Which BRKT golok?

[dbltap45acp]

Think I made my choice on large chopper. Butter knife rounded tip or up swept version and why. Thanks

 

[pap11y]

I prefer the upswept. I dont know how the shapes change the way they can be used..

 

[JCavSD]

The upswept version is attractive. I have the rounded tip version, and can't think of a time when I would have needed a point on it. It gets used in the yard quite a bit, and the rounded tip has been used for light digging, scraping, and occasional prying. Putting a point on it would make it less appropriate for those tasks.

 

[baldtaco-II]

Aesthetically the up-swept dominates but for performance I'd go with the butter knife........................... I find the butter knife version visually repulsive because it looks like a butter knife, and even calling it a butter knife shape has pejorative connotations. The up-swept jobbie will always have more emotional appeal to me simply because it is a more familiar knife shaped object, and one that doesn't look like it's had to be made 'tard proof by some government diktat...................Beyond that though there is a recognition that sometimes the most suitable tool is kinda goofy as a knife and weaponized letter opener or oyster shucker would be a liability. Same here for me...............................The cutlass slashing tip is something I'd find good for very light veg, where reach is important and maximizing shearing power less of a priority than when chopping hard stuff. If I'm not going to be thrashing at a lot of light thin bendy stuff exclusively I'll gladly give up the cutlass shape. True, in doing that I would have given up some of the meat processing potential, including defensive prodding if you like, but I'm not going to trip on that............................The butter knife one would be more useful at stuff that I would own a tool like that for. All things being equal the conservation of mass at the tip would give me a bit more heft on the woody stuff. It would be easier to coax with a stick than a pointy tip when splitting wood down. It's also a better shape to use a for a draw knife or spoke shave and so on. That said, I've never handled either of these specifically and for all I know all other factors are not equal and there is some confounding variable – like the pointy one has a reverse taper giving it a massive amount of clout one couldn't anticipate from the profile. I'm going on that they are the identical tools save for the tips, and that greenwood workers and whatnot don't tend to the cutlass shapes, and that outside some pirate galleon I'd find the pointy tip version more of a curse than a blessing for anything I've done in the woods......................Ideally, for me, I'd like a clipped tip like the Martindale #2 and a bunch of others have. It preserves most of the attributes I like whilst giving away only a tiny bit to aesthetics, and still gives the sharp lambsfoot / box cutter pointy bit that is ferociously aggressive when you use both hands and body weight. In lieu of that the butter knife gets it as closest......2Cents

 

[CWL]

We all like pointy things, but sometimes they get in the way. For large area whacking, a rounded tip keeps you from hitting & catching rocks when glanced off the ground.

Nice choice in the BRKT golok!

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

Hmmm....I'd prefer a different tip style than the standard but their other options are all "meh" to me. Just my opinion though. Out of the available options I'd go with the standard.

 

[Hammer67]

A golok is traditionally designed to be a chopper, not a stabber.

According to Mike Stewart, none of the various alternative tip designs affect the balance of the blade in any noticeable way, therefore do not affect its chopping ability. They merely offered it in some other tip designs for those who wanted something different for stylisitic/aesthetic reasons.

They are very sweet blades that chop like hell.

 

[ROCK6]

I've had the rounded tip and it's been my primary chopper on many backpacking trips when I needed a big blade. It's a battoning machine, excellent at clearing an area, makes bigs shavings for fire starting, has been used to dig a small cat hole (it was really soft soil and mostly decomposting wood matter). I've never found the rounded/blunt tip to be a disadvantage. I will add that I always have a smaller fixed blade on me, so if I need a sharp tip, that's my first choice. I really don't think it matters much, but either would serve you well and aesthetics should make the decision for you.

ROCK6