Your DREAM Fiddleback

solid4ever

solid4ever

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Cybrok's post got me dreaming about what my ultimate fiddleback knife would be. I thought it might be fun to post mine and see where people's tastes are in comparison to mine:


Bushfinger

3/16th thick steel, Andy's Spalted treatment and a Scandi grind

Full tang (no taper)

For the handle I'd love one of Andy's two-tone bolster/handle combo's with Black micarta at the bolster side and stabalized Quincewood for the grip. Red spacers.
 
solid4ever said:
Cybrok's post got me dreaming about what my ultimate fiddleback knife would be. I thought it might be fun to post mine and see where people's tastes are in comparison to mine:


Bushfinger

3/16th thick steel, Andy's Spalted treatment and a Scandi grind

Full tang (no taper)

For the handle I'd love one of Andy's two-tone bolster/handle combo's with Black micarta at the bolster side and stabalized Quincewood for the grip. Red spacers.
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I seriously doubt you'll ever get Andy to do one that is scandi on 3/16 steel. I have one knife in 3/16 with a scandi made by another company. I do not like that configuration, it's gotten zero use in the last year, and I will NEVER buy another one.
 
I take so much grief for that but I do not like convex grinds and I just like a thicker stock.

You'd certainly have to start the scandi grind up a bit higher to maintain a functional edge but that'd be A-ok for me. A buddy of mine has a Turley in scandi and that sucker is almost 1/4. Admittedly it's a larger blade though. I'd move from the bushfinger to the bushcrafter if I could keep the steel and grind.

You've got quite a few pieces now, mistwalker...do you own your favorite? Do you have a new favorite now that you've got so many that you'd like to see?
 
That hiking buddy with the black bolster and green burl handle is probably the best combo I've seen. I'd love to get one like that
 
solid4ever said:
I take so much grief for that but I do not like convex grinds and I just like a thicker stock.

You'd certainly have to start the scandi grind up a bit higher to maintain a functional edge but that'd be A-ok for me. A buddy of mine has a Turley in scandi and that sucker is almost 1/4. Admittedly it's a larger blade though. I'd move from the bushfinger to the bushcrafter if I could keep the steel and grind.

You've got quite a few pieces now, mistwalker...do you own your favorite? Do you have a new favorite now that you've got so many that you'd like to see?
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Yeah. once you go up high enough to make a scandi on a thicker blade useful, in my opinion, it's no longer a scandi, but rather just a low saber grind. I'd just rather have a higher saber grind and a cecondary bevel to shapen rather than sharpen the whole low saber. Other than the Hiking Buddy, which is now my wife's, all of my Fiddlebacks are convex grinds, but all have secondary bevels where I sharpened them. Andy does micro bevels that can go either way with ease. They can be easily made full convx and can easily be made a standard secondary bevel. I have to be able to refresh my edges in the field so I make them into very keen secondary bevels on the first sharpenings. I love to cook, and scandis just really don't float my boat for food prep, and really just don't suit me for a lot of my woodworking uses.

As far as favorites go, the Kephart is my favorite bushcraft knife so far...though I do still have a few models to try yet...Recluse, Arete, Bushcrafter, and the actual Bushfinger. That said at this point I am seeing the Camp Knife and the Bushboot paired up for winter excursions.


solid4ever said:
That hiking buddy with the black bolster and green burl handle is probably the best combo I've seen. I'd love to get one like that
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I'm glad I'm not the only person who sees it as more green at times, but it's just the lighting. It is dyed blue box elder burl that is an odd blue/green and in some lights looks more blue. That one is my wife's now, but I am seriously hoping for one almost just like it with a full grind and tapered tang on 5/32 steel at some point in the future...hopefully in dyed green :)
 
solid4ever said:
I take so much grief for that but I do not like convex grinds
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Once again, agree to disagree :)

I really liked the wood over wood handles, light and dark, like these:

img2281a.jpg


woodss54-vi_400.jpg


What I'd like to see is a blade a little bit longer, 4.5". Not wider, just longer.
 
Nicely summed up Mistwalker. You're right in that I'm bordering on saber grind vs. scandi....and that it'd be an AWFUL food prep knife (other than perhaps cleaving). I kinda think my Ladyfinger will be my food prep knife forever now though...and one that will stay with the gear and not on my hip.
 
My dream Fiddleback seems to change all the time...but honestly right now it is pretty simple.

My knife budget is small and so all my knives need to be users and I'm finding I like the feel of micarta over stabilized woods, so I think my "grail" knife of the moment would be a 5/32" Hunter, full height convex grind, O1 steel in the tuxedo handle configuration. The hardest part is deciding whether it would be tapered tang or full tang...I think a tapered tang Hunter would be sweet, and the balance would likely be JUST right...but I do love the feel and the look of a full tang knife and having that extra bit of steel might be reassuring when it comes to chores such as batoning.

The other knife that I would consider my "dream" Fiddleback is almost such a cliche it doesn't bear describing, but I will anyway :p That knife would be a 1/8" Bushfinger, full height convex grind, stainless steel in the tuxedo handle configuration with a tapered OR full tang...again, not sure which I would prefer honestly.

That being said, I think the TRUE dream would be to have one of every model that Fiddleback makes. There's not one of them that doesn't seem appealing to me in some way or another!
 
My dream Fiddleback changes every time I open this forum and see the pictures. I'm really happy with my thick Bushfinger right now.

Since I already have the thick, heavy, sturdy knife out of the way, my dream knives are a little more on the lighter side. One that was really close to my dream knife came up a couple weeks ago in the Friday batch but I missed it so I could grab the Bushfinger: Kephart with Scandi Grind. The only way the Kephart would have been better was if it had the tapered tang, although I'm not sure I've seen a scandi grind Kephart with a tapered tang so my dream might stay a dream.

Another dream knife is an EDKarda with some pretty handles (I'll know it when I see it) that I can EDC in a pocket sheath. Pretty handles will hopefully offset some of the reaction non-knife people seem to have towards fixed blades that they don't seem to have with folders. Although my S-I-L thought I was going to cut up her children with my little Spyderco folder at Christmas time when I used it to open a gift.

After seeing mistwalker's thread on the Camp Knife, it's safe to say I'm dreaming about one of those now too. My dream camp knife would be 3/16, not quite a full grind so it'd show off the spalting, and nice thick canvas handles.
 
solid4ever said:
Nicely summed up Mistwalker. You're right in that I'm bordering on saber grind vs. scandi....and that it'd be an AWFUL food prep knife (other than perhaps cleaving). I kinda think my Ladyfinger will be my food prep knife forever now though...and one that will stay with the gear and not on my hip.
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The Ladyfinger makes an awesome food prep knife!
 
No love for the Woodsman? If I was stranded out in the woods and could only have one Knife that would be the one. I have one in 5/32" but would like another in 3/16" saber grind with black linen micarta bolster and liner topped with Desert Iron Wood, white pinstripe. I would put it to use as a light camp Knife. It also makes for an outstanding food prep Knife.
 
thurin said:
Pretty handles will hopefully offset some of the reaction non-knife people seem to have towards fixed blades that they don't seem to have with folders. Although my S-I-L thought I was going to cut up her children with my little Spyderco folder at Christmas time when I used it to open a gift.
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Personal associations and background assumptions are subjects of interest to me. Several of us have discussed how simply changing a handle color can have such a profound impact on the mind, particularly those of non-knifers. Bright colors have the most drastic affect. Orange handles seem to imply the knife as a rescue or emergency tool and put a lot of people at ease. Colors unused in tactical circles such as blue, pink, and purple seem to appear less menacing to people, though blade geometry, size, and color play roles as well obviously. I've watched and done several experiments with one model in particular, the ESEE Izula. Carry a pink one with a pink camo para-cord wrap, and it's a cute little girls knife. Carry a black one with an orange wrap, and it's a rescue tool. A black one with a blue or purple wrap seems to have a neutral effect. But a black one with a desert or woodland camo wrap suddenly morphs that same 2.5 inch blade into a tactical knife. The presence and absence of blade coatings has similar effects on people. My black BK-14 with black wrap seems to be seen as mysterious and menacing, yet the non coated D2 version with an OD cord wrap seems to be taken neutrally (as does my mostly-non-coated BK-11CSM with blue wrap), and I could probably render it utterly harmless by merely changing the wrap to orange, purple, or pink.
 
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Fascinating post, Mist.

I've always been enamored with knives since I was a boy. My grandfather was a superhero to me and always carried his army folder everywhere he went. That he never left home without that knife pretty much indelibly branded their functional importance into me (he willed it to me after he died and I lost it in a robbery in college....I've never gotten over it).

It wasn't until I got older that I began to appreciate the aesthetic aspects of them

We've all seen Museum quality knives; ornately figured and impossibly engraved but the stuff Andy does (and other amazing forgers like him) are the ones that really pique my interest. It really is a blend of form and function. Beauty and purpose. Too much decoration and it loses the sense of function. Too plain and it is reduced to it's caveman like "toolness". Thurin mentioned his sister in laws fear when she saw a spyderco. Would a Karda inspire that same feeling? A smaller case folder? A micarta handle on a knife is pretty but functional. Change it to a burl and it's still functional but now adds an heirloom quality to it.

It's such a subtle balance.
 
People who don't like knives, just don't like knives.

The worst "OMG THAT'S A KNIFE" reaction I ever had was for an Opinel #8, not even opened. Probably one of the less scary knives out there, except maybe the classic SAK.

I gave this thread some thoughts, as well as looked at the recent work.

I like the Ladyfinger's handle and blade profile. I'd like to see one of there with an extended blade (4.5"), but with thicker steel, to make it a tougher knife rather than a slicer. So something longer, but not as wide/bulky as the hunter.
 
Ok, just realized the Ladyfinger is already 4.5"... then I guess what I'd like is a thicker Ladyfinger :)
 
I'm not a fan of thick ladies


I just got a ladyfinger in 5/32nds and just because of how it's made it seems thinner than my Bushfinger in 1/8th.
 
In the city a thinner lady is the best. But in the woods a thicker one can get handy ;)
 
cybrok said:
In the city a thinner lady is the best. But in the woods a thicker one can get handy ;)
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LOL!!

I already have a camp knife and KPH, those were my Dream Fiddleback's for a while. Guess, if I had another, it would be a Ladyfinger or Woodsman. Love those two designs.
 
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