Oriental Chopper

Ivan Campos

Ivan Campos

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Apr 4, 1999
Messages
2,502
I have not posted much here lately so here is one I just finished for your apreciation. It is a very well balanced chopper and I have had a lot of fun testing it on anything I could find at home - no beer can of plastic bottle left intact after the cutting session, on wich I also have been through some wood I had around. People see it and immediatelly think of a Chinese sword soI named it "Oriental Chopper". Nothing really fancy or super well finished, just a simple and confortable to use big blade.

Here are the specs:
Steel: 1/4" thick 5160, flat ground on the right side (FFC style), sellectivelly heattreated, satin finished.
Blade lenght: 10"
Overall lenght: 14 7/8"
Handle: gonçalo alves wood attached with stainless steel pins

I put very little taper in the blade as I wanted to leave some weight on the front and the idea proved to be a good one as the knife is well balanced and light in the hand.
The handle slabs were from a piece of gonçalo alves woood I have been saving for some special project. Believe it or not, it was my first handle with pinned slabs as I had only used cord wrapped slabs so far, as well as paracord and hidden tangs, and the whole expertience was very satisfactory and I am already planning on making some more slab handled knives.
Let me know how you like it, buddies.

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I like it alot. I've always thought that the dao type tips would make for better brush and vegetation clearing, and if I was to make a chopper for myself (not that I can make knives) I'd make something very similar to what you have here.
 
It looks sorta like a scramaseax . . . or a "tactical cleaver."

I like it. I like it a lot. Not sure how a right-side-only grind would cut for a southpaw, though. How much does it weigh?
 
Nice one Ivan - looks like it would make a terrific camp knife.

Roger
 
Thanks a lot for the comments!
Great quote, mrtrooper! :D I bet some people really take taht seriously, though...
Tyr, it weights 380g, around 12 ounces, and I think the fact that it is chisel ground to the right means little or nothing when it comes to using the knife, especially a big flat grind like this. I am ambidextrous and can use it, or any chisel ground knife for that matter, with both hands.
Today I was working on another knife with slab handles, a heavy hunter/compact camp knife with a 7" trailing point blade, also FFC ground. It is on the vise waiting for the epoxi to cure and I hope to finish it tomorrow if the hangover of tonight´s party allows me.
 
Some more pics - very boring job... ;) Too bas we did not have some rope too.

Check the second one and you can see the four pieces of beer can in the air. Unfortunatelly, I was not so fast with the camera and could not shot my friend Stela in the monet of the cut - on the last pic you can see her right after the cut but the parts of the can are already on the floor.


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An historical note: you can´t see in the pic but up in the horizon in the Morro de Ipanema (Ipanema Mount), where the first foundry of the Americas was installed - the Royal Factory of Ipanema.
It is only some 20 miles from home and one of this days I´ll visit it again and bring some pics to share.
 
I really like the wooden handles! and the whole package.
I'm going to have to recommend that you try more handles!
 
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