Dan,
I suggest a more thick tip. I had the SR and, for such beast, the tip was too thin. Also if it was 9" long, the chopping was safe only for 4/6 of the edge lenght, loosing a good amount of power. While chopping is really easy to introduce torsions: as result I had the tip bent more times.
Can you try to keep the spine a little bit thicker also for this size ?
I couldn't agree more. I received my knife a couple weeks ago, and I have used it HARD and I mean HARD HARD, and the tip did bend on me.
When I get a heavy chopper, one thing I do is to stab it into a tree as hard as I can, NOT pounding it in, just stabbing it in with my strength and I'm no ox, and I want to be able pry it out without any trouble at all.
The tip on this knife went in about an inch or so, and this tree was dead and the outside rotten and soft, and when I started to pry, I could feel it bending and I stopped. When I pulled it out, it was bent.
Just for reference, I measured the thickness of the blade .100'' from the tip and it was .035'' thick. I then measured several other heavy choppers I have, made from makers on here as well as others, and their tips are running .070'' to .075'' thick when measured .100'' back from the tip. They don't bend at all ever not even a tiny bit no matter how deep you pound them into wood. To be honest, I actually tried to break a few of them and I couldn't even with a cheater pipe. Those knives I trust without any doubt at all.
It's a great knife design, but that tip needs to be at least twice as thick. If this was a hunting or skinning knife, the tip would be perfect. For a beast of a chopper, double the thickness at the tip.
Besides, it's less grinding and you can get them done faster.
