Froe vs Nata vs destructo

N

Noldy

Joined
Feb 28, 2022
Messages
15
Hello guys,

After researching a lot of knives I ended up with these choices :

Buck Froe
Silky Nata
Work Tuff King Destructo

I will use the knife mainly to Batton, chop and everything I need to do to build my fire in the woods.

Any of you have some experiences with theses knives ?
What would be your choice ?
 
Noldy said:
Hello guys,

After researching a lot of knives I ended up with these choices :

Buck Froe
Silky Nata
Work Tuff King Destructo

I will use the knife mainly to Batton, chop and everything I need to do to build my fire in the woods.

Any of you have some experiences with theses knives ?
What would be your choice ?
Click to expand...
Buck froe i own and have used. great for batoning and chopping wood. its built for it per Buck. handled everything I've thrown at it. super tough 5160 steel with good heat treat.

other ones don't own dont know....
 
jbmonkey said:
Buck froe i own and have used. great for batoning and chopping wood. its built for it per Buck. handled everything I've thrown at it. super tough 5160 steel with good heat treat.

other ones don't own dont know....
Click to expand...
Honestly it's the one I prefer but I like to take some advices before purchasing.

Thx for your feedback
 
The Buck Froe is very good and 5160 is an excellent steel. But, it’s a purpose made tool; excellent for wood processing but heavy and cumbersome as a general purpose knife. You may also want to look at the Buck Talon, it is similar to the Froe, but more of a bill hook In shape.

A more general purpose knives would be the BK 9, Rat 7, RTAK or the very similar Esse products. These are all excellent camp knives.

n2s
 
not2sharp said:
The Buck Froe is very good and 5160 is an excellent steel. But, it’s a purpose made tool; excellent for wood processing but heavy and cumbersome as a general purpose knife. You may also want to look at the Buck Talon, it is similar to the Froe, but more of a bill hook In shape.

A more general purpose knives would be the BK 9, Rat 7, RTAK or the very similar Esse products. These are all excellent camp knives.

n2s
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I took a look at the Buck Talon. I never used a serated knife, is it good at batoning ? I'm afraid it might destroy my piece of wood ?

I already own a bk-10 but this time I'm really looking for a knife more oriented, batoning, heavy chopper...
 
I want to try the silky Nata. So get that one and tell me what it is like.

The silky is a lot cheaper at a quick look as well.
 
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Noldy said:
I took a look at the Buck Talon. I never used a serated knife, is it good at batoning ? I'm afraid it might destroy my piece of wood ?

I already own a bk-10 but this time I'm really looking for a knife more oriented, batoning, heavy chopper...
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you don't want a talon. I have 3 versions of it. 1 standard. 1 made for a company. 1 that was a Joe Houser custom modified into a big thick plain edge knife. only the last one would do okay at best or batoning...but not as good as a froe would.

pics of the 2 oddballs...20200914_192943.jpg
20220301_103342.jpg
 
jbmonkey said:
you don't want a talon. I have 3 versions of it. 1 standard. 1 made for a company. 1 that was a Joe Houser custom modified into a big thick plain edge knife. only the last one would do okay at best or batoning...but not as good as a froe would.

pics of the 2 oddballs...View attachment 1755201
View attachment 1755209
Click to expand...
Thx for your feedback, that's what I thought, not good at batoning and it's the main reason I want a big chopper...
 
I don't have the Silky Nata, but I do have one that a late forum friend sent me years ago that is a beast of a hunk of steel. I'm not sure how the Silkys are made, but this one may loosen up a bit if used for baton duty regularly. Mine has a tang running about half way down the wooden handle held in with a pin through the tang and steel ring locking the handle toward the top/bolster area. Truthfully, I haven't used it much. I usually break it out for kitchen duty when thick hunks of meat need to be hacked to pieces. Still, the thick stock and chisel grind would make short work of processing wood if used correctly.
 
Steely_Gunz said:
I don't have the Silky Nata, but I do have one that a late forum friend sent me years ago that is a beast of a hunk of steel. I'm not sure how the Silkys are made, but this one may loosen up a bit if used for baton duty regularly. Mine has a tang running about half way down the wooden handle held in with a pin through the tang and steel ring locking the handle toward the top/bolster area. Truthfully, I haven't used it much. I usually break it out for kitchen duty when thick hunks of meat need to be hacked to pieces. Still, the thick stock and chisel grind would make short work of processing wood if used correctly.
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Yeah that's the kind of stuff I'm looking for :) but for batoning I prefer full tang.
I own a couple of axes, small and medium knives and now I want to try large chopper to get more control when splitting woods.

For now I'm keeping the Buck Froe and the Silky Nata... Finally I don't like the work Tuff King Destructo, I'm afraid the way the spine is designed it will be hard on my club...
 
Steely_Gunz said:
I don't have the Silky Nata, but I do have one that a late forum friend sent me years ago that is a beast of a hunk of steel. I'm not sure how the Silkys are made, but this one may loosen up a bit if used for baton duty regularly. Mine has a tang running about half way down the wooden handle held in with a pin through the tang and steel ring locking the handle toward the top/bolster area. Truthfully, I haven't used it much. I usually break it out for kitchen duty when thick hunks of meat need to be hacked to pieces. Still, the thick stock and chisel grind would make short work of processing wood if used correctly.
Click to expand...

I have seen a review of the silky and it is two strip's of rubber kind of sat in place like Lego.

I don't know if it makes that issue better or worse.
 
Drop bear said:
Makes sense. I thought it might not loosen up while batonning. Because there isn't really anything to loosen.

But I don't know.
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I know what you mean, it happened to someone in a video, he corrected this issue with a bike tube over the handle.

That make me think, I don't feel to tweak my knife so it works properly...
I guess the Buck Froe is winning, unless someone suggest some interesting tools ;)
 
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I could be totally mis-remembering, but I thought I heard one time that the traditional Japanese nata tangs are allowed to oxidize and the wood swell so that they have a tighter fit. I don't think I would like a handle like the one found on the Silky.

Partial tangs don't bother me. Tons of khukuris that have done decades of work sporting just a partial tang. Full is certainly stronger, but partial is not always a huge issue.
 
Steely_Gunz said:
I could be totally mis-remembering, but I thought I heard one time that the traditional Japanese nata tangs are allowed to oxidize and the wood swell so that they have a tighter fit. I don't think I would like a handle like the one found on the Silky.

Partial tangs don't bother me. Tons of khukuris that have done decades of work sporting just a partial tang. Full is certainly stronger, but partial is not always a huge issue.
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Thx for your insights ! After reflection I will buy the Froe, looks like it's probably the best according to my needs. I give myself a couple of weeks because I need it this summer. I might change my mind meanwhile...
 
dirc said:
skrama - all day - every day over all of those (imho)
apologies for not sticking to your shortlist, but it had to be added

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Tell you what... My friend own a skrama and it's a great knife !!! But I want something different ;) Im always bushcrafting with this friend so I want my own knife, something different ;)
 
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