Knives :
This review consists of :
Copy from the maker :
The Kodiak Survival Sword is a multifunctional tool designed for the avid outdoorsman/soldier/wilderness enthusiast/zombie fighter.
Reasoning: The traditional Machete has been deemed an essential tool for life in the jungles of Central and South America. Bushwhacking trails through dense, yet lush and supple vegetation is a daily venture, and a relatively light, but long Machete tends to be the be the best tool for the job.
In North America, where undergrowth generally consists of hardwood saplings, briars, Aromatic Cedar, and other hard, nasty varieties, a short sword with an acute cutting edge can provide a little more inertia to drive through the toughest obstacles. The Kodiak�s 16" long, 1/4" thick, flat ground blade is razor sharp and is easily driven deep if not clean through the most difficult vegetation. Austempered O1 tool steel blade provides the ultimate in toughness and edge holding ability.
Note the maker has used various steels, O1, 1095 and CPM-3V, this one is 1095.
Maker Webpage : Kodiak Survival Sword , basic specifications :
Initial impressions :
The decent weight and heft and very thin profile should make for excellent penetration and the reach and long grip will make for excellent brush cutting. The only immediate concern is the abrasive nature of the grip. The choice of bainite is an excellent one for a large blade as it is very tough so should resist fracture well and be easy to grind in extreme cases to restore the edge.
The hemp cutting reinforces the sharpness measurement which shows little slicing aggression.
On carving wood compared to the #1260 Mora in light force cutting the performance is comparable. Even though the angle of the Survival Sword is much higher which reduces the performance, the blade grind thins out the edge and this compensates.
However as the force increases, trying to do heavier stock removal there are issues with the survival sword :
And thus for heavier cutting, the Mora readily outperforms the Survival Sword. But of course if quick stock removal was required then the Survival Sword would just chop off the waste vs carve it off.
Now this isn't made to be a kitchen knife however traditionally very large knives are often used for animal butchering, large cleavers are commonly used that way in Asia for example. The interesting thing about this knife is that it performs better than expected :
Now the high sharpness isn't anything particular to this knife, any knife can be kept at a high sharpness but that is basically all that is needed to cut skin and trim fats. However the continuous belly makes rocking cuts through joints very smooth and efficient.
The other nice thing is that the handle has a very aggressive texture and provides a very secure grip even when lubricated with oil/grease. This makes it very safe to use as there is no concern about the knife slipping in hand.
Now there are a few problems which make it a little less than ideal to put it mildly :
The raw size of the blade makes it awkward to use in a normal size kitchen because of the open space needed to just allow the blade to work and not have the point dig into the wall. The very long handle also sticks out far enough that it can make it awkward aside from solo work.
The very heavy weight and forward balance also make chopping, a standard fare for cleavers to be impractical because it will simply damage most chopping boards. Even if a heavy chopping board is used then the impacts can be heavy enough to be a concern for regular counter tops. But again, not really designed as a kitchen cleaver, though fun to use on occasion.
Beyond whacking up a few chickens, it can be used on more mundane tasks :
but it gets kind of silly very fast due to the sheer size of the Survival Sword and the efficiency goes down quickly given the cross section. An efficient kitchen knife has a much thinner blade grind :
Beyond kitchen use, it can be used for general cutting but it faces very similar problems as seen in kitchen use :
Now curiously enough the edge grind :
Is actually comparable to a lot of much smaller knives and thus from a relative cutting performance it does very well. It easily cut alongside knives such as the Spyderco Endura for example.
For general chopping :
The edge grind is at the minimum upper level for durability which may be a curious statement. To clarify, it is set for the level of durability required for heavy knot and seasoned low diameter wood cutting.
Ergonomics : The index finger choil has the usual ergonomic issues of being a very thin contact surface and thus cutting even with light force of about 20 lbs will start to cause discomfort quickly. In order to avoid that the force when cutting should come from the back of the hand at the base of the thumb and use the index finger in the choil just for control. But even then it has a much lower comfort than on the handle itself.
The handle is very aggressive, easily more abrasive that the handle on the solid polypropylene grips Cold Steel uses on its machetes for example.
Security : The grip fills the hand well, has a very aggressive texture and a prominent guard and end swell. The security is therefore among the highest seen outside of a knife with an integral D-guard or similar.
Durability : The handle slabs are made from G10 which is extremely impervious to almost anything aside from chemical attacks which would be likely to damage the blade itself let alone the user. It is extremely resistant to wear, weathering, impact and cuts/abrasion. Aside from simply getting dirty and needing to be cleaned there is almost no way to significant effect the handle aside from direct hard impacts (i.e. hit it with a hammer) which at most flatten the checking.
Miscellaneous :
Overview :
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Most of the pictures in the above are in the PhotoBucket album.
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| Originally written: | Thu, 27 Sep 2012 22:07:25 Newfoundland Daylight Time |