wildmanh
Part time Leather Bender/Sheath maker
- Joined
- Jul 9, 2000
- Messages
- 7,764
Recently I've been struggling to find a place for my Camp Knife in my knife collection. Do to this, I've been toying with the idea of selling it. Last night I slept well, but not for very long and so I woke up feeling tired and groggy. After Breakfast and checking my email, I decided to take a nap. The nap only lasted maybe 20 minutes and I woke up thinking about my Camp knife. Figured that I should get up, strap it on and give the knife a good work out.
Before I get any further, let me post some specs for those that don't know or anyone that needs a refresher:
Length Over All: 12-1/2"
Width: a hair or two over 1-7/8"
Blade tip to scales: 7-1/8"
Cutting edge measured on the curve: 8-1/4"
Width, seems to be about 3/16" thick in the handle, I don't have calipers, but eye-balling it, I'd say 3/16" or a hair over
Normally when I'm out in the woods, I have folder in my pocket, a fixed blade on my belt and either a Machete or Khukri lashed to my pack. Recently the fixed blade has been one of my many ~5" Bladed knives. Instead of pairing the Camp Knife with one of the 5 inchers that I have, I paired it with my trusty Buck 110. I have a thing for clip points, but don't have any 4" clip point fixed blades so the 110 will have to do. Enough blabbing about my processes, on to testing!
The first test that I decided to throw at my Camp knife was a cooking test. When I car camp, I tend to do a bunch of cooking, normally Chili, or stew in my Dutch Oven. So my knives are used for food prep a lot. Wanted Stir Fry with yams on the side. Cut a huge yam up first. The knife didn't fair to well, cutting into the yam was hard and the yam broke up when the knife was ~75% through. We're not off to a good start. Tried one of my standard camp kitchen knives which is the Fiddleback KPH and it didn't fair much better. Interesting.
With the yam cut up and in the pot, it's time to cut the veggies for the stir fry. Grabbed a red Bell Pepper and went to town. The camp knife sliced it up with no problem. Cut it into Quarters length wise, then slices, then cut the ~1/4" slicers into 1" strips. In the past, I would hold the knife in a grip simaler to the one I'd use when chopping, IE all 4 fingers wrapped around the handle. This time I choked up on the blade, 3 fingers on the handle and my index on the spine or off to the side. Wow, What an Improvement, the knife didn't feel chunky at all, it sliced and dived quite well. Things are looking up, so I moved to the next veggy, the onions. The onion was diced quick and easy, sure a chef's knife would have done it faster with a little less effort, but for a 1 pound camp knife, no complaints and it was kind of fun. The cellery was sliced with no problems either.
I then grated a carrot for the Stir Fry so that it would cook faster. Used the 110 to take the ends off, had to use it sometime.
Next came the Cabbage, Thin sliced about 2" of the cabbage then chopped it up. Again, no real problems and the knife handled well.
My Impressions of the Camp knife for Kitchen duty are favorable. Things I've learned: Changing the grip and choking up on the blade, really improves it's performance in the Kitchen. Also, the width of the blade makes scooping up food to put in a pan or bowl much easier. That's something that I do with a Chef's knife and I find it quite nice that I can do it with this knife as well. Betting the width of the knife would allow me to flip hot cakes or eggs on a grill. Probably won't try that one though.
Got some Turkey legs cooking in the oven and they are almost done so It's time to cook the Yams and Stir Fry. Next test I do will involve wood processing, for fire and maybe some bushcrafty type stuff. So stay tuned. Thanks for looking!
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The food is done, thought you'd like to hear about it.
Found some Frozen pees in the freezer and added a few of those to the stir fry. Also I whipped up 3 eggs to go in it. 3 home grown eggs from a Neighbor. Notice the White, light Blue and Brown colors.
Here they are whipped up and ready to go in. Used a wooden spatula to stir everything and my Titanium LMF Spork to beat the eggs. Kind of went with a camping theme.
Here's the Stir Fry:
The Turkey turned out very juicy, can't wait to chow down:
The yams were steaming so bad, that they fogged up my camera. No picts of them, but trust me, they are good. Time to eat!
Before I get any further, let me post some specs for those that don't know or anyone that needs a refresher:
Length Over All: 12-1/2"
Width: a hair or two over 1-7/8"
Blade tip to scales: 7-1/8"
Cutting edge measured on the curve: 8-1/4"
Width, seems to be about 3/16" thick in the handle, I don't have calipers, but eye-balling it, I'd say 3/16" or a hair over
Normally when I'm out in the woods, I have folder in my pocket, a fixed blade on my belt and either a Machete or Khukri lashed to my pack. Recently the fixed blade has been one of my many ~5" Bladed knives. Instead of pairing the Camp Knife with one of the 5 inchers that I have, I paired it with my trusty Buck 110. I have a thing for clip points, but don't have any 4" clip point fixed blades so the 110 will have to do. Enough blabbing about my processes, on to testing!
The first test that I decided to throw at my Camp knife was a cooking test. When I car camp, I tend to do a bunch of cooking, normally Chili, or stew in my Dutch Oven. So my knives are used for food prep a lot. Wanted Stir Fry with yams on the side. Cut a huge yam up first. The knife didn't fair to well, cutting into the yam was hard and the yam broke up when the knife was ~75% through. We're not off to a good start. Tried one of my standard camp kitchen knives which is the Fiddleback KPH and it didn't fair much better. Interesting.
With the yam cut up and in the pot, it's time to cut the veggies for the stir fry. Grabbed a red Bell Pepper and went to town. The camp knife sliced it up with no problem. Cut it into Quarters length wise, then slices, then cut the ~1/4" slicers into 1" strips. In the past, I would hold the knife in a grip simaler to the one I'd use when chopping, IE all 4 fingers wrapped around the handle. This time I choked up on the blade, 3 fingers on the handle and my index on the spine or off to the side. Wow, What an Improvement, the knife didn't feel chunky at all, it sliced and dived quite well. Things are looking up, so I moved to the next veggy, the onions. The onion was diced quick and easy, sure a chef's knife would have done it faster with a little less effort, but for a 1 pound camp knife, no complaints and it was kind of fun. The cellery was sliced with no problems either.
I then grated a carrot for the Stir Fry so that it would cook faster. Used the 110 to take the ends off, had to use it sometime.
Next came the Cabbage, Thin sliced about 2" of the cabbage then chopped it up. Again, no real problems and the knife handled well.
My Impressions of the Camp knife for Kitchen duty are favorable. Things I've learned: Changing the grip and choking up on the blade, really improves it's performance in the Kitchen. Also, the width of the blade makes scooping up food to put in a pan or bowl much easier. That's something that I do with a Chef's knife and I find it quite nice that I can do it with this knife as well. Betting the width of the knife would allow me to flip hot cakes or eggs on a grill. Probably won't try that one though.
Got some Turkey legs cooking in the oven and they are almost done so It's time to cook the Yams and Stir Fry. Next test I do will involve wood processing, for fire and maybe some bushcrafty type stuff. So stay tuned. Thanks for looking!
-----------
The food is done, thought you'd like to hear about it.
Found some Frozen pees in the freezer and added a few of those to the stir fry. Also I whipped up 3 eggs to go in it. 3 home grown eggs from a Neighbor. Notice the White, light Blue and Brown colors.
Here they are whipped up and ready to go in. Used a wooden spatula to stir everything and my Titanium LMF Spork to beat the eggs. Kind of went with a camping theme.
Here's the Stir Fry:
The Turkey turned out very juicy, can't wait to chow down:
The yams were steaming so bad, that they fogged up my camera. No picts of them, but trust me, they are good.
Time to eat!
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You're welcome and Thank you!