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

I'll be looking to get one of these when the 3V versions come out. Big choppers are fun, but for me the most versatile lightweight set up is a large knife / light chopper and a saw.
 
Looks good. Maybe ironwood grips and a leather sheath as options?

I would like to see a pommel that could be used for hammering or prying. Either a chisel or hammer head style, but not adding width, just extending pommel 1/4 inch and maybe some striations.

I have a an 8 inch Carothers blade and it is extremely well made, look forward to this one...... And a scandi bushcrafter next!
 
thales243 said:
I'll try to conduct a through test covering a wide range of uses.
Tom
Click to expand...

Hey Nathan, Lorien
Just received the new chopper prototype last night.
First impressions: It's a beautiful thing...
1. Grip feels great, like the extra length for heavier chopping.
2. Knife feels much lighter than its size would suggest.
3. Balanced just in front of the grip, very nice.
4. Love the way it looks, very business like. No fantasy stuff here. This is a serious tool.
Got a chance to use it today. I've never had the oppurtunity to test a prototype chopper so I though I'd follow the lead suggested by Capt Picard.
1. Sliced up lunch, summer sausage and an apple. While not as great to use as Nathan's potato slicer for this task it did great. Just choke up on the grip and go to it.
2. Cutting saplings. Cut down a couple of 2" dia pine saplings. Two to Three strokes, done... Great bite, cuts very deeply
3. Batoning, split a 6"x16" red oak log recently cut from a fallen tree. Did well here also. While not a maul, and to be honest I can't see myself needing to split anything this large but turned the log into six pieces and was still going strong.
4. Chopping dry Hickory. Very hard wood but again did well. Chopped through a 3" branch. Once bit into the chop I would twist and pop out the chunk.
5. Slicing through cardboard. Sliced the flap off of a cardboard box and sliced off several small slices. Did just fine.
6. To top it off, I sliced through a 2" ratchet strap five times slick as butter.
7. Sorry Capt Picard I did not chop concrete ot cut nails. I'll leave that to Nathan.
Post testing:
Took the chopper into the shop and cleaned the blade off with some wd-40 and 0000 steel wool and slid the edge across my stroping board a few times and sliced some copy paper. Very Nice!!!
Once I took the clean knife out into the sun I notice a small 1/4" bright spot right at the power spot in the blade (about 3" from the tip). On closer inspection there is a very slight deflection right at the edge. No cracks, just pushed out enough that it is noticed on the polished edge. I don't know when this happened, I would suspect that it was when I was twisting the knife and popping out the chunks of dried hickory.
I have several several phots of the process but my dumb a@% can't seem to upload them. I'll keep trying.
This is a keeper, once I finish a sheath for it it will go in the Jeep for hunting and camping trips. It is no paring knife or axe but it can do the jobs of each in a pinch, plus a lot more.
Thanks Nathan and Lorien, great design and great execution just like everyting I've gotten from you.
Tom
 
Last edited:
thales243 said:
Hey Nathan, Lorien
Just received the new chopper prototype last night.
First impressions: It's a beautiful thing...
1. Grip feels great, like the extra length for heavier chopping.
2. Knife feels much lighter than its size would suggest.
3. Balanced just in front of the grip, very nice.
4. Love the way it looks, very business like. No fantasy stuff here. This is a serious tool.
Got a chance to use it today. I've never had the oppurtunity to test a prototype chopper so I though I'd follow the lead suggested by Capt Picard.
1. Sliced up lunch, summer sausage and an apple. While not as great to use as Nathan's potato slicer for this task it did great. Just choke up on the grip and go to it.
2. Cutting saplings. Cut down a couple of 2" dia pine saplings. Two to Three strokes, done... Great bite, cuts very deeply
3. Batoning, split a 6"x16" red oak log recently cut from a fallen tree. Did well here also. While not a maul, and to be honest I can't see myself needing to split anything this large but turned the log into six pieces and was still going strong.
4. Chopping dry Hickory. Very hard wood but again did well. Chopped through a 3" branch. Once bit into the chop I would twist and pop out the chunk.
5. Slicing through cardboard. Sliced the flap off of a cardboard box and sliced off several small slices. Did just fine.
6. To top it off, I sliced through a 2" ratchet strap five times slick as butter.
7. Sorry Capt Picard I did not chop concrete ot cut nails. I'll leave that to Nathan.
Post testing:
Took the chopper into the shop and cleaned the blade off with some wd-40 and 0000 steel wool and slid the edge across my stroping board a few times and sliced some copy paper. Very Nice!!!
Once I took the clean knife out into the sun I notice a small 1/4" bright spot right at the power spot in the blade (about 3" from the tip). On closer inspection there is a very slight deflection right at the edge. No cracks, just pushed out enough that it is noticed on the polished edge. I don't know when this happened, I would suspect that it was when I was twisting the knife and popping out the chunks of dried hickory.
I have several several phots of the process but my dumb a@% can't seem to upload them. I'll keep trying.
This is a keeper, once I finish a sheath for it it will go in the Jeep for hunting and camping trips. It is no paring knife or axe but it can do the jobs of each in a pinch, plus a lot more.
Thanks Nathan and Lorien, great design and great execution just like everyting I've gotten from you.
Tom
Click to expand...

Cool man, thanks for the feedback. Please let me know if anything comes up after extended use. :thumbup:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top