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Large butcher knife for bush chopper

L

Loosearrow

Joined
Apr 14, 2008
Messages
1,810
Came across a large butcher knife this summer and was going to try and rehab it for my personal use. It is the same size in length as my short Ontario machete. Handle has six pins double stacked in the handle. The thicklness is just under the thickness of my Becker 2. I don't know if this knife was used as some type of splitter but it has seen some baton use at one time. Anyway, I had to get rid of a bunch of branches and thought I would chop them up and throw them into the firepit in the back yard. I threw a chunk of wood on the ground and chopped the branches and limbs up quickly. I saw people drive by on the street and some of them even waved. I wondered what they were thinking. I have done this before with a Kukri but wanted to try this large hefty butcher knife out. When done with the limbs, I thought I would try to baton some wood. It worked great. The heft of the butcher knife worked better that the Ontario would have although I am glad I didn't have to swing it all day. The name on the blade fades away but starts out with Nichols.... then fades away. Maybe it is Nicholsons. I like it. I don't know if I should rehandle it with a nice piece of curly maple and make a sheath for it so I can use it as a bush blade. I think there are some good old butcher knives out there that will work just fine and the price is right for those with limited funds to enjoy the benefits of large choppers. This one fits the bill for me
 
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I remember seeing your posts before and thought the same thing about cleavers. Nice choppers and sheath. They are designed to chop and the steel is tempered to do that kind of work. I handn't come across a butcher knife as heavy as the one in the original post. I did see a narrower cleaver once that I googled and it was called a lamb splitter. Went back for it and it was gone. I do have a cleaver just sitting on my workbench calling to me. It says Briddell on it. They just do what they are suppose to. I'm sure they would raise some eyebrows on the trail.
 
My dad has a couple old-school cleavers that look like cartoons. The blade on one of them is about 18" long, about 8" tall, and seems to weigh about 5 lbs. :eek: That thing is ridiculous. I think it was used in a slaughterhouse to lop the heads off of hogs. :eek: That thing wouldn't be much fun to lug around, but for chopping in camp, it would be a blast!

I think the cleaver design has a lot of potential as a woods chopper. Most of the time, you don't use the tip on a chopper anyway.
 
I've seen butcher knives with big dings on the spine because have been used by lazy people to pound through frozen meat. The rest seems to hold up just fine even with conventional Beach type handles and a couple of pins. I doubt such knives would be distressed by tapping though modest sized bits of wood unless it was really cold or gnarly, and they can cut too. Sounds like a handy beater to me.
 
moonwilson said:
I think the cleaver design has a lot of potential as a woods chopper. Most of the time, you don't use the tip on a chopper anyway.
Click to expand...

And many folks forget that there IS a usable tip, if a slightly obtuse one. It's called the right angle at the end of the blade!
 
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