FK Size Comparison w/ S!K & Busse

For my hands the 4.7 is a bit too contorted. The front portion has just a bit too much material removed making the handle feel as though I am holding a small ball. It's hard to explain unless you can feel it in your hand first. The FK doesn't have this problem and is much more comfortable for my grip. I still think I will keep one 4.7 just to see what I think of cpm 20cv
 
timichango said:
The image that was posted above which had the FK and the GSO 4.7 gave me the opportunity to stage a rough comparison that I've been wanting to do for a while to look at the layout of those two knives from the perspective of handling similarities and/or differences.

Screenshot%202016-10-25%2016.07.38.png


At a glance both knives look like they bring a substantially different functional layout to bear, given the rather straight-looking GSO and the curved spine and canted blade of the field knife. However, when you overlay their silhouettes, and rotate them to situate likely points of hand/finger contact together, which will determine the blade positioning relative to the user's grip, it looks like they both wind up bringing the knife to the work at roughly the same position and offset from the hand. What's interesting to me is that when viewed this way (ie. with the handle as the positional reference, rather than the blade), the GSO 4.7 starts looking a bit more like a nessmuk: the rear handle swell starts looking less like a handle swell, while the mid spine through the blade starts looking a bit sway-backed.

My GSO 4.7 is still in the mail, and my Field Knife only showed up last week, and I haven't done any real work with it yet, but I'm pretty curious to see which I prefer where the palm swell is concerned, as that seems to be the central difference in the design of the two knives' grips.

Anyways — neat fodder for contemplation, I thought.
Click to expand...
May I ask how you created those overlay graphics? I need some help doing that with some of my work...

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Brian77 said:
May I ask how you created those overlay graphics? I need some help doing that with some of my work...

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Click to expand...

Simple enough - manually traced the knives (using the photo from earlier in the thread as a reference underlay) in adobe illustrator, set the resultant vector artwork layers (each knife is a layer) to be different colors, and set the apply mode on the top layer to "multiply". Took about 15 mins, and about 14 of that was on the tracing.


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Vernal2014 said:
..The front portion has just a bit too much material removed making the handle feel as though I am holding a small ball. It's hard to explain ...
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I earlier described this as my hand feeling stuffed like it was forced to contort around the handle, rather than the handle fitting my hand.
 
Vernal2014 said:
For my hands the 4.7 is a bit too contorted. The front portion has just a bit too much material removed making the handle feel as though I am holding a small ball. It's hard to explain unless you can feel it in your hand first. The FK doesn't have this problem and is much more comfortable for my grip.
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I received my 4.7 today, and I can see what you mean. The contouring of the 4.7 handle is significantly more pronounced than the FK, and that's not obvious from the photos (to me, anyways).

Also, I'm noticing that it's not just the size of the palm swell contour, but also its axis - which runs from forward/low to rearward/high (the thumb orients nicely across this descending contour towards the front). In my hand, this seems to strongly bias the forward/normal grip, and it indexes VERY positively in my hand - but it seems to be at the expense of the other potential grips. Inverted/rotated grips are noticeably more awkward. I do like the relative thinness at the front of the scales though - irrelevant in a hammer grip, but probably good for precise work with a looser, pinchier grip.

To me it feels like the 4.7 is a bit of a specialist in the forward grip position, where the FK grip is more of an outstanding generalist... I can't find an awkward hold on the FK. It's both secure and neutral.

Caveat: I've barely used the FK for much, and the 4.7 not at all - these are just initial impressions. The real tale gets told with work that'll raise a blister or a cramp.


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Well IIRC it was supposed to be Willow, straight grained about as long as your arm, 2-3cm in diameter, peeled and dried. But could be used as green. Some people will tell you green and soft is the way to go. Some prefer dry and hard. I think when one first starts, it's gonna be a lot of woops so better to start on anything straight grained and handy rather than wait for something perfect.

Edit:

I'm no expert. I have never completed one. I've tried a bit here and there but I have no time for such pursuits. I get a couple minutes here and there before I am interrupted and tasked with something "more important". By the time I try to get back to something I can't even remember where I left it and most likely my toddler has stuck it somewhere or thrown it into the neighbors yard.
 
JustinFournier said:
Well IIRC it was supposed to be Willow, straight grained about as long as your arm, 2-3cm in diameter, peeled and dried. But could be used as green. Some people will tell you green and soft is the way to go. Some prefer dry and hard. I think when one first starts, it's gonna be a lot of woops so better to start on anything straight grained and handy rather than wait for something perfect.

Edit:

I'm no expert. I have never completed one. I've tried a bit here and there but I have no time for such pursuits. I get a couple minutes here and there before I am interrupted and tasked with something "more important". By the time I try to get back to something I can't even remember where I left it and most likely my toddler has stuck it somewhere or thrown it into the neighbors yard.
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I hear ya, mon frere — I've got a rambunctious 3 year-old to contend with, which generally means getting to do a few minutes of something before needing to stop him from winding up in a river. That said, I'm going to print out a set of try stick instructions, and keep'em with my tinder kit for when I've got some spare time by the fire after he goes to sleep sometime.

Regarding wood, I'm likely going to wind up using whatever I wind up finding up around here in squamish. Probably maple or some conifer. I need to bone up on my tree identification too. Sigh. In terms of technique, it looks like a neat set of challenges. I already tend to amuse myself by making notched/tapered tent pegs, selecting and cleaning tarp poles, and I've made a pot lifter stick once or twice, so hopefully at least a few of the notches won't be too foreign.

Just found a neat thread from a while back, with some good links to other try stick info: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/883615-Mors-Kochanski-quot-Try-quot-Stick
 
timichango said:
Nope! Should though! Tips on wood selection? Or just go hack a straight branch and get at'er?


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I'd tell you to just go for it.
I personally like to use fresh material when I start one up just because I don't have the patience to mess around with hard woods like hickory or oak.
These are made from Mulberry, Citrus and the last on the right is pine dowel material from Depot.
535d27fc0c2834889a693f743db03802.jpg

This one was just to prove that large knives can be just as nimble. That a 1/2 piece of pine dowel.
9b6f92da23a703f0d1302eeafcd480c8.jpg
 
Dude. Skills!

Now I'm going to need to attempt one with my bk9 ;)


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Standard78 said:
That would be a good one! I've never owned a BK9, but it would be awesome to see what it can do.
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I'd like to try it on some finer whittling tasks, for sure - its geometry is amply acute that it's pretty slicey for a big chopper, and the edge starts rather close to the handle scales for good fine control. The 1095CV takes a crazy edge too, so it's quite bitey. Likely a bit unwieldy to do much fine work requiring the tip though... the clip and swedge probably make it a half decent driller, but managing fine control 9" out is a bit challenging.

Yeah yeah, easy innuendos there ;)

Damn thing sure can chop and baton like crazy though. Super fun knife to whale on stuff with.
 
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