- Joined
- Jan 28, 2007
- Messages
- 1,236
Man, Simon is really making a name for himself!
I see big things for this guy!
I see big things for this guy!
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FFBM Gets Simonized
- Thread starter theonew
- Start date
- Joined
- May 16, 2006
- Messages
- 2,724
Ok, so I finally got out and beat the Mistress a bit. It's a pretty amazing knife.
Here's a +/- 7 inch hard, well seasoned Maple. Using a very unskilled and inefficient technique this took under two minutes.
The last bit took less than a minute.
The 2 inch thick branches took about 8 or 10 chops and less than 20 seconds to cut.
Here's a 4 - 5 inch seasoned Poplar. Less than two minutes.
On the smaller 2 inch branches of the Poplar one swing would go 3/4 of the way through.
And the 1 to 1 1/2 inch branches could easily be taken in one swing.
I did a lot of chopping of very dry, hard wood on today's hike. Towards the end of the day I visited a campsite I stayed at last summer
and took a rest and examined the edge of the Mistress. There was almost no perceptible loss in sharpness. It was still hair popping sharp. No edge rolling or denting. Nothing. Freakin' amazing
The only noticeable damage came from when I didn't expect the blade to lop off a branch in one swing and dinged a rock, not tremendously hard but still with a good deal of force. The ding in the blade is just barely visible to the naked eye and is only really noticeable by running a fingernail along the edge. Pretty amazing.
Simon you really did an awesome job on this blade, thanks :thumbup:
All the knives that went on today's hike.
Here's a +/- 7 inch hard, well seasoned Maple. Using a very unskilled and inefficient technique this took under two minutes.
The last bit took less than a minute.
The 2 inch thick branches took about 8 or 10 chops and less than 20 seconds to cut.
Here's a 4 - 5 inch seasoned Poplar. Less than two minutes.
On the smaller 2 inch branches of the Poplar one swing would go 3/4 of the way through.
And the 1 to 1 1/2 inch branches could easily be taken in one swing.
I did a lot of chopping of very dry, hard wood on today's hike. Towards the end of the day I visited a campsite I stayed at last summer
and took a rest and examined the edge of the Mistress. There was almost no perceptible loss in sharpness. It was still hair popping sharp. No edge rolling or denting. Nothing. Freakin' amazing
The only noticeable damage came from when I didn't expect the blade to lop off a branch in one swing and dinged a rock, not tremendously hard but still with a good deal of force. The ding in the blade is just barely visible to the naked eye and is only really noticeable by running a fingernail along the edge. Pretty amazing. Simon you really did an awesome job on this blade, thanks :thumbup:
All the knives that went on today's hike.
- Joined
- Dec 10, 2007
- Messages
- 2,152
Gotta love the Battle Mistress, it's the benchmark by which I judge all choppers.
Do you find yourself looking at ever bigger branches, trees, logs etc thinking "Yeah I reckon I could go through that no problems"? There's some good pics of guys felling huge branches over on the Busse sub-forum if you're interested. The best i've seen for chopping is a 2'x4' in 5 or 6 hits in under 10secs if I remember correctly.
Congrats on your BM and on having the courage to go out and test her.
Do you find yourself looking at ever bigger branches, trees, logs etc thinking "Yeah I reckon I could go through that no problems"? There's some good pics of guys felling huge branches over on the Busse sub-forum if you're interested. The best i've seen for chopping is a 2'x4' in 5 or 6 hits in under 10secs if I remember correctly.
Congrats on your BM and on having the courage to go out and test her.
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2007
- Messages
- 14,463
Nice FFBM
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2006
- Messages
- 2,776
Yeah, me too... He is a young man with a special quality about him...
A humble observation about Busse blades, I like to test choppers by beating them against a piece of oak (sometimes at a 90 degree angle) with some force. I recognize that this not an objective test method, but of all the knives I've done that too, the worst punishment I've given to a knife was a Busse Hell Razor ( a pattern I like), and saw no edge damage. A lot of blades don't fare that well on this test, you can see flat spots or even chipping sometimes... Setting aside the hype and politics, the steel/heat treating seems to be pretty good. ...
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2008
- Messages
- 2,422
Told you....
- Joined
- May 16, 2006
- Messages
- 2,724
The only problem I've had in the past with Busses is that to compensate for the blade geometry I kept putting thinner and thinner V bevel grinds on the blades and found that at around 10 degrees per side INFI can roll and dent surprisingly easily. But what Simon's work has shown me is that a +15 degree per side edge on a Busse will slice like the dickens as long as the blade behind the edge is thinned and convexed :thumbup:
Oh yeah and the sheaths really suck :grumpy:
Oh yeah and the sheaths really suck :grumpy:
- Joined
- May 27, 2007
- Messages
- 4,210
Convex is the way to go in my non-humble opinion.
Busse's will hold an edge like no other knife I've ever seen. Beat the crap out of them... and they will just beg for more!
Most guys over here on W&S feel that they are overpriced sharpened pry bars.... but if you ever got your hands on one... you would understand why Bladeforums has its own group for Busse. If you owned one you would understand. The edge holding ability is truly amazing.
You can biatch all you want about no sheath... but I'd rather make my own.
If you are not able... learn... or just accept the POS sheath that most manufacturers provide. I'm happy that the knife is $50 cheaper because it does not come with one. :thumbup:
Busse's will hold an edge like no other knife I've ever seen. Beat the crap out of them... and they will just beg for more!
Most guys over here on W&S feel that they are overpriced sharpened pry bars.... but if you ever got your hands on one... you would understand why Bladeforums has its own group for Busse. If you owned one you would understand. The edge holding ability is truly amazing.
You can biatch all you want about no sheath... but I'd rather make my own.
If you are not able... learn... or just accept the POS sheath that most manufacturers provide. I'm happy that the knife is $50 cheaper because it does not come with one. :thumbup:
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