- Joined
- Apr 27, 2011
- Messages
- 3,201
Been out of town for several weeks and some of the new toys I got in that time have been sitting idle, which is NOT COOL. So I just hauled them out into the sunny 109F to give 'em a little fresh air. Also, I've been idly curious about performance when it all comes down to it... we've done a lot of talking recently about the BK10, but just how does it compare to the BK2 when pitted against each other with the same kind of wood? And how about the Warthog... what the hell is this thing actually for, anyway? Other than looking damn awesome. The CS hawk is there because presumably it will be the best at these wood processing duties and therefore will offer a good comparison.
So first, a quick description of the fleet. All knives have lanyards for maximum chopitude.
BK2 - Frankly, she's gotten a little dull with use. Reading through the forums they're apparently tricky to sharpen without a system. All I've got is a random collection of stones and stuff so I've been a little scared to try. Heaviest knife.
BK10 - Factory fresh. Hasn't cut a single thing yet. Lightest knife, feels real lively in the hand.
Warthog - I've chopped a tiny bit, and whatever went down when it was still in Moose's custody, but she looks mostly new. Curious if the very minor blade play will get worse. Weight of this knife is in-between the BK2 and Bk10.
Cold Steel Trail Hawk - I'm putting a high, flat grind on it and got partway into it with a file the last time I worked on this, and otherwise it's seen little use yet, so it's sharpish. I'm partway through modding it so the coating is gone, the haft isn't wrapped yet, and the head is still pretty loose. Feels like it weighs nothing.
Today we're cutting on mesquite and palo verde, both taken down just a few months ago. It's been sitting out in the heat for months now but hasn't been split, so it's likely still pretty bad, brutal stuff to be working on. This wood makes this kind of a worst-case scenario and it would be actually pretty interesting to do this comparison with stuff that's knot so tough.
The tests: Chopping, splitting via batoning, getting unstuck, drilling, and making tent stakes. I decided to skip fine work like fuzz sticks and etc because while I know all these tools can do it, they are simply the wrong thing to be trying that kind of work with. Trying to pick between a BK2 and a BK10 for carving wood sprites is like trying to decide whether Chevy or Ford trucks make better ship anchors. Bring a small knife for that kind of work, eh? Although later in the day I did grab the 10 to cut some wood to start a fire and it sure felt nice in the hand.
CHOPPING BLADE DEPTH
The first thing I thought would be interesting to know is which one of these sinks the deepest into the end of a piece of wood with a single chop. So I setup a fat piece of cedar and got to business. The only problem was that this cedar was so dry that the Warthog blew it apart, heh. The follow up with the CSTH then blew it up again! So yeah, it was going to be necessary to try a different piece of wood.
Bummer here in that I took a little chunk out of the haft of my hawk doing this. Only goes to show: if you start on a mod, finish the damn thing. A wrap would have prevented this.
So anyway, I got a big 4" piece of mesquite and started with the CSTH. No need to mention the bad swing that bounced off my shoe; the second swing went better and sunk in about an inch. Every single one of the knives left a little mark but otherwise bounced off. This is HARD stuff.
So the CSTH clearly won this test. What I should have done is rather than coming down on the face of the log I could have come into the edge and it probably would have worked as a better comparison for the knives. On some of the other tests I found that the BK2 and BK10 could be set pretty well into the end edge of a log prior to batoning or whatever. The Warthog didn't bite as well and was harder to get started, and the hawk while nice and bitey could be a little harder to aim.
CHOPPING
I selected 2" palo verde for this test and it worked out pretty good. The results:
Bk2 - 34 strokes. Got stuck a few times, accuracy was decent.
Bk10 - 40 strokes, but had a lot that went wide so it probably was closer to 35-36 strokes in the actual cut that chopped the log. It would bite real deep and get stuck pretty good. I was thinking the lanyard was a little too short for the way I was chopping so I swapped it out, tried again, and this time got 46 strokes.
Warthog - 27 strokes. It never bit deep enough into the wood to stick but accuracy was really good; it felt easy to control and aim. Had no strokes that didn't contribute to the cut. The pommel end of the handle felt nice for this kind of chopping.
CSTH - 32. Bit deep and stuck deep several times but it was a little hard to be accurate, plus the loose head was causing me trouble.
Winner here was the Warthog, which simply felt nice to swing. I lopped a few small branches off my mesquite tree later on for the tent stake test and it swung real nice for this too. But man, that blade just doesn't bite like the others. I'm sure if my aim and skills were better both the bitey BK10 and CSTH would have done better.
DRILLING
Murph had mentioned drilling with his BK10 when he was in service so I figured I'd give this a shot. But generally I'd say that if you're going to drill something, use your smaller knife rather than these monsters. And don't use a tomahawk at all!
I selected 3/16 particle board, kind of soft, and went a few twists past where it started to break through on the other side. I used a left-right twist approach, standing above and bearing down on the knife, rather than twisting all CW or CCW.
BK10 - 20 twists. Easy, and tip was through at 17.
BK2 - 20 also. Didn't feel as efficient as the BK10, where you could feel the swedge cutting as well as the edge, but it went through just as easy.
Warthog - 23. The much wider blade was an impediment.
CSTH - Gave up at 60; never would go through.
Winner: Tie between the BK10 and Bk2 although the BK10 should probably take this one. As it's a combat knife, the first thing you would want to do I'd think would be to sharpen the swedge all the way, and once you do that it's going to do better with two separate sharp cutting surfaces.
So first, a quick description of the fleet. All knives have lanyards for maximum chopitude.
BK2 - Frankly, she's gotten a little dull with use. Reading through the forums they're apparently tricky to sharpen without a system. All I've got is a random collection of stones and stuff so I've been a little scared to try. Heaviest knife.
BK10 - Factory fresh. Hasn't cut a single thing yet. Lightest knife, feels real lively in the hand.
Warthog - I've chopped a tiny bit, and whatever went down when it was still in Moose's custody, but she looks mostly new. Curious if the very minor blade play will get worse. Weight of this knife is in-between the BK2 and Bk10.
Cold Steel Trail Hawk - I'm putting a high, flat grind on it and got partway into it with a file the last time I worked on this, and otherwise it's seen little use yet, so it's sharpish. I'm partway through modding it so the coating is gone, the haft isn't wrapped yet, and the head is still pretty loose. Feels like it weighs nothing.
Today we're cutting on mesquite and palo verde, both taken down just a few months ago. It's been sitting out in the heat for months now but hasn't been split, so it's likely still pretty bad, brutal stuff to be working on. This wood makes this kind of a worst-case scenario and it would be actually pretty interesting to do this comparison with stuff that's knot so tough.
The tests: Chopping, splitting via batoning, getting unstuck, drilling, and making tent stakes. I decided to skip fine work like fuzz sticks and etc because while I know all these tools can do it, they are simply the wrong thing to be trying that kind of work with. Trying to pick between a BK2 and a BK10 for carving wood sprites is like trying to decide whether Chevy or Ford trucks make better ship anchors. Bring a small knife for that kind of work, eh? Although later in the day I did grab the 10 to cut some wood to start a fire and it sure felt nice in the hand.
CHOPPING BLADE DEPTH
The first thing I thought would be interesting to know is which one of these sinks the deepest into the end of a piece of wood with a single chop. So I setup a fat piece of cedar and got to business. The only problem was that this cedar was so dry that the Warthog blew it apart, heh. The follow up with the CSTH then blew it up again! So yeah, it was going to be necessary to try a different piece of wood.
Bummer here in that I took a little chunk out of the haft of my hawk doing this. Only goes to show: if you start on a mod, finish the damn thing. A wrap would have prevented this.
So anyway, I got a big 4" piece of mesquite and started with the CSTH. No need to mention the bad swing that bounced off my shoe; the second swing went better and sunk in about an inch. Every single one of the knives left a little mark but otherwise bounced off. This is HARD stuff.
So the CSTH clearly won this test. What I should have done is rather than coming down on the face of the log I could have come into the edge and it probably would have worked as a better comparison for the knives. On some of the other tests I found that the BK2 and BK10 could be set pretty well into the end edge of a log prior to batoning or whatever. The Warthog didn't bite as well and was harder to get started, and the hawk while nice and bitey could be a little harder to aim.
CHOPPING
I selected 2" palo verde for this test and it worked out pretty good. The results:
Bk2 - 34 strokes. Got stuck a few times, accuracy was decent.
Bk10 - 40 strokes, but had a lot that went wide so it probably was closer to 35-36 strokes in the actual cut that chopped the log. It would bite real deep and get stuck pretty good. I was thinking the lanyard was a little too short for the way I was chopping so I swapped it out, tried again, and this time got 46 strokes.
Warthog - 27 strokes. It never bit deep enough into the wood to stick but accuracy was really good; it felt easy to control and aim. Had no strokes that didn't contribute to the cut. The pommel end of the handle felt nice for this kind of chopping.
CSTH - 32. Bit deep and stuck deep several times but it was a little hard to be accurate, plus the loose head was causing me trouble.
Winner here was the Warthog, which simply felt nice to swing. I lopped a few small branches off my mesquite tree later on for the tent stake test and it swung real nice for this too. But man, that blade just doesn't bite like the others. I'm sure if my aim and skills were better both the bitey BK10 and CSTH would have done better.
DRILLING
Murph had mentioned drilling with his BK10 when he was in service so I figured I'd give this a shot. But generally I'd say that if you're going to drill something, use your smaller knife rather than these monsters. And don't use a tomahawk at all!
I selected 3/16 particle board, kind of soft, and went a few twists past where it started to break through on the other side. I used a left-right twist approach, standing above and bearing down on the knife, rather than twisting all CW or CCW.
BK10 - 20 twists. Easy, and tip was through at 17.
BK2 - 20 also. Didn't feel as efficient as the BK10, where you could feel the swedge cutting as well as the edge, but it went through just as easy.
Warthog - 23. The much wider blade was an impediment.
CSTH - Gave up at 60; never would go through.
Winner: Tie between the BK10 and Bk2 although the BK10 should probably take this one. As it's a combat knife, the first thing you would want to do I'd think would be to sharpen the swedge all the way, and once you do that it's going to do better with two separate sharp cutting surfaces.
