Fiddleback Forge Knives “Woodsman “ Passaround

Chopped thru this oak branch no problem
fb3mg1.jpg

fb4jy9.jpg



Interesting (to me) is while this is a large knife compared to bushcraft blades it's a small one for a chopper but the way the handle is designed even with the distal taper it is a good chopper.:thumbup:
 
Last edited:
here's a shot showing some whittling on some very hard elm.
fiddle2rt6.jpg


I also used it with the baton in the pic to split this VERY hard elm.
fiddle3hj9.jpg
 
Great Pics HD, It sounds like you enjoyed using the knife. I look forward to your final thoughts.

By the way what pic hosting service do you use?
 
Image shack but the Fokti that Fiddleback uses works too. I think the only ones blocked are Flickr, Smugmug and Photobucket.



Final thoughts.

I'm not sure I read what FB's intent was with this blade. I like a smaller and thinner edged knife for most of my woods work but I'm not doing any "survival" type stuff. It's a bit big for cleaning game.

I'd call it sort of a "camp" knife more than a bushcraft or survival blade.

If I was to say what it was good for it would be a knife that was still small enough to use as a knife efficiently, but heavy enough to do some chopping. The blade is also long enough to split fairly good diameter wood because there's really enough to hit with a baton. You could easily build a shelter with it, get enough wood together for a fire, I wouldn't use it to clean game, too long, but I think with the convex edge and sort of modified "butcher knife" shape it would be a great knife for butchering game, cutting deer steaks and the like.

This knife is a bit too long for what I usually use a knife for. But I dont' want to send it on;) It wants to stay here :D


But seriously:

Positives:

This is a top notch blade. The handle is not only a work of art but is as good or better than 90% of the bushcraft blades out there. The palm swell is in just the right place. Of course the wood and laminations make it really classy.

The edge is really convex. I get so tired of hearing about convex edges and then when I get the knife it's not convex. This appears to be a semi flat grind to the blade coming into a full convex with a simlar angle to a Fallkniven F1. There's no way you can look at the edge of this and say it's not convex:thumbup:

The ricasso is very small and in combination with the handle shape it allows for choking up near the edge for leveraged power cuts.

The point is pointy and sharp.

The spine is square and sharp. I can honestly say it is the best fire steel sparker of any blade I've ever tried. HUGE shower.(see pics)


Negatives:

I could only find 2.

#1 right above the ricasso the 2 sides of the grind don't quite come together. I worked on this a little but if you hold the edge up to the sky you can still see a bit of flat.

#2 when I split the elm I flattened about 1" of the edge. When I held it up to the light it was reflecting. I'm thinking the tempering is fine but that when I sharpened it I got that area a little thin. That and the elm is REALLY tough to split. I mean I chopped oak limbs with it with no deformation. I re sharpened and tried to steepen that area slightly.

Not a negative but the one personal thing I'd like would be looking down on the handle from the top just a slight bit of flare at the end like on the SWC or Skookum(see pic)

I oiled the handle, sharpened and oiled the blade, and if I can get it together to get to the PO after work it will go out to the next guy on the list. I'll post that it's gone out when I do send it.

Thanks a lot for letting me fool with it. I need to send it on before that handle makes me keep it:eek::) Super nice blade!
 
:mad: Well........That disqualifies mine and Tony's pics. :( :D

Great Review Jim! I completely forgot to try it with a firesteel, you'll have to send it back to me.
 
Great review HD!!! Well worth the wait. I'm glad you like the handle. I knew you'd appreciate the edge coming right down to it. LOL.
 
Hey HD

I just you an email inviting you to look at the pics through FOTKI

I was going to replace them all in this thread, but thats too time consuming.
 
Hey HD

I just you an email inviting you to look at the pics through FOTKI

I was going to replace them all in this thread, but thats too time consuming.

Got it! Hey! Thanks that's really cool!

What is the wood you're splitting? Looks pinkish?
 
Got it! Hey! Thanks that's really cool!

What is the wood you're splitting? Looks pinkish?

Might be the lighting, The wood was Basswood (Tilia americana)

I split it up thinking I would try my hand at carving things, maybe someday I'll get around to it:o
 
great review HD...:thumbup: i can't wait to check out that knife.. it looks swweeeeettttt....:D

huh.. lets see if my photobucket pics work....:o

IMG_4031.jpg
 
Alright folks! I've got the Woodsman (and some other stuff!!!! ;) ). I've got a lot of stuff I want to do with it first, but will post an 'official' review shortly. Initial impressions are quite positive, though.
 
Back
Top