- Mora #1260
- Caine Survival Tool
- Takach Bush Knife
- Condor Golok
- Keffeler Custom
- cKc Voyager
- Kodiak Survival Sword
- Busse Battle Mistress
This review consists of :
Knives :
This review consists of : |
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Maker Webpage : cKc knives on GearBastion , basic specifications :
This knife came about after using a Forrester from Kyley Harris and wanting a similar blade with a few modifications :
Some time discussing the knife with Kyley and his XXXL slowly transformed into the Voyager.
The newly christened Voyager was sent to Bruce Rugg for a sheath once it was finished and he also took apart some wood. Jeremy McCullen also had a go as well. The performance of the knife appeared be excellent :
and the blade of course was not significantly effected from the work as would be expected from a high hardness, very tough steel.
Sheath :
Initial impressions :
On 3/8" hemp :
Through ten points on on some 1x0.5" pine making 2" points with light force (10-30 lbs) :
Through ten points on on some 1x0.5" pine making 2" points with heavy force (50-70 lbs) :
In short :
If it is surprising that it can carve wood comparable to the Mora, keep in mind that while the blade is thick the edge has an angle comparable to the Mora and the primary grind quickly sweeps back to a thinner profile.
Given the basic statistics :
This knife is not going to fare well on stiff vegetables as it will take several times as much force as a sensibly ground kitchen knife and the raw weight in hand makes it a bit of an exercise for the wrist.
However as the edge is fairly thin and the angle low (15 dps same as the much recently promoted Shun's) it actually cuts soft materials well. Pineapple in particular easy to cut so it is mainly about control in hand and there are no issues with the grip in that regard.
While the blade is extreme for a kitchen knife, outside of heavy cleavers, due to the design which was intentional to allow for an over hand grip for power wood cutting the performance is higher than expected in regards to ease of maneuverability.
Of course the rate of fatigue in peeling is high due to the :
The major effect is the blade width as it forces the hand to be in a very wide and exaggerated position so it leads to discomfort and cramping if used for any length of time.
Now with the limitations noted about stock size/thickness, it actually works well to a cutting board :
Of course again the thicker blade does reduce performance on binding foods but the ability to work close to the cutting board makes it more functional than say the Trailmaster and other blades which are awkward due to the dual front guard.
And of course as is obvious from Bruce in the video, it simply is fun to use for what otherwise is a fairly mundane activity.
On a little amusing note, on fish work it was pretty awkward just due to the sheer weight of the blade. It is obviously much more suitable for steaking or even splitting fish than doing a fillet even a butterfly.
During filleting there is no feedback as :
Again there is no issue in actually cutting the fish as that is mainly edge work unless you are working on partially frozen fish or any fish with a very thick flesh and/or thick fat layer. Of course you would also want a slimmer point in general for ease of penetration but again this is more for amusement and just practice of dexterity of using a large blade for delicate work.
On one of those amusing moments which is rarely caught on camera, the Voyager was being used for some stock chopping on 2x4 and it happened to cut a piece in practically one hit. Now the Voyager would be expected to have a lot of chopping power :
however a one hit chop is unexpected and it just happened to be right at the exact spot where the knife cut deep enough to hit a fault line and split the grind of the wood. This is more of an amusing result than anything else, but does indicate to some extent the combination of high cutting ability and raw impact power.
In general on scrap lumber :
Taking a very hard look at the knife in comparison to the Excalibur from Mike Gavac, a difference can be seen in penetration/fluidity as the Voyager is just slightly heavier in cross section and so it trades a little depth of cutting for fluidity. The main difference is in the blade grind :
On some lighter vegetation the Voyager showed the difference that
just the edge angle itself can make. It was being compared to a
Fiskars Brush axe which has a fairly high edge angle (22 dps) and because this
was very shallow cutting the angle influence was critical.
The 22 dps edge on the Fiskar's was too high and the vegetation was simply trapped by the hook and since it could not cut through it, it just bound up and it felt more like a bat than a knife. The higher edge angle increased the force needed to make the cut to beyond what was needed to just bend the wood out of the way so it tended to move rather than be cut.
In comparison the cKc Voyager went through easily as the vegetation would slide along the blade and be easily cut which was also enhanced by the lower edge angle of 15 dps. The performance reverses on very light vegetation like grasses and such where the Fiskars trapping effect won't cause any bring up because of the grasses are easily cut. It was a fairly dramatic difference though on this wood, night and day between the two blades.
For carving it doesn't have the ease of doing a lot of fast rough carving not because it lacks cutting ability but simply due to the weight of using this in hand compared.
An ideal carving knife is similar to the A. G. Russell Deerhunter which is near weightless in comparison and of course shorter and easier to maneuver. The only real point to doing that kind of work with the Voyager is either an exercise in hand/wrist strength or the work is so minimal that fatigue would not be an issue anyway.
Of course the raw chopping ability means it much more easily can rough to shape as would be done with an axe and if the work can be pinned or otherwise held in position it can easily be used as a draw knife. Again looking at the stock cutting the raw cutting ability on wood is very high and there is no problem pointing a stick or making a notch, but for long term carving the rate of fatigue would be high given the raw weight and heft. It generally works best doing very heavy rough style material removal such as taking a rough piece of wood and quickly carving a handle to make a functional beetle or heavy mallet.
In regards to splitting, using a baton has become so common that it even went from being a noun to a verb to an almost mantra "can it baton" is almost as common in discussing large knives as "can it blend" is a meme.
Traditionally knives were always used in this manner, it is common to see old billhooks with hammer marks even on the spine and of course froes and other knives are purpose made for splitting wood into shingles. It is one of the more stressful activities for a knife simply because it demands very little effort from the user and can be done anywhere unlike a lot of other tasks such as felling, limbing and general brush work. Hence why often it is very popular, though again - it has its uses.
How does the Voyager handle it :
No real issues, almost an ideal blade for it.
Ergonomics : comfort in general due to the shape was high, as expected as Kyley does a lot of work with his knives and doesn't send them out untested, one of the benefits of small scale custom work. However for an overhand grip the front of the handle was a little squarish and would create a hot spot at the base of the thumb. This was easily addressed by simply filing down the micarta in that area. The handle might also be considered a little rectangular by some however this is one of the areas where performance in one area (comfort) has to be traded for another, security against rotation.
The only real concern was that the finish on the handle is very smooth. Kyley prefers a smooth finish and that works well for grips which allow some movement in hand, chopping styles which have a loose grip. However personal preference is to have some more traction to allow a tighter grip and some power in a slower and heavier/inertial based chop. To resolve some of these concerns some traction and indexing was added by cutting a fairly simple pattern into the handle.
Security : the handle is fairly rectangular in cross section which gives the blade excellent stability in use and makes the blade very difficult to turn/rotate or glance in use. Now to be clear the edges of the handle are well contoured however it is not as oval in cross section as some grips and for lighter work where heavy impacts are not a concern that might be a better option.
Durability : micarta in general is extremely durable and resistant to any environment or condition far beyond natural materials. It is pretty much maintenance free and anything likely to damage it is also likely to damage the knife, sheath or user.
However the unique design of the partial tang may be a bit of a concern to some as it is not a full tang. However the modern interpretation that a full tang is needed for "heavy duty" knives is a requirement is fairly odd and mainly based on data which really doesn't support the conclusions.
Inexpensive knives which are manufactured under poor tolerances or practices often fail at the tang for many reasons however a properly hardened piece of steel isn't going to be possible to break in the tang even with it severely reduced. Even in the heaviest of prying the strain will be in the blade, not in the handle. Most failures due to tang breaks are often due to
Uniqueness : this grip actually has a fully enclosed tang so there is no exposed metal. This is done to prevent heat transfer and allow the knife to be used bare handed over lower temperatures. Steel conducts heat much more readily than Micarta and this makes the knife far more functional personally.
The tang was also severely reduced in width to also shift the balance point far forward to give it the balance and impact points desired in a chopping blade. While somewhat of a test construction piece in putting it together, it has worked well with no concerns.
It was actually made by putting several layers of Micarta together and joining them with an adhesive. Again there was concern initially about impacts and general fatigue. However Kyley Harris (maker) did some destructive testing and was satisfied with the strength/durability.
It has been in use for quite some time, no issues.
Nominal composition of Calmax :
Description from the manufacturer (Uddeholm) :
A very versatile steel with adequate wear resistance and very high toughness. It is very suitable for low to medium production volume tooling for blanking thick production materials or in general when the tooling is exposed to high stresses.
For large knives Calmax is attractive as it has a combination of :
This means it strongly resists damage from chipping/fracture and is easy to grind/sharpen to restore as necessary. It has only a very small amount of primary carbide and so its wear resistance is similar to steels such as O1, AEB-L but it is far tougher.
In a comparison of using the two steels, when taken to failure Calmax will tend to slightly deform whereas O1 will chip and thus in general, Calmax would be preferred over O1 for such knives, though O1 is a far better choice than D2 or similar high carbide steels.
The steel is easily able to cut up a fairly large pile of scrap wood :
and can easily retain sharpness to still cut light grasses and suffers no damage due to
The sheath was made by Bruce/Nebulax123 (YT Channel). It was Bruce's first entry into the world of professional sheath making and is a excellent example, especially for a first sample of work.
It has a few custom requests :
In addition is it/has :
The dangler belt loop is attached with a secondary retention so it isn't completely loose. This was an addition by Bruce to allow the general freedom of a dangler so the sheath moves when struck to prevent hangups but keep it a bit less than totally loose. It works very well in that regard. Note the comparison to the sheath on the Excalibur (left) which has a full/loose dangler.
If looked at with a very critical eye there are some aesthetic finishing issues however in time Bruce is likely to move into raising the finish here especially given the work he does with mirror polishing blades. It could also be argued this is to provide a rustic finish to some parts such as the belt loop and attachment.
The knife also came with a perfectly functional Kydex sheath which isn't a personal preference here due to cold weather's influence on Kydex under impacts. But for outside of the winter the sheath is lighter with less maintenance than leather and is more resistant to abrasion from contacts with hard wood and in general more rugged in regards to cuts/scrapes.
Overview :
Personal mods :
Comments can be emailed to introduction
and/or the YouTube Playlist.
Most of the pictures in the above are in the PhotoBucket
album.
| Last updated : | |
| Originally written: | 28/02/2013 |