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- Apr 27, 2011
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Full disclosure: This review distills photos and text I previously posted in my BK2BK10WarthogCSTrailHawk Chop-O-Rama CHOPOFFATHON! comparison (pages 1 and 2). But I figured there would probably be visitors to the KA-BAR forums that might not have any reason to visit the Becker forum. So here goes.
First off, humble thanks go out to Moose because he sent me this knife. Why? No other reason than he could tell that I was in love with it. I'm sure I was posting obnoxiously breathless stuff anytime the Warthog came up in various Becker threads, so maybe it was just an attempt to get me to cool it with the heavy breathing
It came just as I got real busy and was out of town a lot, so I had to sit there for a few weeks thinking about this cool as hell knife tucked away unloved in a closet. Finally last weekend I decided to take it out and start putting it to work. Since it was also my first chance to try out my new Becker BK-10 Crewman (and compare it to the BK2 Campanion), the Chopoffathon was born. Check the links above for the full monty, if'n you're so inclined.
Part of what I was hoping to figure out was just what the hell the Warthog was for besides looking damn awesome. It's truly a pretty oddball design. Later Toooj made a post that clarified this a little:
Makes perfect sense. Look at this thing and tell me you don't want to get out there and baton, trench, and pry with it (later on I make some pointed comments about batoning with the Warthog, but you know you want to).
When I took that picture, I had chopped a tiny bit, and whatever went down when it was still in Moose's custody, but she looked mostly new. I was curious if the very minor blade play would get worse... you see, apparently the first-run revamped Warthogs were loose in their handles. Mine was when I got it. Smashing the hell out of it definitely didn't improve the situation.
I was cutting on mesquite and palo verde, both taken down just a few months ago. It'd been sitting out in the heat for months now but hasn't been split, so it's still pretty bad, brutal stuff to be working on. This wood makes this kind of a worst-case scenario and it would be actually pretty interesting to do this comparison with stuff that's not so tough.
The tests: Chopping, splitting via batoning, getting unstuck, drilling, and making tent stakes. I decided to skip fine work like fuzz sticks and etc because while I know all this tool can do it, it is simply the wrong thing to be trying that kind of work with. Bring a small knife for that kind of work, eh?
CHOPPING BLADE DEPTH
The first thing I thought would be interesting to know is how will the knife sinks into the end of a piece of wood with a single chop. So I setup a fat piece of cedar and got to business. The only problem was that this cedar was so dry that the Warthog blew it apart, heh.
I switched to a 4" piece of mesquite and the Warthog basically bounced off of it. Not too bitey.
CHOPPING
I selected 2" palo verde for this test and it worked out pretty good. 27 strokes. It never bit deep enough into the wood to stick but accuracy was really good; it felt easy to control and aim. Had no strokes that didn't contribute to the cut. The pommel end of the handle felt nice for this kind of chopping. The Warthog simply felt nice to swing. I lopped a few small branches off my mesquite tree later on for the tent stake test and it swung real nice for this too. But man, this blade just doesn't bite like the others did in the Chopoffathon.
DRILLING
A Beckerhead had mentioned drilling with his BK10 when he was in service so I figured I'd give this a shot. But generally I'd say that if you're going to drill something, use your smaller knife rather than this monster. I selected 3/16 particle board, kind of soft, and went a few twists past where it started to break through on the other side. I used a left-right twist approach, standing above and bearing down on the knife, rather than twisting all CW or CCW. 23 twists. The wide blade was an impediment.
SPLITTING ALONG THE SIDE BY BATONING
I picked this test because I find myself frequently coming into logs from the side rather than down the center, usually by hammering the pommel. Using big knives to split by chopping doesn't really work for me; it's not as efficient and it's also dangerous since I'm such a spaz. I baton with hatchets as well as knives for the same reason. This test was done with 3" palo verde.
22 strikes. Doesn't really bite so it was hard to start, and the thinnish blade doesn't really spread the wood out. The semi-sharpened (and very long) swedge tore the baton up and doesn't offer a great surface for striking. Batoning on the pommel worked okay, the surface shape doesn't really invite it, and the kraton got tore up.
SPLITTING DOWN THE LOG BY BATONING
So this was the big one, Elizabeth. Thick, brutally hard wood with lots of knots and tricky grain stuff going on inside. A great hardcore test for this knife but it didn't work real well.
The thinner blade didn't seem to spread/split very well. The spine of the knife doesn't offer much useful real estate for the baton, due to the long swedge. Striking the back was weird, which them communicated the shocks and knife movements straight to the hand. The sharpish swedge tears up the baton. The very wide blade would get 'steered' by the weird grain stuff going on inside the wood and end up twisting in all kinds of weird positions. Also that bigass blade was really, really hard to get unstuck. I would have thought the softer kraton handle would be good for shock protection, but the bad batoning strikes went straight to the holding hand. It feels really soft and nice for lighter-duty applications, but not for super smashing. Not to mention the material gets torn up a little easier than you'd really want.
CUTTING TENT STAKES
A tip and a notch, nothing more than that. Not fine work and not really precision work, but still not dumb pounding like the stuff above. First, when it came to lopping this small, maybe half-inch limb, the Warthog made nice clean cuts in one swing. It worked great for the stake too. Nice soft handle, great feeling swing, accurate and good performance in this lighter-duty application. Plus it looks so badass! Just look, you fools!
CONCLUSION
The Warthog is really not as good as my Beckers for working on wood but will be a good truck knife. Nice and wide, so for weird prying and repair applications where you need to make sure it won't break, it'll be a champ. Since the handle isn't particularly tough, it's a good choice to care a little less about... oil stains and scrapes from hard use and dropping on the asphalt won't be a bother. Nice and comfy, though.
It's a really great chopper, though, so I could see myself pulling it out of the truck to clear branches off my property in the North if I happened to leave my hawk at home. Only problem, and it's a big one, is that I'm going to have to fix the handle sometime soon. You may have seen on the forums that early runs of this new Warthog had loose handles and this one is no different, so I'll be drilling out the lanyard tube and then epoxying the whole package back together nice and tight.
Also, let's be honest here, the sheath blows. I don't like the material and it doesn't seem very sturdy, plus the straps are hard to close and I just doesn't have the aesthetics that other KA-BAR sheaths have. So blah on that.
I do like the coating. Other users have mentioned having their Warthog coatings come off easy, but I was destroying this thing and it barely showed any coating removal. The Beckerheads tend to remove the KA-BAR coatings asap, but I kept mine on my BK2 and will be keeping the Warthog's. I'll be a little sad when the coating is gone enough that I have to strip and patina, but that aughta be a long time in the future.
So overall it's a good knife, has that crazy KA-BAR steel and kept a nice edge despite the material I was using it on. It has an amazing design, and is a perfect candidate for everyday unforgivable abuse without it hurting the soul any. I'm really glad I have it, and am grateful beyond belief to Moose for his heads-up generosity. Thanks Moose and thanks KA-BAR!
First off, humble thanks go out to Moose because he sent me this knife. Why? No other reason than he could tell that I was in love with it. I'm sure I was posting obnoxiously breathless stuff anytime the Warthog came up in various Becker threads, so maybe it was just an attempt to get me to cool it with the heavy breathing
It came just as I got real busy and was out of town a lot, so I had to sit there for a few weeks thinking about this cool as hell knife tucked away unloved in a closet. Finally last weekend I decided to take it out and start putting it to work. Since it was also my first chance to try out my new Becker BK-10 Crewman (and compare it to the BK2 Campanion), the Chopoffathon was born. Check the links above for the full monty, if'n you're so inclined.
Part of what I was hoping to figure out was just what the hell the Warthog was for besides looking damn awesome. It's truly a pretty oddball design. Later Toooj made a post that clarified this a little:
Makes perfect sense. Look at this thing and tell me you don't want to get out there and baton, trench, and pry with it (later on I make some pointed comments about batoning with the Warthog, but you know you want to).
When I took that picture, I had chopped a tiny bit, and whatever went down when it was still in Moose's custody, but she looked mostly new. I was curious if the very minor blade play would get worse... you see, apparently the first-run revamped Warthogs were loose in their handles. Mine was when I got it. Smashing the hell out of it definitely didn't improve the situation.
I was cutting on mesquite and palo verde, both taken down just a few months ago. It'd been sitting out in the heat for months now but hasn't been split, so it's still pretty bad, brutal stuff to be working on. This wood makes this kind of a worst-case scenario and it would be actually pretty interesting to do this comparison with stuff that's not so tough.
The tests: Chopping, splitting via batoning, getting unstuck, drilling, and making tent stakes. I decided to skip fine work like fuzz sticks and etc because while I know all this tool can do it, it is simply the wrong thing to be trying that kind of work with. Bring a small knife for that kind of work, eh?
CHOPPING BLADE DEPTH
The first thing I thought would be interesting to know is how will the knife sinks into the end of a piece of wood with a single chop. So I setup a fat piece of cedar and got to business. The only problem was that this cedar was so dry that the Warthog blew it apart, heh.
I switched to a 4" piece of mesquite and the Warthog basically bounced off of it. Not too bitey.
CHOPPING
I selected 2" palo verde for this test and it worked out pretty good. 27 strokes. It never bit deep enough into the wood to stick but accuracy was really good; it felt easy to control and aim. Had no strokes that didn't contribute to the cut. The pommel end of the handle felt nice for this kind of chopping. The Warthog simply felt nice to swing. I lopped a few small branches off my mesquite tree later on for the tent stake test and it swung real nice for this too. But man, this blade just doesn't bite like the others did in the Chopoffathon.
DRILLING
A Beckerhead had mentioned drilling with his BK10 when he was in service so I figured I'd give this a shot. But generally I'd say that if you're going to drill something, use your smaller knife rather than this monster. I selected 3/16 particle board, kind of soft, and went a few twists past where it started to break through on the other side. I used a left-right twist approach, standing above and bearing down on the knife, rather than twisting all CW or CCW. 23 twists. The wide blade was an impediment.
SPLITTING ALONG THE SIDE BY BATONING
I picked this test because I find myself frequently coming into logs from the side rather than down the center, usually by hammering the pommel. Using big knives to split by chopping doesn't really work for me; it's not as efficient and it's also dangerous since I'm such a spaz. I baton with hatchets as well as knives for the same reason. This test was done with 3" palo verde.
22 strikes. Doesn't really bite so it was hard to start, and the thinnish blade doesn't really spread the wood out. The semi-sharpened (and very long) swedge tore the baton up and doesn't offer a great surface for striking. Batoning on the pommel worked okay, the surface shape doesn't really invite it, and the kraton got tore up.
SPLITTING DOWN THE LOG BY BATONING
So this was the big one, Elizabeth. Thick, brutally hard wood with lots of knots and tricky grain stuff going on inside. A great hardcore test for this knife but it didn't work real well.
The thinner blade didn't seem to spread/split very well. The spine of the knife doesn't offer much useful real estate for the baton, due to the long swedge. Striking the back was weird, which them communicated the shocks and knife movements straight to the hand. The sharpish swedge tears up the baton. The very wide blade would get 'steered' by the weird grain stuff going on inside the wood and end up twisting in all kinds of weird positions. Also that bigass blade was really, really hard to get unstuck. I would have thought the softer kraton handle would be good for shock protection, but the bad batoning strikes went straight to the holding hand. It feels really soft and nice for lighter-duty applications, but not for super smashing. Not to mention the material gets torn up a little easier than you'd really want.
CUTTING TENT STAKES
A tip and a notch, nothing more than that. Not fine work and not really precision work, but still not dumb pounding like the stuff above. First, when it came to lopping this small, maybe half-inch limb, the Warthog made nice clean cuts in one swing. It worked great for the stake too. Nice soft handle, great feeling swing, accurate and good performance in this lighter-duty application. Plus it looks so badass! Just look, you fools!
CONCLUSION
The Warthog is really not as good as my Beckers for working on wood but will be a good truck knife. Nice and wide, so for weird prying and repair applications where you need to make sure it won't break, it'll be a champ. Since the handle isn't particularly tough, it's a good choice to care a little less about... oil stains and scrapes from hard use and dropping on the asphalt won't be a bother. Nice and comfy, though.
It's a really great chopper, though, so I could see myself pulling it out of the truck to clear branches off my property in the North if I happened to leave my hawk at home. Only problem, and it's a big one, is that I'm going to have to fix the handle sometime soon. You may have seen on the forums that early runs of this new Warthog had loose handles and this one is no different, so I'll be drilling out the lanyard tube and then epoxying the whole package back together nice and tight.
Also, let's be honest here, the sheath blows. I don't like the material and it doesn't seem very sturdy, plus the straps are hard to close and I just doesn't have the aesthetics that other KA-BAR sheaths have. So blah on that.
I do like the coating. Other users have mentioned having their Warthog coatings come off easy, but I was destroying this thing and it barely showed any coating removal. The Beckerheads tend to remove the KA-BAR coatings asap, but I kept mine on my BK2 and will be keeping the Warthog's. I'll be a little sad when the coating is gone enough that I have to strip and patina, but that aughta be a long time in the future.
So overall it's a good knife, has that crazy KA-BAR steel and kept a nice edge despite the material I was using it on. It has an amazing design, and is a perfect candidate for everyday unforgivable abuse without it hurting the soul any. I'm really glad I have it, and am grateful beyond belief to Moose for his heads-up generosity. Thanks Moose and thanks KA-BAR!