- Joined
- Feb 12, 2014
- Messages
- 673
Hi guys,
I am new to this forum and a total newbie when it comes to knives. I had been satisfied using only a Spyderco Endura for years and then last year I bought a Spyderco PM2 and that's about it. I have only been a flashlight guy and is not really into knives, that was until only last month I traded one of my flashlight for a Zero Tolerance 0560 Hinderer design and fell in love with the knife. I started reading up more and more here and finally bought a pre-owned but new INFI Ratmandu (a.k.a. Infidu) off the exchange for around $300-ish. The seller helped me send the Infidu over to Mashed Cat for the sheath to be done and it is currently in transit to me. While waiting for the Infidu to arrive, my friends have been talking to me about CPM-3V like it is the Holy Grail of all metals, and so out of curiosity I started looking into the Survive! sub forum. That's where I saw some links to some video reviews done on the GSO series of knives, mainly GSO 5, and I am impressed. The stress test, the ability to retain sharpness without much or any sharpening, corrosion resistance even though technically CPM-3V isn't rated to be stainless, and so on. I am all sold!
I looked up more and found that the GSO 7/7 is the only knife with model number not correlating to the length of the blade but rather the date when Guys' best friend had passed on. That touched me a lot, because I too lost my best friend to cancer whom I had spent more than a decade camping and hiking with. To cut the long story short, after much reading and YouTube videos on the GSO series and also knowing the 7/7 is going to be next on the production run, I jumped and pre-ordered the GSO 7/7 last night.
Ok, so here's the golden question. A friend of mine was telling me about the toughness of bamboo and how Japanese sword and knife makers uses bamboo for tests on the strength of the blade. If it doesn't chip the knife edge it is a fantastic blade. I once tried a sword belonging to my friend and sliced off a two inch thick bamboo in one stroke with no chip at all on the blade. The hardening and strengthening process on his sword was done by Keffeler and my friend swore by it. This got me thinking, all the videos I have seen does not portray any of the reviewers chopping up bamboos. So is the GSO series, especially the bigger ones like GSO 8 or 10 capable of chopping up bamboo? At least if not in a single stroke, but at least without chipping the edge? Some may think it is a redundant or silly question, and some may even wonder why would I need to chop up bamboo? But if you are in a place whereby what you have are mainly miles and miles of bamboo forest, can you survive? Would you be able to make shelter, or even a bamboo raft with a GSO knife? I know another friend with a Busse (can't recall which model) was having problems chopping through the bamboo that day although I can't recall if he chipped his Busse, but I don't think he did.
I know that most of you reading this may not have the luxury of trying the knife out on bamboos because there are mostly likely none in the geographical location where you are in, but I am just hoping that someone who have the experience can chime in?
I am new to this forum and a total newbie when it comes to knives. I had been satisfied using only a Spyderco Endura for years and then last year I bought a Spyderco PM2 and that's about it. I have only been a flashlight guy and is not really into knives, that was until only last month I traded one of my flashlight for a Zero Tolerance 0560 Hinderer design and fell in love with the knife. I started reading up more and more here and finally bought a pre-owned but new INFI Ratmandu (a.k.a. Infidu) off the exchange for around $300-ish. The seller helped me send the Infidu over to Mashed Cat for the sheath to be done and it is currently in transit to me. While waiting for the Infidu to arrive, my friends have been talking to me about CPM-3V like it is the Holy Grail of all metals, and so out of curiosity I started looking into the Survive! sub forum. That's where I saw some links to some video reviews done on the GSO series of knives, mainly GSO 5, and I am impressed. The stress test, the ability to retain sharpness without much or any sharpening, corrosion resistance even though technically CPM-3V isn't rated to be stainless, and so on. I am all sold!
I looked up more and found that the GSO 7/7 is the only knife with model number not correlating to the length of the blade but rather the date when Guys' best friend had passed on. That touched me a lot, because I too lost my best friend to cancer whom I had spent more than a decade camping and hiking with. To cut the long story short, after much reading and YouTube videos on the GSO series and also knowing the 7/7 is going to be next on the production run, I jumped and pre-ordered the GSO 7/7 last night.
Ok, so here's the golden question. A friend of mine was telling me about the toughness of bamboo and how Japanese sword and knife makers uses bamboo for tests on the strength of the blade. If it doesn't chip the knife edge it is a fantastic blade. I once tried a sword belonging to my friend and sliced off a two inch thick bamboo in one stroke with no chip at all on the blade. The hardening and strengthening process on his sword was done by Keffeler and my friend swore by it. This got me thinking, all the videos I have seen does not portray any of the reviewers chopping up bamboos. So is the GSO series, especially the bigger ones like GSO 8 or 10 capable of chopping up bamboo? At least if not in a single stroke, but at least without chipping the edge? Some may think it is a redundant or silly question, and some may even wonder why would I need to chop up bamboo? But if you are in a place whereby what you have are mainly miles and miles of bamboo forest, can you survive? Would you be able to make shelter, or even a bamboo raft with a GSO knife? I know another friend with a Busse (can't recall which model) was having problems chopping through the bamboo that day although I can't recall if he chipped his Busse, but I don't think he did.
I know that most of you reading this may not have the luxury of trying the knife out on bamboos because there are mostly likely none in the geographical location where you are in, but I am just hoping that someone who have the experience can chime in?
