Chopping unsupported wood?

Is chopping unsupported wood knife abuse?

  • Yes, believe it or not straight to jail

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • No, that's half of what a chopper is meant for

    Votes: 22 100.0%
  • Total voters
    22
beachmaster

beachmaster

Gold Member
Joined
Oct 3, 2014
Messages
661
So I am going to be doing a full length video demonstrating chopping unsupported wood, why certain makers/ mfg's will blame any damage on it, why it does increase force at the edge-

And on a properly manufactures and designed chopper why it shouldn't matter.

Of course my BWM will be featured in this video but all the sudden I wondered if this is something you guys have experienced problems with? I would guess that giant semi circular chunks popping off the edge from chopping unsupported wood has never been an issue but uh- I'm new here haha

What do yall think?


*edit- in case my own opinion is unclear here I will now do a TON of chopping unsupported wood on maple, pine, and oak with every large knife I review from now on because outside of a mfg defect I believe a large bush knife that advertises this as abuse isn't a large bush knife at all, and is in fact poorly designed and or made

 
Any chopping of wood in no way should or could be misconstrued as “abuse”….. other than with a folder. And even then, a $37.50 4Max can do that all day.

Just curious because I’ve not seen anyone claim this is abuse, what manufacturers have this stated?
 
Gravelface said:
Any chopping of wood in no way should or could be misconstrued as “abuse”….. other than with a folder. And even then, a $37.50 4Max can do that all day.

Just curious because I’ve not seen anyone claim this is abuse, what manufacturers have this stated?
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Brk&t, and I see it said about Dawson a lot lately also.

I'm not super familiar for forum rules or any rules for that matter but in certain circles that do overlap here it's a pretty commonly held opinion.
 
Any knife advertised as a large survival camp knife should be able to chop wood in any condition. And that means any woodwork that comes up. I use to chop 2 cords of wood every year for my wood burning stove. I did that for about 5 years and I used my SHBM, a kukri and a hatchet. I'd say 1/4 or more of the wood was unsupported. Never noticed any difference. The only difference I noticed was that it took longer to chop larger pieces that were unsupported vs supported.
 
beachmaster said:
So I am going to be doing a full length video demonstrating chopping unsupported wood, why certain makers/ mfg's will blame any damage on it, why it does increase force at the edge-

And on a properly manufactures and designed chopper why it shouldn't matter.

Of course my BWM will be featured in this video but all the sudden I wondered if this is something you guys have experienced problems with? I would guess that giant semi circular chunks popping off the edge from chopping unsupported wood has never been an issue but uh- I'm new here haha

What do yall think?


*edit- in case my own opinion is unclear here I will now do a TON of chopping unsupported wood on maple, pine, and oak with every large knife I review from now on because outside of a mfg defect I believe a large bush knife that advertises this as abuse isn't a large bush knife at all, and is in fact poorly designed and or made

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I just watched that video of yours. Dam, that thing bites deep. Kinda surprised me as it is one of the BM's that has a more neutral balance vs the FBM's with a more forward balance. Very cool.
 
Cobalt said:
I just watched that video of yours. Dam, that thing bites deep. Kinda surprised me as it is one of the BM's that has a more neutral balance vs the FBM's with a more forward balance. Very cool.
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I absolutely love this blade- full stop.

My Hells Razor will come in tomorrow- once that comes in and I get a bunch of work done with this I'll send it to my leather guy and despite having so many other knives that deserve attention and that I need to use I'll be sad when it's gone haha
 
beachmaster said:
I absolutely love this blade- full stop.

My Hells Razor will come in tomorrow- once that comes in and I get a bunch of work done with this I'll send it to my leather guy and despite having so many other knives that deserve attention and that I need to use I'll be sad when it's gone haha
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Yeah, you got lucky with that find. They weren't popular when they came out compared to the FBM's and the FSH's. But they were probably better all around knives with the more neutral balance point.
 
More people think batoning a knife is more abusive than chopping with one. Even on BF and other forums. And I believe that improperly done it can be abuse, like heavily knotted wood. But a tough knife and some common sense can baton pretty much anything. Even so, plenty of knives have been broken inside a tree.

This, to me is one of the funniest videos. Why anyone would even attempt this is beyond me, but no one got hurt and the knife survived, lol

 
Unsupported wood? 😅 No comment, I"ll keep my jokes to myself.... 😉🙃
I didn't know that about unsupported wood, but I have never seen damage from my Busse's hacking on that, even a tough piece of oak. (the bough underneath was actually the other section of the bough the knife is stuck in)
FBMLE vvv- Only dirty, no edge damage from this. The Oak was hard AF.
FB_IMG_1643240320752.jpg
 
Jaxx said:
Unsupported wood? 😅 No comment, I"ll keep my jokes to myself.... 😉🙃
I didn't know that about unsupported wood, but I have never seen damage from my Busse's hacking on that, even a tough piece of oak. (the bough underneath was actually the other section of the bough the knife is stuck in)
FBMLE vvv- Only dirty, no edge damage from this. The Oak was hard AF.
View attachment 2475894
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That is some dense stuff. Thats the crap that can break a knife when batoning. Must have taken you a while to chop through that one.
 
Cobalt said:
This is the first I have ever heard of unsupported wood being a problem for choppers. So I find that interesting. I guess we should all carry a jig with clamps on it when out in the woods.
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That is what, in my opinion, is so silly for a custom maker or company owner saying not to chop unsupported wood.

I baton and chop CONSTANTLY and have been for about 10 years and yeah, it's FAR FAR more efficient to chop your wood supported if that's what you are doing.

But most people don't do that. They use their chopper for clearing their property, their shooting lanes, their trails etc. It should literally be the primary reason for a chopper existing for the regular person in my opinion.
 
beachmaster said:
That is what, in my opinion, is so silly for a custom maker or company owner saying not to chop unsupported wood.

I baton and chop CONSTANTLY and have been for about 10 years and yeah, it's FAR FAR more efficient to chop your wood supported if that's what you are doing.

But most people don't do that. They use their chopper for clearing their property, their shooting lanes, their trails etc. It should literally be the primary reason for a chopper existing for the regular person in my opinion.
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Agreed. Dont build a big knife and then put restrictions on how I process wood. Imagine Cliffs SHBM and how much unsupported wood it has processed since 1998.
Then take the SHBM below and how many cords of wood it chopped plus being thrown into my tree cross section around 15000+ times. I stopped counting 5 years ago.
jlXQpMm.jpeg
 
Cobalt said:
Agreed. Dont build a big knife and then put restrictions on how I process wood. Imagine Cliffs SHBM and how much unsupported wood it has processed since 1998.
Then take the SHBM below and how many cords of wood it chopped plus being thrown into my tree cross section around 15000+ times. I stopped counting 5 years ago.
jlXQpMm.jpeg
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Yall probably don't know or care but I was the first guy to break a Junglas 2-
A simple knife in 1095 that is well made with a good ht foe the steel and intended use.

Breaking it was a NIGHTMARE for me and Justin Vititoe- so you have 2 200+ pound dudes with bad intentions and an 8lbs splitting maul and time-

The thing is never going to break from use in wood and 1095 is pretty bottom of the spectrum, and that's with a bte of about .040 which isn't aggressive but it isn't a slouch either.

Anyways, I see complaining that a customer was misusing a large knife that isn't a kitchen knife because they Chopped unsupported wood as disingenuous.

I assumed, correctly I believe, that that had never been an issue here and I'm glad of it.
 
beachmaster said:
Yall probably don't know or care but I was the first guy to break a Junglas 2-
A simple knife in 1095 that is well made with a good ht foe the steel and intended use.

Breaking it was a NIGHTMARE for me and Justin Vititoe- so you have 2 200+ pound dudes with bad intentions and an 8lbs splitting maul and time-

The thing is never going to break from use in wood and 1095 is pretty bottom of the spectrum, and that's with a bte of about .040 which isn't aggressive but it isn't a slouch either.

Anyways, I see complaining that a customer was misusing a large knife that isn't a kitchen knife because they Chopped unsupported wood as disingenuous.

I assumed, correctly I believe, that that had never been an issue here and I'm glad of it.
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Yeah, I have several esee's and they keep the Rc lower in order to gain toughness, which I think is the right thing to do. If you break a junglas, you were going beyond basic woodwork use.
 
“Most often, that kind of damage results either from poor chopping technique or from chopping through an unsupported twig or branch.”
~ From the article

Oh I almost peed laughing about damaging a knife from a twig. But then I looked at the picture and it all made sense.
 
Never heard about “unsupported wood” but this line from Knives Ship Free site posted above is hilarious:

“Most often, that kind of damage results either from poor chopping technique or from chopping through an unsupported TWIG or branch.”

Emphasis added.

Support those twigs boys!
 
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