- Joined
- Feb 2, 2010
- Messages
- 324
Carried my production Recluse out on a dayhike in some semi-local BC wilderness today. A couple hours into the hike we went off trail for a little bit to explore some neat looking cliff sides, and decided to have a lunch fire on the edge of one particularly nice cliff. I thought it would be a good opportunity to see how the little knife would handle chopping and batoning.
First impressions: I'm VERY pleased.
For it's size, it's a -serious- chopper. I was not expecting this at all. Understand that it's still a small size blade, so getting any significant leverage into the swing is out of the question... but for what it is, the bites this thing took were exceptional. The grind on it is amazing for this kind of work. This was also without a lanyard, I imagine it would be even better with one.
Now, batoning. Again, for its size, it gave a fantastic performance. This came as no surprise to me, however, as I have experience batoning with similar convex ground knives in the past. No other grind comes close in batoning than a well done convex, in my experience. So it performed as I expected it to, which is to say very well. The tip appears to be quite stout, and the knife is more than thick enough at the spine for the kind of batoning you can do with a 4" blade. I'm not worried about pounding on this one at all.
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Some quick shots... unfortunately didn't get any good ones of the blade, as my "photographer" was too busy admiring the scenery with her camera
This log was pretty rotten, so it's a bad example of the knife's batoning ability, but it's the only other pic I got so I'll post it anyway.
We had mess tin hotdogs! (not shown: started my first ever charcloth fire. you guys who say old mans beard is bad tinder are mistaken!!)
And some BC goodness
Believe it or not, I've camped on top of that mountain! This is an area I come to explore very often.
Anyway, today was by no means a thorough test, I just thought you guys might be interested in some first impressions on this blade since it's still pretty fresh on the market. I'll be one of the first to say: it's a keeper. After I get a few more weeks of experience with this knife, I'll write a full review. Hope this helps you guys spend some money!
First impressions: I'm VERY pleased.
For it's size, it's a -serious- chopper. I was not expecting this at all. Understand that it's still a small size blade, so getting any significant leverage into the swing is out of the question... but for what it is, the bites this thing took were exceptional. The grind on it is amazing for this kind of work. This was also without a lanyard, I imagine it would be even better with one.
Now, batoning. Again, for its size, it gave a fantastic performance. This came as no surprise to me, however, as I have experience batoning with similar convex ground knives in the past. No other grind comes close in batoning than a well done convex, in my experience. So it performed as I expected it to, which is to say very well. The tip appears to be quite stout, and the knife is more than thick enough at the spine for the kind of batoning you can do with a 4" blade. I'm not worried about pounding on this one at all.
-
Some quick shots... unfortunately didn't get any good ones of the blade, as my "photographer" was too busy admiring the scenery with her camera
This log was pretty rotten, so it's a bad example of the knife's batoning ability, but it's the only other pic I got so I'll post it anyway.
We had mess tin hotdogs! (not shown: started my first ever charcloth fire. you guys who say old mans beard is bad tinder are mistaken!!)
And some BC goodness
Believe it or not, I've camped on top of that mountain! This is an area I come to explore very often.
Anyway, today was by no means a thorough test, I just thought you guys might be interested in some first impressions on this blade since it's still pretty fresh on the market. I'll be one of the first to say: it's a keeper. After I get a few more weeks of experience with this knife, I'll write a full review. Hope this helps you guys spend some money!
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