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Price is $300 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
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cuma battle cleaver
- Thread starter battboy
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http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1057251-Cleaver-thoughts?
You missed the thread where everyone was making fun of it.
You missed the thread where everyone was making fun of it.
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I thought it was interesting. I like offset handles quite a bit and, once you get past the mall ninja appeal, it has somedecent steel for a solid price.
The mall ninja appeal is the part I can't get past... well, not even that, I just don't think the design has a practical use. It doesn't look like a good fighter and it doesn't look good for utility either. I don't get it. It would be far more appealing with some kind of point and would probably see more sales especially at that price point.
Imagine the possibilities...
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- Dec 13, 2005
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Yeah its kinda odd looking, not for me.
The mall ninja appeal is the part I can't get past... well, not even that, I just don't think the design has a practical use. It doesn't look like a good fighter and it doesn't look good for utility either. I don't get it. It would be far more appealing with some kind of point and would probably see more sales especially at that price point.
Imagine the possibilities...
Heh, the bowie version in that pic is basically the Condor Dundee Bowie:
And if you added some serrations, the tanto version is basically the Kabar "ZK Famine":
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The mall ninja appeal is the part I can't get past... well, not even that, I just don't think the design has a practical use. It doesn't look like a good fighter and it doesn't look good for utility either. I don't get it. It would be far more appealing with some kind of point and would probably see more sales especially at that price point.
Imagine the possibilities...
It might appeal to me more with a more conventional point, but having a straight front edge like the Razel certainly has some utility appeal. As a fighter, I'm in agreement that it doesn't seem overly useful, but the choice of grind puts me off more than the lack of a conventional tip. If you put a convex primary grind on the main edge and a short, obtuse flat grind on the leading edge I'd pick one up in a heartbeat. It just seems like a few of the design elements are at odds with one another.
Really, I don't think the design is that bad, just not quite as thought out as it should be. I suspect 99% of the bashing is centered a whole lot more around the 'Combat Ready Battle Cleaver' bit, which does indeed make me wince.
Bigfattyt
Gold Member
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- Jun 23, 2007
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Full tang 5160 with G10 handles and a sheath for 44 bucks would make for a pretty tempting beater.
I am kind of a fan of square nosed choppers. Adding the chisel point is something interesting (I like the small Graham Razels).
I have a chisel point knife I made in 5160 (small), and it is pretty handy for some things. I am not sure how handy the chisel point on a big chopper would be. The square design will move the weight/balance out further for chopping.
The cons I see with that design. First, that exposed tang on the rear of the handle is a very poor design. Very thin triangular cut outs will break with heavy impacts/dropping the knife etc. Bark river makes a big thin cutout design like that which is very susceptible to breakage from dropping. Forget hammering with it or pounding on it.
Second issue, that grind will give horrible media penetration! Very narrow shallow grind to saber means it goes from edge to full thickness extremely fast. Take a good full flat grind on that same design, and it will have much better penetration.
The low hollow saber grind is done on this design for one reason only. Speed and low cost of manufacture.
Too bad they did not go with at least a flat saber. Then regrinding it would have been much easier.
I am kind of a fan of square nosed choppers. Adding the chisel point is something interesting (I like the small Graham Razels).
I have a chisel point knife I made in 5160 (small), and it is pretty handy for some things. I am not sure how handy the chisel point on a big chopper would be. The square design will move the weight/balance out further for chopping.
The cons I see with that design. First, that exposed tang on the rear of the handle is a very poor design. Very thin triangular cut outs will break with heavy impacts/dropping the knife etc. Bark river makes a big thin cutout design like that which is very susceptible to breakage from dropping. Forget hammering with it or pounding on it.
Second issue, that grind will give horrible media penetration! Very narrow shallow grind to saber means it goes from edge to full thickness extremely fast. Take a good full flat grind on that same design, and it will have much better penetration.
The low hollow saber grind is done on this design for one reason only. Speed and low cost of manufacture.
Too bad they did not go with at least a flat saber. Then regrinding it would have been much easier.
You do a lot of knife fighting, sport???
There are three good reasons for this type of tip design:
1. It lets the knife be used as a scraper/plane/chisel
2. It might makes Darwin Awards less likely than the other designs you sketched
3. It works well in pry bar knives - like the Cop Tool that is extremely popular with LEOs, the MAK that's designed for firemen, etc.
Really: any time you find yourself defining practicality in terms of knife fighting, just stop and think...
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I think it would be great as a yardwork brush beater. Looks reminiscent of a Malaysian parang I got from outdoor dynamics and thats an excellent brush beater 
to me, it doesn't seem like a very useful design, it's huge, over 9 inches, and the name is "Battle Cleaver" as well, with a promotional video that shows a large bearded man roaring as he attacks various objects, so I classified it as a "fighter" that was extremely similar to the silly stuff in Ka-Bar's zombie line-up. Regardless of what it is for, I would like a tip on it.I guess you could do something practical with it, but so could you with many other knives... it just looks like a sharpened square to me.
We just discussed this thing a couple days ago...
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1057251-Cleaver-thoughts
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1057251-Cleaver-thoughts
Street Samurai1978
Gold Member
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- Mar 25, 2012
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Japanese make hatchets that look like that, though not with that sort of curved handle. Honestly it looks more like the type of knife Jewish peeps use to cut animals thorats during kosher butchering, though a lot wider. Not the most practical design. I respect Tsai as a martial artist, but if they're letting him design their knives, then TOPS needs to reign him in. Those designs aren't anything I'd go for, as a consumer I mean.
texpat
Gold Member
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- Jan 18, 2018
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- 429
Okay, first off, let me apologize for necro-posting, could not find a newer thread on these and didn't want to start a new thread for my garden-variety butchering of knives, lol. Second, I am not a bladesmith in any way, most I have done prior to this is make scales, I make my own micarta and sometimes play around with wood scales as well.
So I bought a couple of these things, some 8 years ago or so, they were on closeout (though they are still for sale now) from a vendor, and were like 18 bucks, I had to pay tax but bought enough for free shipping, so they were like 20 bucks a piece to my door. 20 bucks for a good long chunk of 5160 seemed worth it, but not for using the blade as it was, not why I bought them, I bought them with a project in mind, hacking a good chunk off the blade and making a seax of sorts out of one.
Fast forward many years, finally got a home with a shop of my own, and time for old back-burner projects, so I busted out the ol' CUMA cleaver. I don't have near the tools I should but got some good advice from
1066vik
and
B
BitingSarcasm
on cutting the hardened steel with what I had, spent a good chunk of the afternoon making it happen, slow as molasses, 2 seconds of cutting then dousing repeatedly with water and waiting several minutes until it cooled. Originally I was going to make the angle typical of what i've seen, not too acute and stabby, but got to looking at the blade and the handle angle (about 20 degrees) and decided to make the cut at the same angle as that seemed a pleasing symmetry, bonus was the cut would be about the same length as handle thus adding to symmetry.
Finally finished the cut earlier and man, does it ever look badass, at least to me. Still have to even the new spine area out a little bit but the cut was surprisingly good considering I used an angle grinder with a cut wheel, so 10 minutes on the bench belt sander should do. Going to make some wood scales out of a chunk of some unkown-to-me hardwood a friend gave me years ago, don't know what it is, but it's dark and ridiculously heavy and dense. Got a woodburning setup and going to do a dragon graphic on it and some mosaic pins, also have leatherworking stuff and going to make a sheath for it with some more viking type graphic stuff.
Thanks for the tips on cutting guys! Will post some pics if anyone's interested, fun stuff and my first knife-modding project ever, i'm 60 so it's about friggin time, lol!
So I bought a couple of these things, some 8 years ago or so, they were on closeout (though they are still for sale now) from a vendor, and were like 18 bucks, I had to pay tax but bought enough for free shipping, so they were like 20 bucks a piece to my door. 20 bucks for a good long chunk of 5160 seemed worth it, but not for using the blade as it was, not why I bought them, I bought them with a project in mind, hacking a good chunk off the blade and making a seax of sorts out of one.
Fast forward many years, finally got a home with a shop of my own, and time for old back-burner projects, so I busted out the ol' CUMA cleaver. I don't have near the tools I should but got some good advice from
1066vik
and
B
BitingSarcasm
on cutting the hardened steel with what I had, spent a good chunk of the afternoon making it happen, slow as molasses, 2 seconds of cutting then dousing repeatedly with water and waiting several minutes until it cooled. Originally I was going to make the angle typical of what i've seen, not too acute and stabby, but got to looking at the blade and the handle angle (about 20 degrees) and decided to make the cut at the same angle as that seemed a pleasing symmetry, bonus was the cut would be about the same length as handle thus adding to symmetry.Finally finished the cut earlier and man, does it ever look badass, at least to me. Still have to even the new spine area out a little bit but the cut was surprisingly good considering I used an angle grinder with a cut wheel, so 10 minutes on the bench belt sander should do. Going to make some wood scales out of a chunk of some unkown-to-me hardwood a friend gave me years ago, don't know what it is, but it's dark and ridiculously heavy and dense. Got a woodburning setup and going to do a dragon graphic on it and some mosaic pins, also have leatherworking stuff and going to make a sheath for it with some more viking type graphic stuff.
Thanks for the tips on cutting guys! Will post some pics if anyone's interested, fun stuff and my first knife-modding project ever, i'm 60 so it's about friggin time, lol!
