I have both the Fisk Blackjack Knives Magnum Camp Knife and the KaBar Bk5.
I've kept the MagCamp hanging in my pantry for years and used it for any number of heavy kitchen and field tasks. It is a well balanced upswept fixed blade of 440C steel and supposedly with a 3/16th-in spine. I've used it for every imaginable kitchen choir, including what you'd reserve a cleaver for.
I have a new KaBar Bk5, the modern version of the Magnum Camp. It is well balanced, lighter and made of 1095CV. It is also supposed to be 3/16ths thick.
The KaBar is lighter and "faster" than the MagCamp and I assume it would be lighter to chop with.
This weekend I had a wheelbarrow of sweet corn to prepare for canning and I grabbed the Bk5. Snap cutting through sweet corn isn't a great challenge for a sharp knife. Doing it over and over again to reduce a wheel barrow of corn to separated husks, silk and corn is a bit much.
The Bk5 was light in the hand. It snapped brisquely and went through husk, silk, kernel and cob with no effort. Michaela and I traded it back and forth and it was lively and efficient through the whole pile of corn. At the end of it all it still shaved hair.
I have also seen one used to chop through a 2X4 in 12 chops without chipping or rolling the edge.
If you like this pattern of knife and want something big enough to make your hairy necked uncle envious this is a good place to start.
I've kept the MagCamp hanging in my pantry for years and used it for any number of heavy kitchen and field tasks. It is a well balanced upswept fixed blade of 440C steel and supposedly with a 3/16th-in spine. I've used it for every imaginable kitchen choir, including what you'd reserve a cleaver for.
I have a new KaBar Bk5, the modern version of the Magnum Camp. It is well balanced, lighter and made of 1095CV. It is also supposed to be 3/16ths thick.
The KaBar is lighter and "faster" than the MagCamp and I assume it would be lighter to chop with.
This weekend I had a wheelbarrow of sweet corn to prepare for canning and I grabbed the Bk5. Snap cutting through sweet corn isn't a great challenge for a sharp knife. Doing it over and over again to reduce a wheel barrow of corn to separated husks, silk and corn is a bit much.
The Bk5 was light in the hand. It snapped brisquely and went through husk, silk, kernel and cob with no effort. Michaela and I traded it back and forth and it was lively and efficient through the whole pile of corn. At the end of it all it still shaved hair.
I have also seen one used to chop through a 2X4 in 12 chops without chipping or rolling the edge.
If you like this pattern of knife and want something big enough to make your hairy necked uncle envious this is a good place to start.
