Daniel Fairly Custom Chopper, S7 steel

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Hi everyone,

I commissioned a chopper from Daniel a few months back in August. I liked the design of some of his smaller choppers and so when he mentioned he was working with 5/16ths S7 stock I couldn't resist. I've had it for several months now, and I've had the opportunity to play with it on several occasions now and this is my second write-up. The original can be found in the thread Daniel started about the knife after he finished it:

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/890618-S7-Custom-Chopper

I basically repeated the same tests this time around, but I tried to snap photos to go along with it. Please keep in mind both my photos skills and my knife skills are very, very limited...

The actual knife is of my own design with some very helpful input from Daniel. The handle is about 5.5. inches with red G-10 and the blade is about 8.5 inches,with a primary convex chisel grind and a flat micro bevel. The tip is just a straight up flat zero chisel grind. I wanted a straight primary edge for easy field sharpening, and a chisel ground tip for scraping, notching, and planing.




As you can see, both edges came very sharp and stayed that way after the first couple uses...at this point all I had done to keep them up was steel them once and then followup with some stropping on unloaded leather.




Here's a youtube video where you can see how sharp Daniel shipped them to me...impressive to say the least, especially for the chisel ground tip:
http://www.youtube.com/user/DanielFairlyKnives#p/u/4/R-zGpnJrXGE

 

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As in the first review, I started by chopping through a thin piece of plywood I had. While nothing serious, it was fairly warped and dried out by now as it had been sitting on my deck all summer. The blade went through it quickly and sent chips flying even though with my poor technique I was basically chopping straight down about halfway through. I didn't open up a big enough wedge to start.



Afterwards I moved on to some downed trees and limbs I had saved for purposes like this. Didn't take many chops to get through the first small log, and most of the limbs were taken off with one clean swing.

 

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Ok, this is where my knife skills are very limited, but that's not surprising. Chopping in general doesn't take a lot of skill (although I'm sure doing it well does). I wanted to test the edge to see how it worked for finer work, especially since this is my first chisel grind and I'm still trying to get used to it and how it feels. For both of these next to exercises I used the very ample choil to choke up on the blade.

I first just used the knife to slice some of the the bark off of a limb. I had to use an angle much lower than I exxpected due to the chisel grind. Otherwise it felt like it wanted to slice deeply right away.


Afterwards I tried to make some fuzzsticks. These are definitely hard for me, even with a small thin bladed knife. Again, the blade wants to slice very deeply very quickly, but they still turned out ok.



I then used the chisel tip to strip the bark off the log. Again, the tip is very sharp and works really well for this. It's very easy to use and works best at a low angle. I feel it has a lot more potential too. It wasn't hard to make it bite deep either, and while I didn't get photos of it, you can pound on the pommel with a log to use it to make easy notches with some practice.

 

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After trying and the finer work and feeling a little inadequate because I'm just not that good at it, I quickly hacked through another limb to make myself feel manly, haha.


Batonning was next, and that's where this thing really shines I feel. With the convex primary grind it seems to really blow the pieces apart. I started with small chunks, and for many of them it only took 2-3 whacks for the blade to drive all the way through.



I then moved onto some larger chunks in some wood with pretty twisted grain. For some of these I had to really wail on the spine of the knife as you'll see in later photos. But the chopper just kept on moving through them, and I was really very happy.

 

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Here you can see the condition of the blade after all of this, and the chunks left on the spine from my baton.


The edge of the blade was still reasonably sharp though. It would still slice through paper and still shave some hair, which I'm happy with considering how hard I really pounded on it.



It didn't take much to clean the blade up after that. Just some hot water, a little dish soap and a kitchen scrubbie. Was looking like new after that!

I inspected the edge after that to see if any parts were reflecting light and a few were where it had dulled. In one spot there was a small deformation too, the size of a pin head. I had to get the blade about an inch from my eye to see it, but I could feel it with my nail. I tried to pick it up on camera but couldn't it was so small. I'm not sure how it got there, but on one occasion, while batonning, after the second hit, the blade went right through the log and may have grazed the rocks I was working on, not sure. On a second occasion the blade fell a couple inches off the long I had placed it on into the rocks, so the deformation, which was extremely minute, may have happened then, which is my own stupidity for working in such an area.

At any rate, I used a screwdriver trip to push on it once and could no longer feel it with my nail. After that I stropped both edges with about 5 passes each on black, green, and pink compound. Finished with some passes on leather and the edge is tip top now, absolutely flinging hair again!

 

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Overall, I am extremely happy with the chopper Daniel built for me. I really couldn't be more pleased. It's built like a tank and has handled all I have thrown at it, which is a lot in my opinion. I have really beat on that thing in each of the testing sessions I've done. And it feels great in the hand. For my smaller hands, it's just perfect. The contours on the grips are awesome as well. While this time I was wearing gloves, the first time I did not, and I had no hot spots. They add a good degree of purchase without tearing your skin up. The only thing I would change is the spine right above the handle. I should have asked him to round the edges to make using the choil more comfortable, but that was my own lack of experience when telling him what I wanted.

Most importantly perhaps, working with Daniel was completely awesome. He was extremely responsive from the get go and very helpful in bringing my creation to life, whether it was offering design tips or asking me questions to make sure he understood what I wanted....and believe me, I'm not artist with my descriptions, but he still executed the blade exactly as I wanted.

And honestly, since receiving the blade he has done nothing but continue to prove himself as a great guy. He has emailed me at length about sharpening, answering numerous questions of mine and offering his opinion on technique. I'm very excited to implement what we've talked about. Furthermore, I emailed him about the kydex sheath he made me asking if I could adjust the tension on it. He said sure, that all I had to do was play around with the screws and washers holding it together, and to top it off he mailed me a small package, all at his cost, with a ton of screws and washers so that I had plenty of different options.

So yeah, what I'm trying to say is Daniel Fairly is awesome, and you should not hesitate for a second to work with him.

 

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Here is my initial review for those people who don't like clicking on links:

Hello all,

So I'm the owner of this knife and I just got out and tested it for the second time...first time wasn't too much.

Today I started by hacking through a piece of 3/8inch looking plywood about 8 inches wide. The blade bit solidly, although not super deeply, which is something I noticed throughout the testing session. This has to do with the design of the knife though which gets very thick, very fast considering its from .315 S7 stock or there abouts. Still didn't take me long to make it all the way through, just a minute or so, and the chips were flying. To test the edge strength I repeatedly would chop into the wood and then twist the knife out...didn't phase the blade at all, but then again, it was only plywood and a bit damp at that.

I moved on though and I feel here I put it through it's paces pretty darn well, and the end result was that it wasn't phased at all. Had some hard dried pine logs and I first chopped through one about 2 inches wide. Again, would chop into the wood and then twist the edge out...no chips, no dents, just a sharp a$$ edge still.

Moved onto some batonning. Batonned through a piece about 4.5 inches wide and it killed my forearm. The wood was hard and I had to drive the blade through about 12 inches of the 16inch log before it finally split. I beat repeatedly on the spine both on only the last inch and the couple of inches before the handle and the blade just kept driving through the wood. I tried prying the log apart at one point, putting some decent torque on the edge, but couldn't get any good leverages. At the end the blade was still fine.

Batonned a few more pieces, nothing big...small wrist size pieces, and it blew threw these like birthday cake. Last attempt at batonning was into the knotted end of a long about 3.5 inches wide. Got the blade about halfway buried and kept pounding but it wasn't moving much because the knot was so hard...so I had tried pulling the blade out. Wouldn't come out, so I had to beat the log off of it with my baton. After I got it out, it was still golden. Where it wasn't covered in dirt, the edge was still shining.

Went back to chopping and went through a couple more logs in the 2-3.5 inch range. On many occasions I would twist the blade out after chopping it in to test the edge. No problems at all.

Tried making some fuzz sticks then using the choil and the lower part of the blade. Worked pretty well. I didn't really know what I was doing though, just trying to imitate the photos I see on here a lot. Because of the chisel grind I suppose the blade did want to slide deep into the wood though easily. Was a little hard to make light thin shavings. Used the chisel on top too to debark some of the log...works great although if you don't keep the angle low it will just drive right deep into the wood. Would work great for making notches in larger logs I feel.

Finally cut the 2.5 inch branch off of a tree in the yard...was fun and easy. Took probably about 20 chops working my way around it. My arm was exhausted at this point though...I'm not used to this kind of work. Once I got it off I delimbed it....the blade easily went through half inch thick limbs in one chop.

Tried some more fuzzsticks on this green wood and I did better this time. The blade slid into the wood with ease...in fact it surprised me a couple of times. Used the chisel tip too to strip the bark and really got the hang of it this time. It was flying off with ease.

After this the knife was a big dirty mess....a mess that took all of a minute with some dish soap and a scrotchbrite scrubby to bring back to shining. I tested the edges then. The main edge would still shave and the chisel top would cut a few hairs. The main edge would still slice paper with incredible ease and make very fine cuts. The chisel would no longer slice paper. So I steeled the main edge with about 5 passes and then about 5 passes on a leather strop and hair was POPPING again. The chisel I gave about 5 passes on each of the following: green, pink, and leather. The end result was hair flying off of my arm.

Overall, I am EXTREMELY happy with the blade. I don't know that it will cut through stone or metal bars, but I have no doubt it will handle whatever you can find in the woods. The edge still shines line a mirror and doesn't have the slightest deformation. The handle felt great through out use...no hot spots or anything, and I didn't wear gloves. In short, I think it's a wonderful piece, and it definitely lives up to Daniel's motto of "built for hard use"

Thank you Daniel!

 

[DavidZ]

Nice review and test. Sweet chopper you have there! It looks like you are really enjoying it. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Riverwarrior]

Excellent review. That is one awesome looking chopper that should last a lifetime. Thanks for taking the time to share the review and pics. Daniel makes amazing blades and his customer service is second-to-none :thumbup:

 

[Daniel Fairly Knives]

Thanks for the great review! I put everything into my knives and it is always good to see they are working out!