Hi Joe Duder,
I appreciate your interests very much but at this moment she is not up for sale. Sorry.
Mark
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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Fiddleback Forge Comparison Photos Round Three (PIC Heavy)
- Thread starter maw
- Start date
Hi Joe Duder,
I appreciate your interests very much but at this moment she is not up for sale. Sorry.
Mark
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Hi bkoregon,
I think you are spot on my friend. I prefer the Hikingbuddy over the Bushboot as I think the Hikingbuddy's handle is more ergonomic and user friendly with different grips (e.g., reverse grip). I did sell the Bushboot and the emerald burlap Hikingbuddy right below it a little while ago but kept the coffee burlap because it is a dandy of a knife!
I hope this has helped.
Mark
Thanks! It most definitely helps.
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Mistwalker
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Bumping this one back up just because 
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Here is The Duke
Man I am really on the fence between the Duke and the woodsman; both are awesome but the Duke seems a bit more practical with the larger belly... Any insight from those with both / experience with both, WRT hard back country use? Pro's / Con's?
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I did not like the duke. I love the woodsman. The duke seemed to have an identity problem for me. The extra belly (coupled with the tapered tang on mine) moved almost all the weight into the blade (which I don't like)...but it wasn't quite big enough to be a chopper. Too big to be a great slicer. Not pointy enough for other tasks. I just couldn't find the right use for it. It made me really want a camp knife or a woodsman (or both). I sold it on the exchange and got a woodsman...which I love. The pointy blade gives it much better balance and I love the function of it. The length of blade tapering to the point really gives you a full range of areas on the knife for various work. You get a ton of metal down by the choil for some heavy stuff but then you can choke up on the blade and do small work with that tip. It's like Andy strapped an ED Karda to the tip of a hunter.
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Thanks for the feedback -- great firsthand insight! I was actually wondering how the Duke would handle with a tapered tang (given its design), and you hit the nail on the head. It sounds like much of what you described in the woodsman is exactly what I'm looking for... Now I just need to find one!
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I love this description and it's right on. Two great knives merged into the Woodsman.
That's odd that you had balance issues with your duke solid. My tapered duke is balanced perfectly right over my first finger. To me it feels and handles like a smaller knife but this could be due to mine being a fairly high grind. I unfortunately don't have both yet so I can't really help/comment on duke vs. woodsman. I originally wanted a hunter and went with a duke for the extra blade length. I'm super jealous of mistwalker's woodsman that is my favorite handle configuration and I hope every friday that Andy will have a blackwood over green bushfinger, or really anything in that config.
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I have a blackwood EDKarda that matches mist's woodsman. It's a great combo.
There's a blackwood, natural and blue Terrasaur on the exchange right now.
Mistwalker
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The physical description, looked at in clinical terms, is pretty much exactly what I expected from the Duke and I think the usefulness of the design will as always be defined by preferred use and geographic location of the user. I could see the extra belly putting more weight forward for light chopping, and the deeper sweep being better if pressed into a skinning and large game processing role. It's almost a perfect description for a survival type knife or an all arounder...workable for several things but excelling at few. Actually great for a "one knife" scenario. Personally I am hung up on pointy for various reasons...tedious work, boring small holes, digging out splinters with less damage...whatever, but someone who wasn't as hung up on pointy as me, may want exactly this knife in my old environment where lots of chopping was not a requirement but light chopping through heavy briers could make life much easier, and wild game abounded. Like you, I love the Woodsman and just chose to have another smaller knife with some belly for such applications as a deeper sweep comes in handy for. Someone else may well go the opposite direction and pair a Duke with say an ED Karda and have all their bases covered as well. Where we prioritize is based on our own personal experiences and our own background assumptions. With so many these days erroneously (in my opinion) equating pointy with stabby rather than the utilitarian nature I see in it...gotta love Hollywood and video games, in a lot of places the Duke/ED Karda combo would actually cause fewer questions and funny looks than a woodsman/Hiking Buddy combo. For me though, the Woodsman is a great knife for a Woodsman like myself.
My tapered Woodsman with a 3/4 height grind balances perfectly on the first finger as is, but probably wouldn't if SFT, and definitely not if full tang. Also I think handle materials is going to play a role in shifting that balance point a little more forward or a little more rearward. As for the Blackwood and green, I have two in that config acquired months apart, and as Thurin mentioned he has one as well. I think Andy will revisit that configuration again in the future.
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My (former) duke balanced about 3/4" into the blade off the choil. It had a whisper thin taper and (this may effect it as well) canvas micarta handle material. I have a SFT woodsman now in Osage and the balance is just behind my pointer finger...which is my favorite spot. I like the weight of my knife inside my fingers, where I feel I can control it, instead of outside my hand. for a great big blade like the woodsman, It's perfect.
Mist is right though. It's all preference, routine, and geography. I should have prefaced my remarks with "With how I like and use a knife..."
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Really great info gents; most appreciated. Thus far I have always been a folder, bow saw, axe, multi tool kinda guy in the back country, but have recently taken an interest into revising my setup towards more of a bushcrafting orientation. I am loving my bushfinger already, and trying to determine if I am willing to replace my axe with a small chopper for increased versatility and better SWAP.
Mistwalker
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Hmmm, maybe I should do a comparison of Bushboots...old tapered versus new SFT
M4Super90
Biochemical Superfreak
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Me too. I share pretty much all the opinions expressed by Solid above and I developed most of them working with the Woodsman and Duke that your previously owned.
I have not had the opportunity to really give the new Camp Knife a thorough workout. I still think I prefer a small axe and a BC combo to a chopper. Go try the axe with the BC Sr. and I think you'll be suprised how much you can cover with that combo if you add a folder, small fixed blade, or multi tool.
Mistwalker
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Me too. I share pretty much all the opinions expressed by Solid above and I developed most of them working with the Woodsman and Duke that your previously owned.
For me, here in SE Tennessee I think my preferred chopper is about to start changing depending on season. I prefer the lighter 12-inch machete in the warmer months, but the wife bought me a GB small forest axe for Christmas, and I can see that getting carried in the coldest months
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It's really cool to see where my head was at year ago today (1/2/14)! To answer my own question, my current configurations include the following:
1. Camp knife, Esquire, leatherman
2. Bushcrafter, hatchet, leatherman
3. Woodsman, bow saw, leatherman
Albeit some variation exists, I have found that a general 4" BC profile and a hatchet or a >5" woods knife and a bow saw have become a go to config when paired with a leatherman wave. I 100% agree with mist in that your setup will be largely dependent on your local back country environment, but none the less, this thread made me smile to see how much my opinions have changed over the past year
Thank you Josiah. All is well. Happy New to you and yours!
It is amazing to see how Andy's business and knives have evolved over the last few years. Class act for sure!
Take care my friend.
Sincerely,
Mark