We have all seen the reviews where someone makes a fuzz stick, gives a thumbs up, batons something, gives another thumbs up and wholeheartedly gives their recommendation of the knife in question. This isn't one of those reviews. First off, a little history. I manage apartment complexes, and camp and hunt. On any given day, I'm a plumber, a carpenter, carpet-layer, painter, stockroom worker, office manager or general woods bum. I wanted a Fiddleback. I couldn't decide which one. I did the only reasonable thing, and bought two. I thought the Woodsman was going to be my main knife with the Ladyfinger only being used for the delicate little tasks that it's name seems to imply. I was wrong. I have used my Woodsman twice. There will be a review on it when I use it enough to justify a review, but that time is not now. I can't keep my hands off the Ladyfinger long enough to use the Woodsman.
I received my Ladyfinger appx 2 weeks ago. It showed up sporting some amazing pants via Talfuchre. This is one of the reasons I can't keep my hands off the Ladyfinger. If I'm wearing pants, I'm wearing the Ladyfinger
. The sheath is hands down the best one I've ever seen. I'm probably going to send the Woodsman back to get a quad-carry for it as well.
Ok, about the knife. 8.75" overall, 4.75" handle, 4" blade, Chocobolo over Osage handles with red liners, bullseye lanyard tube and 01 steel. The knife arrived with a full-height convex grind and a slight secondary bevel. I almost immediately knocked the shoulders off the secondary bevel with some sandpaper and mousepad action going from 600 to 2000 grit. Tonight I spent maybe an hour working the convex edge with a medium and fine arkansas bench stone and then a loaded strop. It will pull slice cut hanging newsprint.
This knife slices. It seems made to slice. It has a fair amount of belly and a slight drop-point. I peels apples. It guts fish. The flat spine works wonders as a fish scaler. I've used it to open probably 200 boxes at work and it just shrugs them off. It cuts through carpet with ease. The tip lets me shave off slight curls of wood to re-adjust a door striker plate. It strips electrical wire like crazy. In fact, almost too well. I've had to re-trim a few lines because I cut through the wire. Balance point is just behind the corby bolt pin. Very easy to control the tip if you pay attention, but it's such a good slicer, that if you don't pay attention, it will demand respect.
The main reason I wanted this knife is because I love the classic red handle Mora. I upgraded my Mora to a Aito Puukko from Ragnar. The Aito is a scandi-demon. It's amazing. It slices exceptionally well. The Ladyfinger is like an Aito on crack. It isn't as good at making fuzz sticks, but the Ladyfinger trumps the Aito on everything else. In fact, I used to wear the Aito daily and it's now in my toolbag (which I do have daily). I think the classic barrel handle on the Mora and the Aito offer a more comfortable variety of hold positions, but the Ladyfinger is by no means uncomfortable. The convex grind holds up much better. The extra "meat" behind the edge lets me work with more confidence. Yes, I have batonned with it. No, I don't have pictures.
The Ladyfinger is an excellent kitchen knife. I worked as a chef for several years, and I cook a lot at home. I've used this as a paring knife for every meal that called for one since I received it. It is also an excellent skinner. Perfect combination of belly and point for skinning rabbit and squirrel. The contoured handles are surprisingly grippy even when your hands have blood and fur on them. The thickness of the blade combined with the convex grind make breaking down game a breeze. Easily snaps and slices bone joints, severs the spine for head removal and quarters the fuzzy wonders with glee.
These are all the good points. Now for the bad. First and foremost, Andy, I love this knife, but man...there is no way anyone is going to be able to tell what it was based off your name and brand name position. The "Andy" is already gone and the "Roy" can be barely seen due to the patina I have on it. "Fiddleback" is now mostly "ddleback". I'm not sure how you can work around this. Maybe stamping the blades? Maybe on the top of the tang by the handle to act as some kind of thumb ramp? I don't know, but in a few more weeks I'm not sure how much of the name will be left.
As far as the grind goes, it didn't quite join up at the base of the blade near the handle. I'm not saying this as a slight to Andy or his grinds. I think it's just the mechanics of putting a convex next to a flat. I have a picture later on where you can see what I'm talking about. It's maybe a 1/16" triangle section. After that, the secondary bevel was right to the edge for the rest of the blade.
The top of the handle is very smooth. You would have to pay attention to feel the transition from wood to metal to wood. Very good fit/finish. The bottom of the handle isn't quite as smooth a transition. There is a definite transition from handle spacer to the metal tang. It's almost like the handle has a convex grind on the wood, but the tang isn't tapered with it. The top is wider then the bottom of the handle. I don't know, I'm not explaining that very well. You can catch a thumbnail on the liner to tang transition. At first this annoyed me a little, and I thought about sanding it down. Luckily enough, I didn't. That little transition area provides excellent grip support with your hands are slick with blood. I use a skinning knife by placing my thumb on the back of the handle and my fingertips on the belly of the handle. This is excellent grip support. I guess that's a con that turned out to be a pro? In a hammer grip it isn't noticeable at all.
I was a bit worried about the handle to blade transition. Andy doesn't taper this down like a lot of bushcraft blades. I was worried it would make reverse chest grip cuts awkward. On the contrary, it seems to make them stronger. As you apply pressure with your thumb, you press outward against the swell with your thumb and inward with your fingers, and utilize both sides of the first inward swell where the corby bolt is. The same cut preformed with the Aito isn't nearly as secure. I was very surprised by this.
I haven't used the Woodsman, so I can't be fair to it, but if my wife told me I could keep only one knife out of all my folders, choppers, etc etc, it would be the Ladyfinger.
If you want to see some various full-size pictures, follow this link http://brianblalock.smugmug.com/Other/Fiddleback-Ladyfinger/9881572_kdCHM#672909636_GLqVb. Click on a thumbnail, mouse over the larger version, and pick "original" from the photo size options. Enjoy.
Otherwise here are a few glamor shots:
In this one you can see the small triangle at the base of the blade I was talking about
You can see where I'm slowly removing the secondary bevel. That patina is all natural.
Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed. Hope a few of you decide to pick up a Fiddleback based off this.
I received my Ladyfinger appx 2 weeks ago. It showed up sporting some amazing pants via Talfuchre. This is one of the reasons I can't keep my hands off the Ladyfinger. If I'm wearing pants, I'm wearing the Ladyfinger
. The sheath is hands down the best one I've ever seen. I'm probably going to send the Woodsman back to get a quad-carry for it as well.Ok, about the knife. 8.75" overall, 4.75" handle, 4" blade, Chocobolo over Osage handles with red liners, bullseye lanyard tube and 01 steel. The knife arrived with a full-height convex grind and a slight secondary bevel. I almost immediately knocked the shoulders off the secondary bevel with some sandpaper and mousepad action going from 600 to 2000 grit. Tonight I spent maybe an hour working the convex edge with a medium and fine arkansas bench stone and then a loaded strop. It will pull slice cut hanging newsprint.
This knife slices. It seems made to slice. It has a fair amount of belly and a slight drop-point. I peels apples. It guts fish. The flat spine works wonders as a fish scaler. I've used it to open probably 200 boxes at work and it just shrugs them off. It cuts through carpet with ease. The tip lets me shave off slight curls of wood to re-adjust a door striker plate. It strips electrical wire like crazy. In fact, almost too well. I've had to re-trim a few lines because I cut through the wire. Balance point is just behind the corby bolt pin. Very easy to control the tip if you pay attention, but it's such a good slicer, that if you don't pay attention, it will demand respect.
The main reason I wanted this knife is because I love the classic red handle Mora. I upgraded my Mora to a Aito Puukko from Ragnar. The Aito is a scandi-demon. It's amazing. It slices exceptionally well. The Ladyfinger is like an Aito on crack. It isn't as good at making fuzz sticks, but the Ladyfinger trumps the Aito on everything else. In fact, I used to wear the Aito daily and it's now in my toolbag (which I do have daily). I think the classic barrel handle on the Mora and the Aito offer a more comfortable variety of hold positions, but the Ladyfinger is by no means uncomfortable. The convex grind holds up much better. The extra "meat" behind the edge lets me work with more confidence. Yes, I have batonned with it. No, I don't have pictures.
The Ladyfinger is an excellent kitchen knife. I worked as a chef for several years, and I cook a lot at home. I've used this as a paring knife for every meal that called for one since I received it. It is also an excellent skinner. Perfect combination of belly and point for skinning rabbit and squirrel. The contoured handles are surprisingly grippy even when your hands have blood and fur on them. The thickness of the blade combined with the convex grind make breaking down game a breeze. Easily snaps and slices bone joints, severs the spine for head removal and quarters the fuzzy wonders with glee.
These are all the good points. Now for the bad. First and foremost, Andy, I love this knife, but man...there is no way anyone is going to be able to tell what it was based off your name and brand name position. The "Andy" is already gone and the "Roy" can be barely seen due to the patina I have on it. "Fiddleback" is now mostly "ddleback". I'm not sure how you can work around this. Maybe stamping the blades? Maybe on the top of the tang by the handle to act as some kind of thumb ramp? I don't know, but in a few more weeks I'm not sure how much of the name will be left.
As far as the grind goes, it didn't quite join up at the base of the blade near the handle. I'm not saying this as a slight to Andy or his grinds. I think it's just the mechanics of putting a convex next to a flat. I have a picture later on where you can see what I'm talking about. It's maybe a 1/16" triangle section. After that, the secondary bevel was right to the edge for the rest of the blade.
The top of the handle is very smooth. You would have to pay attention to feel the transition from wood to metal to wood. Very good fit/finish. The bottom of the handle isn't quite as smooth a transition. There is a definite transition from handle spacer to the metal tang. It's almost like the handle has a convex grind on the wood, but the tang isn't tapered with it. The top is wider then the bottom of the handle. I don't know, I'm not explaining that very well. You can catch a thumbnail on the liner to tang transition. At first this annoyed me a little, and I thought about sanding it down. Luckily enough, I didn't. That little transition area provides excellent grip support with your hands are slick with blood. I use a skinning knife by placing my thumb on the back of the handle and my fingertips on the belly of the handle. This is excellent grip support. I guess that's a con that turned out to be a pro? In a hammer grip it isn't noticeable at all.
I was a bit worried about the handle to blade transition. Andy doesn't taper this down like a lot of bushcraft blades. I was worried it would make reverse chest grip cuts awkward. On the contrary, it seems to make them stronger. As you apply pressure with your thumb, you press outward against the swell with your thumb and inward with your fingers, and utilize both sides of the first inward swell where the corby bolt is. The same cut preformed with the Aito isn't nearly as secure. I was very surprised by this.
I haven't used the Woodsman, so I can't be fair to it, but if my wife told me I could keep only one knife out of all my folders, choppers, etc etc, it would be the Ladyfinger.
If you want to see some various full-size pictures, follow this link http://brianblalock.smugmug.com/Other/Fiddleback-Ladyfinger/9881572_kdCHM#672909636_GLqVb. Click on a thumbnail, mouse over the larger version, and pick "original" from the photo size options. Enjoy.
Otherwise here are a few glamor shots:
In this one you can see the small triangle at the base of the blade I was talking about
You can see where I'm slowly removing the secondary bevel. That patina is all natural.
Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed. Hope a few of you decide to pick up a Fiddleback based off this.
.
Ahh the tough life I have!