- Joined
- Dec 31, 2005
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- 2,984
Yesterday was the first "dry" day we have had for the past 3 or 4 days albeit it was dark and overcast and I decided it would be interesting to see if making a fire would be "doable" after all the rain and snow melt we have had which has saturated the ground.
Initially I started this task thinking I would compare a NMSFNO which I had just stripped and given a fully convexed edge with my FSH Variant which still has the factory edge on it and whilst done in the classical manner is nicely sharp. Here are the knives ....
I wanted to use them preping some tinder ... so gathered a few dead wood branches from trees which were about as good as you could manage and were drier than wood lying on the ground.
I got some bark as well with a view to using it as a base to get a fire going but it was so soaked through I had to bin that idea and as you will see I went with using a flat stone. The ground was far too wet to expect a fire to "take" and using the stone as a base is a good option.
Firstly though I needed to get some kindling prepared .... I don't know how others do this but we usually spread out a "tarp" to gather shavings on or if you are working with what is on your belt/webbing we use a waterproof jacket laid out on the ground which works just as well ....
Working with knives this size trying to prepare feather sticks can often have you making about 3 or 4 good shavings only to find that on the 5th you cut through the other 4 and if you don't have a tarp to catch them on they drop to the soaking ground and are wasted .... plus if you are in need of a fire quickly shavings work just as well as fuzz sticks and are quicker and easier to make .... and all you need is something to gather them on whilst "whittling away" ....
Lacking a "third arm" I cannot do photo's of the task itself but after going through a few twigs alternating with each knife it does'nt take long to get what you need ....
My impressions of the respective knives doing this task are that the finer edge on the NMSFNO had it an easy winner .... plus I liked the comfort of choking up on the blade using the rounded choil and spine .... the NM treatment on these blades really comes to the "fore" in tasks like this.
The FSH was certainly still comfortable doing this task ... the thick spine and choil make for good resting points and the width ensures than nothing is "biting" into your thumb or forefinger ... and had the edge been reprofiled a little and thinned out I am sure it would have been a closer call .... but in "stock" form it still did well at the task as the edge was sharp although the obtuse angle on the edge meant that the curls were more like "angular" splits than might otherwise be the case if you have a more acute edge which enables thinner slices to be shaved... not that it matters radically when burning them ... but it can matter when looking for that first "spark" to take and making the transition from a "smoulder" to a "flame" ....
In doing this task one of the things I noted was that working with a choked grip and your thumb on the spine means that the "depth" of the blade plays an important part as to the "finesse" with which you can "cut" .... basically the less depth you have the better you gain "control" .... this is why I quite like a Khukri design as working close to the grip on a khukri gives a lot of "control" for a knife as large as it is .... however I did'nt want to go back in and bring the Zilla out to compare with these two knives .... but I did think it would be interesting to go back in and bring out the Basic 9 ... this has a thinner depth profile and I was interested to see how this compared with the others ....
Sure enough the Basic 9 did great at this task and the sharp ASM edge worked a treat ... thumb control from the spine grip was a lot more "receptive" and you could feel the "pressure" of the cut a lot better ... and you can see why a blade profile like this is popular amongst "users" of knives for field work. There is'nt a "radical" difference though ... the NMSFNO was certainly able to do some "fine" work but when the temperature is cold and your hands are cold it is noticeable. I dare say that is perhaps why the Finn's have a similar size and style of blade on their Leku knives as when it get's severely cold and you are working with gloves or mitts this would become more critical. I did'nt bring out a SAR8 but I would expect the same would hold true with it....so having brought the Basic 9 out the overall winner on this task went to it :thumbup:
Next task was to do some "batoning" to get some dry inner wood for sticks ... I started out using the Basic 9 as this was "to hand" so to speak.
I used the two sections of a limb I had sawn through with a Laplander saw on an earlier review ....
The flat "sawn" section made it easier to see the run of the grain to line the knife up on so that the split would be a bit easier. I did'nt want to go looking for a baton and to be fair I hardly ever use a baton... I tend to line up the knife cetrally on the side of the log with the grain and make a "press cut" to get the edge to "bite" and then just bang the log and knife down on a hard surface.... usually a flat stone ... I don't like chopping into the log whilst holding the log .... bad injuries come from doing that .... especially if the log has been chopped with a knife or axe and is tapered .... it is easy to glance off ... better to line the knife up and use a baton then and rest the log on a hard surface .... but I find it quicker to cut into the log when it is rested on a hard surface pushing down in a controlled manner to get the edge to bite ... each to their own so long as it's safe ...
The Basic 9 weighing in at only 14 oz's is still a good splitting knife ... at .25 thick and with a thin depth of blade it has a very good "V" wedge effect ...I did these sticks with it ...
The FSH with the heaviest weight at 23 oz's did the splitting the easiest .... it whalloped through the log ....
and the NMSFNO at 21 oz's was no slouch either ...
Initially I started this task thinking I would compare a NMSFNO which I had just stripped and given a fully convexed edge with my FSH Variant which still has the factory edge on it and whilst done in the classical manner is nicely sharp. Here are the knives ....
I wanted to use them preping some tinder ... so gathered a few dead wood branches from trees which were about as good as you could manage and were drier than wood lying on the ground.
I got some bark as well with a view to using it as a base to get a fire going but it was so soaked through I had to bin that idea and as you will see I went with using a flat stone. The ground was far too wet to expect a fire to "take" and using the stone as a base is a good option.
Firstly though I needed to get some kindling prepared .... I don't know how others do this but we usually spread out a "tarp" to gather shavings on or if you are working with what is on your belt/webbing we use a waterproof jacket laid out on the ground which works just as well ....
Working with knives this size trying to prepare feather sticks can often have you making about 3 or 4 good shavings only to find that on the 5th you cut through the other 4 and if you don't have a tarp to catch them on they drop to the soaking ground and are wasted .... plus if you are in need of a fire quickly shavings work just as well as fuzz sticks and are quicker and easier to make .... and all you need is something to gather them on whilst "whittling away" ....
Lacking a "third arm" I cannot do photo's of the task itself but after going through a few twigs alternating with each knife it does'nt take long to get what you need ....
My impressions of the respective knives doing this task are that the finer edge on the NMSFNO had it an easy winner .... plus I liked the comfort of choking up on the blade using the rounded choil and spine .... the NM treatment on these blades really comes to the "fore" in tasks like this.
The FSH was certainly still comfortable doing this task ... the thick spine and choil make for good resting points and the width ensures than nothing is "biting" into your thumb or forefinger ... and had the edge been reprofiled a little and thinned out I am sure it would have been a closer call .... but in "stock" form it still did well at the task as the edge was sharp although the obtuse angle on the edge meant that the curls were more like "angular" splits than might otherwise be the case if you have a more acute edge which enables thinner slices to be shaved... not that it matters radically when burning them ... but it can matter when looking for that first "spark" to take and making the transition from a "smoulder" to a "flame" ....
In doing this task one of the things I noted was that working with a choked grip and your thumb on the spine means that the "depth" of the blade plays an important part as to the "finesse" with which you can "cut" .... basically the less depth you have the better you gain "control" .... this is why I quite like a Khukri design as working close to the grip on a khukri gives a lot of "control" for a knife as large as it is .... however I did'nt want to go back in and bring the Zilla out to compare with these two knives .... but I did think it would be interesting to go back in and bring out the Basic 9 ... this has a thinner depth profile and I was interested to see how this compared with the others ....
Sure enough the Basic 9 did great at this task and the sharp ASM edge worked a treat ... thumb control from the spine grip was a lot more "receptive" and you could feel the "pressure" of the cut a lot better ... and you can see why a blade profile like this is popular amongst "users" of knives for field work. There is'nt a "radical" difference though ... the NMSFNO was certainly able to do some "fine" work but when the temperature is cold and your hands are cold it is noticeable. I dare say that is perhaps why the Finn's have a similar size and style of blade on their Leku knives as when it get's severely cold and you are working with gloves or mitts this would become more critical. I did'nt bring out a SAR8 but I would expect the same would hold true with it....so having brought the Basic 9 out the overall winner on this task went to it :thumbup:
Next task was to do some "batoning" to get some dry inner wood for sticks ... I started out using the Basic 9 as this was "to hand" so to speak.
I used the two sections of a limb I had sawn through with a Laplander saw on an earlier review ....
The flat "sawn" section made it easier to see the run of the grain to line the knife up on so that the split would be a bit easier. I did'nt want to go looking for a baton and to be fair I hardly ever use a baton... I tend to line up the knife cetrally on the side of the log with the grain and make a "press cut" to get the edge to "bite" and then just bang the log and knife down on a hard surface.... usually a flat stone ... I don't like chopping into the log whilst holding the log .... bad injuries come from doing that .... especially if the log has been chopped with a knife or axe and is tapered .... it is easy to glance off ... better to line the knife up and use a baton then and rest the log on a hard surface .... but I find it quicker to cut into the log when it is rested on a hard surface pushing down in a controlled manner to get the edge to bite ... each to their own so long as it's safe ...
The Basic 9 weighing in at only 14 oz's is still a good splitting knife ... at .25 thick and with a thin depth of blade it has a very good "V" wedge effect ...I did these sticks with it ...
The FSH with the heaviest weight at 23 oz's did the splitting the easiest .... it whalloped through the log ....
and the NMSFNO at 21 oz's was no slouch either ...
Well fair enough if you are in need of a fire and know you are going to make one there is no need to make life harder for yourself ... but personally I like to have with a knife which is going to be with me in the hills the means to get a fire going ... it makes for an all round ability to look after yourself if you just have your knife with you .... and so I often have on my sheaths a fire steel ... besides ... if it were not for looking at how best to use a knife and what they "can do" there would be very little to chose between these ... as so far they have all easily accomplished the tasks needed.
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