Fiddleback Forge Five Year Review (VERY Photo Heavy)

Sweet thread Brian. Your first Bushfinger is still one of my favorites, utilitarian yet beautiful with it's graceful lines. Bit of a mix of the current Bushfinger and Ladyfinger imho
 
Not original, but I can only say "Wow", awesome post! Great knives, great reporting, great pictures. And for some reason I'm hungry... ;)
 
Brian, you amaze me with your knowledge & level of detail and perfection in whatever you do.
It is always a pleasure reading your posts. Thank you!!
 
Cdmayhem said:
Your posts never cease amaze me! This one was great, and it makes me wish that I did a better job of keeping pictures of all of the different Fiddlebacks that I have owned at one point or another.
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Thanks man, I do a lot of different discussions and workshops, as well as R&D for several people, so I take a lot of photos. These are maybe 1/12 of the photos I have in my collection of Fiddleback photos and I have had one PC and one laptop crash in the last 6 years taking some of my photos with them... I have two external hard drives full of photos...but I really sucked at organization there for a while, so finding specific photos can be a pain at times...

bonafide said:
Well done Brian! Always enjoy your threads - they're well written, informative, and the photography is freaking top shelf!
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Thank you Bud! I appreciate the compliments very much!


Gary W. Graley said:
Brian, you never fail to impress, always nice to see your great photos and read your insights on various knives, well done.

And I find it interesting that while some knives have the 'Look' but in practical use they fail in their 'Walk' so it's important to have good reviews that puts a blade to the test to see not only if it looks good, but does it feel right and actually do the work you need it to do.

Thanks again!
G2
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Thank you Gary! Yeah, one huge lesson for me in northern Michigan that winter was that knives I absolutely love using with bare hands were definitely so great with heavy gloves. The dynamics of use are much different for me between those two. Knives are very much: task, region, and climate specific tools for me. I absolutely love O-1 tool steel in most environments, I love the edge it will take and I love the ease of maintenance. But then when I hit the coast I am just much more fond of steels like CPM 154 and CPM S35VN...and a few others but they are still a bit expensive for me in many cases.


NoFair said:
Sweet thread Brian. Your first Bushfinger is still one of my favorites, utilitarian yet beautiful with it's graceful lines. Bit of a mix of the current Bushfinger and Ladyfinger imho
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Thanks man. Yes, that is exactly right. The Bushfinger was originally built from the Ladyfinger template and then tweaked from there for better blade control in all around uses.


dogrunner said:
Not original, but I can only say "Wow", awesome post! Great knives, great reporting, great pictures. And for some reason I'm hungry... ;)
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Thanks man! Andy's knives are as much a pleasure for me to photo as they are for me to use. Yeah...I love to cook, one more reason I love knives so much I suppose. There is a chance I was overly influenced by Tolkien's Hobbits having read the story multiple times over the years :)


necrolicious said:
This was truly an enjoyable read Mist. Thanks for sharing!
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Thank you Anthony, I am very glad you enjoyed the post!


Scotcha said:
Brian, you amaze me with your knowledge & level of detail and perfection in whatever you do.
It is always a pleasure reading your posts. Thank you!!
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Thank you very much Abe! I do do my best to let the photos do as much of the talking as possible, but they can't convey all of my thoughts :)
 
Awesome post Mist, I really enjoyed the ride down memory lane. Thanks for taking us with you and sharing pics of some awesome knives we've come to love and enjoy!
 
I have no interest in fiddleback forge knives.


But this review is simply breath taking.

It caputrues my love for the outdoors and knives.

Amazing photos.

I'm Completely invigorated by your display.

Thank you for sharing.

Shawn.
 
DeadboxHero said:
I have no interest in fiddleback forge knives.


But this review is simply breath taking.

It caputrues my love for the outdoors and knives.

Amazing photos.

I'm Completely invigorated by your display.

Thank you for sharing.

Shawn.
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Thanks Shawn. Yeah, from what I have seen you have been more into tactical knives. My likes mainly fall into two categories...rough use knives for SHTF and that I can abuse while teaching skills, and then knives like these that help me escape my thoughts of the sh!# hitting the fan :)
 
mistwalker said:
Thanks Shawn. Yeah, from what I have seen you have been more into tactical knives. My likes mainly fall into two categories...rough use knives for SHTF and that I can abuse while teaching skills, and then knives like these that help me escape my thoughts of the sh!# hitting the fan :)
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I love it. Keep up the great work Brian.
Cheers
 
Love your reviews and pictures as very informative as well. I do know one thing... well three things! :) You own and use great knives you eat great food and you also take great pics. :thumbup: Thanks for sharing :cool:
 
Rotte said:
Great post, Mist. Nice to see those beasties getting used.
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Thanks man. To me that's the beauty of it all and the whole point. I do not knock collectors at all, to each their own, and I owe much of what I know about knife history to several collectors, that's just not my thing. I am unable to resist using a knife. A while back I acquired a hand made version of Ben Baker's SOG Bowie which was made by Gary Hicks who is a friend of Ben. I think the knife had been sitting in a safe since the 80s when I got it. One of my mentors from the 70s was a vet, and he had used one of the Okinawa made SOG knives in the process of teaching me some of the skills he taught me. I had always wanted one since. I almost bought one a couple of times at knife shows over the years, even though the price on them is pretty high. Then the last time I was about to buy one I mentioned using it and the seller got a funny look on his face. He said "first off, you really shouldn't use it because they are very rare" I said yes, I know. Then he said "secondly, you really don't want to use it and risk damaging it because they weren't made out of the best steels, and had inconsistent heat treats. Some were more fragile than one might expect". So I passed and bought the SOG knife company version and carried one off and on for years. Two days after I got the Hicks version I had it out in the woods, using it, thinking of my youth and my friend who was like an uncle to me. I stopped by a friend's house on the way home, and he saw it on my belt. He asked if I were actually using it, and I laughed and said yes of course I am. He said "are you f_cking nuts? That thing is almost 40 years old and irreplaceable now" . I couldn't help but laugh. I said, big deal. Heck I am 50 years old, nobody can make another me, and I take my body to the woods and use it all the time. It's not like I am beating the hell out of it or anything, but I am going to use it like a knife. He just shook his head and changed subjects :D
 
Man great pics. I really like the bushfinger and camp knife. Looks like a great combo set for the woods.
 
joshiecole said:
Fantastic pictures! Thanks for going to the effort to bring this all together.
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Thanks man! I was just looking through some photos one day, looking for a specific shot. Then it dawned on me that I had played with a lot of Fiddleback knives in the last five years and had collected several photos. It just seemed like something I should take the time to post considering his recent acceptance into the Knifemakers' Guild.


cut it out said:
Man great pics. I really like the bushfinger and camp knife. Looks like a great combo set for the woods.
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Thank you. I could see that, they could definitely complement each other well. Personally I prefer going a bit smaller with the small knife to pair with the Camp knife. I liked the Camp paired with both the Hiking Buddy and the EDK. Now I prefer a Camp Knife / Handyman combo.
 
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