When Failure Is Not an Option

 Worried about your RADIOACTIVE bolting/peg hammer?

JUST JOKING ABOUT THE RADIOACTIVITY!

BIG WALL HAMMERS

BUT SERIOUSLY,  YOU notice that the wooden handle has some cracks in it within the head. Is this a reason for concern as after all this is not a hammer where you can simply lose a head mid pitch and this is going to be ok. Well rest assured, these heads are designed not to accidentally part company with the shaft for that very reason!

Firstly, let me explain how a bolting/peg hammer differs from your regular hardware hammer. (BTW we are talking about traditional bolting hammers which have a wooden shaft- natures composite!). 

Unlike a regular ball peen hammer or carpenter's claw hammer, where the head is secured to the shaft, via  at least one steel (or sometimes wooden) wedge smashed into the end of the shaft and hence spreading the shaft ever so much in order to provide a tight frictional fit (sometimes some sort of epoxy may also be utilized); a BOLTING PEG, PITON hammer, specifically designed to manually drill holes (via belting the daylights out of a SDS drill bit or  self drilling anchors) into rock, usually but not always while one is suspended only by a 10mm or even less diameter rope, at height, these hammer heads can not fail due to obvious reasons; features a different design.

First, let me tell you a short story:

 Some years back three of us were setting a new climbing route. This route required no bolts to be set during the entire climb, however at the summit if you like, there was, believe it or not, ZERO placements to be found and of the one possible (dodgy) placement required me to leave behind a newly purchased large  Black Diamond Camelot! 

I was not willing to do this (we nearly had an argument) and besides that, it was not enough protection for 3 adult males to be be rapping off a cliff face of more than 50m!  Out with our bolting kit to save the day!

 So, what did it comprise of? One hardware store, slightly modified ball peen hammer (it had it's handle drilled to accept a lanyard- no sense in dropping that hammer, and a small bag of Petzl self drilling anchors and of course the Petzl drill holder itself! Now as to the rock, it was of course some indestructible igneous stuff manufactured from the interior of the earth to resist weathering for the next several million years- in other words, damn hard stuff! 

So after each one of us took turns to spend approximately 40 minutes per hole- that's right 40 minutes!, we placed three high tensile bolts into those perfectly flush anchors, tied sacrificial tape to them, via larks heads and ever so super carefully rapped off that cliff. Yes indeed the bolting kit saved maybe a day or more hiking in virgin Australian bush back to the car. 

I guess those are the things you do when you are mad about finding and setting new climbing routes!

So what as wrong if anything with what we did? The type of hammer, was our weakest link because that sort of hammer is not meant for any task where failure in not an option. If for example, the head popped, then we would have been faced with a very very difficult bush bash (that's being nice) to get back to the car through almost non navigable terrain. Lesson which was learnt on that day was don't scab on a proper caving bolting pegging piton, whatever you want to call it hammer, as hardware hammers are not meant for these kinds of activities ( oh I forgot to mention canyoning as well- for new routes).

Now let's address any concerns you may have over the above hammer head fixture. We can see ( shown by green arrows) that there are 2 small cracks in the wood. Let me tell you that those cracks were present at the time of purchase and they have zero effect on the integrity of the actual head on the shaft. WHY? Because these types of heads are fixed via two right angled plates via a peened brass pin securing the head to the shaft which prevents the head from coming off the shaft no matter what. In the above image, one can clearly see where these "brackets" if you like fold over part of the hammer head (top and bottom of the image).

Now like many climbers and or people into extreme sports- I'll just talk about climbers here, there is some value I believe for psychological protection (not to be confused with any other sorts of "protection") and if you are one of those climbers (for the knife guys and gals, here it is equivalent to taking 2 knives out with you on adventures (just incase LOL!) then you can do the following to your hammer head if you have something similar:

Impregnate (for want of a better word) the shaft with either PVA**, ie wood glue, or more permanently but will make replacing the shaft in the really worst case scenario, use epoxy resin to do the same. If this makes you feel better. it's NOT necessary, LOL but I did it despite having belted the daylights out of this hammer with zero effect upon it's integrity.

This particular hammer, a KONG EAGLE, made in Italy (no longer in production*) and designed based upon the famous or  Super hero of rock climbing JIM BRIDWELL.

What one doesn't want to do is to belt the following part of you hammer, which can damage it, because while it is indeed (this hammer) as tough as Thor's hammer, unlike Thor's hammer, is not quite indestructible! So don't use these hammers when you are tired because this will happen (when I lent it to a mate). (see image directly below).

Where they accidentally belted the top of the shaft (using wild uncontrolled blows) . It was remedied by my son asked him to return the hammer to be shown what not to do LOL. No bad blood was forthcoming.

The mighty (THOR)- just joking;  KONG Big wall hammer (made in Italy- sadly no longer in production) , AKA the "KONG EAGLE", a heavy but not too heavy >800 gram hammer capable of almost ALL aid climbing, canyoning, and caving tasks. A design based upon Jim Bridwell. Also doubles as a super heavy duty bashing hammer for crazy geological adventures ie bashing cold chisels etc. (note it is NOT a substitute for a proper geology pick!)

@BushCampingTools

* there are lighter hammers and ones also made from one piece of steel plus the good old battery powered drills for holes but a hammer is still needed for pacing pitons and bashies (malleable metal aid gear)

** PVA is NOT waterproof

and the consequences should be obvious. So of the hammer is to be used underground........ that PVA will be affected, again with this type of head design, it will have little bearing upon it's integrity on the shaft.

WithArmour: Fury Compact-BK a N. Sutter Design.

WithArmour:  Fury Compact-BK

 a N. Sutter Design.

 

 

N. Sutter is a Swiss designer and artist. He has his own brand of knives and this FURY COMPACT-BK is the first of his designs to be made for a brand (WithArmour).

 

WithArmour have constructed this knife with their proprietary San Mai construction they are calling WA Steel. This is 420J2 sandwiching VG-10. 

The handle (my version) is made from carbon fibre reinforced G10 and G10 liners. The black blade coating is according to WithArmour a Ti PVD, which in order to produce a black appearance it should be something like TiCN. However, the manufacturer does not state their actual process, nor do they state it is TiCN.

 

Knife type:

 

The FURY COMPACT-BK is exactly that, a very compact, rather small knife for which many who enjoy tactical type knives will like the look of. However, many, unless you have a very small hand will not be able to grasp it properly. My hand is a size 8 and I would say this is by no means a large hand size and yet I can barely grab this knife without my hand almost contacting the deadly sharp knife edge. Speaking of knife edge it is actually “plural” as the upper tip also sports a dead razor grind like the main portion of the blade and this makes this knife somewhat of a dagger* in design The knife feels somewhat heavy and no doubt due to its rather thick but at the same time rather robust design. WithArmour’s site lists the blade thickness as 4.7mm however, it appears that I have been sent for review a pre-production model number 89/100 

for which the spine thickness is a whopping 6mm! Now, in his defense N. Sutter was heard to say publicly at IWA (in Germany) that he thought the 6mm thickness to be too great and I can understand this as any tactical fighting style knife should remain nimble and certainly not heavy. He went on to say that the head of WithArmour thought it was a good idea. I did hear this conversation and in defense too of the head of WithArmour, I can see their marketing tactics here as the American market is the largest by far consumer of edged tools and as such Americans tend to err on the side of liking their knife tangs thick for some reason as yet unknown to me. So, if WithArmour or any manufacturer for that matter wants to have sales success in the USA then thick it will be. Mmmmmmm.

 

The Fury Compact-BK is definitely NOT a bushcraft knife but one intended for close quarters combat/last resort action, 

although I believe the handle to be too small for such action. For what I can grip, it is comfortable for sure. The fact that the blade is made from laminated steel also adds to the very indestructible look of this small knife. How small is it? Well it’s a similar size, maybe a tad smaller than my Extrema Ratio SATRE neck knife, however, whilst the SATRE is perfectly balanced to hang around my neck, the FURY Compact-BK is way too heavy to be worn as a neck knife and indeed, it comes with a kydex super secure and adjustable kydex scabbard for belt carry. 

Speaking of things which come with this knife, it is accompanied by a diamond rod sharpener, and kydex holder, 

belt clip and a special driver for which one can use to remove those pesky “chain ring bolt” type bolts made from 416 stainless steel. I say pesky because unless you have such a tool, these bolts are very difficult to remove with ordinary tools.

Included assorted accessories

 

 The scabbard has a very simple but cool feature too, it can be sort of "tuned" for exacting custom lock up of the knife by a small screw mechanism!

(see below)

By varying it's position in this slot, varies the tension upon the knife.

The overall finish of the knife is very nice and despite it being on the slightly heavy side it is indeed comfortable and does look, dare I say it, very cool. The black PVD coating serves no purpose other than aesthetics as the main part of the blade due to the unusual grind, like a high Sabre to a large bevel which then transforms into a Scandi to the actual edge, is uncoated and thus for tactical reasons looks like a mirror in the sun. I guess if the intended purpose is for some sort of backup knife for fighting (for which I know nothing about -knife fighting I mean) then whether a blade is coated or not is not going to be of an issue.

 

Speaking of this funky grind, it is one way to reduce the overall weight of the blade and also to improve the cutting power of a thick blade stock. There are zero hot spots on this knife design. Like my other WithArmour blades, this one too came razor sharp out of the box!

 

 

Packaging is immaculate and considerate of the environment with little plastic being used.

Instead of paper business cards, WithArmour produce a coated stainless steel type business card which is also one of those somewhat gimmicky bottle cap openers, fire steel striker, line cutter and box openers! To be honest we accidentally carried one of these on an international flight once and it was indeed picked up at security check in and deemed not be a hazard or some banned item! Luckily as my son had forgotten he was indeed carrying it in his wallet! Needless to say, at the time I almost went ballistic on him when security found it LOL! OK so just to be clear this is NOT an endorsement to carry such items when flying! It was a mistake by us and never repeated. So, what I’m trying to say is that carrying such an item without even noticing it, is in itself quite useful if you see what I mean as in you will always have it on you- ie if you use a wallet.

 

 

 

·      * this may present some carry  restrictions dependent upon which country you reside in and dependent upon what definition’s are being used to define a “double edge weapon”

@BushcampingTools

I'll show you what is tactical and why

 I'll show you what is tactical and why.

Ok, aside from the karabiners and rescue figure of eight descender in the above picture, sure they can have both recreational and tactical roles, that should be obvious, for example from canyoning to rescue operations etc. Now is THAT particular knife "Tactical" or rather a "Tactical tool"?

Let's see!

Since a knife isn't of any practical use without the capacity for it to be transported; we will start by discussing  (with self explanatory pictures) the scabbard.

So in order to be designated "tactical" this scabbard MUST feature some practical aspects which go beyond a regular scabbard and in fact it does!

How about the knife? Surely it's just a knife?

Let's see eh?

Is there any (Tactical) advantage of this knife over a similar sized knife?

Well let's start with that it is strong, as in it can take a 68Kg load (my current body weight) across the horizontal axis. ie 667N force.

Ok so we have now ascertained the knife in question is strong, so? Lot's of knives are strong, although I would certainly not advocate standing on your knife to test it as there is always a chance of a serious injury! "Don't do as i do, do as I say" LOL!

However, no doubt one could at least place 68 kg across the spine (if one could do that with their hands- most people couldn't), the blade might in a pinch be able to be used as a lever. Well, this is a military style knife and the intended market is NOT for the civilian as most civilians have no use of such a knife, come on, it's no good for hunting, way too heavy for hiking and it's use for the soldier is obvious in my mind but what about potential civilian usage? Yes, it can be used to good effect for food preparation (I've done it many times dealing with large bony headed estuary catfish, chopped apart palm tree hearts (in lieu of carrying a machete) 

- WHOA! you ask:  "Hey why didn't you carry a machete -or even a fish knife?" Well, because I knew where we would be going and whilst it's jungle, it's simply not dense enough to carry a machete- and a fish knife can't chop anything-right? 

One must know something about their environment you plan to travel in, makes sense right?

Let's talk about sharpening a knife

Knives come in a myriad of shapes and it is those shape/s that to a major degree influence how: easy or not so easy and or the skill level required to sharpen them. Let's face it, a tanto styled knife, especially a western styles tanto, with little to no belly curvature will be a whole lot easier to sharpen than that of a knife sporting various recurved sections etc etc. "Easier" usually equates to "faster" and as a person on the go (eg a soldier) this will probably be of some benefit. Does that make it tactical, possibly? More likely "practical". If you are not "on the go"  then blade shape and sharpening ease has little relevance as one in effect "has all the time in the world" to complete such a task.

Surface coatings

Well this is definitely a tactical requirement  unless you want to get everyone killed by flashing about a shiny object revealing your location. Shiny reflective objects are rare in nature (water excepted), as I 'm talking about "just stuff" in the bush/ forest; so anything that shines could mean human presence. 

Yesterday, for instance, as I was, let's just say, "buzzed by a (probably IR capable) drone- you can hear them coming as they sound like a cut down helicopter and the pitch from the rotors is much lower than that of regular small drones, and thus was a dead giveaway to the type drone. One could only try and avoid detection by locating inside of a forest asap and making sure no objects were reflective and that one stood under a slightly leaning tree as to shield my IR signal. It seemed to work obviously as I'm here typing away LOL. Black and dull matt black is best. 

But seriously, me thinks this was a "cop drone" on a either a S and R (I doubt this), or testing (more than likely), or there were bad guys (not me) lurking in the forest which I thought I was alone in (t's possible too- don't ask me why I believe this) - Yes the trouble I go to making videos, sometimes takes me to some somewhat dodgy regions around the globe, I have no idea why I bother to make my reviews as real as possible, far easier to to film in my garage LOL. 

Anyway, It doesn't really matter, they the controllers of the drone) gave up and left the area after about 15 minutes and multiple passes. Ok I get distracted, yes black matt Mil Spec (doesn't have to be but I guess if you want government contracts) then it must be Military specification, coatings are going to make your knife "tactical".

So surface coatings have no practical use for the civilian unless he or she for some reasons (best to not to ask), want to be able to "disappear" it might help???

So in summary I believe it is the carry system which really makes this knife a tactical knife rather than the knife per se. 

As the carry options make transport options greater and thus one more flexible I believe.

If you really want to see a tactical knife then please read my articles on the following knives:

FKMD Leonida Combat survival knife FX- 0171107

This knife (now about 15 years in service )has served me well around the globe.

You can try here for starters

or this knife the Extrema Ratio NFG Fulcrum, the non bayonet version (everything else except the bayonet fitting)

See here for starters


Both of the above knives can easily cut hardened barbed wire and or wire of equivalent thickness both come with rigid scabbards housing a diamond plate sharpener. Both have a serrated section. Both are very strongly constructed but not overly heavy.

BCT

Kizer Beaver Finger knife made with Nitro V utility Skinning Knife

 Kizer "Beaver" Finger knife made with Nitro V utility Skinning Knife.

KIZER CAMP 180 made with AEB-L and G10, Kydex Scabbard

 

KIZER "CAMP 180" made with  AEB-L and G10, Kydex Scabbard. 

Knife Design by:

Jonathan Styles

      

The steel

A seriously robust camp and hunting knife (I'm saying this!), made with the industrial knife steel designated: AEB-L.

Drop point design, 7.7 Oz. or 218 grams, this is a light weight field knife.

Composition: Contains approximately: 0.67% Carbon, 13% Chromium, and 0.60% Manganese. 

Manufactured by Böhler  (Uddeholmstrip) 

According to the literature:

DESCRIPTION
UHB AEB-L is a stainless grade with 13% chromium that is our No.1 choice for knife applications.

ADVANTAGES
» Superior cutting properties
» Close thickness tolerances
» Best available wear resistance
» Good corrosion resistance
» Consistent and uniform quality

Some good old tip abuse and drilling holes into seasoned Cottonwood (never recommended  unless absolutely necessary!)

Feathering Seasoned cottonwood

Feathering seasoned oak

Kizer is a Chinese knife manufacturer based in Guangzhou, China, They import some raw materials such as knife steels.

This knife, the Camp 180 was super comfortable to use and I tested it's edge holding capacity on seasoned oak (hardwood) and season Cotton wood (medium hardness) timber during the course of the day. I used a baton on the spine to split through seasoned birch timber (with a knot) 

and also to split and break apart pine fat wood (below)

Abusive torquing/levering action on this AEB-L blade!

All of this operation did not blunt the blade as evidenced by me being able to effectively slice through some dry reeds at the end of the day.

The manufacturers rated Rockwell hardness is given at HRC 58-60.

Seasoned Oak

The handle

The grip is super comfortable and when working with very hard woods such as Oak, this is important as no hot spots were found and I don't wear gloves as a rule when testing knives or even when not.

The tang is fully enclosed within  olive green drab G10 scales. This for me is an added bonus as this knife could be used without gloves in sub zero temperatures as there is no  exposed tang onto which to freeze you fingers should you get this knife wet. As to wether this design might make it harder to remove any water which might enter between the actual join, this I will have to present the long term data at another time.

The scabbard is made from  kydex and has an excellent and somewhat "tuneable" lockup system whereby one can make some small adjustments to the lockup via a Phillips head screw and rubber washer assembly. My knife scabbard came with a perfect lock up as far as I was concerned and there was no chance of accidental falling out of the knife. Also I might add, I did not need to use brute force to remove the knife! There is also a small drain hole on one side of the scabbard.

The lanyard hole is created between the G10 only and does not pass through any steel tang. Thus the construction of this knife does not allow for any exposed tang, so if banging the butt end of your knife against hard objects is your thing, then this knife is not for you.

Ah, the smell of good old Australia Eucalyptus oil!

Feathering seasoned birch timber, no problems!

The pommel is only G10, so not for bashing anything. The upside of this is that it is comfortable when the palm is pressed against it.

This model the Camp 180 has a slight touch of a Japanese-esque feeling to it and I think this is evidenced by the oval guard.

The Camp 180 is perfect for hunting duties and will suit anything from small to medium game. 

In summary*: The Camp 180 by KIZER  holds an excellent edge after working very hard oak and bashing into seasoned birch timber plus cutting dry grasses (full of abrasive silicon) and bashing my way through knots on oak! I put it through some abusive tests such as two handed twisting into fat wood stubs. AEB-L has been around for a long long time and like D2 should not be discounted as some sort of crap knife steel, because in reality, in the field, it isn't and that's a fact.



Other stuff:

The knife came very nicely packaged in a sturdy cardboard box with minimal plastic and a short length of black paracord (about 1m), and a  cleaning cloth like micro fibre material and a sticker.

The warranty period is "Limited Lifetime Warranty" 
ie against everything except abuse and modification and normal wear and tear.

*Whilst I never talk about pice in the channel or here, I must say for under $100 USD, this knife represents exceptional value for money if one is looking to get a good quality hunting and camping knife.