- Joined
- Jun 2, 2009
- Messages
- 6
first I want to thank members, supervisors, creators of bladeforums for just making this experience what it is. Thank you! I'm a new subscriber to bladeforums. I have always been into knives and now I am a happy member of a quality online knife community and can't be more thrilled, especially after so many months away from the computer. I didn't even know this was out here!
Disclaimer:
Ok so, I am by no means an expert. I didn't conduct this demonstration completely scientifically, with perfect weights, measurements, et cetera. What this is is a comparison by a blade user to demonstrate how one (me, in this case) may go about acknowledging the particular qualities pronounced through various blades that work for a task. This is filled with subjective observations and gut feelings. The entertainment vs. usable evidence is purely up to you, and I can only encourage that anyone never takes the word of another as true, but rather tries it and tests it.
Today, I got a new knife in the mail. Then, I went and tested it, along side a few other blades. That knife is the Tops Tracker. I also took to the field:
a Buck Vanguard, Gerber Camp Axe, Fiskers hatchet, and Cold Steel Kukri Machete. All are standard factory edge. I sharpen them, not customized or changed at all. Pics:
Ok so down to the experimenting and observations!
I took a dried birch log about 10 inches wide and cut thru with each blade, except the buck. The tracker, kukri: I rolled the log each time a chunk came loose, in order to lower the amount of cutting surface and increase cutting pressure. With the axes, I just went streight down frenzy style.
Pics:
Observations:
The tracker:
+'s: cut a beautifully round ball-like cap end on the log. The blade seemed to demand a wider cutting start on the outer layer of log, and as it worked in, just seemed to round off on its own.
-'s: energy demanding
Kukri machete:
+'s: just too much fun! the weight on the far reach of blade can be thrown in the arc of swing, and pulled back in the impact zone for even more power delivered into the region. energy efficient
-'s: kukri's most effective swings can be extremely 'bouncy' and uncontrollable if outside of cut-zone.
Gerber camp axe:
+'s: the blade is half the size of the log's width, which allowed the bottom to bite really deep initial cuts. the full blade makes quick work of squirting out large bites of wood.
-'s: for this task, absolutely nothing.
Fiskers hatchet:
+'s: while smaller, still powerful. can work on log sitting down, one handed and such.
-'s: at center of log, blade had a lot of catching up to do because of small blade length. twice as many cuts.
Overall impressions/summary:
Quickest was twohanding with the gerber. If all day, this is the way. Funnest was Kukri! One time log favorite. Tracker was most tedious and energy demanding. Fiskers was easy but a bit like exercise with all them strokes.
This is the first task of these knives. look for Part 2 for a redemption to the Tops blade, and more tests.
Disclaimer:
Ok so, I am by no means an expert. I didn't conduct this demonstration completely scientifically, with perfect weights, measurements, et cetera. What this is is a comparison by a blade user to demonstrate how one (me, in this case) may go about acknowledging the particular qualities pronounced through various blades that work for a task. This is filled with subjective observations and gut feelings. The entertainment vs. usable evidence is purely up to you, and I can only encourage that anyone never takes the word of another as true, but rather tries it and tests it.
Today, I got a new knife in the mail. Then, I went and tested it, along side a few other blades. That knife is the Tops Tracker. I also took to the field:
a Buck Vanguard, Gerber Camp Axe, Fiskers hatchet, and Cold Steel Kukri Machete. All are standard factory edge. I sharpen them, not customized or changed at all. Pics:
Ok so down to the experimenting and observations!
I took a dried birch log about 10 inches wide and cut thru with each blade, except the buck. The tracker, kukri: I rolled the log each time a chunk came loose, in order to lower the amount of cutting surface and increase cutting pressure. With the axes, I just went streight down frenzy style.
Pics:
Observations:
The tracker:
+'s: cut a beautifully round ball-like cap end on the log. The blade seemed to demand a wider cutting start on the outer layer of log, and as it worked in, just seemed to round off on its own.
-'s: energy demanding
Kukri machete:
+'s: just too much fun! the weight on the far reach of blade can be thrown in the arc of swing, and pulled back in the impact zone for even more power delivered into the region. energy efficient
-'s: kukri's most effective swings can be extremely 'bouncy' and uncontrollable if outside of cut-zone.
Gerber camp axe:
+'s: the blade is half the size of the log's width, which allowed the bottom to bite really deep initial cuts. the full blade makes quick work of squirting out large bites of wood.
-'s: for this task, absolutely nothing.
Fiskers hatchet:
+'s: while smaller, still powerful. can work on log sitting down, one handed and such.
-'s: at center of log, blade had a lot of catching up to do because of small blade length. twice as many cuts.
Overall impressions/summary:
Quickest was twohanding with the gerber. If all day, this is the way. Funnest was Kukri! One time log favorite. Tracker was most tedious and energy demanding. Fiskers was easy but a bit like exercise with all them strokes.
This is the first task of these knives. look for Part 2 for a redemption to the Tops blade, and more tests.
