Hiking Buddy Tapered or Hidden tang, which is lighter?

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wswalton

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Oct 27, 2010
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Fellow Fiddleback enthusiasts,I do not engage in dialogue much on the forum (lurker mostly) and I am happy to own a beautiful Arete that is the pride of my knife collection. I was perusing kniveshipfree and I noticed the Bark River Ultra-Light Bushcrafter. Upon closer examination it turned out the overall length and blade length were right in line with the hiking buddy, though not nearly so beautiful. The stock is ~3/32 as opposed to 1/8 too. What struck me was the weight. 2.7 ounces!With the Hiking buddy coming in roughly 4.1 ounces, I was thinking to myself, now that ULB is a REALLY light knife for what you get Of course, then I remembered the hidden tang hiking buddies that Andy put out a while back and said to myself, "missed that opportunity" (until they appear again! :rolleyes:)My next train of thought was I wonder what the Hidden tang Hiking Buddies weigh, and for that matter what to the tapered tang varieties weigh in comparison? Does anyone have insight they can provide?Of course we are comparing a McLaren F1 to a Corvette, but sometimes MPG matter. Any perspective is appreciated as I would like a light(er) backup neck knife for minimalist trips and such.Thanks so much for the great posts here on the Fiddleback forum! Cheers,Woody
 
I can't speak to the differences between hidden tang vs. not or the bark river, but I can speak to the HB as a neck knife. I have a 5/32" tapered tang HB with all micarta scales.

I don't have it with me so I can't weigh it, but I have worn it as a neck knife. I don't believe Andy designed it for this purpose, but I can comfortably carry mine that way in a leather sheath with 550 cord for the neck lanyard. That being said, it's not a Mora if light weight is your primary concern, but an HB will hang with the best of them in the small knife/multiple use capacity.
 
I can't remember the results, but we weighed one, and a full tang counterpart once. Its in a thread around here somewhere. I can't seem to find it though.
 
Fiddleback said:
I can't remember the results, but we weighed one, and a full tang counterpart once. Its in a thread around here somewhere. I can't seem to find it though.
Click to expand...

I couldn't find a thread with a tapered or full tang weight but per Andy in post 26 in the thread below the hidden tang HB weight is "my postal scale says 2.4 oz"

Should be easy enough to get someone with a tapered tang HB to get you a weight as there are several of them out there.

Thread referenced above - http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...ng-Buddy/page2?highlight=weight+hiking+hidden
 
Wow! Beautiful Hiking Buddy Raining. The blue scales are striking, especially with those pinstripes. I am always torn between natural or wood tones and those that occur a little less in nature. Blues seems to be a good compromise between occurring in nature (scarce), but standing out on a woodland backdrop without being garish. Thanks for contributing the pic and weight!

CaseXX & FrostyPA, thanks for the insight and the thread link! So everyone knows, I never was insinuating that the Hiking Buddy was too heavy. It is the next knife on my list independent of tang variety. ...just waiting for the right one to catch my attention! Patience is one of the few virtues I have, just hard to implement with knives!
 
Indeed! Stock thickness too! ;-) 3.77 oz. average thus far. I think as a general rule we can safely say you lose about .3 to .4 oz. for a tapered tang Hiking Buddy. If anyone has a hidden tang HB it would be nice to see how that compares. So as long as Any didn't put uranium or balsa wood scales on any hidden tang models to throw the weight off we will likely know if they are generally lighter? ;-) That has got me thinking, has Andy used any really dense woods like lignum vitae on his beauties?

Does anyone feel the balance points are markedly better with the standard model vs. taper variants? I would not think it would impact a knife this size too greatly. On my Arete is an inch back from where the scales start.

Thanks again!'
Woody
 
I don't recall ever seeing any lignum vitae on any knives. He does use desert ironwood, which is pretty dense and heavy.

I have 2 hiking buddies, both 1/8", one tapered and one full tang. Same weight and same feel in hand.
 
I have a few hidden tangs all scandi running around 3.0 oz or roughly 86g.

I have no tapered and one of my full tang scandi hb weighed in at 4.3oz or 122g.

I have my doubts about the 2.7oz ultra light. Maybe in bamboo.
I don't have an ultralight to weigh out for you and don't have my handy spreadsheet of BRKT 'real' weights.

Keep in mind the ultralight from BRKT is 3v and most Fiddlebacks are O1...

edit: yes, the hidden tangs are balanced well and feel like ninja power. very nimble knives. i have much love for them. no regrets. light. nimble. strong. supreme! buy them and if you don't like them, I will buy them from you. (scandi only)
 
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Another data point to add to this thread - 3/32" tapered tang in tuxedo configuration comes in at 88 grams or 3.1 ounces.
 
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