SHBA Passaround 2012

[Mulder]

Hog's & Piglet's,

Just got pics from Dave @ BuyBrown of the sheath he made for my passaround SHBA, WOOOOOHOOOO, AWSOME!!!!!!
Thanks dave.

For those in the passaround please add your pics & reviews to this thread.
I also still have a few spots available if anyone is interested (see original feeler thread for rules).

 

[jball1125]

Let me start off by thanking Mulder for the opportunity to test this awesome knife! Passarounds like this one are part of what make this community so strong and fun to be around. Second person I will thank is David Brown for offering one of his sheaths for the passaround, my thoughts on it later.

Knife: Straight Handle Badger Attack

- A2 steel
- .28" thick
- 10" long
- 1.5" wide
- 13 oz
- wight of knife + sheath = 17 oz

First thing I did when I received the knife was put a "wicked" edge on it!

For those of you wondering, that is "Breaking Bad" on the screen.

Sharpened with 100, 200, 400, 600, 800 and 1000 grit stones. Edge was left hair popping sharp for the latter testing.

The knife that most comparisons were done with:

My trusty tweener meaner, also with a shaving sharp "wicked" edge.

The first test was done on cardboard:

As you can see after about 100 cuts of cardboard each they were both still shaving sharp. Right off the bat my first impression is, "Shit this slices good". For a .32" thick knife it glides through the cardboard just as easy as the .17" meaner

Second test: I was removing some ferns from my yard when the thought that using the SHBM to take one out would be a great test for it.

It cut through those roots with ease.

No problem here, the weight behind the knife makes chopping through these limbs a breeze. I didnt bother trying it with the meaner, its just not heavy enough.

The ergonomics are by far my favorite aspect of this knife.

This grip here is great for chopping, gives a solid grip with better swinging action to bite down deep.

The bigger knife just feels way better in my hands, fills the palm up nicely. Next I wanted to make something sharp.

Here both knives excelled with advantages of their own. The SHBA worked its way to the center faster while the meaner was able to give more precise shaving for a very fine point. Both of these knives obviously would serve different purposes but its the closest bussekin I own to the SHBA range.

I finished chopping up the limbs and as you can see the edge held up well enough for some fine shaving towards the end.

 

[jball1125]

Please understand that I am giving my honest opinion and will not sugar cote or hold anything back in my review. That being said, David Browns kydex sheath is the best kydex sheath I personally have ever handled. Not a single sharp edge, no rattle whatsoever, beautiful mold, perfect retention and my favorite: one finger disengagement. A lot of kydex sheaths out there dont seem to get the release right, it is either very hard to take the knife out or the retention sucks. David got both spot on!

The following pictures were taken one right after the other to show how easy it is to release the knife. Please note that I am righty and it was just as easy for me to release the knife with my left while snapping the pic with my right.

Awesome!

After all the chopping the SHBA was no longer shaving but still slicing through printer paper. The slices were a bit sketchy but after a couple of swipes on the strop it was slicing through it with ease.

Random pics:

This badger likes snakes.

Spine shots of the fatty next to a BAD.

 

[jball1125]

Who likes coconuts? Badger does!

Normally I would do this with a machete but the SHBA cut through the tough husk with ease. Splitting them in half was a little harder since you dont get a lot of leverage with the smaller blade but it still only took about 5 or 6 whacks for each coconut. The main reason I chose coconut was because I have found it to be harsh on edges and I wanted to see how the A2 would hold up.

Next I took the knife in the kitchen for some finer work.

The onion? Doable but not ideal, the thick blade made getting straight thin slices a challenge.

Cutting up some limes? Easy!

Removing the inside for a limeade? Not so much!

The SHBA is without a doubt an excellent knife. It has the potential to be a great all around camp knife. As you can see it can do most things very well, excelling at the heavier stuff. If you were to choose something like the meaner as your all around blade you would have a very easy time doing the finer stuff like limes, onions tomatoes etc. However, when it came time to chopping wood or getting some coconuts open you would really wish you had something like the SHBA on hand. Personally I prefer to carry more than one blade. Something like the meaner for fine tasks and and ax, machete, BM etc. for the heavy stuff. But in the case you wanted to have one blade for all things, the SHBA would be a fine choice. It could take much more of a beating than my hands are capable of delivering, no doubt!

A2..... Its my first time trying out the steel and I am impressed. Lets get the obvious out of the way though, it is NOT Infi. Infi performs superior in just about every aspect except ease of sharpening. I would say A2 sharpens up slightly easier and reacts very well to a strop after hard use. That however is not to say that A2 is bad. It lost its shaving edge fairly quickly but maintained a sharp working edge till the very end. Only time I stropped was after the wood work but the work in the kitchen was done right after the chopping of the coconuts, which would be hard on any knife.

I will mention again that my favorite thing about this knife are the ergonomics! Feels incredibly good in the hand and the blade shape is one of my favorite. I think I regret taking up the passaround offer because now the SHBA is on my "must have priority list" I think a SHBM paired with a .25" SHBA is something of a dream combo for me. .......

I hope the review was fun to follow and thanks again to Mulder and the wonderful members of this community for making events like this possible.

Edge is hair popping sharp again and ready for the next victim in line.

 

[darkaether]

awesome. Looks like its comings my way next. Do you know about what angle edge you have on it?

 

[jball1125]

awesome. Looks like its comings my way next. Do you know about what angle edge you have on it?

THANKS

I plan on sharpening it before it leaves. I will let you know the angles then.

 

[ChristoDart]

Great review! Is that a spider ball? Beautiful either way!

 

[jball1125]

Great review! Is that a spider ball? Beautiful either way!

Thanks man! The first one is a clown ball python and the second one is a lesser ball python (My other hobby).

 

[jball1125]

Review updated with final thoughts.

 

[darkaether]

That coconut chopping fascinates me. I would have never guessed it could do that. Awesome review! I'm probably going to run it with a Custom Shop SAR5 and NOeLE. This is really going to be exciting

 

[jball1125]

That coconut chopping fascinates me. I would have never guessed it could do that. Awesome review! I'm probably going to run it with a Custom Shop SAR5 and NOeLE. This is really going to be exciting

Yea it's fairly easy just make sure you go through the back of the coconut. If you try to go through the top it takes longer and the shell is usually very thick and hard up there.

Look forward to seeing your review on it, it's an awesome knife.

 

[David Brown]

Wow that review is awesome, way better than I could have done.

Thank you very much for the kind words

 

[jball1125]

Wow that review is awesome, way better than I could have done.

Thank you very much for the kind words

I could say the same about the sheath.

 

[mamun1024]

Great review jball1125. :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

 

[Mulder]

Great review and pics, thanks.
Can't wait to hear what the others will have to say.

 

[jball1125]

Great review jball1125. :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

Thanks mamun! I had a blast doing it.

Mulder, I too am excited to see what other have to say about it.

 

[darkaether]

My wife said the package has arrived. about 6 more hours at work for me. Feels like Christmas when I was little

 

[darkaether]

Its been raining all day but I did drag several out to my in-laws' and got a few pics. I haven't had a chance to use it yet so this is like first impressions and comparison pics. The handle is very comfortable, handle heavy, mic'd .29 and I love the blade shape and grind. It reminds me of my leaf shaped spydercos I love so much. I had it on my belt for several hours and it carried easy and never poked me. I was glad to see its already well used. I was kinda nervous about using it but I definitely wont have anything for it that it hasn't seen before. There is some slight deformation on the spine that looks strong but plastic and made me wonder if these are differentially heat treated but I couldn't find an obvious hamon.

DB's sheath is a perfect fit, no surprise since I already have at least 20 of his sheaths for everything from scrapivores to AKs. This is the first 2 tone I've seen and its pretty cool.

a few pics so far

 

[jball1125]

Nice initial impressions dude. Cant wait to see what you have in store for it.

 

[Jac The Slayer]

I'm fairly certain that A2 can't be differentially heat treated since it is an air hardening steel. But Jerry's heat treat magic can make it do amazing things.

I've always loved the lines of the SHBA and from what i've read they are very comfortable. I would love to see a BOSS Badger in the future, after the NMSHBM of course.