C.U.M.A BATTLE CLEAVER: Ninja ExTREME!!

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Sam Cade

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Rural Kentucky, surrounded by Amish
I'm a sucker for a big knife.
There.
Now I've said it.

A few nights ago while zombie clicking in a somnolent daze I stumbled across the C.U.M.A. Battle Cleaver by Combat Ready Knives a Waysun "Johnny" Tsai design

Battle?
Combat?
Designed by a guy who may be Asian? My inner 15 year old took control and in a few clicks I was $46 poorer.


Knives sometimes come in Boxes. Sometimes these boxes have words written on them. Sometimes those words are amusing.
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The bottom of the box reads as follows:

Legal Waiver

Combat Ready Knives are designed to be used by Military, Law Enforcement and Security professionals. The blade on this knife is extremely sharp and mishandling or incorrect use may result in serious injury or death. It's the responsibility of the buyer to investigate and comply with the laws and regulations of their particular locale.

Watch Your Six!

Ok. Fair enough. Situational awareness is important.

But wait, there is more! One of the small ends of the box is printed with the complete text of the 2nd amendment to the US Constitution. The opposite face has a rather boring bar code.

But what is this?

On the side we find:

"Liberty is the natural born right of every free person.
Sadly, freedom is never free, it sometimes comes with the highest price of all, the blood of patriots. Patriots who always have and always will stand combat ready to answer the call for freedom and justice for all. We proudly support our products with the same fierce tenacity as those who defend our freedoms; for life. Combat Ready products have a full lifetime guarantee, free of manufactures defects, for as long as you own the knife. Period. Can I get a Hoorah."
This knife is made in the Peoples Republic of China. ;)

Best. Box. Ever.


Now, on to the knife.
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It is a big knife. Roughly .2" in thickness, 9.25" blade and 2.25" in width.
Steel is 5160 (!) but it is unfortunately hollow ground.
The blade is finished is called Blackstone. Research would indicate that Blackstone is a codeword that means scuffed up epoxy paint.
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I may have to buy one of their knives just for the box! I look forward to reading your upcoming usage / performance report on this tactical meat cleaver. :evil:
 
The spine of the knife has a bit of a wobble. Probably an artifact from heat treat. No big deal.
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The edge is true and well ground but not particularly sharp. By not particularly sharp I mean that it is as dull as an Amish froe. If you tried peeling an apple with it you would end up with applesauce.

The grip is long and has a large belly, scales are G10, fixed with Torx fasteners and have a divot for theoretically building a fire like a caveman. The corners of the scales are miserably sharp.
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Pictured with common reference objects:
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It is about the same size as a BK-9 but much wider. Note how much higher the grind on the BK9 is.
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Tomorrow we will go out and see how it does at some camp knife tasks. It is already a strong candidate for a regrind as I'm expecting the low hollow grind to be a powerful lim-fac.
 

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Does it work on Zombies? I'm playing Dead Rising 3 and it's GOT to work on zombies!

Of course, I prefer American made zombie-killing stuff. :)
 
The guy is a martial artist out of Chicago. He's relatively well known because he has a couple of knives with TOPS.
 
According to what I can find on the knife forums the thing appears to be ground by a knifemaker here in the U.S. Wonder if I'm seeing information for a "better" version of it? 5160 steel? Right?
 
I am reminded of the part in Robert A. Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" where Lt. Col. DuBois is discussing the nature of value- that it is relative and not absolute, by saying something to the effect of "... a skilled baker can turn some apples, flour, and sugar into a more valuable confection, while a terrible one can turn the same ingredients, which already have some modest value, into an ugly mess, value zero."

5160 and micarta are ordinarily fine materials for knives, but you need an appropriate grind, heat treat, and ergonomic handle design to turn good materials into a good knife.

Looks like this maker is not aware of that. :D
 
Might be a fancy prybar if you ground all the sharp bits off. I prefer not to get my patriot blood on my work.
 
Sleet is curtailing my outdoor work but here is a tidbit.

Now, it is possible to have a big hollow ground knife that will chop well but that is predicated on two things:

1. Having the grind go up very high.
2. Blade stock thick enough to tolerate the high grind without getting overly thin and fragile.

The C.U.M.A BATTLE CLEAVER fails fails fails on item number one.

The rapid thickening of the edge and sharp transition to the flats work against the C.U.M.A BATTLE CLEAVER in the cut, severely limiting depth.
After getting warmed up, I did some comparison cuts on scrap 2x4 lumber. These are done with what I would call "working force" with an eye toward consistency of swing but keep in mind that I'm a factor in this as well, so YMMV.
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Bottom to top:
OKC 12" "Camper" machete nominal .125" blade stock with convex grind.
Becker BK9 nominal .188 blade stock with high flat saber grind.
C.U.M.A BATTLE CLEAVER nominal .2" blade stock with run-it-as-fast-as-you-can over the contact wheel hollow grind.

The C.U.M.A BATTLE CLEAVER doesn't even come close to parity with either of the two.

I figure the BK9 is roughly 150% as effective as the C.U.M.A BATTLE CLEAVER as a chopper while being much lighter and more suitable for general knifey tasks like popping balloons or peeling bananas.

Two-Chop notches with the C.U.M.A BATTLE CLEAVER show remarkable consistency since the grind stops the blade so abruptly.
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Full strength chops aren't much more effective and I was getting a great deal of bounceback from cutting on seasoned firewood. Once the the shoulders of the grind hit the material being cut it is just plain over.

Scrap lumber:

Working Force on left of of notch, Gorilla Chop on right. Not much difference in depth considering the difference in effort expended.
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I think it is safe to say that no one is ever going to win a Bladesports event while wielding one of these things.

Before I started I knocked the edges off of the scales with a belt grinder. Out of the box they are just too sharp to allow using this knife for any length of time without damaging yourself.
Other than that, I have no ergonomic complaints. The knife feels good in the hand, very weight forward and it wants to chop.

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Later we will look at the sheath.
Horrible. Maybe the worst sheath on any production knife I have ever seen. Not kidding. No exaggeration.
 

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