Extreme Judgement : just some spec's and a little splitting

C

Cliff Stamp

BANNED
Joined
Oct 5, 1998
Messages
17,562
To be quite honest I was biased against this knife from the start and opened it looking to be disappointed. This wasn't because of anything in particular about the knife, but simply because the last half a dozen knives I had bought were vastly overhyped and it had been awhile since I bought something which actually turned out to be able to do as claimed.

Upon opening the knife was was not then overly surprised when it had a thin (0.08") Kydex sheath, yes I knew it was going to be Kydex, can't get leather for this particular blade, but part of me was hoping for a magical elf based transmutation as Kydex sheaths simply don't offer the performance that I need for a large blade. This one was also very difficult to draw from, and wore on the coating with each draw. I was also very particular about sheathing and it was easy to cut into the Kydex readily and a couple of times I took pieces away from the inside of the sheath.

The handle was a step up, but not a large one. It is the same basic design as the grip on the Steel Eagle (TOPS) with a couple of much needed improvements. Gone are the hand mangler serrations along the top, and the index finger groove is much more rounded and comfortable. However in general I don't like such shape specific grips (versatility reasons), and the grip is a still flat along the top and bottom. The index finger cutout on the blade however is decently well rounded, one of the better jobs I have seen in that area.

However it all turned around when I looked at the blade. It swells out to over 2" wide at the max, is 1/4" stock with a full flat grind producing a nice tapered profile. The edge specs out at just over 0.025" and is ground at 15-16 degrees per side - which is exactly as I recently specified the edge on a similar custom. I have tried going thinner than this with many knives, a lot of which claimed really high performance and the edges all rippled readily. The Fehrman was also very sharp, ~125 g on thread, shaved well, sliced and push cut newsprint. None of this nonsense about sharp edges being fragile so we leave ours blunt which is popular for many large knives.

I used the Extreme Judgement to split about 100 pieces of frozen wood. It doesn't have enough heft to actually split the wood on its own so it had to be batoned through. It was about -15 -> -20 F so I had a pair of rawhide gloves on, and the handle was problematic because the index finger groove was too small for the heavy glove and the handle as a whole was cramped, so there were some impacts off of the end hook - which is however nicely sloped. For those reasons, in general I prefer grips without such shape specific designs. On the positive the feedback was solid, no excessive vibrations unlike the Ontario Rtak just recently used. The blade didn't flex at all in the wood, and the bite was strong.

Checking the edge after use there were no chips or dents. I look forward to using this one more.

-Cliff
 
i glad you finally got your blade Cliff :p is the quality control second to none like i have always heard? and did you get a black blade or satin?
 
Coated, don't care about blade finish at all. Would have took uncoated rough if it was an option. The tolerances are very tight, one of the best I have seen on a blade of this size or any other for than matter.

For example the edge thickness didn't change by more than a thousand'th along the length of the blade 0.027-0.028. The variation in the angle was just due to estimates in measuring by eye 15-16 degrees.

Edge sharpness and geometry isn't a really big thing to me practical wise anymore as a 1" belt grinder solves even the thickest edge, however it goes back to something R. J. Martin said along time ago :

(paraphrase badly)

A knife is meant to cut, the edge is what matters, essentially the rest of the blade is there for support.

Now in its simplest sense, this is a bit simplistic, as knives do more than cut, however if a knife can not cut - well then it isn't really a knife. SO when a maker sends out a knife which has to be immediately reprofiled you have to wonder if the blade ever went through R&D.

Of course perspectives will change, what I want and what you want may be different so discuss with the maker what the knife is meant to be able to do.

-Cliff
 
hey cliff, how far back from the tip does the 1/4 spine go before it begins to taper towards the point? also how heavy is it?
 
Thanks for taking the time to review some knives for our knowledge.
I know some of us would rather argue with you than appreciate what you're doing for us, and I'm sorry for that.
Either way. Cheers for Cliff. :cool:
 
The tip taper starts at about 1.25" back, however it is convex and has a very robust profile. I'll take a few shots top down so you can get a better picture, I think I'll map it out with a set of calipers as well. I didn't weigh it yet, I assume it is around 575 g based on size, I'll check it this evening.

Yep, I flicked it about a hundred times yesterday, no effect as far as I can tell. Its definately a superior design to the Sebenza in terms of flicking.

I split some more wood with it using the Roselli axe as the "baton". I hit the knife hard enough to cause the coating to shatter off the flats. The blade wasn't being hit there, but on the spine, but the vibrations knocked the coating off it laterally. It also did the job on the hammer poll of the axe, a little filing cleaned that up.

No effect on the blade, no spine mushrooming. The edge took some damage on the harder knots, just barely visible, so 0.1-0.2 of a mm deep, checking under mag they are fractures. I want to look at the edge laterally in wood, torquing and such but everything here is frozen so if you try it the wood just shatters easily, I need to pick up some 4x4 at Kent. I also want a large bone.

The overall cutting and chopping ability is high due to the thin profile, forward balance and overall heft. My only real cocern is the finger groove, some people really like these, I prefer a more neutral handle. This one is a bit small for me with a set of gloves on.

Andrew, guess who is getting a MOAB?

-Cliff
 
Cliff Stamp said:
The edge took some damage on the harder knots, just barely visible, so 0.1-0.2 of a mm deep, checking under mag they are fractures.
Click to expand...

Huh. What do you think? To me that's a little disappointing....I thought 3V would do better.

Cliff Stamp said:
Andrew, guess who is getting a MOAB?
Click to expand...

Lucky bastid! You are going to lose it when you swing that thing for the first time....it's a monster :cool:

It broke my heart when I could not bring one home from Blade!
 
Cliff Stamp said:
My only real cocern is the finger groove, some people really like these, I prefer a more neutral handle.


-Cliff
Click to expand...

That's the reason I've never gotten a Fehrman or Tops knife. The finger grooves are annoying on utility type knives. I've tried to talk Eric Fehrman to change the handle design but no luck.
 
The weight is 560 g. The tip dimensions go 0.084x0.272, 0.113x0.380,0.114x0.590",0.190x829", and 0.220"x1.095" .

As for the damage, the edge as noted was rough from the factory, for heavy impact work like this it should be highly polished.

I resharpened it and brought it up to a high polish. Again I split wood for about an hour. The edge chipped out again but smaller this time, not visible by eye but felt by thumbnail.

To be clear, this was not little tappy-tap batoning, this was laying into the knife with a piece of 1.5' long apps like you were pounding on the skull of a black bear trying to make a meal out of your ass.

I chose the hardest, heaviest knots I could find and layed into them. I really don't care how the knife performs in ideal conditions, in ideal conditions, if things go bad I simply walk inside and take a break.

I want to know how it will perform when things go wrong, the stress is high, and you lend your tool to someone who is only one step down from a silverback. Emergency / survival is not camping.

Yeah I have a lot of knives which are highly optomized exactly for me, that work very well when I am using them as I know exactly what they can and can't do. They are not survivial knives.

-Cliff
 
I have a Hood Hunter, which is a modified fehrman. I had a leather sheath made for it because i really prefer a good leather sheath. It's coated 3V.
Wow.
It has much less mass than my Busses and takes a different approach, speed vs heft, but it is superb.
This one joins my Busses [and 1 Lightfoot and 2 Wally Hayes] at the top of my big knife mainstay user rotation.
 
Cliff Stamp said:
The weight is 560 g. The tip dimensions go 0.084x0.272, 0.113x0.380,0.114x0.590",0.190x829", and 0.220"x1.095" .

As for the damage, the edge as noted was rough from the factory, for heavy impact work like this it should be highly polished.

I resharpened it and brought it up to a high polish. Again I split wood for about an hour. The edge chipped out again but smaller this time, not visible by eye but felt by thumbnail.

To be clear, this was not little tappy-tap batoning, this was laying into the knife with a piece of 1.5' long apps like you were pounding on the skull of a black bear trying to make a meal out of your ass.

I chose the hardest, heaviest knots I could find and layed into them. I really don't care how the knife performs in ideal conditions, in ideal conditions, if things go bad I simply walk inside and take a break.

I want to know how it will perform when things go wrong, the stress is high, and you lend your tool to someone who is only one step down from a silverback. Emergency / survival is not camping.

Yeah I have a lot of knives which are highly optomized exactly for me, that work very well when I am using them as I know exactly what they can and can't do. They are not survivial knives.

-Cliff
Click to expand...

Silverback? Don't be talking about my inlaws like that....:eek:

Good stuff, Cliff! Let 'er rip, can't wait to see how things go! I've only been cutting cardboard and hemp rope with my Peacemaker, and so far, it's been very impressive.
 
Hey Cliff, I tend to agree with you about the handles on the Fehrman's. For me, though, it's not so much the shape as it is the width. I don't have very large hands, and so the handle is a little big for me on my Final Judgement. If the width was brought down a 1/4 inch, it would be alot better. other than that minor complaint I find the knife to be well worth the money. I'm looking forward to hearing more from ya'.
 
unless i converted wrong, 560 grams only makes that knife 20 ounces which seems very light :rolleyes:

my busse bm-e weights 24oz in comparison and looking at the pics on fehrman's website the knife looks bigger than the bm-e
 
witchhunter said:
unless i converted wrong, 560 grams only makes that knife 20 ounces which seems very light :rolleyes:

my busse bm-e weights 24oz in comparison and looking at the pics on fehrman's website the knife looks bigger than the bm-e
Click to expand...

Your conversion is correct - a bit under 20 ounces to be exact.
:)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top