Kevin Cashen Chopper

[Gabe Newell]

Yeah, I have that knife now. It's called General Sherman.

It's done some reasonably heavy duty work. I loaned it to a friend, who took it to Burning Man, and, honest to god, he used it to chop concrete.

Kevin had a couple like that at Troy this past year that he was using a test mules for edge geometry, etc. He was telling us about when he used one similar to these to win a cutting comp at a hammer in. The backstory was that Mr. Fisk was still setting up those whacky cutting tasks at the time and apparently asked Kevin to enter with a damascus knife just to prove that one could be competitive.

 

[Doug C]

sexy french curve S shape.

Best description of this one I've read.

A very effective piece, Buddy....Congrats!
Nice to see the action images, very cool thread. :thumbup:

Doug

 

[HTMD]

Yeah, I have that knife now. It's called General Sherman.

I know about General Sherman. Kevin had it on his table at BLADE one year. I had heard the story about how daring it had been for Kevin (a Yankee, some would say) to take a knife named General Sherman deep into the South and beat them Rebel bladesmiths right in their own back yard. I looked at it in Atlanta several times but resisted the temptation to buy it. It didn't sell at the show so I called Kevin within 72 hours of the show and in the interim someone had purchased it! I was disappointed. Now I remember it was General Sherman that originally sparked my interest in having one of Kevin's choppers. I guess that's why, when I subsequently saw this knife at Troy and the ABS Mid-America hammer-in, I jumped all over it. Glad I did but General Sherman is a great knife with a great story. That's a knife that 'made history' - well, a tiny little bit of history. Glad you have it now, Gabe!

Here's a little more info: Blade is 10 1/2 in., but when chopping add an inch and a half of extra reach because you're gripping the handle toward the back using the ample flare in front of the pommel cap for a secure grip. So it is effectively a 12 in. blade. By the same token you can "shorten" the blade by choking up to the index finger notch. When you change positions like that it changes the balance point but the cutting edge of the belly stays right where it needs to be. Very well thought-out design, IMO. Handle is 5 3/4 in. It weighs 1 lb. 5.2 oz.and has great heft.

 

[Kevin R. Cashen]

Buddy, your pictures are really nice and I don't have any myself of that blade style, would you mind if I used them, as long as I credit you appropriately?

Gabe, if you ever need a repolish or touch up on any blade that a "friend" gets carried away with, just let me know, sometimes tough hardwoods can mar a fine finish, I could only imagine what concrete could do.