- Joined
- May 23, 2006
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- 680
OK, deceided to pit three very popular knives against each other to get a feel as to how each one would perform. They are all comparably priced, and are all similiarily sized.....
Initially only the howler and F1 were choosen. However, I wanted to get a little INFI in there to see how it would perform against the other two. Notice, I tried to keep pics to a minimum here, so there are not multiple pics of each knife having performed each task. All tasks were kept as fair as possible, although not scientific in nature by any means. If you want specefic specs on these knives please visit their respective web sites. This is more of a working mans test.
First impressions:
Howler: The Swamp Rat Knife Works Howler generation 1 knife came to be used several days ago from another BF member. It had been slightly modified in several ways. A small choil was ground out on the spine for comfort and the main choil was rounded slightly to make for more comfortable choked up work. The coating was removed, and left fairly ruff. It is no beauty for sure. But I wanted it just for work having heard the awesome reputation these have. Initially it came to be with a flat grind and a convex edge. It feels very comfortable in the hand and is slightly blade heavy. The wide blade makes it feel like a skinner through and through. Overall I was very impressed with it's feel and look. A definate user. Steel SR 101.
Fallkniven F1: My edc for quite some time now. I removed the coating because it was so jacked up that it looked like crap. It is a convexed grind and the edge was reprofiled to a V grind. The handle is grippy and comfortable, the blade is slightly smaller than the other two, but has no rounded choil to choke up. So overall has slightly more cutting edge. The workmanship is great and is well balenced in the hand. Steel lam 420/VG10/420
Scrapyard knife works Scrapper 4: A new arrival as well. The mudder grip was a little wider than initially anticipitated. Although it is comfortable in the hand, and feels good. The choil felt good as well and the blade length suited its feel. Flat grind I would assume and a convex edge, although it was kind of difficult to tell. Handle heavy, with a slight clip point. Came brand new with a not so impressive cutting edge.
Step 1 Sharpen all knives: All knives were sharpened with an Apex Edge Pro at 20 degrees and finished at a grit of 2000. Then they were lightly touched up on a ceramic rod to ensure no burr. All knives could smoothly shave easily. The Howlers edge as an example...Notica all knives were in the same condition.
Test 1: All knives were used to cut cardboard. Initially I made 215 cuts per knife and then rotated each knife each 25 cuts to ensure no favoritism as my arm became more fatigued. The cuts were between 12" to 2" depending on how much cardboard was left. Unfortunately each knife only made 365 cuts each and I was out of cardboard.
Results: Obviously the knifes did great. The stand out being the Howler and the S4. At about the the 200 mark the F1 started to catch every third or fourth cut and wouldn't make a clean cut. After feeling the edge it could be felt to be degrated some. I have to give the winner slightly to the S4 whose edge never even had a hiccup and was more comfortable to use throughout the cutting. The howler though was a very close second. It seems to me that more cardboard was needed to make a good determination. Something like 2-3 thousand cuts a piece would definately be more conclusive.
Test 2: Whittling a point on a 2x4. The wood was soaked, as it has been raining like crazy here. So it was very dense and difficult to cut. The howler bound several times and the thin V Grind definately felt like it wasn't performing as well as I would normally expect. Both the S4 and the F1 were used in a variety of grips and both performed very well considering the cutting medium. I then introduced a bunch of dry pine. All the knives zipped through it like crazy without even a flinch. Several spear points were made with pine branches after a 2x4 had been whittled.
Test 3: A Cotton Tail was taken from my property with a clean shot from a .22.
I used all knives to clean and butcher the animal. I intentially attempted to get blood on the handles of the knife to see how the grip would change. Happy to report that the grip was excellent in each case.
The Howler was the obvious winner with the long belly. Although in several cases I liked the point on the S4 better. Allowed me to get in to several areas much easier. Honestly the F1 had dulled to the point of not being able to cleanly slice through the flesh of the animal without pulling. Normally I don't chop anything on a cotton tail, but I laid it out on a butchering block (Wood) and chopped it's feet and head off with the howler and the S4. The S4's edge was damaged in several places and rolled. There was a very slight roll in the howler but was nearly unnoticable. Here is a pic of the damaged S4's edge.
Initially only the howler and F1 were choosen. However, I wanted to get a little INFI in there to see how it would perform against the other two. Notice, I tried to keep pics to a minimum here, so there are not multiple pics of each knife having performed each task. All tasks were kept as fair as possible, although not scientific in nature by any means. If you want specefic specs on these knives please visit their respective web sites. This is more of a working mans test.
First impressions:
Howler: The Swamp Rat Knife Works Howler generation 1 knife came to be used several days ago from another BF member. It had been slightly modified in several ways. A small choil was ground out on the spine for comfort and the main choil was rounded slightly to make for more comfortable choked up work. The coating was removed, and left fairly ruff. It is no beauty for sure. But I wanted it just for work having heard the awesome reputation these have. Initially it came to be with a flat grind and a convex edge. It feels very comfortable in the hand and is slightly blade heavy. The wide blade makes it feel like a skinner through and through. Overall I was very impressed with it's feel and look. A definate user. Steel SR 101.
Fallkniven F1: My edc for quite some time now. I removed the coating because it was so jacked up that it looked like crap. It is a convexed grind and the edge was reprofiled to a V grind. The handle is grippy and comfortable, the blade is slightly smaller than the other two, but has no rounded choil to choke up. So overall has slightly more cutting edge. The workmanship is great and is well balenced in the hand. Steel lam 420/VG10/420
Scrapyard knife works Scrapper 4: A new arrival as well. The mudder grip was a little wider than initially anticipitated. Although it is comfortable in the hand, and feels good. The choil felt good as well and the blade length suited its feel. Flat grind I would assume and a convex edge, although it was kind of difficult to tell. Handle heavy, with a slight clip point. Came brand new with a not so impressive cutting edge.
Step 1 Sharpen all knives: All knives were sharpened with an Apex Edge Pro at 20 degrees and finished at a grit of 2000. Then they were lightly touched up on a ceramic rod to ensure no burr. All knives could smoothly shave easily. The Howlers edge as an example...Notica all knives were in the same condition.
Test 1: All knives were used to cut cardboard. Initially I made 215 cuts per knife and then rotated each knife each 25 cuts to ensure no favoritism as my arm became more fatigued. The cuts were between 12" to 2" depending on how much cardboard was left. Unfortunately each knife only made 365 cuts each and I was out of cardboard.
Results: Obviously the knifes did great. The stand out being the Howler and the S4. At about the the 200 mark the F1 started to catch every third or fourth cut and wouldn't make a clean cut. After feeling the edge it could be felt to be degrated some. I have to give the winner slightly to the S4 whose edge never even had a hiccup and was more comfortable to use throughout the cutting. The howler though was a very close second. It seems to me that more cardboard was needed to make a good determination. Something like 2-3 thousand cuts a piece would definately be more conclusive.
Test 2: Whittling a point on a 2x4. The wood was soaked, as it has been raining like crazy here. So it was very dense and difficult to cut. The howler bound several times and the thin V Grind definately felt like it wasn't performing as well as I would normally expect. Both the S4 and the F1 were used in a variety of grips and both performed very well considering the cutting medium. I then introduced a bunch of dry pine. All the knives zipped through it like crazy without even a flinch. Several spear points were made with pine branches after a 2x4 had been whittled.
Test 3: A Cotton Tail was taken from my property with a clean shot from a .22.
I used all knives to clean and butcher the animal. I intentially attempted to get blood on the handles of the knife to see how the grip would change. Happy to report that the grip was excellent in each case.
The Howler was the obvious winner with the long belly. Although in several cases I liked the point on the S4 better. Allowed me to get in to several areas much easier. Honestly the F1 had dulled to the point of not being able to cleanly slice through the flesh of the animal without pulling. Normally I don't chop anything on a cotton tail, but I laid it out on a butchering block (Wood) and chopped it's feet and head off with the howler and the S4. The S4's edge was damaged in several places and rolled. There was a very slight roll in the howler but was nearly unnoticable. Here is a pic of the damaged S4's edge.
