-
The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is available! Price is $250 ea (shipped within CONUS).
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/
Spyderco Forester and Forager owners/users
- Thread starter MR.GRIMM
- Start date
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2009
- Messages
- 1,125
i have the dayhiker, but have yet to put it through its paces. my brother has a parang bushmaster by Fox cutlery. it is made of N690 and he is in love with it. he does a lot of bushcrafting and that is the only knife he uses. great edge retention and corrosion resistance. i've seen him take down 2" saplings with 3 swipes, then shave hairs immediately afterwards.
yablanowitz
Platinum Member
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2006
- Messages
- 10,086
The Forester performed well for me on green softwood, but it didn't fare too well against seasoned semi-desert hardwoods.
- Joined
- May 4, 2010
- Messages
- 1,265
I had a Forager but ended up trading it. It's a very well made knife, and came with a good sheath. The convex grind they come with was also perfect. N690 is supposed to be very similar to VG10, so good edge holding and very stainless. The thing that got me though was the choice of a stainless steel on a blade that size. The shape is made for chopping and the blade is nearly 8" long. I'd much rather have something in a tool steel or carbon for that kind of knife.
In short; great knife design but too bulky for finer work and wrong steel for a chopper.
In short; great knife design but too bulky for finer work and wrong steel for a chopper.
The Forester does what it needs to. I used it to assist a chainsaw in clearing trails one summer (just a few afternoons), usually de-limbing trees in tricky spots that would likely end up badly if I were to slip with the chainsaw. It will do 1"-2" branches without much trouble using the stock edge, thicker stuff took 10-20 strokes (2" is actually pretty thick) but it probably could have done 2" stuff in a stroke or two with a thinned edge, 10 degrees per side is where I like to sharpen my choppers. Flat with the primary bevel is too thin for this application. I can't say that N690 is the best stuff for a chopper, but I don't remember having any huge problems with chipping (again, only using the stock edge).
The handle is good, but compared to a soft grip it's still kind of harsh if you're going to be chopping for hours on end (get a Scrapyard knife for real work), not that I actually recommend using a knife that way, but it can be fun. (A large extendable pole saw will do hundreds of times more work with the same amount of fatigue.)
Also keep in mind that around where I live it's hard to find anything that's not poplar or spruce.
The handle is good, but compared to a soft grip it's still kind of harsh if you're going to be chopping for hours on end (get a Scrapyard knife for real work), not that I actually recommend using a knife that way, but it can be fun. (A large extendable pole saw will do hundreds of times more work with the same amount of fatigue.)
Also keep in mind that around where I live it's hard to find anything that's not poplar or spruce.