S7 Custom Chopper

Daniel Fairly Knives

Daniel Fairly Knives

Full Time Knifemaker
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Jan 9, 2011
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Every time I see this, I think about that awesome push cut you did with it in your video. Nice design!
 
Hello all,

So I'm the owner of this knife and I just got out and tested it for the second time...first time wasn't too much.

Today I started by hacking through a piece of 3/8inch looking plywood about 8 inches wide. The blade bit solidly, although not super deeply, which is something I noticed throughout the testing session. This has to do with the design of the knife though which gets very thick, very fast considering its from .315 S7 stock or there abouts. Still didn't take me long to make it all the way through, just a minute or so, and the chips were flying. To test the edge strength I repeatedly would chop into the wood and then twist the knife out...didn't phase the blade at all, but then again, it was only plywood and a bit damp at that.

I moved on though and I feel here I put it through it's paces pretty darn well, and the end result was that it wasn't phased at all. Had some hard dried pine logs and I first chopped through one about 2 inches wide. Again, would chop into the wood and then twist the edge out...no chips, no dents, just a sharp a$$ edge still.

Moved onto some batonning. Batonned through a piece about 4.5 inches wide and it killed my forearm. The wood was hard and I had to drive the blade through about 12 inches of the 16inch log before it finally split. I beat repeatedly on the spine both on only the last inch and the couple of inches before the handle and the blade just kept driving through the wood. I tried prying the log apart at one point, putting some decent torque on the edge, but couldn't get any good leverages. At the end the blade was still fine.

Batonned a few more pieces, nothing big...small wrist size pieces, and it blew threw these like birthday cake. Last attempt at batonning was into the knotted end of a long about 3.5 inches wide. Got the blade about halfway buried and kept pounding but it wasn't moving much because the knot was so hard...so I had tried pulling the blade out. Wouldn't come out, so I had to beat the log off of it with my baton. After I got it out, it was still golden. Where it wasn't covered in dirt, the edge was still shining.

Went back to chopping and went through a couple more logs in the 2-3.5 inch range. On many occasions I would twist the blade out after chopping it in to test the edge. No problems at all.

Tried making some fuzz sticks then using the choil and the lower part of the blade. Worked pretty well. I didn't really know what I was doing though, just trying to imitate the photos I see on here a lot. Because of the chisel grind I suppose the blade did want to slide deep into the wood though easily. Was a little hard to make light thin shavings. Used the chisel on top too to debark some of the log...works great although if you don't keep the angle low it will just drive right deep into the wood. Would work great for making notches in larger logs I feel.

Finally cut the 2.5 inch branch off of a tree in the yard...was fun and easy. Took probably about 20 chops working my way around it. My arm was exhausted at this point though...I'm not used to this kind of work. Once I got it off I delimbed it....the blade easily went through half inch thick limbs in one chop.

Tried some more fuzzsticks on this green wood and I did better this time. The blade slid into the wood with ease...in fact it surprised me a couple of times. Used the chisel tip too to strip the bark and really got the hang of it this time. It was flying off with ease.

After this the knife was a big dirty mess....a mess that took all of a minute with some dish soap and a scrotchbrite scrubby to bring back to shining. I tested the edges then. The main edge would still shave and the chisel top would cut a few hairs. The main edge would still slice paper with incredible ease and make very fine cuts. The chisel would no longer slice paper. So I steeled the main edge with about 5 passes and then about 5 passes on a leather strop and hair was POPPING again. The chisel I gave about 5 passes on each of the following: green, pink, and leather. The end result was hair flying off of my arm.

Overall, I am EXTREMELY happy with the blade. I don't know that it will cut through stone or metal bars, but I have no doubt it will handle whatever you can find in the woods. The edge still shines line a mirror and doesn't have the slightest deformation. The handle felt great through out use...no hot spots or anything, and I didn't wear gloves. In short, I think it's a wonderful piece, and it definitely lives up to Daniel's motto of "built for hard use"

Thank you Daniel!
 
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IMWILSON said:
Next time pics, or it didn't happen!! :D :playful: :devilish:
Click to expand...

I know! I wish I had gotten some...photos of the knife before and after are useless since it looks the exact same, but the process would have been nice. However, I was alone, and as many have pointed out it's hard to swing a knife and take a photo at the same time...not that I even know how to work the gf's camera anyway.
 
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