Why I DON'T carry a large chopper knife.

Makes sense; becoming familiar with what might be easiest to find. Maybe I just dont know any better. Knives 7-12 seem impractical. (kinda arbitrary numbers but that's the size I dont need) 2 inch to 6 works well for my needs.

I prefer my axe to be around 1 cubit. A good non specific measure. It's not too long to become a burden, while retaining a great deal of power; using it short is no problem of helve interfering with body position. 1.5- 2 lb head. perfect. But then there is nothing quite like a really good saw - there is nothing to do what saws do but another saw

If I were to carry a long blade; something near the same cubit overall length. thicker than a machete, not too wide.

Admittedly sometimes I get a little lost - what's the scenario?
chopping saplings for no purpose-yes a good 10 inch knife is ideal.
 
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you can't help but like big choppers- they're cool :), but I've found that a small knife (3"-ish blade), a small lightweight folding saw and a lightweight hatchet/small axe serves my needs much better than any chopper or any combo w/ chopper
 
ANY Well made axe will out chop just about any Big Knife made.(I know--I've tested just about every one made it seems)

But I enjoy using Big Choppers a lot more than I do an axe.

I can dig and pry with a Big Knife(an Axe can do neither very well)

But all of us have to see what works for us.
 
I have a few good choppers ( BK9,Junglas, CS Kukri) but to be honest, I seldom use them even though I always bring one with me. When I'm out in the bush , my Estwing axe and a 4" blade ( usually an Esee 4 or F1) see 99% of the use. I'm in boreal forest here , so maybe that's why. When I've been in the jungle , the machete is the #1 tool mostly because of vegetation , but carrying a knife it's usually still around a 4" job. I think for a general purpose blade a 4" length seems to pop up the most often , probably due to it's versatiltity , no matter what part of the planet. This is just my observation , as I've seen that size being used the most often. I'm sure if I left my biggies at home, I'd be just fine. I've only used big blades in the last couple of years and I've come to realize that bigger is not always better. If I was living in a tropical environment , it might be a different story , but I would always have a 4" +/- blade on me.
 
I don't have any noble reasons like that I just find a good beater golok better for me than a big thick pointy Bowie knife type thing. There's as much chance of me switching to 2lbs of Mental Breakdown Gimp Mistress in beige as there is the guy below swapping his billhook for one I guess.

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If I wanted to go the noble route of going out to practice with exotic stuff, several deviations from tools, that I might stumble upon in some scavenger scenario I'd probably snag one of the plethora of cheapo katanas imported here. I've just got not interest in that at all. I've spent a long time moving in the other direction and refining to a point of certainty about what works best for me. In fact, I'm now very successful at resisting impediments to that. I was in my favourite junk shop three days ago and I saw the smallest Marbles hatchet I'd ever seen going for a piddling £20. I've no idea if it was kosha but the patina and the state of the sound but very old looking bit of wood suggested to me it was. A big portion of me wanted just because of the curio factor. I resisted because it is useless to me. I put an extra tenner on top and came away with a white enamel flour bin in blue trim with a diameter the size of a hula-hoop instead.
 
@shotgun - you make some great, well-thought-out points to consider. Less with more is a great mindset to have and one i try to maintain. So yea i do ponder the abstract "what if" needs more than the immediate utility of my chosen gear.

Those wandering ponderings have lead me precisely to choose a big-ish chopper (CS Trailmaster) in lieu of a hatchet/'hawk. In my experience, swinging a sharp edged anything with full-power (as in chopping) is rife with opportunity for disaster.

Case in point. I have a 3 1/2" long scar on the outer side of my thigh from a scary sharp machete i was using 29 years ago (i was 16.... wow!). I had to have the muscle sewn back together and then the skin. The doc told me/my folks if the point of impact was just a 1/2" lower i would have severed the main tendon for that thigh muscle group that could've crippled me (or at least meant lotsa physio therapy). I lost so much blood i nearly passed out in the ER after the 15 minute walk home (i was limbing some pines marked for downing for lumber) and then the 20 minute drive to the hospital.

No, I was not unfamiliar with using machetes - quite the contrary - i used machetes for trimming Christmas trees as summer jobs and was pretty expert with using them. It was just a momentary loss in concentration and i nearly crippled myself in that moment. In a "survival" situation i may have bled out and certainly put myself at risk for serious infection in that huge wound.

So, i use a "chopper" primarily for batoning and *maybe* very controlled chopping. It is also really handy to use as a draw-knife for gathering cordage material, making largish holes in wood and general larger bush-crafty tasks my smaller food-prep blade is less suited for.

I am a huge advocate for using a packable saw - Sawvivor or Sven saw - and a smaller blade for skinning/food preparation (Buck Paklite Skinner - Model 140). I also carry a Leatherman Wave and it's great little screw-driver kit as well as pliers/wire-cutters. It has a can-opener and scissors as well as a little (useless?) wood saw and fish scaler - lotsa nifty, semi-useful tools to help address and round out immediate to slightly more settled needs.

So, while i'm carrying essentially 4 tools, each one serves large need-areas in immediate and longer-duration situations and useful in a safe, practical manner.
 
WILLIAM.M said:
ANY Well made axe will out chop just about any Big Knife made.(I know--I've tested just about every one made it seems)

But I enjoy using Big Choppers a lot more than I do an axe.

I can dig and pry with a Big Knife(an Axe can do neither very well)

But all of us have to see what works for us.
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That's pretty much what it is for me.

An large knife can do axe things better than an axe can do knife things, in my experience.
 
Shotgun said:
If there's a disaster of some kind and I'm away from my gear and I happen by a chopper, chances are high that it's going to be an axe or a hatchet if not a machete. I seriously doubt I'm going to happen by a Busse after an earthquake. So I've kind of taken an all inclusive view at my chopper of choice. It's along the lines of the more you know the less you carry. If I have good skill with a hatchet than I can press any hardware hatchet to do what I want when I need it in a pinch and not have to haul my "what if" gear. Anyone else take a wide view of some of your gear and consider abstract "what if's" beyond your immediate needs for that gear?
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That's sound reasoning and Bushman5 also reiterated the "skill" which is more important than the tool.

However, If we could do a WSS Google map with the locations of all the large chopper owners, it might make finding one after a disaster a little easier:D

ROCK6
 
I carried a big knife for a while. I've recently moved toward a smaller 3" to 4" blade with a small hatchet or a folding saw in my pack. That said, however, I have several big knife rigs that I sometimes carry in place of a pack--a "one knife for everything" set-up that I can just strap on my side and go.
 
For cutting efficiency, here's how I rank them:

large saw (sven or equivalent)
full sized axe
khukuri
folding saw
large knife
hatchet

That's in order of my preference, weight not being an issue. If weight is an issue, then I have to drop down the list. I don't find the small hatchets very useful, so I'm now experiementing with tomahawks, just for fun.
 
The only time I can really see myself needing either an axe or big chopper are when camping or A) When out practicing survival skills or B) In a real survival scenario.
If you read Cody Lundins book ,98.6 Degrees the art of keeping your ass alive, he states that most survival scenarios result from a simple day hike that goes wrong.

So my question is how many people actually take an axe with them on a simple day hike ?
Maybe the USA is different to here but most people I see here don't even carry a small fixed blade !!!
I think I'd be more likely to carry a large knife than an axe, it just seems a more all round versatile tool. In truth however I'm actually too lazy to even lug a large chopper around with me and have settled upon the fact that the largest knife I'm actually gonna take the most is a sturdy 5"-6" bladed one.
 
I have both, I use both, and I love both...

But after my experience with both, I find a good hatchet/axe to be a superior tool. If SHTF, I'd be reaching for my hatchet FIRST.

I love my choppers though, and I am going to continue to use them regularly.

JGON
 
They are cool but I can't justify spending what the nicer ones cost, then beating the hell out of them for camping/"fun" trips.



You can get decent hatchets/machetes for under $25 if you are on a budget... The good thing about these are you can use emm and abuse emm and if you damage them/lose them its not a big deal. Also, I find that while a big chopper can do everything decently, they really don't do anything exceptionally well.


I'd rather utilize a variety of tools to get the job done, as I find hatchets/axes are better at chopping wood/branches (also hand saws), machetes are better at slashing through briers/vegetation, smaller knives are better at skinning/cleaning/tasks that require more finesse, etc.




If you can only have one tool, obviously a big knife is a good (and perhaps the best) choice, so they are still important to know how to use. But lets be realistic, how many people here are ever going to be lost in the wilderness/need to bug out with minimal tools?
 
pitdog said:
The only time I can really see myself needing either an axe or big chopper are when camping or A) When out practicing survival skills or B) In a real survival scenario.
If you read Cody Lundins book ,98.6 Degrees the art of keeping your ass alive, he states that most survival scenarios result from a simple day hike that goes wrong.

So my question is how many people actually take an axe with them on a simple day hike ?
Maybe the USA is different to here but most people I see here don't even carry a small fixed blade !!!
I think I'd be more likely to carry a large knife than an axe, it just seems a more all round versatile tool. In truth however I'm actually too lazy to even lug a large chopper around with me and have settled upon the fact that the largest knife I'm actually gonna take the most is a sturdy 5"-6" bladed one.
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I'm willing to bet my gb mini is lighter than your 5-6inch knife. And yes I carry it or something like it on every hike that's not in summer.
 
Shotgun said:
I'm willing to bet my gb mini is lighter than your 5-6inch knife. And yes I carry it or something like it on every hike that's not in summer.
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But do you also supplement that with another knife ?

I don't disagree with ya buddy I'm just saying what I have found works for me. We are all different and all live in different locations so there is no right or wrong way of doing these things !;)
 
on dayhikes (backpacking I have ample shelter, etc- so just a knife) during the "summer" I carry a 3 oz folding saw (Fiskars/Gerber) and a 3"-ish fixed blade), outside of "summer" I add a hatchet (Fiskars/Gerber) 20 oz (w/ a Kydex sheath/~25' 550 wrapped around the handle)- exposure is the biggest risk where I hike (summer included)- so having an axe/saw could come in very handy constructing a debris shelter and laying in some wood for a fire

out of curiosity, what do the bigger choppers weigh? even ballpark
 
Shotgun said:
At the risk of stirring up a hornets nest...well I'm just gonna anyway.:D

I've thought about chopper knives and I like the idea of them. I can see how good they are at doing there job but I came to the conclusion that they're not for me. I'm talking of the thick bowie style Busse/Ferhman type knives not machetes now. The reason? I feel that the skill of the user is more important than a particular tool. A skilled user with a crappy tool is vastly ahead of the game than a newb with the best tool IMO. To that end I chose a hatchet/hawk/axe like chopper to use and get experience with. If there's a disaster of some kind and I'm away from my gear and I happen by a chopper, chances are high that it's going to be an axe or a hatchet if not a machete. I seriously doubt I'm going to happen by a Busse after an earthquake. So I've kind of taken an all inclusive view at my chopper of choice. It's along the lines of the more you know the less you carry. If I have good skill with a hatchet than I can press any hardware hatchet to do what I want when I need it in a pinch and not have to haul my "what if" gear. Anyone else take a wide view of some of your gear and consider abstract "what if's" beyond your immediate needs for that gear?
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Absolutely, I imagine "What If" situations all the time and I come back to the same idea.

-In my truck is a small kit with a 3" fixed high carbon knife, a Sugar Cane Cutter and other non bladed kit. I feel confident with everything on that list for whatever situation calls them into play.

-I have an axe, its great for chopping wood. That's about as far I get with it, its too heavy and large to fit roles more suited to a tool that is not as dedicated in purpose.

-I have a Tomahawk, its a fun edged tool that is in my opinion, inferior to my large choppers in every way.

My B11 or Munk or DogFather LE does what either of those two tools do, but they also does more, I don't get fatigued with them as quickly. In a defensive situation I am alot more comfortable with a large knife. I can skin, build and make more with my large knives.

All told my choppers will not make better choppers than the axes, but they will do everything else including give me more peace of mind.

In your situation you also mentioned an axe would be more readily available post SHTF, I disagree. Both will be pretty easily found, I can go into any restaurant and find a good 10" blade of high carbon to go along with fire axe on the walls.

zeke
 
I agree. I carry a 4" long 3/16" thick 01 blade with a 5" handle, so it can be used as a chopper if need be, but it really isn't meant for that. I don't like large blades, their use really is limited. If i'm going to be chopping i'll bring a hatchet or machete depending on the application, it may be a bit bigger, but it's designed for what i'm doing and will ease the job more. Plus, i won't be killing my knives edge down in the process.
 
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