nicely with a 40 grit belt running really slow. I don't ever try to get the finish too fine as I want it to give a 'grippy' handle. The finest grit I hit it with is usually 240, finishing off by hand.

I was at a Steam Rally over the weekend and saw that a few of the 'junk-n-tools' stalls there had sheets of pretty thick rubber for sale. I think the steam/traction engine guys make a type of gasket from it. You might find some if you can find someone in your area who supplies it for this perhaps ?
 
I have enjoyed it myself, I like sharing my experiences and only hope that all of my rambling will help someone, or maybe, just maybe, get someone interested enough to join us in the world of BladeSports. Now I am not saying this thread is over, just need some more questions to answer. Hope to see some of ya'll in the future.
 
dphillips said:
I have enjoyed it myself, I like sharing my experiences and only hope that all of my rambling will help someone, or maybe, just maybe, get someone interested enough to join us in the world of BladeSports. Now I am not saying this thread is over, just need some more questions to answer. Hope to see some of ya'll in the future.
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Thank You!

I probably will never be a competitor but I am very interested and want to attend a competition some day soon.
 
Donovan,
Thanks for your patience, it is clear from the break downs in your replies that you are a true competitor as well as blade enthusiast. I did notice from the videos of cutting that the "skirts" that are chipped out of a 2x4 are much wider than what I had expected. What are the major differences you find between making progress chopping lumber as opposed to clearing thicker limbs (3-4" dia +) of the same wood in the outdoors?
 
Depends on if it is wet (alive) or dry (like lumber). Live wood seems to hold together better, it does not chip as easily to me, but since it is green it is also softer so you get better penetration with each blow.
 
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