Photos Let's see some choppers in action!!

Got out and used this thing on some seasoned hickory! It cut REALLY well, very happy with the geometry so far and I don't believe there is any risk of severe blow outs at this point, although time will tell if it gets into the seondary at all but I doubt it. Ideally I want it as thin as possible for the hardest use it will see, that way cutting will be optimized :D

For this test log I was only able to use light to medium swings for lack of a stable platform (the sandbox corner lol). I picked an area of the log that had a good size knot in it just to see how the edge would hold up... this is a dirty piece of wood that has been sitting in sand/dirt for a few years.

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Here is a pic of the sweet spot, although I could use almost the entire length of the blade with comfort.

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Edge damage wise... I only experienced edge damage in the microbevel, nothing in the convexed secondary, so this tells me I have the primary and secondary dialed in correctly. I may tweak the micro at some point but for what I do it will be perfect (softer dried wood and green wood). There is some light chipping/denting that can be seen in the following pic.

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At 230x on my USB microscope, you can see the edge after it has been lightly stropped and cleaned up but not sharpened. the "bevel" you see is actually the microbevel, whereas the belt grinder marks are the secondary convex. The micro is now convexed because of the stropping of course :D

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Didn't shave arm hair in the sweet spot any longer directly after the chopping, but after stropping it does and remains very effective.
 
REK Knives REK Knives , cool chopper and good thread. I've been using my Junglas 1 for years, and lately the 8.3" Junglas 2 as a carry-able chopper for backpacking. For my heavy duty chopper mostly used around home, I've been using the pictured Condor Golok, it has a flat grind but a while back, I had a local knife maker use his belt grinder to convert the secondary to a convex edge with no shoulder, similar to yours. Totally liking the combo of a flat grind with a convexed edge, this thing out-chops small hatchets and axes that I have, can do everything a machete can do, and is still sharp enough to shave arm hair.

A question on choice of grind in a chopper: Is there any reason to think that a full-height convex (similar to ShannonSteelLabs ShannonSteelLabs example) grind would help reduce the 'binding' issue that you mentioned with yours? I've only owned full-flat or sabre-ground type choppers in the past, never tried a full-height convex chopper of this size, so I've been wondering for a while if getting a full-height convex chopper would be worth the experiment. I have occasional binding issues with my Golok, similar to yours, so if a full convex would help, I'd be interested in trying one.

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maximus83 said:
REK Knives REK Knives , cool chopper and good thread. I've been using my Junglas 1 for years, and lately the 8.3" Junglas 2 as a carry-able chopper for backpacking. For my heavy duty chopper mostly used around home, I've been using the pictured Condor Golok, it has a flat grind but a while back, I had a local knife maker use his belt grinder to convert the secondary to a convex edge with no shoulder, similar to yours. Totally liking the combo of a flat grind with a convexed edge, this thing out-chops small hatchets and axes that I have, can do everything a machete can do, and is still sharp enough to shave arm hair.
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I may need to try that with mine. I feel like it works well on soft wood or things that you can get through in a few swings but anything much thick than a few inches and I feel like it bounces off badly and was horrible on dried hard wood where even my fiskars hatchet out chopped it by a fair margin. I actually think my chopweiler chops wood better but it doesn't have the same reach as the golok making it better for machete tasks in the woody areas where I live.
 
I watched Forgerd in Fire - Knife or Death and was impressed by the way the dude with the Kukri blasted through everything. I have always wanted a kukri and the show pushed me over the edge. I bought a CS Gurkha Kukri. It is in O1 steel and is a monster. It stains very easily so after my initial test I forced a patina with an hour long vinegar soak. The cut below was only two 75% power snap cuts...

And dont worry, the tree on my property was being removed to clear trails

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Riz! said:
I watched Forgerd in Fire - Knife or Death and was impressed by the way the dude with the Kukri blasted through everything. I have always wanted a kukri and the show pushed me over the edge. I bought a CS Gurkha Kukri. It is in O1 steel and is a monster. It stains very easily so after my initial test I forced a patina with an hour long vinegar soak. The cut below was only two 75% power snap cuts...

And dont worry, the tree on my property was being removed to clear trails

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Kukris are great! O1 is a great tool steel but it rusts extremely quickly as you saw. The patina should help!
I'll post the kukri i made tonight. And some use pics!
 
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