FFBM Takes on HI, BRKT, Hopkinson

Horn Dog

Horn Dog

Joined
Sep 9, 2005
Messages
4,363
It is about time my Fatty picked on somebody its own size. It has already crushed all my Bowie competition, even beating my favorite chopper, the Dog Father LE. Today I put it up against some serious choppers. Top to bottom:
16" Himalayan Imports Chiruwa Ang Khola. It has a 10.75" long, 7/16" thick blade of Mercedes Benz truck leaf spring steel, differentially tempered. It weighs 27 oz. I convexed the final edge. Handle is wood.

Hopkinson British Special Forces Golok. It has an 11" long, .20" thick blade of Sheffield high carbon steel in the Parang style with most of the weight over the sweet spot. It weighs 19 oz. I convexed the saber grind on it. Handle is rubber.

Busse Combat Fat Fusion Battle Mistress. It has a 10" long, 5/16" thick blade of INFI steel. Mine weighs about 31 oz. It has a convex reprofiled final edge. Handles are micarta.

Bark River Knife & Tool Golok. It has an 11" long, .21" thick blade of 1095 high carbon steel. It weighs just 17 oz. It has a full convex grind. Handles are micarta.
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First up was the HI Khukuri. I started on this rock hard piece of maple, but the going was slow. I found a smaller piece. The HI took just two blows on the smaller piece to chop through. It is some hard maple.
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The Hopkinson Golok took five chops.
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The Busse took two, but it was almost all the way through on the first chop.
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The light BRKT did almost as well. It bit deep, but it took me three chops to finish getting through.
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Back to the bigger piece of maple, the Busse cut deeper in fewer chops than anything today.
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The BRKT did well, but just lacked the mass to compete with the FFBM.
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The Hopkinson did about as well as the HI khukuri on this.
 
I took the HI back to the big maple and compared it to the others. It didn't bite as deep as the Busse. So in just chopping, I'd say the two heaviest, the Busse and HI, are the more powerful choppers. Maybe it is because I do a lot of chopping, but all of these choppers felt comfortable to me.
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I have noticed that on different wood, I sometimes get different results. On green softer wood, the two goloks can hold their own. But on this hard maple, the Busse rules the day. The edges on the HI and the Hopkinson got some very minor nicks during the chopping. I could see no damge at all to the Busse or BRKT edges.
 
Next I did some splitting. The thick blade of the HI and its 27 oz weight make it a great splitter.
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The fatty is also very good at this.
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All that weight makes it easy. Just stick the knife in the wood and slam it against the stump.
The Hopkinson golok did almost as well as the Busse.
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Comparatively, the BRKT was not quite up to the others in this task.
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It took a bit more effort, but it did the job.
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So the Big Busse still is my best chopper. But it can't cut grass and brush as well as the handly little BRKT golok.
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I guess I'll have to get a bigger khukuri to beat the the FFBM chopping. :D
 
Very interesting information and cool pictures! I always like seeing this kind of comparison. Keep up the great reporting as it happens!
 
Awesome review! I've never seen an Hopkinson British Special Forces Golok before; quite unique! Great pictures too.
 
I wonder if it had anything to do with the convex grind on the FFBM, I did a similar test with a stock edge FFBM and the Khuk beat it in my opinion, especially when it came to smaller live limbs, the khuk was a one swing where the Busse would often take two or just break the limb off. Always nice to know I've got them both in the stable though.
 
The edge is very important. All these were shaving sharp. The reason the polished convex edge did not ride up higher on the blade on the Busse is the high saber-almost full flat-primary grind. It is very sharp. It probably had the narrowest angle of all those tested except the BRKT. All these except the Barkie have seriously reprofiled edges. If I had done this on new ones, the lightest knife might have done the best. Those BRKTs come sharp.
 
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Great review, thanks for sharing it.

How do you think the BRKT would do on blackberry vines?
 
I really like those BRKT goloks. They have great lines and use a great steel and the maker knows his stuff..
 
Great review. I've considered a BRKT Golok a few times myself.
 
Great review Vic!

I took out my FBM LE, 16" HI Tin Chirra (very similar to yours), and my Battle Rat for a chopoff with very similar results. I should have brought my camera. :p

If I rate the winning FBM LE @ 100%, then the 16" Himilayan Imports Tin Chirra was @ 95% with the much lighter Battle Rat @ 85%. I was actually surprised that the Battle Rat did as well as it did with the big weight difference and it continues to endear itself to me. The FBM LE is the best chopper I own right now.

I sold my BRKT Golok. I couldn't get used to the skinny handle after using Busse-Kin knives for the past year.
 
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