I'm sure this is nothing new to all of you, but I posted this on another forum and figured I should copy it to this one as well.




Recently acquired a very nice knife, the Scrapyard Dogfather.



Compared to other large knives I've used, the performance is impressive. The thick spine and saber grind are what I prefer in a knife like this, because the geometry of the entire blade rarely comes into play considering what I use the knife on. The extra weight means more power behind a chop.

The Res C handle is very comfortable and helps absorb shock during a chop. Some of the better ergonomics out of any fixed blade I've used, though the balance is forward heavy when using the choil for finer cutting due to the blade length. Not much of an issue since I usually have my Mud Puppy or a SAK for things like making fuzz sticks and slicing sausages.

The blade steel has worked very well. When reprofiling it wasn't too difficult to grind, but felt harder and more wear resistant than something like 1095. It takes a killer edge, and holds it. For example today I used the knife to take back some shrubs on the edge of my driveway. The knife started out with a hair popping edge, and after about 40 minutes of hacking of plants and thin branches the knife would still cleanly shave. I've also hit rocks on accident a few times and the edge took minimal damage, small rolls that sharpened out on a sharpmaker medium rod in under a minute. The chopping performance is very high with the new edge. With the factory edge (about 22-25 degrees per side) 1 inch to 1.5 inch branches could be cut in a single chop. With the new edge 2 inch thick branches can be lopped off in one swing. Much fun.

Factory Edge:



Reprofiled edge:



Even with the thicker factory edge, the knife is still an efficient trail clearing tool. This is a before and after shot, after swinging the Dogfather around for a little under 5 minutes.





The reprofiled edge has stood up to heavier chopping than what you see here, and a lot of trail clearing. Takes a very fine, hair popping edge as well.

he factory edge was tested for sharpness by push cutting light thread on a scale. The edge scored an average of 57.38, which is just above the best scores from Spyderco and Kershaw for their small pocket knives. The edge would easily pop arm hairs but did not have the ability to whittle hairs.

Initial impressions of the Scrapyard Dogfather are very positive. The comfortable handle works better for chopping than exposed tang styles, the steel has shown excellent performance and the overall design is very robust and capable.

nice. i would love to get my grubby little paws on one of those and go wild with it in the woods i want to chop down a tree <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

It may not be new but we never get tired of it. Welcome to the yard and good post.

That's exactly the feeling you get when you hold this knife. I never thought I'd spend 200$+ on a knife. I definitely never thought I'd buy a pre-need back-up of a 200$+ knife. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Thanks for sharing. Love to see the dogfather in action.

Welcome to the yard, and nice pics!

Welcome! great pics, keepem coming! and dear god that is a nice blade.

Inever get tired of holding my SOD, or chopping stuff.

Great stuff, Vivi. I never tire of seeing Dog Fathers do their thing. Nice looking edge, too. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />

that is a lovely knife.

Welcome to the yard....sweet pics!!!

The DF is a great blade. I agree the res-c on this blade really shines from a comfort standpoint.

Nice post, it seems everyone who has the dogfather loves it. It was a bit big for my needs so I passed on it but knew it would be a great one.
Thanks for the pictures.