Fiddleback Forge Knives, Really Not As Fragile As You May Think. (Photo Hvy)

[Mistwalker]

Sorry for the delayed response, finding time to get on the forum has been difficult this week. I definitely wouldn't find more pictures redundant. A sticky would be cool!

I always enjoy your posts and pictures.

Thanks man, but yeah as I feared. I was more focused on how controllable the Kephart was in fine detailed work for a full sized knife, and all hell broke loose in Michigan before I could get to the other shots. But here are some of what I've got of it I'll work on sorting out a 1/8 convex Kephart to do the other shots with when I can.

 

[Tekton]

Love that knife. Beautiful pictures. Thank you

 

[Tim the Wizard]

Hey Mist, is that kephart in the scratched up thread?

 

[Mistwalker]

Love that knife. Beautiful pictures. Thank you

Thanks man, glad you like them, and yeah, I did too.

Hey Mist, is that kephart in the scratched up thread?

I don't think so, but it can be.

 

[91bravo]

Awesome stuff as usual Brian! I have recently jumped onto the Fiddleback wagon myself!

 

[Mistwalker]

Awesome stuff as usual Brian! I have recently jumped onto the Fiddleback wagon myself!

Welcome aboard brother, glad to have you along!

And thanks man, glad you liked it!

 

[Mistwalker]

I should add these of the Camp Knife too I think

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[Southern Gent]

Awesome stuff as usual Brian! I have recently jumped onto the Fiddleback wagon myself!

Yeah Jonny! You bring MTM with you? Good to start seeing you more again and all of your awesome contributions. You break in that camp knife yet?


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[Bmurray]

Awesome stuff as usual Brian! I have recently jumped onto the Fiddleback wagon myself!

It was a matter of time. Wait till I put a pro-Kephart in your hands. I have a spare I can send you to try out.

 

[pertinux]

....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

"Really Not As Fragile As You May Think." Funny, it never occurred to me that Fiddlebacks were 'fragile,' in the least!

I love that the Fiddleback knives arrive begging to be used, so clearly designed for whatever one might place in their path (or find in one's own).

This is, in fact, one of the reasons I find these knives so compelling, in their collision of work and play and whimsy and value-- and welcome pictorial threads such as these that demonstrate the cutlery's efficacy well beyond the scope of my own life and imagination.

Thanks, Brian!

~ P.

 

[bear71]

All the photos and of course the knives stellar Brian. The pics and accompanying review of the kephart was the final nudge I needed to take the plunge and get my first fiddleback, a Kephart naturally. [emoji106]


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[Mistwalker]

"Really Not As Fragile As You May Think." Funny, it never occurred to me that Fiddlebacks were 'fragile,' in the least!

I love that the Fiddleback knives arrive begging to be used, so clearly designed for whatever one might place in their path (or find in one's own).

This is, in fact, one of the reasons I find these knives so compelling, in their collision of work and play and whimsy and value-- and welcome pictorial threads such as these that demonstrate the cutlery's efficacy well beyond the scope of my own life and imagination.

Thanks, Brian!

~ P.

If I ever did wonder about it, it was short lived. The Bushfinger demonstrated its non-fragility early in my Fiddleback experience. Thanks P, I'm glad you enjoy the posts

All the photos and of course the knives stellar Brian. The pics and accompanying review of the kephart was the final nudge I needed to take the plunge and get my first fiddleback, a Kephart naturally. [emoji106]


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Thank you Jules. My love affair with the Kephart continues to this day. I prefer them in tapered 5/32 now but that first one, even though it was actual full tang and handle-heavier than I prefer will never be forgotten.

 

[pertinux]

My love affair with the Kephart continues to this day. I prefer them in tapered 5/32 now but that first one, even though it was actual full tang and handle-heavier than I prefer will never be forgotten.

Could you please explain more about your preference for thicker stock? Is this specific to certain patterns, such as the Kephart mentioned here, or a more universal default for you?

Thanks!

~ P.

 

[Mistwalker]

Could you please explain more about your preference for thicker stock? Is this specific to certain patterns, such as the Kephart mentioned here, or a more universal default for you?

Thanks!

~ P.

More about me personally and some of my past experiences in life than anything else...but also because I prefer 5/32 on the knives I use in the field for my experiments and teaching wilderness skills due to the repeated abuses of experimentation and instruction versus the occasional abuses of personal use. I'm fine with 1/8 and 3/32 in the kitchen and on day hikes, but since I am more comfortable with 5/32 with a high grind in the kitchen than I am with 3/32 and the idea of extended woods stay or extensive experiments, I tend to go for the 5/32 when the opportunities arise. Both of my Handymen are 3/32 as is my one Raptor, My Bushboot is tapered 1/8, and I am fine with all of those. But my Gaucho, Lonestar, Bushfinger, and Big Sneaky are all tapered 5/32. My Recluse that catches the most abuse is tapered 3/16. When I finally land a Protagonist it will be tapered 5/32 at minimum, and hopefully tapered 3/16 like the first ones.

 

[Luca917]

This arrived in the mail the other day. Makes for a darn good read on a rainy Sunday evening...especially while bundled up against the cold, recovering from the flu, with hot chocolate and marshmallows and a darn good smoke!
I don't have a Bushfinger (yet), so my Bushcrafter had to step in.
The knife in the picture...and the author...hmmm, they seem familiar to me somehow.

 

[ncrockclimb]

I really like this thread, but the title seems a little bit wrong. It's like saying MMA fighters, really not as fragile as you think. When I think of fiddleback knives, I think of a lot of different attributes. Fragile has never been in the list. Tough as nails is what I think of when I think of fiddleback.

That's just my opinion. Again, I think this is an awesome thread

 

[varga49]

I really like this thread, but the title seems a little bit wrong. It's like saying MMA fighters, really not as fragile as you think. When I think of fiddleback knives, I think of a lot of different attributes. Fragile has never been in the list. Tough as nails is what I think of when I think of fiddleback.

That's just my opinion. Again, I think this is an awesome thread

This is one really well conceived, well delivered, and well participated thread, as is always the case when Mistwalker develops a thread. LOL That said I'd like to go on record that although I did say "fear and loathing" with regards to my actually putting a FF brand new blade to work, I never used the word "fragile". "tough as nails" Indeed!!

 

[Mistwalker]

This arrived in the mail the other day. Makes for a darn good read on a rainy Sunday evening...especially while bundled up against the cold, recovering from the flu, with hot chocolate and marshmallows and a darn good smoke!
I don't have a Bushfinger (yet), so my Bushcrafter had to step in.
The knife in the picture...and the author...hmmm, they seem familiar to me somehow.

Thank you Tony, I'm glad you enjoyed the read. It's not the Bushfinger, it is its big brother the Hunter But that takes nothing away from that fine Bushcrafter at all. I hope you get over that flu soon man!

I really like this thread, but the title seems a little bit wrong. It's like saying MMA fighters, really not as fragile as you think. When I think of fiddleback knives, I think of a lot of different attributes. Fragile has never been in the list. Tough as nails is what I think of when I think of fiddleback.

That's just my opinion. Again, I think this is an awesome thread

Thanks man, I'm glad you like the post Yeah...I know what you mean...but the thoughts I've heard from others have been a bit vague and obscure... somewhat abstract. But the feeling I got from their tone in the expression left me with the feeling that they thought they may be a bit delicate or fragile for hard use. I know a lot of people know better, I was just attempting to alleviate those fears for some who may be less familiar. Most who know me, know that looks alone will never have me spending $300-$400 on a knife. Even if for some reason I chose to not use it, which I have trouble with, I'd still have to feel like I could with confidence if I chose to.

This is one really well conceived, well delivered, and well participated thread, as is always the case when Mistwalker develops a thread. LOL That said I'd like to go on record that although I did say "fear and loathing" with regards to my actually putting a FF brand new blade to work, I never used the word "fragile". "tough as nails" Indeed!!

Lol, Okay okay, I get it. My bad man I guess it all goes back to the unspoken thoughts I saw in expressions on people's faces when I handed over a fairly new Camp Knife, the one pictured in this thread actually, at a bushcraft challenge that had killed three knives already and all they were doing was cutting bamboo. I could see the look of surprise as I handed over the Camp and told Andrew to try it in the same tasks. He did, then Jason did, then Ethan Becker did. Then there was more surprise on faces when the knife showed no damage at all. Pity it was 1 inch too long to enter, a Duke would have been nice to have at the time. Anyway, the challenge went on, and of the 40 knives entered, only five sustained damage, and so it was realized they had not taken the knives outside the realm of realistic expectations with those tasks. All I could do was shake my head and laugh. And say, "come on most of you guys know me, and know I am from the deep south. I'd never even consider carrying a knife I didn't think could handle green bamboo, even big green bamboo. After that day, I guess I may jump to conclusions when people say they fear using them....

 

[Luca917]

Thank you Tony, I'm glad you enjoyed the read. It's not the Bushfinger, it is its big brother the Hunter But that takes nothing away from that fine Bushcrafter at all. I hope you get over that flu soon man!

Just goes to show you how loopy I am. I saw the Hunter, but thought I was in the "Bushfinger" thread, and figured my Bushcrafter was as close as I could come.

Peter tells me he and his wife have been struggling for almost 3 weeks with this flu bug. I can't seem to shake it either, but I've got my friend the herbalist (I'm sure she's actually a full-blown witch) on it. She's got me drinking tinctures that taste like cat piss, putting drops on my tongue that remind me of taking Everclear shots, and chanting over me in an unrecognizable language. I'm actually only kidding about the last part.

But I trust her beyond question. Years ago one of my students came to class with a certified case of swine flu and spread it throughout the classroom. It hit me hard - so hard that I developed severe pneumonia that was entirely resistant to drug treatment. My doctor wouldn't hospitalize me because he said it was death sentence to go near the place, but gave me the strongest drugs he could and warned me I had three days to kick it or I'd be dead. Yeah...he actually used the word "fatality". I curled up on my couch and my friend sat with me for three days, waking me every 30 minutes to pour something beyond nasty down my throat. But within 4 hours the coughing stopped, and by the next day my lungs started to clear. I genuinely believe I'm alive today because of her strange magic.

I like to joke that she could be slowly poisoning me. She's a full blown bad-ass...cigar smoking, whiskey drinking, boot knife carrying, gun toting, hard cursing bad-ass.
But I'm drinking the cat piss.

 

[varga49]

.

I like to joke that she could be slowly poisoning me. She's a full blown bad-ass...cigar smoking, whiskey drinking, boot knife carrying, gun toting, hard cursing bad-ass.
But I'm drinking the cat piss.

Hey Tony I'd have thought you'd be over this one by now. But these days and maybe because people over 40 can be more susceptible to flu bugs. I'm happy to hear that, # 1 there's actually someone who by your account, even though she could be slowly poisoning you, a full blown bad-ass...cigar smoking, whiskey drinking, boot knife carrying, gun toting, hard cursing bad-ass. " and #2 on top of all that she got the knowledge of plants! . My guess is that you're taking, judging by your interesting description, goldenseal. I have a goldenseal flu story myself. You might be taking a tincture of echinacea also, and likely colloidal silver also! By my humble estimation you're in good hands. You could add mega doses of powdered vitamin C , being careful not to take too much at one time. Working your way up to slowly is a good idea! Get well Sir and drink what the medicine woman tells you to.!!!!

Ps I was once poisoned by a woman. But that's another story!


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