Kellam Billhook

C

Cliff Stamp

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[WARNING THIS POST IS RATED NC-17 - CONTAINS REFEFENCES TO BUSSE COMBAT, ACTUAL FACTS ABOUT PERFORMANCE, AND MAY BE DANGEROUS TO THOSE WHO LIKE TO OVERHYPE PRODUCTS - READER DISCRETION ADVISED]

First a shot :

http://www.kellamknives.com/catalog/mline/mtbillhook-w.jpg

The Billhook weighs 250 g, the plastic sheath is an additional 60 g. It is ground from forged carbon steel, 0.115" thick. It has a single grind, 0.275" wide forming an edge of around 10-12 degrees per side with a very slight secondary edge bevel, probably formed with a buffer of 14 degrees per side. The blade has a black teflon coating.

NIB the Billhook was very sharp, easily push shaving, scoring 122 +/- 17 g on light thread and push cutting 3/8" hemp at 31-35 lbs, which is actually better on both counts than many light utility folders I have seen, let alone blades meant to actually do serious wood working.

With this in mind and being in a fairly silly mood anyway I used it for some light utility work and it actually did very well on many things such as cutting cardboard, ropes and such, it isn't a very good potato peeler, however if I had to pick it or many of the tactical knives I have seen for utility use I would readily take the Billhook.

Onto more sensible use, I used the Billhook and my straight handled Battle Mistress (SHBM) for some light weed and small wood cutting. The BM was freshly sharpened, readily hair popping, however even though the Billhook was not quite at that level, it did hook through the weeds nicer and was lighter in hand, it didn't take long to realize that the Billhook was a much more efficient tool. I then moved to some light woods, Alders and the comparison went much the same way.

I then switched to a Murray Carter Camp knife, much thinner edge than the BM and lighter, but it could not match the Billhook either. Plus it was a little less stressful to use, whack a $400 custom Carter into some weeds and smash it into a rock may seriously dampen your mood, you just keep hacking with the Billhook.

Onto some limbs, the Bowies had better relative performance than on the lighter vegetation but the Billhook easily kept up in terms of cutting ability, was lighter, had a very nice handle and the back was thin enough to smash off some of the gnarly dried branches anyway so you could readily spare the edge.

However with some thick wood work, the comparison flopped. The Murray Carter Camp knife is very smooth, it almost glides in and out of the woods, while the Billhook gets stuck and doesn't have the same penetration. But the Carter took a serious ripple on a knot while the Billhook plowed through knots with no hesitation.

In short this is a very solid tool for light vegetation, weeds and even small brush, it doesn't work well for thick wood, the blade is too thin and jams, but can be used in a pinch, and will even baton wood, though again will bind excessively. It is very sharp NIB, the edge retention is solid and the sheath secure.

The only downsides are that the sheath is plastic, the retention strap a plastic loop which I think will break with repeated work and I would like a longer blade. But if you are looking for a serious limbing and brush tool, this is definately worth checking out. I look forward to hacking away with this seriously the summer.

Ref :

http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sstamp/knives/billhook.html

-Cliff
 
Thanks for the info.

Have you tested any other billhooks? Someone mentioned this product in a thread a few years ago and gave it high marks. I bookmarked it at the time, but never bought one. Just curious if you've heard anything about it.
 
Good review.

I've been thinking of buying the Gerber Brush Thinner.
The Bass Pro Shops store, north of Toronto, sells them.
 
I took this out again to run it against the WIldlife hatchet to get a better idea of its relative chopping ability on thick woods. It was working fine on the clear wood, but on a bad section of ring knots the edge turned in two places, 0.015 thick at back of the bends. This would not last on limbing dried woods, works really well on grasses and other light vegetation though.

-Cliff
 
I sharpened this up yesterday, removing the minor denting. It took only minutes with an x-coarse waterstone to reset the edge which was then honed with 1000 and then 4000 hones, finally finished up with CrO stropping. It took a razor edge very efficiently.

-Cliff
 
A few notes on the steel. It's Marttiini's (the tool's actual manufacturer) proprietary Carbinox T508. It has 8% of chromium and 0.5% of carbon. Other elements, if there are any, are unknown. Marttiini claims high toughness, easy sharpening and good corrosion resistance for this material. They harden it to 58HRC. This info is from their Finnish web pages.

I have been disappointed with their 'regular' stainless steel (13% chromium, 54-56HRC) in regard to edge holding. But after reading this review, I might give their newer Carbinox knives a chance. Marttiini knives are quite inexpensive here, and sold basically everywhere. Even their own shop is only a few kilometers from where I live, so I might give them a visit.

The handle of this billhook is the Marttiini 'standard' for their Condor product line and kitchen knives. I'm not too impressed with it, and find it somewhat clumsy and very unsuitable for the kitchen knives. I like a considerably more delicate handle for food preparation. But foremost, the blade-handle junction is not sealed well at all, and all kinds of germs can and will nest and breed there. :barf: (Not really a problem with the billhook tho').

The handle of Marttiini's Silver Carbinox has more appeal to me. Longer bladed versions of the SC are exported at least to Germany, as the Finn Knife/Finnenmesser-series. These also feature brass pommels and ferrules whereas the SC features polished steel/chromed ones. Curiously, I haven't seen these anywhere here in Finland. Sad too, because I find the blade lengths of the readily available SCs (65/85cm) too small for my tastes.

Anyway, the current handle seems to be well enough suited for this tool, as you'd only use a hammer grip.

Somebody mentioned the Gerber Bush Thinner. It is sold here under the Fiskars brand and seems to be of the same high quality as the Fiskars (Gerber) axes. Very solid overall and with an indestructible yet lightweight handle. The coating is surprisingly durable. During my mandatory time in the Finnish Defence Forces I saw many used - and most probably abused - Fiskars axes with almost all the coating intact. Recommended.

This be the daily dose of digression and sub-par English. Over n' out.
 
Cmon Cliff, you know we are all waiting with baited breath for your Manix review and you keep throwing up reviews of knives we've never heard of. Just teasing aren't ya.

Kellham Billhook - I bet there's no such thing
 
Way-O said:
The handle of this billhook is the Marttiini 'standard' for their Condor product line and kitchen knives. I'm not too impressed with it, and find it somewhat clumsy and very unsuitable for the kitchen knives.
Click to expand...
Yes, it works well for a heavy user in a limited amount of grips but I would not pick it for a kitchen knife. Thanks for the info on the steel.

I posted up some info on the Manix, my brother has it now, he will be putting some use to it while I catch up on edge holding comparisons.

-Cliff
 
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