After HD did his test of 7-8 inch survival knives there was some discussion about the "comfort" aspect of the "hand shaped" busse grips available on the NMFBM and the NMSFNO and SFNO LE. I got a SFNO LE and was undecided about the grips but did'nt want to jump in and mark up an LE just to check...so I thought I would give my NMFBM a good "days" work and see how the grips felt.

When I bought my house the previous owners were "keen" gardeners...for me I am usually away most weekends when the shooting competition calander starts or I am carrying out a training role with our TA...so the garden can get "wild and rundown". One part which has gone this way is a blackberry orchard with a large timber frame and netting to keep off the birds.



The corner posts and middle posts are fence post thick treated wood...the bushes inside are covered in thorns and represent as good a test of whether the NMFBM can be used in a "machete" role as you could ask for...

Well the NMFBM was certainly up to the task of chopping down the frame...



This knife can "bite" very deep on chopping! The knife is well balanced and the weight of the blade can be made to do the work...using the knife in an easy swing it soon made short work of those fence posts.

The idea was to burn off the frame wood and the thorn branches from the blackberry bushes...making a good "pyramid" of wood and branches was the next task and the NMFBM could split the wooden fence posts without need of a "baton"...once cut into suitable lengths the splitting was easy...



Once the fire was going the remaining clearing of the bushes and frame could begin to keep the fire fed...



The clearing of the bushes and particularly the gathering of them for the fire took quite a while...the work went on from morning to afternoon with a break for lunch...



As it started to get dark I had more or less finished the job...



The knife had done well, I had done most of the chopping without using gloves to see how the grips faired and they were very comfortable...



The weight of the knife was not an issue for me....I ran out of light quicker than I ran out of arm strength...it's balance and feel and the 12 inch blade certainly helped with those awkward thorn branches.

The important thing with any knife like this and particularly if you are miles off the beaten track is to draw a halt to proceedings before it gets dark. Chopping in poor light...particularly if in an area of tree snakes or gathering wood in areas of ground spiders...or for that matter just seeing "nails" in the wood if you are in my situation...saves on problems.

As it was the knife did catch on one nail towards the end of the day...



It put a bit of a "dink" in the edge but in fairness the knife did cut through it <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif" alt="" />...so you need to watch your footwork using one of these...they have awesome chopping power and swing through cuts or the earth as a backstop need to be allowed for...

The knife edge "dink" was no serious issue....a few passes on the belt sander and it was "trued up"....there is a bit of a small tear but this will re-profile as the knife is sharpened....if you are using knives like this for this sort of thing you have to accept that some edge wear will occur...personally the way it went through the nail I found very impressive....and the main reason for the test....the knife is a comfortable "all day user"...a cracking knife!

What a chopping beast you have there, SF. I didn't get one, as I have an over abundance of 12" beater machetes already, but that is an impressive display of the power of that NMFBM. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" /> How does it compare in chopping performance to the 12" CS Gurkha Kukri?

Great review Steel Fan. I love my NMFBM and find that the sheer size of it justifies using it for "demolition duty". To me this one is much more a chopping tool rather than a mere knife.

Great job, thanks for the pictures and the review

NICE PICS

those main outter supports look stout

nice review steel fan!!! im still waiting for my perfect mistress! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Great idea for a chop off!! I will do this in a week or so's time...this coming week has me all over the place...but I still have a "downed" fir tree to sort out...so there is a great oppertunity there.

Having used them both the first thing on comfort is that the CS Khukri had stipples to use your expression like a "pine cone" so following a suggestion from Northern I took the dremmel with a sanding wheel to it and this is now "comfortable" but I doubt it could go all day like the NMFBM did without beginning to give some "hot spots". Sticky rubber can do that for me.

They both have tremendous chopping power...using the blade design right I think on some "tree felling" the Khukri might have the "edge" in depth of a cut...but it has been reprofiled and convexed a lot to get it like that. For "clearance" work and "branches" and allowing for fatigue...the NMFBM with it's long straight blade has a much bigger "sweet spot"...the Khukri is a fair bit harder to use because if you miss the "right area" which is bang on the belly crest of the curve...you miss out on a good cut...so on this basis I would give the likely vote on "long work" to the NMFBM...which is why I picked it for that task. The Kukri is not as easy a blade design to use on such a large variety of cuts and angles compared to the lines of the NMFBM...probably why most Machetes have a long straight blade shape.

Used to chop through a log laid flat on a stump...or raised and fixed with some tripods of sticks at each end...the depth of the log would need to be "big" to tell the difference...I expect there might be a "tie" on most medium diameter logs with "three" strokes either side of the V doing it and the log then snapping. Anyway....we can find that out on the test... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />

Nice job Peter <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />- I guess if one MUST do yard work- this clearly makes it almost tolerable <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> yes- I did say almost <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

id probably take the BM over the khuk....

+1 and id like to add beer and knife play are also quite dangerous

it looks like the BM hit through those treated 4x4s nice and deep, probably twice as deep than my unsharpened SOD.

I enjoyed the pics Steel Fan.
Nice review and that looks like
it was fun.
thanx

I know what you mean Bob! LOL!! Before I got into this knife "thing" over these past 7 months or so...I probably would have gone in with my Benelli and some cheap cartridges and just blasted the bushes at their root/soil level...it could have been all done and dusted in a few minutes...ready to be raked onto the fire...either that or maybe fired up the chainsaw....now with these knives to check out...my garden is becoming an alternative to the Gym!!

When I have heavy chopping and splitting to do, like last year with the dead maple tree, I grab the Fatty FBM. That beast is also good for a workout! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />