Killa Zilla Chop Off - 1000th Post "Special"...

Peter,

Nice work. Thank you for taking the time to tell us about it and for the great pics. Valuable comparisons.

Will
 
thanks for the chop off review, excellent job and pics, the black and tan g-10 looks great as well.
 
Great review. Nice to see the comparison between the KZ and NMFBM. Great photos also!
 
I cringed when you said "the struggle to pull the knife free…". Hossom hollow ground thin edge + s30v + high lateral torque at the edge only = :eek::eek::eek:
 
Dang, a Busse kukri!

The looks of that blade are really great-full convex and a curved blade. Round the spine and it'd be like a deadly teardrop.
 
Very descriptive and fun picture comparison. Thank you for taking the time to arrange it.

I think you said it all for me with this "… it “bites” as deep as an axe…it is infact heavier than my GFB SF Axe but IS also a lot more versatile."

For me, the axe is weight better spent. But for someone with the arm to get to it all day those heavy ass kukris can clearly do some big time damage!
 
Last Visible Canary said:
I cringed when you said "the struggle to pull the knife free…". Hossom hollow ground thin edge + s30v + high lateral torque at the edge only = :eek::eek::eek:
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I can see the science behind what you are saying there .... but the Hossom knife was well able to take some flex ... the Heat Treatment it gets by Paul Bos and the sabre ground design give this knife a lot of strength ....

I have been thinking quite a bit about how this knife performed ... and I think the Concave aspect of the hollow grind was acting in a "binding" manner when the knife went in deep to the wood. If the grind had been a thin convex grind I suspect the problem of being almost "sucked" into the damp wood would have disappeared. It was as if the wood was so slightly "parted" by the blade that it sprang back into the concave hollow grind and created a wedge effect against lifting the blade out.

However if you apply the same lack of resistance to the edge when working on free hanging branches it was way ahead of the others in cutting those ...
so in fairness to the "purpose" of the blade ... I asked for a combat machete and it certainly works well on fronds and vines and vegitation which simply blocks your path ....

I don't know if Jerry Hossom ever does convex grind knives ....but one of these done like that to compare the two ...now that would be something ...:thumbup:
 
Great review. Love the pics of the different knives. Thanks for explaining the differences in the hossom from the others as it certainly shows alot of performance is about grind and edge geometry not necessarily steel.
 
GrinderMcgee said:
Very descriptive and fun picture comparison. Thank you for taking the time to arrange it.

I think you said it all for me with this "… it “bites” as deep as an axe…it is infact heavier than my GFB SF Axe but IS also a lot more versatile."

For me, the axe is weight better spent. But for someone with the arm to get to it all day those heavy ass kukris can clearly do some big time damage!
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The benefit of the Khukri over the smaller type GFB SF Axe is for me when I say "more versatile" perhaps worth explaining ....

If you have a full sized Axe you can swing this stood up quite safely as the haft will ....if you miss the log or the branch you aim for .... hit the earth before it comes back and hits you ....

The SFA to be used safely needs you to adopt a kneeling position to ensure that the haft swing would contact the ground ....this limits the power you can use and also does'nt bode well for working on a crown of a tree or in tangled lower vegitation. Certainly if you feel proficient and skilled enough you can use it standing up .... and even use it one handed if you watch where you place your feet ....

However once you have come to that decision .... that you need to use it stood up .... then for me there is greater safety in using the Khukri ... there is more blade edge to make contact with ...so missing a swing or bouncing off a strike by the "haft" is a lot less likely ... and for general heavy wooded areas the dexterity with which you can swing a large knife is a lot better than using a small Axe ... particularly one handed use ....

Then when we come to limbing or simply cutting branches for say a flight path for shooting ...the "machete" aspect of this blade is way ahead of the Axe doing work like this .... and again a lot safer ....

Granted with the KZ you need a bit of strength ... both on grip and on your shoulders ... but that is just a matter of practise ...:thumbup:

If you had a full sized felling Axe then I agree it would be better for "felling" ... but those sort of Axe's are limited to that task ... and are not readily used with one hand ....
 
Nice review. The hossom looks to be hollow ground, is that the case?
 
Thanks for the great chopapalooza review! You have some great knives there. Your conclusions match what I have discovered in my testing as well. Thanks for sharing and those pictures were great by the way. It is all about the total package - Steel, Edge geometry, weight and balance, handle geometry, and a whole host of other subtle parts of the blade. For me, the best in this type of blades, the NMFBM LE version is the best.
 
It is worth emphasizing that your Zilla has been re-profiled. Would you care to speculate how this chop-off would have gone with the factory edge?
 
resinguy said:
It is worth emphasizing that your Zilla has been re-profiled. Would you care to speculate how this chop-off would have gone with the factory edge?
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I am tempted to say " send all none profiled KZ's to me for immediate comparison and long term evaluation".....:D:D

The answer is that my KZ would not do as well as it has done .... but depending upon how each individual factory knife came to their owners they should do well in general in standard spec if you were to just sharpen it .... I thinned mine down to an appleseed convex grind which would improve upon a wider convex grind but the later would still do a good job if sharp:thumbup:

It is not just the KZ that was re-profiled ... my CG NMFBM was as well ....and the CS Khukri has had the edge re-done to a convexed one .... only the Hossom was as received ....
 
My KZ was sharpened by Jeremy Horton, so it was as sharp as it was going to get, but it will not bite into wood as yours does. As you mentioned, it may be that there were different grinds to the various Test Team knives.
 
If you look at the photo below with the KZ proped up on the ladders you can see the darker shade of the re-profile on the convex edge....

P1000923.jpg


I took the knife to a sharper "V" convex edge where it is darker ... probably showing up here by way of the light catching the different effect from the belts used ...then blended the flats of the blade to the V sharper taper to take a little weight out ... not too much as I did'nt want to loose the TT logo at the hilt but enough all told to take about 1 oz out of the weight of the knife...the convex shape is now more of a sharper taper but the knife still has all it's original strength ....

To get an idea of how I was removing the steel and to keep a consistant removal on each side I would use a magic marker to show where the removal was taking place....and then do one side each pass ... not multiples on one side .... and cooling the knife in water every 3 passes either side before drying off and re-applying the marker... as per the pic below ...

100_0787.jpg


Essentially trying to follow the height of the ricasso grind line as done by Busse then dovetailing the flats in ....
 
from another post:

PeterPHWS said:
The CS Khukri is light enough to be carried on my webbing belt....about 25 oz's or so....lighter than the NMFBM in fact....
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If you could have only one of them (kz or nmfbm), which would you keep? I'm trying to decide whether I want to try to grab a kz or not. It's a hard choice because I can only financially keep one or the other, and I don't want to go the moab route where I'll never use the knife becuase it's too big. I'm good with a 20" ang khola, but I much prefer the 18" models. 20" for siru's.
 
Last Visible Canary said:
from another post:




If you could have only one of them (kz or nmfbm), which would you keep? I'm trying to decide whether I want to try to grab a kz or not. It's a hard choice because I can only financially keep one or the other, and I don't want to go the moab route where I'll never use the knife becuase it's too big. I'm good with a 20" ang khola, but I much prefer the 18" models. 20" for siru's.
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I would definately try and physically handle a KZ before parting with a NMFBM to get one .... that will help enormously .... but it is not easy depending on where you are and what Hogs are near who have them ....

In absence of handling one I would stick with the NMFBM as it "is carryable for anyone and as a chopper is one of the best" ... only the KZ beats it ... but there is a weight premium to do so ....

Explaining my thoughts more fully the weight premium is not so much an "in hand" struggle but rather whether or not carrying this sort of knife feels comfortable on you .... if belt carry is important the NMFBM would be better .... if rucksack carry is OK then the extra power of the KZ is tempting ... a shoulder/belt carry combo would square away the weight difference of the KZ I think so again it is a close call ... if you want the power for wood chopping the KZ is a fair bit more powerful than the NMFBM ... if needing to use it as a machete for clearing bush the NMFBM is likely to be able to be used for much longer stints ....

If I was in your shoes I would'nt part with my NMFBM until I had handled a KZ ... that's the best advice I can give ... HTH's :thumbup:
 
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