fishface5
Gold Member
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2001
- Messages
- 9,574
Grabbed a steal on this knife, a personal user of Bill's: 15" overall, 9 5/8" blade of 1/4" thick 5160 with differential heat treat, handle slabs of "Terra Tuff" ("a composite material similar to micarta") with flared stainless tube fasteners.
When I saw the handle drop and belly it was exactly what I had been coming to in my own thoughts as an optimal camp knife design: good flow into the cut, enough straight edge to be used as a draw knife, long and heavy enough for chopping while not so big that it's a burden to carry.
I have owned a lot of choppers including several by Bill and so far I think this is the moist nimble big knife I have ever used! I took it out against a bunch of rose bushes that I had been neglecting to prune down for way too long. As usual I didn't bother to wear gloves and so now I'm a bloody mess but through no fault of the knife, which served excellently. It was not as effective on the small whippy branches as my longer valiant golok, BUT the shorter blade made it much easier to get to them. And on the thicker stuff, 1/2" to 1.5" in diameter, it flew through with a graceful ease that was very much appreciated.
I then took it on against a seasoned length of 4x4 that I have for testing choppers, and the wood flew off without any binding, which given the relatively thin edge I had been afraid might pose a problem. Not quite as efficient as the HI Annapurna bowie with my "klingon" mods, but the Siegle is a lot lighter and easier to wield (Annapurna in the pic has white paint still on the blade from when I used it to chop through a door frame so I could replace my back exterior door - that thing is a beast!).
Then I went down to the driveway to clean up and bundle the rose remains for pickup, and I fear to say that at times as I was chopping or moving all the foliage that the edge did contact concrete several times - not chopping into it but banging against it. I was intentionally not babying it b/c I wanted to see how it would hold up. Result - an entire garden waste contained filled (50 gal?), 4x4 chopped, driveway clanged against = no damage at all, still entirely shaving sharp!
Bill makes a good knife in general but I think that this design in particualr is a real winner. I'll have to put it through some more paces of course. And if I had one quibble (aside from the turquoise color) it would be that I prefer a thicker handle with more palm swell. But overall this design is IMHO truly a standout. :thumbup::thumbup:
When I saw the handle drop and belly it was exactly what I had been coming to in my own thoughts as an optimal camp knife design: good flow into the cut, enough straight edge to be used as a draw knife, long and heavy enough for chopping while not so big that it's a burden to carry.
I have owned a lot of choppers including several by Bill and so far I think this is the moist nimble big knife I have ever used! I took it out against a bunch of rose bushes that I had been neglecting to prune down for way too long. As usual I didn't bother to wear gloves and so now I'm a bloody mess but through no fault of the knife, which served excellently. It was not as effective on the small whippy branches as my longer valiant golok, BUT the shorter blade made it much easier to get to them. And on the thicker stuff, 1/2" to 1.5" in diameter, it flew through with a graceful ease that was very much appreciated.
I then took it on against a seasoned length of 4x4 that I have for testing choppers, and the wood flew off without any binding, which given the relatively thin edge I had been afraid might pose a problem. Not quite as efficient as the HI Annapurna bowie with my "klingon" mods, but the Siegle is a lot lighter and easier to wield (Annapurna in the pic has white paint still on the blade from when I used it to chop through a door frame so I could replace my back exterior door - that thing is a beast!).
Then I went down to the driveway to clean up and bundle the rose remains for pickup, and I fear to say that at times as I was chopping or moving all the foliage that the edge did contact concrete several times - not chopping into it but banging against it. I was intentionally not babying it b/c I wanted to see how it would hold up. Result - an entire garden waste contained filled (50 gal?), 4x4 chopped, driveway clanged against = no damage at all, still entirely shaving sharp!
Bill makes a good knife in general but I think that this design in particualr is a real winner. I'll have to put it through some more paces of course. And if I had one quibble (aside from the turquoise color) it would be that I prefer a thicker handle with more palm swell. But overall this design is IMHO truly a standout. :thumbup::thumbup:
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