The Condor has landed & Boomslang has bitten......

T

TwinStick

Joined
Jan 21, 2011
Messages
4,089
Been on the forum a while & this is my first review (i think).
Just received my Condor Boomslang in the mail today. Man, i just LOVE getting new knives, but i will try to be objective in my review.

It was sharp & would shave paper, but one side of the edge was off. Fit & finish was top notch. No gaps between micarta handle & tang. Sheath is AWESOME !!! Thick heavy duty leather. I have never owned any knife/sheath combo that did not have a snap or velcro retension strap. This one does not. Did not think i would like it but i do. You can turn it upside down & shake it & it does not come out, i am impressed.

Then i sharpened it. It is still not quite where i want it, but it is close. It is 3/16" thick.

Then I took it out & made some chips fly. It works well, but i gotta be honest, I dont know if it is my edge or what, but as of now, IMHO, it does not chop as well as my Becker BK9. I will experiment some more as time goes on with the edge & report back here. Took my daughter fishing tonight & took the Boomslang with me. Did lots of trail trimming with it. It worked well. It does feel heavy in the hand after a while, but it also feels like quality. I love the choil, it works great when choking up on the blade. I have not batoned through any wood yet, but i have NO DOUBT that it is easily up to the task. I like it a lot & am glad i got it, this is my first Condor product.

What have i got to compare it to: Becker BK2,7,9, Ontario Spec-Plus SP8, SP10, SP Kukri, SP47, SP17, Ontario Ranger Sig Series RD6, 18" machete.
A big thanks to FortyTwoBlades---your 7 point checklist makes it worthwhile to me & is great customer service IMO.

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The micarta handle was perfectly smooth with the tang/rivets. GREAT JOB !!!

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You can see that the leather is as thick as the knife. AWESOME !!!

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OK, here is the regrind update. I reground it, made it thinner & i think convexed (which it was to begin with), but i have to work on the tip some more, I took the sharp point off somehow. It chops about 100% better now & is just about on par with my BK9. I think the BK9 still chops better because it is lighter & that means faster, but the difference is VERY small now. Here is a pic of the grind.

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Good work with the edge thinning! The biggest thing I've found with convex edges is that it's easy to have a good edge angle, but have shoulders that are too thick. Knocking the shoulders off always makes a piece seam a lot sharper because of less energy be lost due to material displacement!

You ought to have fun with it--it's one of the few big knives I know of that still manages to feel "small" when you try to do detail work with it. The heft of the handle, the choil, and the taper of the blade let it stay nimble for the little tasks. :p:thumbup:
 
Another update. I took a whole day & sharpened the Boomslang to 25 degrees on each side (50 degree inclusive). I feel it now chops as good as the BK9. I had to take a lot of metal off. It is an awesome chopper now that i have an excellent edge on it.
 
Awesome! The biggest problem I've always had with production knives as a whole is they aren't sharpened as thin as they could be. Rather than optimizing performance for pros like us they play it safe and leave the edge at a more common man's angle to soak up their abuse. :p
 
Nope! The only reason why a thicker edge is "better" for chopping is it's less prone towards damage. If the edge on a tool is capable of being brought thinner without taking damage in use, it's to your advantage to do so. The thinner geometry bites deeper because less energy is lost to matter displacement as the blade moves through material.

Hence why felling axes are thinner than splitting axes. A felling axe needs to move the blade deep through material, and you want to be minimizing matter displacement, because you want to move THROUGH the matter, not have the energy going into pushing it to either side of the blade. A splitting axe or maul, on the other hand, is entirely about displacing matter as much as possible in order to tear wood fibers apart along the grain. The more you're able to move the wood away from the edge, the more you've split the the wood.
 
eccvets said:
wouldnt heavier be better for chopping?
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Yup, pretty much what 42blades said. I will add this: After owning many, many knives from many, many mfg's, i have found that sometimes thinner & lighter blades chop better than you could possibly imagine---but not always. I think it has to do with speed. The BK9 is a perfect example. It is 3/6" thick but chops better than almost anything i have. Is it the design-probably, is it the edge geometry-probably, is it the speed at which you can wield it-probably. My Boomslang is noticeably heavier in the hand than the BK9, yet chops the same. I would have bet the farm that the Boomslang would have easily outchopped it, but that just is not the case. Weird. Both knives are just AWESOME. You can't go wrong with either one, but i LOVES me a good functional choil.
 
I think part of the difference is because Micarta is actually a pretty heavy material, and so the scales set the point of balance a little further back. The zytel scales of the Becker, by contrast, are quite light. While they chop the same I bet you'll be able to do fine tasks easier with the heavier Boomslang because of more manageable point of balance, in spite of the heavier weight. :)

To put it in an extreme context, imagine a sledge hammer. The overall tool has a single net weight value. However, over 90% of the weight is concentrated at one end. If you were to hold the handle like a sword with the head snugged up under your hand, you'd find the end very maneuverable and fast. However, if you hit anything with it you wouldn't be able to muster much more than a light tap. By contrast, if you were to grasp it in the typical manner, it becomes ponderous and slow but with tremendous striking ability. But it's still the same tool with the same weight. The difference in performance and handling characteristics is due to the different arrangement of mass distribution in relation to the user. Rotational inertia also comes into play. :thumbup:
 
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42 tellin' it like it is. As always. I got my boomslang a couple of weeks back and love it. It chops great and after a little work on the edge it makes feather sticks as well as any thing else I own. I couldn't be happier.
This is my first Condor but certainly not my last. :)
 
rkmoore said:
42 tellin' it like it is. As always. I got my boomslang a couple of weeks back and love it. It chops great and after a little work on the edge it makes feather sticks as well as any thing else I own. I couldn't be happier.
This is my first Condor but certainly not my last. :)
Click to expand...

I'm far from infallible, but I do what I can! :p:thumbup:
 
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