Mistwalker
Gold Member
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2007
- Messages
- 19,051
Whitty's thread on the Fiddleback heat treat sent me wandering down memory lane for a while. I have done a good bit of whittling, cutting, chopping, and truncating with Fiddleback Forge knives, so I have seen the quality of their heat treat on several occasions. It started in July about 6 years ago, when my favorite birthday present that year was getting to know Andy's work. That was the first brown paper package from FF I had the pleasure of opening. I had already seen that I liked the designs coming out of Andy's creative mind, and wanted to see if they held up as good as they looked. That knife, the first prototype of the Bushfinger would see a LOT of experiments over the next three years, from food prep in my kitchen, to various crafts in the field, from batonning kindling and whittling tinder to making various tools and utensils, I put the heat treat, edge retention, and structural integrity through as many tests as I could think of while still staying in the realm of reasonable expectation, and then even above and beyond that.
After I had spent some time with that Bushfinger, there would definitely be more Fiddleback Forge knives in my future.
I was very impressed with the quality of Fiddleback Forge knives from my first experience with them. But with the exception of my wife on some occasions, and one very close friend who assists me at times, I work alone. So even though I captured as much as I could in photos in order to illustrate my position when asked why I liked Andy's knives so much, few had seen what I had seen with my own eyes. Then came the Spring gathering at Ethan Becker's house. There was a bushcraft knife challenge to be done, with a lot knives by a lot of different makers being tested. One of the tasks was working with large bamboo to build a substantial shelter. Andy hadn't yet started making the Duke, my Woodsman didn't seem quite the right knife for this challenge, and the Camp Knife I had was 1-inch too long to be entered...so I was just observing.
The first three knives tested encountered failures, a couple that were catastrophic, and the challenge came to a sudden and grinding halt. They just completely stopped the challenge and thirty some odd people were just standing around wandering what to do. They were questioning if they were taking the knives beyond reasonable expectation and asking too much of them.
At this point I hadn't had a chance to do a lot with my Camp Knife, I had only whittled a few feather sticks, and dropped a few saplings.
But it seemed utterly ridiculous to me, having grown up in the south, that cutting bamboo could actually be taking medium sized bushcrafting camp type knife beyond reasonable expectation. And a LOT of people on Blade Forums were anticipating the results of this challenge. Something had to be done, So I pulled out my Camp Knife and tossed it to a friend and said: "here, it may be a little too big to officially enter, but take it and do everything you were doing with the other knives when they failed. If it does ok, then I say you should go on with the challenge as planned." So Andrew lit into the bamboo, limbing it and chopping through joint sections. Then Jason took it and did the same thing. I should have been taking pictures, but Ethan was asking me questions about the steel and heat treat of the knife so I was occupied. Then after about ten minutes of cutting and chopping on the bamboo in every way it could be cut, Jason handed the knife to Ethan. Ethan inspected the edge and saw no damage, then told them to go on with the challenge. Then Ethan started cutting and whittling with the Camp Knife, which I did take a few shots of, then he disappeared with my Camp Knife for a couple of hours. Finally many of my friends had all seen with their own eyes why I like Fiddleback Forge knives so much. Because I had finally found someone who could make knives as functional and tough as I needed them to be in the field, and at the same time as comfortable in long term use and as aesthetically pleasing as I wanted them to be.
That Camp Knife would wander a lot of miles in the woods with me after that, cutting bamboo in the south, and exploring frozen wilderness in the north. Had it not been for an emergency that put my family at risk when we ran out of propane in -49F temps, and a greedy propane company that doubled the price of propane to increase profits, I would still have that Camp Knife today. But life is what it is, and we do what we must.
Since my family survived and is safe, and we are back in the south now, and I have since landed a couple of my long time Fiddleback grails, I won't waste the energy complaining. Life is about going forward, not getting hung up in the past. I look forward to seeing what comes out of Fiddleback Forge in the years to come. I will be completely content when this weekend comes and I finally get to wander my woods here carrying a Fiddleback that has been a grail since before the Camp knife or the journey north
.
After I had spent some time with that Bushfinger, there would definitely be more Fiddleback Forge knives in my future.
I was very impressed with the quality of Fiddleback Forge knives from my first experience with them. But with the exception of my wife on some occasions, and one very close friend who assists me at times, I work alone. So even though I captured as much as I could in photos in order to illustrate my position when asked why I liked Andy's knives so much, few had seen what I had seen with my own eyes. Then came the Spring gathering at Ethan Becker's house. There was a bushcraft knife challenge to be done, with a lot knives by a lot of different makers being tested. One of the tasks was working with large bamboo to build a substantial shelter. Andy hadn't yet started making the Duke, my Woodsman didn't seem quite the right knife for this challenge, and the Camp Knife I had was 1-inch too long to be entered...so I was just observing.
The first three knives tested encountered failures, a couple that were catastrophic, and the challenge came to a sudden and grinding halt. They just completely stopped the challenge and thirty some odd people were just standing around wandering what to do. They were questioning if they were taking the knives beyond reasonable expectation and asking too much of them.
At this point I hadn't had a chance to do a lot with my Camp Knife, I had only whittled a few feather sticks, and dropped a few saplings.
But it seemed utterly ridiculous to me, having grown up in the south, that cutting bamboo could actually be taking medium sized bushcrafting camp type knife beyond reasonable expectation. And a LOT of people on Blade Forums were anticipating the results of this challenge. Something had to be done, So I pulled out my Camp Knife and tossed it to a friend and said: "here, it may be a little too big to officially enter, but take it and do everything you were doing with the other knives when they failed. If it does ok, then I say you should go on with the challenge as planned." So Andrew lit into the bamboo, limbing it and chopping through joint sections. Then Jason took it and did the same thing. I should have been taking pictures, but Ethan was asking me questions about the steel and heat treat of the knife so I was occupied. Then after about ten minutes of cutting and chopping on the bamboo in every way it could be cut, Jason handed the knife to Ethan. Ethan inspected the edge and saw no damage, then told them to go on with the challenge. Then Ethan started cutting and whittling with the Camp Knife, which I did take a few shots of, then he disappeared with my Camp Knife for a couple of hours. Finally many of my friends had all seen with their own eyes why I like Fiddleback Forge knives so much. Because I had finally found someone who could make knives as functional and tough as I needed them to be in the field, and at the same time as comfortable in long term use and as aesthetically pleasing as I wanted them to be.
That Camp Knife would wander a lot of miles in the woods with me after that, cutting bamboo in the south, and exploring frozen wilderness in the north. Had it not been for an emergency that put my family at risk when we ran out of propane in -49F temps, and a greedy propane company that doubled the price of propane to increase profits, I would still have that Camp Knife today. But life is what it is, and we do what we must.
Since my family survived and is safe, and we are back in the south now, and I have since landed a couple of my long time Fiddleback grails, I won't waste the energy complaining. Life is about going forward, not getting hung up in the past. I look forward to seeing what comes out of Fiddleback Forge in the years to come. I will be completely content when this weekend comes and I finally get to wander my woods here carrying a Fiddleback that has been a grail since before the Camp knife or the journey north
.
Last edited:
