Some Impressions

Still think that a slight bump of a guard would be better for safety. Very cool using review.
 
Still think that a slight bump of a guard would be better for safety. Very cool using review.

Thank you, I'm glad you liked the post. For a lot of knife users who grew up using knives here in America, myself who grew up hunting gators in Florida included, it is an obvious and inarguable statement that a slight bump at least between the handle and blade would in fact make it safer for us in some of our uses. But then again from the Scandinavian and Norwegian perspective it would make it safer for us if we just adjusted our perspective of knife use and our techniques, and that's pretty hard to argue as well, but the last time I checked gators still weren't a thing in Scandinavia. I simply don't care for a knife on which handle tapers to the blade with no guard, as in big at the pommel small at the hilt, with little to no contours in between (think Old Hickory and most traditional Puukkos), for anything other than pull type cuts, as in butchering meats, or fine carving. The geometry and physics involved make them automatically loosen in the hand in thrusts into hard materials. But I like how Andy addresses that aspect with the Seax Tasker in much the same way as the makers of some of the other older designs like some of the primitive Scottish Dirks and Sgian Dubhs did, in order to provide purchase and still leave the knife sleek in profile.

All knife designs are a series of trade offs in features and elements. For instance I have always loved the handle of Andy's Bushcrafter model from day one. With the three dimensional contouring, flares at the hilt and pommel, and the rounded pommel it offers exceptional ergonomics and comfort and a secure purchase in every use I put it to. It will also seat well in a pouch sheath with the slight guard and forward flares. But the point just isn't pointy enough to suit my needs in a knife for field crafts. And I feel the same about the Arete. To me the blunt spear points are of little utility to me, and that's why most iterations of the Kephart knife hold no appeal for me. I like to be able to do fine work with a narrow blade and a nice pointy tip, as in primitive living type uses, like boring small holes, making small notches, penetrating tough hides, filed expedient surgeries on myself etc. But for others the Bushcrafter and Arete are their absolute favorite models in the line and suit their needs perfectly. The K.E. Bushie gives me the blade shape and a point that I like for fine work, and the rounded pommel I like for boring holes, but having only the slight bump at the back of the edge of the blade, and the handle largely tapering smaller from the pommel to blade with no flaring of the hilt on the sides or top, it doesn't offer a secure purchase to suit my needs in pushes into hard materials with sweaty hands or hands slick from fish and game fluids. Plus the handle shape doesn't really lock in as securely in a pouch sheath as I would like and isn't conducive to a retention strap. So then Andy finally made his Kephart, which gave me the blade shape I want, the point I need, and the contouring and flaring to give me the comfort and secure purchase I need in long term uses of a knife in the field, and will lock securely into a wet-formed sheath. The pommel isn't really my fav, but being as it ticks all the other boxes, I adjusted my knife uses to it and it is so far my fav overall Fiddleback. But the Seax Tasker now gives me another to really like :)

But then I don't consider myself a Bushcrafter. If I had to label myself I would say I am more of a Wayfaring Explorer. I love to explore new areas, usually woodland ones, which often puts my waist below a sea of: weeds briers and trailing vines, and sometimes below the surface of the water I am crossing, so I travel light. Sometimes they are urban areas where ducking, running, crawling, and climbing can come into play, and there I travel lighter. A secure fit in a sheath is a prerequisite for a knife for me. I conduct a lot of field research and experiments with various materials in both environments for my various works, both organic and synthetic. Experiments in utility, firecraft, etc., and I also love to cook while I am out. Sometimes four course gourmet meals in the middle of nowhere, sometimes in old abandoned buildings just for the nostalgia of it, and because I find it therapeutic. So I probably don't always weigh out the elements of knives the same as everyone else.

nice job Brian:thumbsup:
great photos & insight

Thank you Phillip, I'm glad you enjoyed the post :)
 
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nice job Brian:thumbsup:
great photos & insight

It has been a fun experience, having all the conversations with Andy on the concept of handle function meeting with form over the years, and watching him refine the various elements of his handles. The subtle lines in this handle make it another of the ones that illustrate some of his thoughts and his dedication to refinement very well in my opinion
 
Fiddlebacks handles are a design of form and function and aesthetically pleasing. A lot of thought goes into their construction. I also like the term Wayfaring Explorer mentioned above.
 
Fiddlebacks handles are a design of form and function and aesthetically pleasing. A lot of thought goes into their construction. I also like the term Wayfaring Explorer mentioned above.

Yes, I agree. Andy puts a lot of thought into all his handle concepts. More than people yet understand on some that seem a departure from his norm. Andy and I grew up in similar environments using similar tools, and learning similar things from them, but applying those lessons differently. They inspired him to want to create better quality more functional yet more user-friendly tools. But As fate would have it the only way I am able to do that relaxed is to set up my own shop. The experiences of my childhood taught me a great deal about knife function. My growing up hunting and fishing for food, and also fishing and trapping commercially, then at the same time being taught everything about survival during the tense years of the cold war that my single father Marine Dad could manage to teach me, made me want to make knives of my own early on. Being an artist who loves to create and developing a major fondness for cooking only added more to that. So I was designing and making rudimentary/primitive knives from files in shop class in the 9th grade in south Alabama in the 70s.

However, the PTS issues I have, that came from all the random violence of my childhood, combined with all the night assaults in my sleep, starting with the night I woke up having to kill my stepfather just to survive the night, and on the streets through my teen years have negative effects on that. While it also taught more a lot more about the survival and weapon side of knives, it also makes it impossible for me to relax with all of my senses deprived like that. If I can't see hear and / or smell who is coming up behind me then I'm tense and can't relax, and that makes the knife making not so much fun for me. There are several unfinished knives of mine in various stages of completion in the shops of several knife making friends. So now I design some knives for different companies, and help other makers tweak theirs to be more user-friendly in long term uses as an outlet because I enjoy the connection with the tools and the people who make them. But also because I'm more inspired to seek out better designed, better quality, more user friendly tools to use in my work as a wayfaring explorer and researching writer, than to make them myself. Because there is no way I'd have the time to do everything I want to get done before I die or am unable to do so. So because of our friendship and similar thinking, I am drawn more to Andy's knives than any others, especially in this price range.

And thanks, I've been a wayfaring explorer since I was a kid exploring the coasts and everglades with my father or practicing the things he had taught me while he fished lol
 
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And thanks, I've been a wayfaring explorer since I was a kid exploring the coasts and everglades with my father or practicing the things he had taught me while he fished lol

This may be off topic, but have you done any exploring in other nations? Any one that ypurnreslly liked?
 
This may be off topic, but have you done any exploring in other nations? Any one that ypurnreslly liked?

I have only ever barely been out of the US, and only as a kid and mostly on the water in the Caribbean with my father who co-owned an ocean salvage company. I've wandered back and forth from Alabama and here S.E. Tennessee to Texas twice and then back to Florida the last wander, mostly on foot, between the ages of 15 and 19 when i didn't have a family anymore and refused to go into the system and had to stay on the move. The first time I just barely crossed the Mason Dixon line from Kentucky into Evansville Indiana and back into Misery (Missouri) at St. Louis during a fluke autumn blizzard, sustaining bad frostbite in my hands and severe frostbite in my feet before heading south to Texas to get out of the north. The other pathway was down through Georgia into Florida and along the Gulf coast. Maybe in a few years when my youngest is an adult I may go abroad. I'd like to explore several places, but only time will tell if I have that much time :)
 
Personally, I find that more edge curvature up to the tip, lessons the tips effectiveness. Typically for me, this means the spine of the knife must come down to the tip to a greater extent. Sometimes severely down, as in Japanese kitchen influenced knives - santokus, gyutos, or Andy Roy's Shaman pattern.
fsTZQzcl.jpg


An added bonus is sharping tends to be easier on straight edges or gentle curvatures.

But, some ancient seax patterns were too straight edge, and gentle edge curvature can be a helpful characteristic for some cutting techniques, properly placed during the shaping of the blade.

This Seax Tasker looks pointy, but with some useful edge curvature. I don't mind the lack of guard, except I would hesitate to use this if I had to wear gloves due to cold conditions.....although guard-less knives have been used in Scandinavian countries for sometime into the past and they must have been using them with gloves/mitts through out countless Nordic winters.

I have a Fiddleback Scout -
QJt3TcKl.jpg

which is supposed to be a little bit like a puuko (I think that's the story) with no finger guard. I like the handle. But, I like the pointy end on the Tasker better.

As a side note, the multitude of blade shapes and patterns that FF create is partly what drew me to the maker. There is a great lineage and timeless breadth of knife design just in the Scout, Tasker and Shaman - and that's only 3 of Fiddleback Forges library of work!

Thanks for reading and thanks to BGriffen for shooting and typing this post into being.
 
Thanks for sharing the write up and beautiful photos Brian! That is a great looking knife too! I am in the same boat of usually preferring some kind of guard, but I must say I really like the lines of this one.
 
Personally, I find that more edge curvature up to the tip, lessons the tips effectiveness. Typically for me, this means the spine of the knife must come down to the tip to a greater extent. Sometimes severely down, as in Japanese kitchen influenced knives - santokus, gyutos, or Andy Roy's Shaman pattern.
fsTZQzcl.jpg


An added bonus is sharping tends to be easier on straight edges or gentle curvatures.

But, some ancient seax patterns were too straight edge, and gentle edge curvature can be a helpful characteristic for some cutting techniques, properly placed during the shaping of the blade.

This Seax Tasker looks pointy, but with some useful edge curvature. I don't mind the lack of guard, except I would hesitate to use this if I had to wear gloves due to cold conditions.....although guard-less knives have been used in Scandinavian countries for sometime into the past and they must have been using them with gloves/mitts through out countless Nordic winters.

I have a Fiddleback Scout -
QJt3TcKl.jpg

which is supposed to be a little bit like a puuko (I think that's the story) with no finger guard. I like the handle. But, I like the pointy end on the Tasker better.

As a side note, the multitude of blade shapes and patterns that FF create is partly what drew me to the maker. There is a great lineage and timeless breadth of knife design just in the Scout, Tasker and Shaman - and that's only 3 of Fiddleback Forges library of work!

Thanks for reading and thanks to BGriffen for shooting and typing this post into being.

Thank you for chiming in! We have some very similar thoughts. I too like a below center tip and a shallow belly on a blade. In 1978 when I was 13 and first found myself dealing with life on the streets of North Dallas, dealing with high school jerks with attitude problems and a gang mentality but no real organization or any sort of training, just a penchant towards pointless racist violence, I made a knife for those circumstances I could carry discretely out of an old Mauser bayonet. I only had access to my stepfathers hand tools, so I used a hacksaw and files to make it have a reverse tanto blade about 4.5 inches long, with a very acute needle sharp tip, and removed the barrel lug and guard, and part of the pommel. I made a leather sheath I'd wear in my boot, drilled a hole in the pommel for a finger lanyard, secured the sheath to my leg with an ace bandage, and cut slits in the seems of all my jeans where I could stick my finger through into the lanyard and pull the knife out at need. That knife was my best friend for the next two years, and went everywhere I went. These days I still prefer knives with narrow blades and below center tips.

Thanks for sharing the write up and beautiful photos Brian! That is a great looking knife too! I am in the same boat of usually preferring some kind of guard, but I must say I really like the lines of this one.

Thank you Todd! I'm glad you enjoyed the post! Yes, I'm still safer with a guard in my uses lol, but I do like this one a lot better than most guardless knives I've tried out. I bought a blue Mora Eldris to give to my daughter a few years ago, lol, it's still in my desk drawer. She thinks it's mine and wonders why I never use it...
 
Thank you Todd! I'm glad you enjoyed the post! Yes, I'm still safer with a guard in my uses lol, but I do like this one a lot better than most guardless knives I've tried out. I bought a blue Mora Eldris to give to my daughter a few years ago, lol, it's still in my desk drawer. She thinks it's mine and wonders why I never use it...

LOL! I bought the blue Mora Eldris for my son but never gave it to him for the same reason!
 
LOL! I bought the blue Mora Eldris for my son but never gave it to him for the same reason!

The damn thing is razor sharp! I just can't feel comfortable about giving it to her. I keep picturing her filleting a finger with it...
 
These days I still prefer knives with narrow blades and below center tips.

The new models - Shogun, Daimyo and Emperor - sort of fit this bill for me and I take a closer look for certain, when one of these comes up for sale. However, these offerings have more exaggerated, below center line points.

I do think these 3 new patterns will pierce well - better than the Pygmy or Shaman which are truer sheepsfoot blades and tend to pierce well until the angle of the dropping spine increases too much.....

Any interest in Shogun, Daimyo and Emperor in your personal kit?
 
The new models - Shogun, Daimyo and Emperor - sort of fit this bill for me and I take a closer look for certain, when one of these comes up for sale. However, these offerings have more exaggerated, below center line points.

I do think these 3 new patterns will pierce well - better than the Pygmy or Shaman which are truer sheepsfoot blades and tend to pierce well until the angle of the dropping spine increases too much.....

Any interest in Shogun, Daimyo and Emperor in your personal kit?

Yes actually. At first I was drawn more to the Daimyo as an EDC for pocket carry because i had misunderstood the sizes. Lately I am more drawn to the Shogun as an EDC. I like the reverse tanto tip style. It speaks to me and of my past. I wouldn't mind if it were a bit more acute, and might even be the first Fiddleback I modify a little to make it so, but maybe not. I haven't handled one yet, but I hope to pick one up later.
 
Hey Brian,
I've been debating between a Seax Tasker and a KE bushie. It sounds like the Seax might actually feel more secure in your hand? Do you by any chance have comparison pics? This thread is kinda pushing me towards the Seax Tasker.
Thanks,
Matt
 
Greetings! New on this sub-forum. Been lurking here and on FBF's available page a good bit of late and this thread caught my eye as I just could not resist grabbing the lime green Seax Tasker that was up. I cannot wait to try her out! Fantastic lines! Thanks for the excellent review here.
 
Greetings! New on this sub-forum. Been lurking here and on FBF's available page a good bit of late and this thread caught my eye as I just could not resist grabbing the lime green Seax Tasker that was up. I cannot wait to try her out! Fantastic lines! Thanks for the excellent review here.

To the OP, may I inquire as to where you sourced your sheath, and did it require a "send-in?" Thanks in advance for any response.
 
Hey Brian,
I've been debating between a Seax Tasker and a KE bushie. It sounds like the Seax might actually feel more secure in your hand? Do you by any chance have comparison pics? This thread is kinda pushing me towards the Seax Tasker.
Thanks,
Matt

Hi Matt. Sorry the weather here has been insane...alternating snow and floods, and between that and my daughter's first venture into theater this year and my first year as a theater dad while launching a new company at the same time i have had my hands full.

I have owned three KE Bushies because I have a love/hate relationship with it. I love both ends of that model, and that is to say that I love the blade shape and point, and I love the pommel. I just don't like not having a speed bump between the handle and the blade when applying forward pressure or in thrusts. It's too much like working with a spike to suit me. I feel much more secure with the Seax Tasker. as far as i know there is only one KE Bushie with a guard and Will snagged that one years ago. I'd love to have one, but mostly I just learned to work with the pommel of the Kephart as is, even though that is the one area of the knife I would change if i could to suit me. But I don't really push that as I'm not really a bushcrafter, I just know how to do it :)
 
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