Favorite Large Chopper

B

Bryce Haley

Joined
Mar 24, 2020
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52
What large chopper for bushcraft do you guys think is the best? Ive really been interested in the Esee Junglas. It looks so awesome.
 
Welcome to the forums.

We have have seen thousands of nice choppers in recent years. So, I can’t pick a best one for you. It depend on part on you, your budget and physical build, the intended use, and the intended environment. Having said that the Junglas is a very nice knife; either that or the Kabar Becker BK 9 would be a good place to start.

n2s
 
Depends on what you want to chop. For my use over the past 2 yrs, or so, my favorite choppers have been (in no particular order): the Bark River Senegal, Busse BB13 (BG), Becker BK20 & BK21.

Now that I'm home, edited to add pictures.
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The Junglas is a good knife with a really nice sheath also and a good warranty to boot. Then there's the Junglas II if you want a little smaller blade. Good luck on your hunt and Welcome as well.
 
Skrama. By all accounts it outperforms the rest, at a reasonable price. I can’t vouch for that comparison, but my Skrama is good enough that I am not tempted to spend a lot of dough on another big chopper. Curiosity could overtake me at some point, but I’m good for now.
 
I got hooked on large choppers after i bought a BK9, it's a good chopper. A few years later i traded it out for the Ontario SP10 Marine Raider. The Marine Raider is not as good of chopper as the BK9 but I trust it to hold up better in a bug out situation. In reality there is very little difference in eithers chopping ability but the BK9 is just a hair better chopper but the Marine Raider is half the price.

I see lots of reviews on the KA-BAR Jarosz Chopper that all say it's a good chopper.

Really way to many to choose from. Just get anything and go from there.
 
There are a number of good choppers and to recommend one I would need an estimate of your budget and uses, and what you expect from a chopper.

Just to put some of my favorites out there ... the Becker BK9 is old faithful and a great value. The Esee Junglas that you mentioned is a solid choice but not as comfortable to use for extended periods IMO. And if you want to step up materials and comfort and have a beast of a choppers that will handle most anything Carothers Performance Knives choppers in Nathan's D3V steel are outstanding, but not inexpensive.

I don't have many pictures on this phone but here are a few of the BK9 and one model of a Carothers Performance Knives Chopper ...

BK9 with a BK62 ...
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BK9 ...
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A CPK HDMC ...
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My favourite non custom choppers are infi Busses, ( an old straight handle BattleMistress or Steelheart II ) or a Fehrman ( my favourite is Dr Ron Hood's original thin version in coated 3V with pot notch and space for shock reducing ball bearings in the handle which i keep empty ).

But my favourites were made by the great Canadian Mastersmith, Wally Hayes: a custom version of one in 52100 that years ago won a camp chppewr contest in one of the kniofe magazines ( can't remember which), and a one off chopper in 52100 that must be part laser the way it chops.
i wish I had pictures but his work can be seen online. There are so many fantastic custom makers out there you can get exactly what you want, for a price though. If yu find a commercial knife that suits you, you are lucky and can save money. they're mostly pretty darn good if you avoid Chinese, pakistan and similar crap

it really depends what fits your hand best and feels good to you. before the Busses I used a Cold Steel Trailmaster ( Carbon V ) but i hated that Kraton handle and had to rewrap it and baby the carbon V.
 
not2sharp said:
Welcome to the forums.

"It depend on part on you, your budget and physical build, the intended use, and the intended environment. "

n2s
Click to expand...

not2sharp not2sharp nailed it. What bushcraft means to you is probably a lot different from what it means to me, and it has meant different things to me depending on where I was living. In my case, I bought my first choppers based on the assumption that when I retired, I would move back out west and spend a lot of time in the mountains. The areas I had in mind were pine forests with no underbrush. The reality turned out to be that I will be staying on the east coast. I thought, "Okay, hardwoods. Gotta have something that will chop hardwoods." So I took my choppers that were designed for cutting hardwood out with me. It turned out that there is a lot of underbrush to be dealt with and most of my work was taking off small limbs and clearing little stuff (sub-1"), in addition to the big knife campsite chores. Once again I wound up switching to something different. Eventually I settled on a few choppers that work well for the bulk of my intended uses and I have been quite satisfied with them, but it did require me to become more realistic about what I really needed.

Good luck.
 
My big chopper is a Livesay RTAK. 10 inch blade, 3/16" thick, 1095, differentially hardened, with a comfortable handle. LOTS of knives out there just as good, you just need to find the one that works for you.
 
Knowing nothing about choppers, I wonder why they are preferable to small to medium size hatchets or pruning saws? Is it just a big knife thing or do they outperform a hatchet/axe, saw?
 
1311-1b.jpg An axe will outperform a chopper of the same size/weight as a chopper but the chopper will be more versatile. A saw is much less versatile. A chopper can chop like an axe but also clear brush, way safer and better than an axe for that purpose. A chopper can be used for most basic knife functions better than an axe, a saw is one-dimensional. And sawing is boring!

My best chopper is a scrap yard 1311 that I added a micarta handle to.
 
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Richard338 said:
I made one from a piece of 2" x 18" x 3/16" 3V. It has a 13" blade, stall mat / micarta handle.
The grind was full flat for about 70%, then convexed. It is very sharp and can hack through 2x4s etc.

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I just pasted a quote describing one I made.
I recently did a bunch of yard work with it and it was great for clearing a bunch of invasive trees, bushes and vines. It will chop fairly large branches, but where it excels over an axe or saw is clearing thinner bushes or vines.
After making two huge piles of cuttings, I scrubbed it with soapy water and it looks like new. The zero grind convex is still razor sharp.
 
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