- Joined
- Dec 13, 2005
- Messages
- 6,105
A lot of Andy's (Fiddleback's) designs have caught my eye, though none have had quite the draw of his Hunter model. Recently he had a gorgeous osage over walnut Hunter that I snatched up in a hurry, but alas the handles were slightly thinner than I wanted. Andy has a 'satisfaction guarantee' that is really no joke; he made me a completely new one based on a couple of small changes at no extra charge. That's top notch service!
I received the 'new' Hunter recently and have barely been able to take my hands off it since I ripped it out of the package. The two small changes I asked for were cool blue liners, which have become something of a personal flare on all my customs, and some thicker slabs (something a tad over 7/8" thick at the swell). This one ended up at around 1" thick at the swell while keeping the same overall handle proportions. Absolutely perfect fit for my big mitts! There are three main points that make this such a good fit: (1) the proper location of the swell as far as distance from the edge, (2) handle thickness/proportion, and (3) a wider width at the first finger, so the first finger isn't cramped into wrapping around a smaller circumference.
Aesthetically, I can't say enough. The osage is the most gorgeous set that I've ever seen, and already looks perfectly aged. It also blends really well into the walnut. The blue liners just make me happy. Andy also left the forge scales on this one which is always endearing to me, and applied a saber-convex grind which makes for a mean slicer. The slight drop point is my favorite blade shape, and gives a great blend of control and belly.
It's made some great fuzzies, batoned through anything and everything I can find, and helped prep dinner (chicken and veggie stirfry). It'll be used for an obscenely large amount of woods work in the near future. I'll leave it be for now though, as there will be a larger piece on the Hunter coming up soon as WoodsMonkey.com .
But I can't stress enough: if you're hunting for a brute of a woods blade that fits your hand like a glove, drop a line to Andy for a new Hunter!!!
I received the 'new' Hunter recently and have barely been able to take my hands off it since I ripped it out of the package. The two small changes I asked for were cool blue liners, which have become something of a personal flare on all my customs, and some thicker slabs (something a tad over 7/8" thick at the swell). This one ended up at around 1" thick at the swell while keeping the same overall handle proportions. Absolutely perfect fit for my big mitts! There are three main points that make this such a good fit: (1) the proper location of the swell as far as distance from the edge, (2) handle thickness/proportion, and (3) a wider width at the first finger, so the first finger isn't cramped into wrapping around a smaller circumference.
Aesthetically, I can't say enough. The osage is the most gorgeous set that I've ever seen, and already looks perfectly aged. It also blends really well into the walnut. The blue liners just make me happy. Andy also left the forge scales on this one which is always endearing to me, and applied a saber-convex grind which makes for a mean slicer. The slight drop point is my favorite blade shape, and gives a great blend of control and belly.
It's made some great fuzzies, batoned through anything and everything I can find, and helped prep dinner (chicken and veggie stirfry). It'll be used for an obscenely large amount of woods work in the near future. I'll leave it be for now though, as there will be a larger piece on the Hunter coming up soon as WoodsMonkey.com .
But I can't stress enough: if you're hunting for a brute of a woods blade that fits your hand like a glove, drop a line to Andy for a new Hunter!!!
Andy's work is super clean... i really like those Hunter's.. they seem a lot more user oriented... those scales look great too...:thumbup:
:thumbup:
