After reading about the warranty and vague explanations provided by Mission Knives I was unsure what to expect from my MPKS. What was particularly alarming was that the MPKS is not durable enough for heavy chopping. My first knife a Ka Bar had no problems withstanding chopping on any wood. Warranty or not, a 7 bladed survival knife that can be used to chop with is off no use to me. So I took it out and did as much chopping as possible on wood to see how it performs.
The first task the MPKS is to remove the limbs from a downed spruce tree. This tree had been dead for a couple of years and downed last fall with a H.I. khukuri. The most of the limbs were between 1-4 thick. The knife finished the task without any problems. The knife had excellent penetration on the softwood and got stuck quite a few times. After finishing the task, I could not find any damage to the edge. The knife was definitely not shaving sharp anymore. The black finished appears to be significantly discolored. I stuck the blade back into the sheath along with all dirt and wood bits on it.
The knife was used to de-bark a tree that had been knocked down by wind. The knife was stabbed underneath the bark and used to pry the bark off. This turned out to be light prying and the knife held up fine. Even the slender tip was undamaged. During the process the blade was wet all the time. After finishing I dried the knife as best I could on my pants and examined the blade. Again I found no damage or staining.
For a bit more challenging work used the knife to try and section wood that is well seasoned and know to be hard. The first was about 4 thick and around 38 years old. This piece of wood is quite chop resistant. The knife had poor penetration and I chopped away with it for a while to see what would happen to the edge. After about 15 minutes the edge showed no damaged. The edge could no longer scrape hair and I could feel it had flopped to one side. If I had brought a steel along this would have been the time to use it.
The finial chopping challenge is an old post that is about 5 thick and has approximately 25 rings. It has been seasoning for well over 10 years and quite slow to chop or manually saw through. The MPKS did not penetrate very well and I after 15 minutes I gave up. The edge was undamaged and but dull. While carrying the knife by the scabbard the lanyard got caught on some branches and the edge was dragged across my hand. It did not cut me, so I conclude the edge must have been quite dull.
I was introduced to stabbing a free standing 4x4 which I have since become addicted to. The object is to thrust the knife into the wood block and have it stick on the tip. The MPKS was also used to do this and was undamaged.
Unless the damage to the knife from chopping is cumulative I think the MPKS will stand up to any wood chopping task I will use it on. After washing the blade off I found the black finish on the blade was just like new. The MPKS was also very easy to re-sharpen with a Spyderco sharp maker. I only used the fine (white) ceramic stones. The only difficulty was I had to do the edge in two sections due to its blade length.
Will
The first task the MPKS is to remove the limbs from a downed spruce tree. This tree had been dead for a couple of years and downed last fall with a H.I. khukuri. The most of the limbs were between 1-4 thick. The knife finished the task without any problems. The knife had excellent penetration on the softwood and got stuck quite a few times. After finishing the task, I could not find any damage to the edge. The knife was definitely not shaving sharp anymore. The black finished appears to be significantly discolored. I stuck the blade back into the sheath along with all dirt and wood bits on it.
The knife was used to de-bark a tree that had been knocked down by wind. The knife was stabbed underneath the bark and used to pry the bark off. This turned out to be light prying and the knife held up fine. Even the slender tip was undamaged. During the process the blade was wet all the time. After finishing I dried the knife as best I could on my pants and examined the blade. Again I found no damage or staining.
For a bit more challenging work used the knife to try and section wood that is well seasoned and know to be hard. The first was about 4 thick and around 38 years old. This piece of wood is quite chop resistant. The knife had poor penetration and I chopped away with it for a while to see what would happen to the edge. After about 15 minutes the edge showed no damaged. The edge could no longer scrape hair and I could feel it had flopped to one side. If I had brought a steel along this would have been the time to use it.
The finial chopping challenge is an old post that is about 5 thick and has approximately 25 rings. It has been seasoning for well over 10 years and quite slow to chop or manually saw through. The MPKS did not penetrate very well and I after 15 minutes I gave up. The edge was undamaged and but dull. While carrying the knife by the scabbard the lanyard got caught on some branches and the edge was dragged across my hand. It did not cut me, so I conclude the edge must have been quite dull.
I was introduced to stabbing a free standing 4x4 which I have since become addicted to. The object is to thrust the knife into the wood block and have it stick on the tip. The MPKS was also used to do this and was undamaged.
Unless the damage to the knife from chopping is cumulative I think the MPKS will stand up to any wood chopping task I will use it on. After washing the blade off I found the black finish on the blade was just like new. The MPKS was also very easy to re-sharpen with a Spyderco sharp maker. I only used the fine (white) ceramic stones. The only difficulty was I had to do the edge in two sections due to its blade length.
Will