Mistwalker
Gold Member
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2007
- Messages
- 19,017
Earlier today someone made a comment in the "Scratch up your Fiddleback Challenge" thread that inspired me to make a new post using some old pics I have collected over the years of using my Fiddlebacks in the field. The comment was that they weren't familiar enough with the knives to be comfortable using them in hard uses. Since that is something I have had a good bit of experience with, and have posted several threads on the subject in the last 6 or 7 years, I thought I'd share some of those photos and a few others here in one thread. It should be said here that I am in no way suggesting that anyone just beat upon these or any other knives with reckless abandon, as if trying to dispatch a rabid badger or something. However using common sense and proper techniques, paying attention to both the wood I was working with, and the movement of the knife blade in the process, I have never run into any weakness issues in using my Fiddlebacks in some pretty hard work, and I have never once had any handle scales separating or coming loose in the process. And I have used several in the process of teaching small knife techniques and wilderness skills over the years.
The first one was the Bushfinger prototype. That one saw a good bit of testing in the field; whittling, carving, boring, batoning, and truncating. It was still in great shape when I passed it on to a new home four years after I got it.
After that was a K.E. Bushie in 1/8 scandi that I was pretty rough on over time. About a year later I decided to gift it to a friend in London who was the editor and co-author of a book I collaborated on with several other members of a survival think tank I am involved with. Chris is a former Royal Marine medic, nurse now (nurses there don't make the same sort of pay as here), who teaches bushcraft and survival first aid to disadvantage youths in the U.K.. When I found out the knife he carried was an old Mora because he spent any spare money on supplies for the work shops, I sent him the KEB. He still uses it today, and I stick get a kick out of a Bushcraft instructor in the U.K. carrying a Fiddleback
Then there was the box elder Hiking Buddy. It was the first wooden handled model I picked up. I bought it at Blade back in 2011.
Next Came a Hunter. These photos are some I have never shared before. They are some of the leftovers from an article I wrote for Self Reliance Illustrated back in 2012. The magazine has since gone defunct, so I don't feel bad sharing some of the similar photos, but I'm not going to re-write the 2.5K words of the text. I think it may still be available in E form if anyone is interested in checking it out. Starting with a section broken off of a large broken cedar tree, a curved branch, and some para-cord, the hunter was used to make all the components. bow, spindle, bearing block, and hearth board, and tinder, that were necessary to make fire using a bow drill.
End Part 1 of 2
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The first one was the Bushfinger prototype. That one saw a good bit of testing in the field; whittling, carving, boring, batoning, and truncating. It was still in great shape when I passed it on to a new home four years after I got it.
After that was a K.E. Bushie in 1/8 scandi that I was pretty rough on over time. About a year later I decided to gift it to a friend in London who was the editor and co-author of a book I collaborated on with several other members of a survival think tank I am involved with. Chris is a former Royal Marine medic, nurse now (nurses there don't make the same sort of pay as here), who teaches bushcraft and survival first aid to disadvantage youths in the U.K.. When I found out the knife he carried was an old Mora because he spent any spare money on supplies for the work shops, I sent him the KEB. He still uses it today, and I stick get a kick out of a Bushcraft instructor in the U.K. carrying a Fiddleback
Then there was the box elder Hiking Buddy. It was the first wooden handled model I picked up. I bought it at Blade back in 2011.
Next Came a Hunter. These photos are some I have never shared before. They are some of the leftovers from an article I wrote for Self Reliance Illustrated back in 2012. The magazine has since gone defunct, so I don't feel bad sharing some of the similar photos, but I'm not going to re-write the 2.5K words of the text. I think it may still be available in E form if anyone is interested in checking it out. Starting with a section broken off of a large broken cedar tree, a curved branch, and some para-cord, the hunter was used to make all the components. bow, spindle, bearing block, and hearth board, and tinder, that were necessary to make fire using a bow drill.
End Part 1 of 2
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Seriously, I really enjoy camping vicariously through threads like this. Wish I got out more, but I don't and threads like this make my fires light every time, it rarely rains, and my gear never gets dirty. Best of all, I rarely even break a sweat.
Yes, that Handyman is one of the ones Andy submitted to the Guild, really sweet little knife!
