I decided that the best way to celebrate independence was to take a couple of big knives outside and put them to work, preparing for a good old fashioned American BBQ.

First, the tools of the trade, and their soon-to-be victims, a pile of birch logs:





First up, the NMSFNO - I wanted to see how well it would chop, since reprofiling the edge to convex. MUCH BETTER!



This birch was HARD - it took a lot of effort to chop it, with any of the blades. The NMSFNO was still shaving sharp after doing some chopping...


It did much better with batoning with the new edge too...



And now the SoD. Good knife for splittin' logs!



And she still shaved hair afterwards


And the M9LE. Have I mentioned this wood was tough? Notice how the blade is bending from the massive knot at the base of this log





Gotta use all that wood for SOMETHING...



[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2453/3688170515_eb0b36238d_o.jpg[/img]

While we wait for that to burn down a bit, let's check out the tools of the trade again...

[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2500/3688193549_ce90692b42_o.jpg[/img]

[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3597/3689000098_aef570e7ed_o.jpg[/img]

[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2478/3688987718_0b8eaed730_o.jpg[/img]

Now what could that be up in the corner there????
[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3599/3688994434_293a7e8a22_o.jpg[/img]

Now THAT's the stuff!!!! Thick New York Strip... (you might notice that there's some charcoal under the meat here - I started the fire too early, and we decided we wanted to wait until later to eat - the fire had burned down too much by the time we were ready, and I had to add some fuel <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/doh.gif" alt="" />

[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2491/3688170737_91326ec385_o.jpg[/img]

[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3644/3688974222_f4ec8eb3da_o.jpg[/img]

[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2571/3688974286_684ab1dd6f_o.jpg[/img]

[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2645/3688170993_aa1584687b_o.jpg[/img]

And the results of all that hard work....

[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3576/3688171057_f4858ebccb_o.jpg[/img]

[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2433/3688171107_28c50e7a4c_o.jpg[/img]

Great pictures.
I hope the bend in your blade wasn't in there for good.

Nah, SR-101 is tough stuff (don't tell the other guy named Recon <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" />)...

It sprung right back as soon as the job was done.

Man, nice dude.

Looks like a great day. Thanks for taking the time to document it for us!

Very nice looking BBQ.

Great pics MM - thanks for sharing them. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />So, which of the knives would you say was the better chopper? Excluding the reg - if you can't talk about it. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I didn't do enough chopping to make a real comparison. I just played with it a little bit, and then got down to the splitting.

In my previous chopoff, the M9LE was pretty decent, and the NMSFNO absolutely sucked, but the NMSFNO had a factory edge back then, and it was DULL. I've since put a nice convex on that knife and it's a lot better chopper than it used to be.

I would never use this birch for a chopoff - it's ridiculously hard, seasoned wood, and would wear me out too fast.

Nice pics...that steak sure looked good

Great looking pics. That's good to hear about the blade springing back to true. Also, the steak looks tasty!

Great pics and the strips look great!

Great pics! That Yuengling is great beer, its just to bad you can't get it here in Ohio. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Censored???????? What is that the Bowie test knife?