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Who wants to be a guinea pig? One Light Chopper prototype.

Nathan the Machinist

Nathan the Machinist

KnifeMaker / Machinist / Evil Genius
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I'm gonna do my regular 3:00 EST Friday sale in a few hours (Field Knives today) but I wanted to go ahead and get this one out there.

Please understand what this is before buying it. Please do not buy this if you're not going to use it. I want to get one of these out in the wild and get some feedback before starting a run of them.

You are buying a rough prototype of a new camp knife light chopper prototype. It has a coarse basic hand grind. There are tool marks and heat treat scale on it. It's made of regular old Precision Marshall A2, (what most folks around here use) not Latrobe A2 or one of the premium materials I usually use and it has an industry standard heat treat, no cryo, nothing fancy, tested HRC 59.0. It's just a good regular knife, nothing fancy. It was made for testing.

There are four of these. I have #1 and #3. Lorien Arnold has #2. This is #4.

It's a good knife, it will chop up a 2X4 and still shave hair and the design and ergonomics are 1st rate. But this is user grade. Please don't buy it if you're not going to put it to work, I need your feedback on it. I would prefer the buyer have some experience using choppers.

The price is SOLD. It does not include a sheath. I guarantee you will love this knife, you can return it for a full refund in any condition for any reason.

This was a collaboration with Lorien Arnold. It is an exercise in geometry and weight distribution to make a light weight chopper that hits above its weight. It's a large woods knife, light chopper, with a 10" blade that weighs 16 oz. It's somewhere between a machete and a camp knife.


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[video=youtube;bpZEvM0vq3s]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpZEvM0vq3s[/video]

~16 total length, ~10" blade, 3/16 thick, 16.0 oz, balances about an inch into the blade. Edge is sharpened 18 DPS.

Thanks for looking.
 
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Hey Nathan,

That is a great design and the video was pretty impressive. The only change I see is the front of the handle might be thinned down a little bit so you can get a better pinch grip.

Tim
 
Hey Nathan,
I'd love to have it and will use it but it should probably go to someone who will use the hell out of it. Like a surveyor. But if you want someone who will take it into the woods to clear briar and branches from shooting lanes and such, i'm your guy.
Tom
 
Hi Nathan!

If still here, I will take it.

Best,
Alex
 
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thales243 said:
Hey Nathan,
I'd love to have it and will use it but it should probably go to someone who will use the hell out of it. Like a surveyor. But if you want someone who will take it into the woods to clear briar and branches from shooting lanes and such, i'm your guy.
Tom
Click to expand...

Tom,

Yeah man, I just want this prototype to go to a home where it can get some use rather than a drawer. So the buyer is going to be a little bit of a guinea pig. If you want it and you'll use it, it's yours. I read this as an "I'll take it" but it's a little bit ambiguous. Are you taking this knife?
 
Really sweet.
 
That's a deal right there.

I was tempted to snap it up but I honestly wouldn't have been able to get out and use it for months. I figure it would better to let it go to someone that can put it use immediately that way Nathan can get his feedback and I can have the production version in my hands sooner!

Nice knife, Nathan. Congrats to the buyer.
 
Yeah it will be used. I just did not want to make like I would try to destroy it. I'll use it for its intended purpose and let you know what I think. If it is like your others I'm sure it will be great looking forward to its arrival.
Tom
 
A.l.e.x. said:
Hi Nathan!

If still here, I will take it.

Best,
Alex
Click to expand...

don't worry, Alex, I'll make sure you get one. Might be already beat on before you get it, however ;)
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
I'm sorry, but with few exceptions I don't keep lists. However, Jo maintains a Facebook page where she updates upcoming sales, https://www.facebook.com/CarothersKnives/

We'll start a run of these later this year. I appreciate your interest.
Click to expand...

I just checked that out. Very nice page and I love those field knives. I may just put one of those on my Christmas list. Thank you! :thumbup:
 
I like the design, then again I like all your designs.
I also like that you test your knives .
 
thales243 said:
Paypal sent
Click to expand...

I cant wait for you to do a proper test with this thing. Hopefully multifaceted one.. like start with cutting vegetables to show us the sharpness, maybe some rope or seat belt type material as well, then move on to brush cutting, then saplings, then batoning 2-3" wide saplings moving on up to as wide of a piece of wood as you can get under it, like 8 inch log.. After that you could try to CHOP a log of about the same size, to show how much bite the knife has.. Cutting boards of wood is nice, but it just doesnt do it for me.. I like to see some logs cut.. After that is gonna depends is you wanna do a torture test on it.. such as cutting nails, and hammering thru a cinder block like nathan does.

All of this done with a nice camera so we can see some nice hd photos..

Just a suggestion
 
Glad to see this happening. I have been waiting for a big knife from you. Looking forward to the release so I can use it on some purple heart and mahogany trees that I have on my land waiting to be be pruned.
 
1 oz per inch. You hit the nail, baby.

I would want to carry that into a trail blazing.
 
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