The Billhook weighs 250 g, the plastic sheath is an additional 60 g. The 8.5" blade is ground from forged carbon steel, a proprietary blend called Carbinox T508, 8% of chromium and 0.5% of carbon hardened to 58 HRC. The Billhook is 0.115" thick with a single grind, 0.275" wide forming an edge of around 10-12 degrees per side with a very slight polished secondary edge bevel, at 14 degrees per side. The blade has a black teflon coating. A shot from the Kellam website :
The Billhook came very sharp, easily push shaving, scoring 122 +/- 17 g on light thread and push cutting 3/8" hemp at 31-35 lbs, which is actually higher on both counts than many light utility folders evaluated, let alone blades meant to actually do serious wood working.
Though it isn't designed for it, due to the high sharpness and high cutting aability, the bill hook was used for some light utility work and did very well cutting cardboard, ropes and such. While it isn't a very good potato peeler, it readily outperfomed many of the tactical knives seen for utility use.
The Billhook was used alongside a straight handled Battle Mistress for light weed and small wood cutting. The Battle Mistress was freshly sharpened, readily hair popping, and even though the Billhook was not quite at that level, it did hook through the weeds nicer and was lighter in hand, it didn't take long to realize that the Billhook was a much more efficient tool. Moving onto some light woods, Alders and the comparison went much the same way.
Switching to a Murray Carter Camp knife, which has a much thinner edge than the Battle Mistress and lighter, but it could not match the Billhook either. Plus it was a little less stressful to use, whack a $400 custom Carter into some weeds and smash it into a rock may seriously dampen your mood, you just keep hacking with the Billhook.
Onto some limbs, the bowies had better relative performance than on the lighter vegetation but the Billhook easily kept up in terms of cutting ability, was lighter, had a very nice handle and the back was thin enough to smash off some of the gnarly dried branches anyway so you could readily spare the edge.
However with some thick wood work, the comparison flopped and the bowies pulled ahead. The Murray Carter Camp knife is very smooth, it almost glides in and out of the wood, while the Billhook gets stuck and doesn't have the same penetration. But the Carter took a serious ripple on a knot while the Billhook cut through knots with no damage.
UPDATE : On a later comparision against the Wildlife hatchet, the bill hook edge rippled in two places due to knot contacts. The edge was 0.015" thick at back.
The grip is very comfortable and secure, it handles well even when lubricated. Both the guard and end hook are very wide and thus comfortable to both hook off of and drive into, however the guard is not really necessary because the grip is so well shaped and the texturing aggressive enough to provide enough security . The grip is also not so heavily checkered like the Kraton grips on various Cold Steel knives so that it becomes uncomfortable in extended use.
The sheath is plastic and while it it carries well and holds the knife securely, the retention strap is a plastic loop which may be problematic with releated flexes.
In short this is a very solid tool for light vegetation, weeds and even small brush, it doesn't work well for thick wood, the blade is too thin and jams, but can be used in a pinch, and will even baton wood, though again will bind excessively. It is very sharp NIB, the edge retention is solid and the sheath secure. It however does have problems with harder woods due to the very acute edge profile, so care would need to be taken to avoid knots and break off instead of cut dead limbs.
Comment can be sent via email : Kellam knives website.
| Last updated : | 03 / 31 / 2005 |
| Originally written: | 03 / 31 / 2005 |