So found a nice little spot along a riverbed just a short walk from my apartment so I took some blades out for a test.
I took the following:
Ka-Bar grass machete and heavy warthog
Ka-Bar becker BK9 and BK16
Ontario RTAK II
Mora companion
CRKT ringed razel
So first is a known performer the BK9, probably my favorite knife.
This pic doesn't show very well but the BK9 did a good job chopping. This wood is pretty tough stuff. Before I left I rant the BK9 through my worksharp and made sure it would shave hair. After whacking on this log it was not even close to shaving sharp. The handle is great and very easy to hang onto and I didn't feel like it was slipping or rolling in my hand. It should be noted that I have stretched some rubber inner tube over the handle.
Next I choked up on it to see how it does at making a fuzz stick. I've never done this before but it was pretty easy since the lower part of the blade was still very sharp.
BK9 is a great large woods knife and can handle a wide variety of tasks with ease. It might be as close to a one-tool option as you're likely to find.
Next is my Ontario RTAK II. I got this "used" from Chestnut Ridge Knife Shop. There was no wear marks on the finish that I could see so I'm guessing they used it as a display model or something. The RTAK II is balanced right about the top of the handle where the other blades are blade heavy. This is due to the area under the handle scales being solid instead of cut out. I'm debating drilling some holes under the handle to shift the weight forward. The handle on this thing is big and chunky so I did a little reshaping but it's still big.
It chops well but it wanted to roll in my hand. It chops as well as the BK9 or maybe a little better but with the handle rolling in my hand I had an easier time with the BK9. I imagine if I ground down the handle more to fit my hand better in addition to drilling it to shift the weight forward I could get some real performance out of this thing. Or I might just trade it off. Not sure yet.
The balance of the knife and the choil does help with the small stuff and here you can see curls were no problem.
Also on my walk out of the riverbed I used the RTAK II to help me clear the path. I didn't chop a clean path out but it did seem to work well as a machete for the little cutting I did do this way. About as well as the Ka-Bar grass machete did on my way in.
I used the Ka-Bar grass machete to make my way to my test spot. I wasn't able to get it shaving sharp but it would slice paper no problem. I was a bit disappointed in the performance in trail clearing but looking back I wasn't following through with my cuts so it my technique might have been hindering it.
The large blade makes chopping easy, maybe not much faster or better than the others but I feel like I expended less effort. Then again it was the first knife I tried chopping with so I was fresh when I started. Also this is the thinnest part of the log. Just like the other two it was dulled quite a bit by chopping on this hard log.
with a little more practice I'm sure I could get curls as thin as the other knives. Despite the heavy blade it wasn't hard to control for doing the fine work. A choil might be in order but with a blade this big, pairing it with a smaller blade is the way to go. Actually I am a big proponent of a multi-blade system anyway so no matter what I'd recommend carrying a SAK or multi-tool with any blade.
By this point I had tested three large choppers so I wasn't exactly fresh despite that the Ka-Bar warthog chopped well, better than one might expect from a blade this size.
This log is bigger than what I would try to take with this knife (or any of these knives given how hard it is.) and I don't think I gave as many whacks with it as I did with the others but it still works well. It should also be noted that I tried chopping with this thing a couple days ago and didn't resharpen the knife so it had a disadvantage right there. You could certainly get a good fire going or build a shelter with this guy and it's small enough you could keep it on your belt without it being too obtrusive. This would be a good candidate for an emergency "survival" knife as I see it. A knife you will have with you that can handle any task, except it probably wouldn't be great at cleaning game.
Here you can see it makes curls about as well as anything. The wide blade would probably make some carving tasks difficult but that's why you have more than one knife. Overall it's a great knife and very versatile.
Here's my new Condor Rodan. Chops small branches well.
And makes curls well too
The rodan is a pretty good knife for the price and I'm happy with it.
The Bk16 came super sharp out of the box. The weight and balance of the knife made me curious if it could chop at all. I used a lanyard and got way back on the handle.
Pretty much what I expected. Not too difficult. Not something you'd do a lot but you could chop a baton down and use that to baton-chop more wood for the fire or if something didn't want to break you could bend the branch and chop the bend to break it off.
This is more in line with what the knife was designed for. Makes curls effortlessly. It's fairly thick too so you could baton with it if you had to and it should hold up fine. Well worth the money.
Finally the mora. No surprise here, it sets the bar for delicate work. Makes very small curls.
The mora companion is an awesome knife for the low price, I just love it. They're worth picking up just to find out what the hype is about. I'll be grabbing the thicker heavy duty version and which ever I like more I'll get more of to keep in a few kits in my trucks and such.
All of these blades would serve most anyone very well and while there are better knives on the market, it's very hard to go wrong with these options.
I took the following:
Ka-Bar grass machete and heavy warthog
Ka-Bar becker BK9 and BK16
Ontario RTAK II
Mora companion
CRKT ringed razel
So first is a known performer the BK9, probably my favorite knife.
This pic doesn't show very well but the BK9 did a good job chopping. This wood is pretty tough stuff. Before I left I rant the BK9 through my worksharp and made sure it would shave hair. After whacking on this log it was not even close to shaving sharp. The handle is great and very easy to hang onto and I didn't feel like it was slipping or rolling in my hand. It should be noted that I have stretched some rubber inner tube over the handle.
Next I choked up on it to see how it does at making a fuzz stick. I've never done this before but it was pretty easy since the lower part of the blade was still very sharp.
BK9 is a great large woods knife and can handle a wide variety of tasks with ease. It might be as close to a one-tool option as you're likely to find.
Next is my Ontario RTAK II. I got this "used" from Chestnut Ridge Knife Shop. There was no wear marks on the finish that I could see so I'm guessing they used it as a display model or something. The RTAK II is balanced right about the top of the handle where the other blades are blade heavy. This is due to the area under the handle scales being solid instead of cut out. I'm debating drilling some holes under the handle to shift the weight forward. The handle on this thing is big and chunky so I did a little reshaping but it's still big.
It chops well but it wanted to roll in my hand. It chops as well as the BK9 or maybe a little better but with the handle rolling in my hand I had an easier time with the BK9. I imagine if I ground down the handle more to fit my hand better in addition to drilling it to shift the weight forward I could get some real performance out of this thing. Or I might just trade it off. Not sure yet.
The balance of the knife and the choil does help with the small stuff and here you can see curls were no problem.
Also on my walk out of the riverbed I used the RTAK II to help me clear the path. I didn't chop a clean path out but it did seem to work well as a machete for the little cutting I did do this way. About as well as the Ka-Bar grass machete did on my way in.
I used the Ka-Bar grass machete to make my way to my test spot. I wasn't able to get it shaving sharp but it would slice paper no problem. I was a bit disappointed in the performance in trail clearing but looking back I wasn't following through with my cuts so it my technique might have been hindering it.
The large blade makes chopping easy, maybe not much faster or better than the others but I feel like I expended less effort. Then again it was the first knife I tried chopping with so I was fresh when I started. Also this is the thinnest part of the log. Just like the other two it was dulled quite a bit by chopping on this hard log.
with a little more practice I'm sure I could get curls as thin as the other knives. Despite the heavy blade it wasn't hard to control for doing the fine work. A choil might be in order but with a blade this big, pairing it with a smaller blade is the way to go. Actually I am a big proponent of a multi-blade system anyway so no matter what I'd recommend carrying a SAK or multi-tool with any blade.
By this point I had tested three large choppers so I wasn't exactly fresh despite that the Ka-Bar warthog chopped well, better than one might expect from a blade this size.
This log is bigger than what I would try to take with this knife (or any of these knives given how hard it is.) and I don't think I gave as many whacks with it as I did with the others but it still works well. It should also be noted that I tried chopping with this thing a couple days ago and didn't resharpen the knife so it had a disadvantage right there. You could certainly get a good fire going or build a shelter with this guy and it's small enough you could keep it on your belt without it being too obtrusive. This would be a good candidate for an emergency "survival" knife as I see it. A knife you will have with you that can handle any task, except it probably wouldn't be great at cleaning game.
Here you can see it makes curls about as well as anything. The wide blade would probably make some carving tasks difficult but that's why you have more than one knife. Overall it's a great knife and very versatile.
Here's my new Condor Rodan. Chops small branches well.
And makes curls well too
The rodan is a pretty good knife for the price and I'm happy with it.
The Bk16 came super sharp out of the box. The weight and balance of the knife made me curious if it could chop at all. I used a lanyard and got way back on the handle.
Pretty much what I expected. Not too difficult. Not something you'd do a lot but you could chop a baton down and use that to baton-chop more wood for the fire or if something didn't want to break you could bend the branch and chop the bend to break it off.
This is more in line with what the knife was designed for. Makes curls effortlessly. It's fairly thick too so you could baton with it if you had to and it should hold up fine. Well worth the money.
Finally the mora. No surprise here, it sets the bar for delicate work. Makes very small curls.
The mora companion is an awesome knife for the low price, I just love it. They're worth picking up just to find out what the hype is about. I'll be grabbing the thicker heavy duty version and which ever I like more I'll get more of to keep in a few kits in my trucks and such.
All of these blades would serve most anyone very well and while there are better knives on the market, it's very hard to go wrong with these options.
