- Joined
- Jun 17, 2012
- Messages
- 371
I did the pictures a backwards because they were shuffle among many testing days. First some detailed pics with the knife alone, then the knife in action.
Well, I think I have finally done it. I found my perfect knife. My search is over, and this is my review of the blade. It has been a long and expensive(but fun) path, but I have emerged out of it a more knowledgeable person.
This is the Sykco 711
Over All Length: 12.5 inches
Blade length: 6.5 inch cutting edge. 7.5 inches from handle.(give or take ¼ inch)
Thickness: 0.25 inch
Steel: SR101
No sheath, the one you see in the pics is a custom job.
The rest you gotta look up at the site, there is some technical specs I'm not qualitfied to cover here.
I was going to show pictures of the blade untouched, then show pictures of it all worked over. But literally within 60seconds of holding the blade in my hands, I had to start using it. The feel of this handle makes you want to immediately start chopping. This is the most ergonomic blade I have ever held.
I was disappointed when the coat started coming off, not because the paint, on the contrary, the paint took more beatings then anything I have to date. But the metal is ribbed. I was really looking forward to a smoothed out blade. But I will tell you now that it's chopping and splitting is second to none in my testing. I still want smooth metal though.
I can't say enough about the ergos on the handle. I batoned and batoned, and whacked and chopped and just kept going and it was the least amount of stress I have ever experienced using a knife. You can see that ScrapYard put a metal piece through the landyard whole making it so your Lanyard doesn't rub against the Resiprene C handle. Also, the grip does well when wet. Now there is some debate as to whether that handle material will hold up, all I can say is that it's still going. I don't have faith in anything but Micarta, but I can't knock a handle that hasn't failed yet. Time will tell me the answers.
The Choil is nice and wide, very usable. But it works best with gloves, without gloves the ergos on it suck. But it is usable, and big enough for anyone's fat fingers.
I did extensive tip testing, and in the end the knife came out unscathed. You judge for yourself. Only difference is worn off paint.
Comes with about 35ish degree edge. Very well, but I backed mine down to 17ish degrees, and I have experienced no chipping what so ever. There is a very small dent in the middle if you can see it, but this was done during testing. As hard as I used it I am very happy. No other blade I have tested has been able to keep a edge this unscathed on a 17 degree edge. I will keep my 17 degree edge. Also note that there is a flat part at the spine of the knife for sharpening, I love it. Blade is most FFG, or something close to.
This is near the beginning of my Baton testing. My trusty hard wood baton on the right.
I didn't just baton that soft pine stuff, this was mostly hard wood. I have broken knives on this wood, and had them bending and twisting on this wood. Dented and chipped all of my larger knives edge's. I did this test over, and over, and over, and over........... I did this so many times on the hardest wood I got, and still has a nearly untouched edge.
I wasn't satisfied yet, so I went at things from a different angle. Though you can see the paint is rubbing off, I don't care, this thing rocks.
Tip testing was next. Once again I chose hard wood. And I must say, it performed very will. The wood on top was wet soft wood, it just couldn't get a grip, it was so slick and sponge like. The shape of the tip is good enough, they knew what they were doing. I hate it when I own a knife that you can't stab into wood. At the same time it doesn't go overboard.
For the most part there are only two reasons for a usable tip on a knife. #1 is for stabbing in self defense, and #2 is for digging out arrows. #1 has basically proven in the previous test, so I imagined I was digging out arrows.
Chopping branches in the forest was a breeze. Here is my first baton I cut in the forest.
Beginning the longest baton of my life. This was an hour and a half of straight batoning on this thing. It is fresh and deceptively strong. Not hard, but very resistant to batoning.
This really did take much longer than I wanted it to.
Crap, my baton broke. No worries, I'll just use the lower part.
Well isn't that just peachy. Time for another Baton. I will stop at this point and say that having a back up knife to carve a new baton is great to have.(I had one).
Hurray!!!!!!!!! A note on thickness: Who the #e!! ever said that a thin blade batoned better never actually batoned. I have tested this again and again, and it just ain't true. The thicker the blade, the better the baton. Here is the reason, a thicker blade not only will separate faster, but it won't bend. When I baton with my Ontario BlackBird, the blade bends a lot and when the blade curves around the knots in wood, it makes it harder to baton. And if the blade is bending a lot, then as you baton, your at huge risk of breaking the blade.
Baton End
And on top of it all if you want to shave your logs, you can do so with ease.
Yes, I threw the knife several times. I'm not good at it, but I got some solid sticks a few times.
Such an amazing knife.
Okay so this is the story of me camping. I forgot my camera, end of story........Yeah, I beat on this knife more than all my testing put together, and didn't even think about the pics. This is whats left over of a log I processed. Measured over 8 inches across when I cut this section away from the fallen tree. Took me an hour and a half of straight chopping, but I got there. This time doesn't even begin to touch all the other wood I processed while I was there. Anyways, here's the only pic.
Well, I think I have finally done it. I found my perfect knife. My search is over, and this is my review of the blade. It has been a long and expensive(but fun) path, but I have emerged out of it a more knowledgeable person.
This is the Sykco 711
Over All Length: 12.5 inches
Blade length: 6.5 inch cutting edge. 7.5 inches from handle.(give or take ¼ inch)
Thickness: 0.25 inch
Steel: SR101
No sheath, the one you see in the pics is a custom job.
The rest you gotta look up at the site, there is some technical specs I'm not qualitfied to cover here.
I was going to show pictures of the blade untouched, then show pictures of it all worked over. But literally within 60seconds of holding the blade in my hands, I had to start using it. The feel of this handle makes you want to immediately start chopping. This is the most ergonomic blade I have ever held.
I was disappointed when the coat started coming off, not because the paint, on the contrary, the paint took more beatings then anything I have to date. But the metal is ribbed. I was really looking forward to a smoothed out blade. But I will tell you now that it's chopping and splitting is second to none in my testing. I still want smooth metal though.
I can't say enough about the ergos on the handle. I batoned and batoned, and whacked and chopped and just kept going and it was the least amount of stress I have ever experienced using a knife. You can see that ScrapYard put a metal piece through the landyard whole making it so your Lanyard doesn't rub against the Resiprene C handle. Also, the grip does well when wet. Now there is some debate as to whether that handle material will hold up, all I can say is that it's still going. I don't have faith in anything but Micarta, but I can't knock a handle that hasn't failed yet. Time will tell me the answers.
The Choil is nice and wide, very usable. But it works best with gloves, without gloves the ergos on it suck. But it is usable, and big enough for anyone's fat fingers.
I did extensive tip testing, and in the end the knife came out unscathed. You judge for yourself. Only difference is worn off paint.
Comes with about 35ish degree edge. Very well, but I backed mine down to 17ish degrees, and I have experienced no chipping what so ever. There is a very small dent in the middle if you can see it, but this was done during testing. As hard as I used it I am very happy. No other blade I have tested has been able to keep a edge this unscathed on a 17 degree edge. I will keep my 17 degree edge. Also note that there is a flat part at the spine of the knife for sharpening, I love it. Blade is most FFG, or something close to.
This is near the beginning of my Baton testing. My trusty hard wood baton on the right.
I didn't just baton that soft pine stuff, this was mostly hard wood. I have broken knives on this wood, and had them bending and twisting on this wood. Dented and chipped all of my larger knives edge's. I did this test over, and over, and over, and over........... I did this so many times on the hardest wood I got, and still has a nearly untouched edge.
I wasn't satisfied yet, so I went at things from a different angle. Though you can see the paint is rubbing off, I don't care, this thing rocks.
Tip testing was next. Once again I chose hard wood. And I must say, it performed very will. The wood on top was wet soft wood, it just couldn't get a grip, it was so slick and sponge like. The shape of the tip is good enough, they knew what they were doing. I hate it when I own a knife that you can't stab into wood. At the same time it doesn't go overboard.
For the most part there are only two reasons for a usable tip on a knife. #1 is for stabbing in self defense, and #2 is for digging out arrows. #1 has basically proven in the previous test, so I imagined I was digging out arrows.
Chopping branches in the forest was a breeze. Here is my first baton I cut in the forest.
Beginning the longest baton of my life. This was an hour and a half of straight batoning on this thing. It is fresh and deceptively strong. Not hard, but very resistant to batoning.
This really did take much longer than I wanted it to.
Crap, my baton broke. No worries, I'll just use the lower part.
Well isn't that just peachy. Time for another Baton. I will stop at this point and say that having a back up knife to carve a new baton is great to have.(I had one).
Hurray!!!!!!!!! A note on thickness: Who the #e!! ever said that a thin blade batoned better never actually batoned. I have tested this again and again, and it just ain't true. The thicker the blade, the better the baton. Here is the reason, a thicker blade not only will separate faster, but it won't bend. When I baton with my Ontario BlackBird, the blade bends a lot and when the blade curves around the knots in wood, it makes it harder to baton. And if the blade is bending a lot, then as you baton, your at huge risk of breaking the blade.
Baton End
And on top of it all if you want to shave your logs, you can do so with ease.
Yes, I threw the knife several times. I'm not good at it, but I got some solid sticks a few times.
Such an amazing knife.
Okay so this is the story of me camping. I forgot my camera, end of story........Yeah, I beat on this knife more than all my testing put together, and didn't even think about the pics. This is whats left over of a log I processed. Measured over 8 inches across when I cut this section away from the fallen tree. Took me an hour and a half of straight chopping, but I got there. This time doesn't even begin to touch all the other wood I processed while I was there. Anyways, here's the only pic.
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