What is a big knife for?

Horse said:
"Telling folks who have been using "big" blades (sometimes for centuries) "

There are people here that are hundreds of years old? ;)
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As I used to tell D. Boone, "Davy, people will think you're silly carrying both a long knife and a hawk. Now a MORA, that's the thing." :D

(folks volk a people)
 
Big knives have distinct advantages when brush clearing or during chopping, imho. Try doing any of the standard cutting competition events with a small thin knife. Not enough mass to get through the ropes, not enough to get through the 2X4, not enough length to arc through the line of bottles....now im not saying those tasks are evidence of actual real world encounters, but they demonstrate the difference. After all, you could probably chop wood by carefully tapping a straight razor through a log, but would you want to?
 
Ive always been very open minded when it comes to blades, ive carried 10 inch blades and ive carried 3 inch blades, I think it all comes down to what someone is comfortable using.....When out hiking I carry a Bill Buxton EDC with a blade length just under 5 inches, Ive also carried and still do a BRK&T Highland....I also carry a Fehrman FJ with a 9 inch blade, its whatever blade I feel like carrying that day....Ive learned how to use both, small and large blades, so I feel comfortable using both and know there limits..

When im out riding on one of my horses, I carry a 10 inch Bowie made by Matt Lamey, this is mainly carried for those limbs I dont want smacking me in the face, and also for self defense (god forbid I need it for that).....but it does make me feel better knowing I have it...as long as you know how to get by with a small fixed blade or a large one, thats all that matters imho...
 
featherstone45- not to rob a thread but as the discussion is on small knife performance: Have you batonned your Buxton EDC and if so, how does it hold up? I got one for Christmas from my kids and have reluctant to beat on it(wooden batons). I prefer knives 3/16" & approx 5-6" blades for most of my use.
Thanks,
Bill
 
The post is, "What is a big knife for?"
For me, it is to pound stakes, dig out roots, cut small braches for cooking food on, maybe chop dead saplings for firewood. Also good for poking into holes,prying, digging catholes and jamming into stumps, dead trees or cracks in rocks or old sheds as a temporary shelf or foothold. Good nutcracker, too.
When someone brings up "Rambo", suggest they watch "the Edge".
If I need to whittle, I use the appropriate sized blade, I don't use a spoon, it amuses me when people bring up needing to carve spoons. Wanting to carve a spoon, fine. But do you really need one so badly you will lament over not having a small knife to whittle one? Why does anybody need a spoon in the woods? I do use chopsticks though.
I do have small knives too, I backpack and usually prefer a thin knife with a 4-5 inch blade, as most packaged foods that I bring like bread , cheese and sausages come in about 4" wide size.
 
Have to agree about the spoon. It is however handy to have the dexterity to make trap parts ect. For me I think I can have my Mora around my neck absolutely every canoe trip, hike and skidoo. less likely to strap a 1 pound + short sword on me all the time. If I have learned to use the Mora to it's fullest capacity I can do any normal knife task that I need to make fire or shelter. I can also make lots of tools with it that can do any conceivable task short of the Gransfors Buks and Crosscut saw combo.
 
I live in the middle of the boreal forest and I can say that a big knife is a good friend. The boreal forest contains all sorts of brush that needs to be cut and hacked back to keep the trail open. I carry a large knife for several reasons but brush cutting is the main use. My large sheath knife got me out of the water once when I broke through the ice late in the season. When you break through ice it is slippery and you need a knife to use to claw your way onto fast ice or else you drown.:jerkit: Large knives reduces the need for the chainsaw. Large knives will get you out of the plane that didn't make it back to the runway if you know what I mean. :mad: When the plane fucks up quite often the door doesn't work like it used to, so you got to cut your way out, and the small planes have thin skins. I also use large knives to slaughter pigs and other livestock. :D A large knife improves personal safety when it comes to issues like black bear which has no fear of man anymore. You cannot even rely on a campfire to keep bears away anymore. Black bear are smart enough to know that when they smell camp fire smoke that food is around. :eek: Bear concider people as a delicacy.:cool:
 
Gringogunsmith said:
So Buff.. what's your favorite bear killing blade :D :eek:
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That would be the knife in the hand of the other guy. You know, the one daft enough to be attacking the bear with a knife as I boggie off in the distance. :D
 
There is no favorite knife incase of a bear attack. You use what you carry on you. You hope you never have to use it for this purpose. Nobody wants to 'have to use the emergency tools'.
 
Gringogunsmith said:
So Buff.. what's your favorite bear killing blade.
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On the HI forums awhile back Bill relayed the story of a black bear being killed with a khukuri. The impact power of the large ones is just amazing, they are used to lop the heads off of animals on a regular basis. On one of the local channels (Inuit) a hunter relayed the story of how he survived an attack by a polar bear by using his forearm as a shield because apparently Polar Bears won't turn their head sideways to bite. Someone should call that in to Mythbusters.

Temper said:
I can not really see a real advantage in a knife with such thin stock.
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That grind mandates thin stock and the grind is traditional, such things are rarely just performance driven. Bill was asked awhile ago why khukuris had cho's, the answer was that they would not be khukuris if they didn't.

oldsalt said:
...nor would I want to trust my 200 plus pounds to a Mora blade in that type of scenario.
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Load it through the width and hold it right next to the part used as a pick to minimize the torque. They snap easy laterally though but are much stronger through the width, just try it with a butter knife to see the difference.

North61 said:
...Japanese saws... I started using them years ago and if you learn how to use them they are an amazing tool.
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The Western ones are now starting to use similar designs, however they cut on the push and require massive force. I prefer the Japanese ones, my brother broke the two I gave him in short order. It is all well and good to talk about proper technique and then be on a job when it is 100 F in the shade and the flies are thick and the foreman just decided that you have 1 day to finish a 2 day job and two of the labors are moved to another site. It only takes one wrong push and the japanese saws are broken, it is near impossible to break the western ones.

Bumppo said:
Why does anybody need a spoon in the woods?
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Soup is hard to eat with chopsticks. You can just burn out spoons, bowls, etc., it is much faster to carve them out with a knife with a thin top, and still faster with a crooked knife.

-Cliff
 
"The Western ones are now starting to use similar designs, however they cut on the push and require massive force. I prefer the Japanese ones, my brother broke the two I gave him in short order. It is all well and good to talk about proper technique and then be on a job when it is 100 F in the shade and the flies are thick and the foreman just decided that you have 1 day to finish a 2 day job and two of the labors are moved to another site. It only takes one wrong push and the japanese saws are broken, it is near impossible to break the western ones."

I can see breaking a tool when you are unfamiliar with it, but two? That's just carelessness. The whole point of good technique is that it keeps you from making the common mistakes. Have you read Toshio Odate's "Japanese Woodworking Tools: Their Tradition, Spirit, and Use"? I expect Odate's master would have beaten him senseless for breaking one saw, let alone two. Eek!

Pat
 
Several of the guys I worked with went to Japan recently to teach R2000 construction. They are quite capable carpenters and worked closely with japanese carpenters when they were there so they are indeed very familiar with the tools. However I would still not give any of them my japanense saws, and quite frankly they are not what I would take working in the above conditions as I would not bet on the fact that I would not slip at least once and that is all it takes. These guys have spent at times 30+ years using a saw in one particular way and it becomes instinct. The saws have different optomization goals and they both work very well under specific conditions and very poorly under others.

-Cliff
 
Cliff:
I have used Japanese style, pull-cut saws in the woods, for years and broken many a blade. It usually happens after a cut when you push the blade back too fast. The blade binds in the wood, bends suddenly and snaps on the push! Each time this dismaying snap occurs, one builds up just a little more of the technique necessary to avoid it. Now, I hardly ever break a blade.

Some of these pull cut saws have replaceable, easily changed blades which weigh very little and pack flat.

Overall, these are great saws and return alot of wood for the effort. If one is not doing carpentry where precision is important, the coarse pruning teeth work the fastest.
 
Edgy Codger said:
It usually happens after a cut when you push the blade back too fast.
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Western saws used to be bi-directional, so out of habit you would push/pull very hard has you used them, the new western saws work on the push only, you actually use these the same way as the japanese saws only in reverse. I broke a couple of Japanese blades doing times runs vs western saws to check cutting speed. I have a couple I use for actual wood working that have cut a lot of wood, this is my favorite one now :

timber_saw_tashiro.jpg


Works very well on plywood and other similar boards, nicely on hardwoods, bogs a little on fresh sap woods, 9 tpi. I also have used extensively :

zeta_saw_open_tashiro.jpg


Which is finer, 11 tpi, but allows blade/handle angle adjustment and is a very nice general purpose wood saw. I have used a Felco, 7.5 tpi

felco.jpg


which is very nice on sap woods, but a swede saw works best there, however there are some really fast pruning saws I have not used.

-Cliff
 
Cliff Stamp said:
These guys have spent at times 30+ years using a saw in one particular way and it becomes instinct. The saws have different optomization goals and they both work very well under specific conditions and very poorly under others.

-Cliff
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Cliff,
I think your statement above summarizes the issue quite well. Switching a lifetime of learning can be difficult, especially under pressure.

On an semi-related topic - have you seen the japanese blades for framed/scroll saws?
http://www.tools-for-woodworking.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=6047

They look sweet.

Pat
 
There are so many high quality japanese sharp objects I think you could spend quite some time with them. Garrett Wade has a nice slection of Japanese tools :

49I1001.jpg


and these :

19S0801.jpg



I also want to try out the custom swede saws that Gaston Duperre makes, those guys can run them at speeds comparable to a stock chainsaw.

And back to long blades, take down a few acres with this :

Cloud-Cutter-Illaa.jpg


This is actual a user based design, Fikes takes the Jungle Honey, a similar blade, to wood readily in his video. I would not have much trouble finding a use for that.

-Cliff
 
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