- Joined
- Dec 31, 2005
- Messages
- 2,984
As the title say's I thought I would do a bit of a review on working with the KZ and then later some of the other larger knives Busse do .... these reports take a while to type up so I will have to break them down into "Parts" ..... I think I have narrowed down that if I were living outdoors for some time I would probably have my kit set up with one of the larger Busse's for Camp knife use but I have'nt really decided which one I like best.
Plunging in with the heavy weight .... the KZ .... the last time I tested this was on living green wood and it's chopping power was remarkable. This time I wanted to test it on harder woods. Not having the money to spend on expensive timber for chopping .... I decided I would combine some fire building variations with the ability to use the larger log sections as heavy tinder for an overnight fire ... the sort of body length fire you need in cold climates for night time warmth .... these logs never burn all the way through and the wood underneath is as dry and hard as you can make wood over here. Not quite as hard as tropical woods but it gives you an idea of how the knife will work on the harder stuff where grip comfort is much more noticeable and important in choice .... it also tells you more about the edge qualities of the blade ....
Here is one such log which I wanted to chop up for smaller tinder ....
The Zilla was able to still bite well into the log ....
The pace I was going at was steady and not to much power .... I had a lot of chopping to do that day ....
I went through the log in about 16-18 chops .... just using the weight of the blade and a little technique .... I was however suprised at how the harder wood was preventing the edge biting more deeply .... so I tried a section near the roots of the stump which had not burned as badly ....
The Zilla was back to performing to what I remembered on this less hardened section .....
It was back to going through these sections in about 12-14 chops ....and they were slightly larger in girth ....
Once you had done the primary sectioning of the log the Zilla also works well in splitting the wood ....
You can line up the knife on the log as shown above and bringing them both down together on another log enables you to split the wood as accurately as using this technique with an Axe .... you need to use a log though underneath as the Zilla is well able to split the log and bury itself underneath. I was using the set up below .....
Once you have the main tinder done for the fire the Zilla is still able to prepare a bit of knidling to get the fire started .... the curved section infront of the handle if sharpened right is well able to do some good fuzz sticks ....
Not bad on curls for a knife this size ....
I have to say I enjoy using the KZ .... the extra weight if carried in your pack is not as noticeable as when carried on your belt and the speed with which this knife can provide firewood for the fire is very handy when needing to keep the fire going all night. It has a very comfortable handle and if used with respect for it's weight and with a bit of technique you can do all the tasks with it an Axe and smaller knife would be used for in fire preperation.
I like this knife a lot !
Plunging in with the heavy weight .... the KZ .... the last time I tested this was on living green wood and it's chopping power was remarkable. This time I wanted to test it on harder woods. Not having the money to spend on expensive timber for chopping .... I decided I would combine some fire building variations with the ability to use the larger log sections as heavy tinder for an overnight fire ... the sort of body length fire you need in cold climates for night time warmth .... these logs never burn all the way through and the wood underneath is as dry and hard as you can make wood over here. Not quite as hard as tropical woods but it gives you an idea of how the knife will work on the harder stuff where grip comfort is much more noticeable and important in choice .... it also tells you more about the edge qualities of the blade ....
Here is one such log which I wanted to chop up for smaller tinder ....
The Zilla was able to still bite well into the log ....
The pace I was going at was steady and not to much power .... I had a lot of chopping to do that day ....
I went through the log in about 16-18 chops .... just using the weight of the blade and a little technique .... I was however suprised at how the harder wood was preventing the edge biting more deeply .... so I tried a section near the roots of the stump which had not burned as badly ....
The Zilla was back to performing to what I remembered on this less hardened section .....
It was back to going through these sections in about 12-14 chops ....and they were slightly larger in girth ....
Once you had done the primary sectioning of the log the Zilla also works well in splitting the wood ....
You can line up the knife on the log as shown above and bringing them both down together on another log enables you to split the wood as accurately as using this technique with an Axe .... you need to use a log though underneath as the Zilla is well able to split the log and bury itself underneath. I was using the set up below .....
Once you have the main tinder done for the fire the Zilla is still able to prepare a bit of knidling to get the fire started .... the curved section infront of the handle if sharpened right is well able to do some good fuzz sticks ....
Not bad on curls for a knife this size ....
I have to say I enjoy using the KZ .... the extra weight if carried in your pack is not as noticeable as when carried on your belt and the speed with which this knife can provide firewood for the fire is very handy when needing to keep the fire going all night. It has a very comfortable handle and if used with respect for it's weight and with a bit of technique you can do all the tasks with it an Axe and smaller knife would be used for in fire preperation.
I like this knife a lot !
