The wood I am working here is what I test all my knife edges on, its the hardest wood in Africa, dry as hell. Normally wood is non abrasive but this damages the apex due to all the sand/dirt inside it. I think Australian hard woods would be comparable.
The edge angle is just below 30inclusive with a micro bevel hardly visible. Before I started the video I chopped through a 6" log(not sure what wood) and also cut some card board that wouldn't fit in the trash bin.
HANDLE
The ratweiler handle is very comfortable without any Hotspots due to all the well rounded edges(great job Busse). It never felt like the handle wanted to slip due to the secure grip. I always wrap my handles with self adhesive tape for more grip but testing it without the tape I had zero issues. The handle is made for a forward grip only and choking up on the handle for finer work is also very comfortable with no issues. All in all I liked the handle I think it's well designed, I think sometimes we rush into a conclusion to quickly instead of getting use to a design.
BLADE
The spine as all of you know is .350 thick with the balance giving you A LOT of power for chopping( this thing has power).
On the first day of using it I actually damaged the edge putting a huge dent in the middle while chopping wood, I contacted Becky but instead of sending it in I straightened the edge and reduced the edge angle which solved the issue. The edge angles steepness is what caused this, to much power for how thin the cross section is behind the shoulder with high edge angles.
As I said above the edge angle was now at 15dps with a very small micro. At this angle the edge shows great stability and toughness, when I test knives on this wood I normally only chop into the wood 5 times before I see damage. Thats why I keep checking the edge but realized its not necessary as the steel and heat treat was on point. The only issue I had was the blade sticking to the wood due to the hollowgrind being so thin behind the edge, but I have to admit the power combined with the hollowgrind is insane especially after dropping the edge angle.
MAINTAINING THE EDGE
Maintaining the edge on any knife depends on how much damage it takes and again due to edge stability combined with toughness I was able to strop it back to news paper print slicing sharpness using a leather strop loaded with car polish, I also use autosol. I only needed 10 passes per side on the strop. Blade ready for more work.
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