Spyderco Forager or Forester.

[yugo308guy]

I am thinking about my first big knife purchase and came upon the Spyderco Forester and Forager. Wanted to see if anyone here has any experience with either of these and your thoughts. Thanks.

 

[These_Nutz]

I HAVE THE FOREGER AND IMO IT IS AS GOOD A KNIFE AS YOU WILL FIND in this range.
Superb ergos machete and smalller detail work is so easy also convex edge that will cut anything the steel is as good as any stainless IMO and it can be carryed discretely.This is genuine top class stainless.
I recently wrote a review hear on blade forum inb the Spyderco section.I would recomend it to anyone looking for this type blade.

 

[yablanowitz]

I picked up a Forester recently, and I'm afraid I just don't get it. It is an impressive piece of steel that would be a real comfort when the zombies are trying to eat your face and ammo is running low, but beyond that...

The convex edge on mine is thick...very thick. It measures 0.070" thick behind the 3/16" wide edge bevel, which is the thickness of a quarter. That may be great for strength and durability, but in a side by side chopping comparison it came in a distant third behind my old Case Alamo Bowie and my even older Western W49 Bowie, both of which are the same blade length but thinner, lighter blades with much thinner edges. The Forester would be my choice for splitting firewood or batoning through cars, but for actual knife work, I'll take one of my Bowies.

 

[Joshua J.]

This summer I did some good chopping with the Forester. Highly recommended.
It complements a chainsaw very well, you have the saw for cutting trees apart, and the knife for taking limbs off in preparation for making the cut (holding back branches with one hand while using the chainsaw in the other hand is a bad idea). In a few tight spots where I couldn't use the saw it chopped through a 5" tree. It took a good twenty minuets of chopping, but it worked surprisingly well.
If you're going to go all out hacking at something gloves are necessary. Heavy chopping with bare hands will make you sore pretty quick (light/medium chopping is ok), though that's probably the case of any knife that doesn't have big thick rubbery handles like Swamp Rat and Scrap Yard knives do.
Oh, the handle, it's a piece of art, and incredibly nice to hold. Edge retention on the blade is pretty good too (just don't hit any rocks).

If you get the smaller one you'll only regret it later, the Forester is the only way to go IMO.

 

[yugo308guy]

Does anyone feel that these knives are overpriced? Or are they about where they should be? Do they compare with like a Busse in quality?

 

[Orion]

That may be great for strength and durability, but in a side by side chopping comparison it came in a distant third behind my old Case Alamo Bowie and my even older Western W49 Bowie, both of which are the same blade length but thinner, lighter blades with much thinner edges.

That is the exact opposite from my experiences. Heavier blades with thicker convex edges are much better choppers than lighter thinner blades as the thinner blades tend to bind... It's why axes are thick, heavy and convex ground as opposed to light and thinly ground....