Just did an impulse buy... Kershaw Camp 10, on sale from Amazonia.

[Heinz Doofenshmirtz]

With my new infatuation with Moras, I was planning on getting another one, the "Bushcraft Forest Knife", as it has the nicer sheath, a different handle design than the Companions or the 2000, but has the same blade shape and profile of the 2000 that I've really come to like.

Well, browsing around on Amazon I noticed they had dropped the price of the Camp 10 by about 20%, so it was only $32, so I jumped on it.  It'll take about a week to get here, because I used the free "super saver" shipping option, but I've been wanting a big kukri/bolo style chopper, and so far the Camp 10 has gotten nothing but excellent reviews.

I'll test it out when I get it, and let you guys know how it does.   

[enki_ck]

Never seen that one before. I'd like to hear your thoughts on it after you use it.

[Heinz Doofenshmirtz]

enki, here's a link to the product page. 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006YBXZLK/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

So far, all the reviews I've read on it, and seen on YouTube, have been highly positive.  This is actually a better price than the Condor Lochnessmuk I was planning on getting, and is the same size and weight, and given my experience with the Condors I already have I'm sure it will have a better fit and finish.  We're going to my wife's family's cabin in the Sierra foothills over the Memorial Day weekend here, and I should have the knife in time to take it along on that trip.  I'll definitely give a report back once I get it in and can take it out to the woods for some fun and practice. 

[Styerman]

Looks like it should chop OK , plus handy for Zombies .

Chris

[Heinz Doofenshmirtz]

Just got back from my weekend trip to my wife's family's cabin in the Sierra foothills.  Took the Camp 10 with me, and also my Mora 2000.  After a little bit of thought and experimenting, I came up with a way to mount the 2000 to the Camp 10's sheath, using the velcro straps it comes with.  I also wrapped the middle section with about 15' of some spare paracord I found in my adventure pack.  As a last piece, I also figured out how to stick a Light My Fire Scout ferro-rod in the bottom strap as well.  Finally, I put a longer piece of some forest green cord I had on hand through the loops at the bottom of the Kershaw's sheath for a leg tie, which worked very well.

Here's a pick of the set-up.  (Sorry in advance for the crappy pic; I didn't put much effort into it, and I took it with my phone, which is 4 years old now so the camera is low-res compared to a more recent phone.)



Here's the knife out of the sheath.  Hopefully it'll be easy to see the wear on the finish of the knife; it's from both use and scrubbing pine sap off with a green scrubby pad, as the only real live wood I had access/permission to use the knife on were some sugar pines that my wife's family is going to cut down anyway.


A close-up of the blade.


I did have one small issue with the blade.  I accidentally struck it against a rock or stone on the ground while I was delimbing some pine boughs, and got a chip in the blade.  I somehow forgot to bring a real sharpener with me, and only had the file in my Work Champ available to smooth out the flat spot where the chip was.  I'll sharpen it up properly tomorrow, and try and get that flat spot out.  Here's a close-up of the chip/flat-spot.


I wasn't using the blade very hard when this happened either... just got a little careless.  Obviously it's heat treating is to a lower hardness than I'm used to, probably similar to my Golok, because I did the exact same thing to it the first few days after I got it.  I'm going to make an educated guess here and assume the hardness of the Camp 10's blade is about 55 Rockwell.  Again, just a guess, as I'm too lazy right now to actually look it up.

I did some practice work chopping sugar pine boughs off of live trees and delimbing them, and I was surprised by the results.  The C10 easily outperformed the Golok in chopping!     I think the reason for this is three-fold... 

1) The C10 has a saber-ground edge, so it's thinner and bites into wood better, compared to the hybrid scandi/convex edge of the Golok.  The stock bevel on the C10 was also very nicely done from the factory, and even looked like it had been polished a bit.  It was a much steeper angle than I had anticipated on a blade in this price range, and it was nice to see on a Chinese imported knife.

2) The composite hard plastic and rubber overmolded handle on the C10 give a much better grip on the blade, and really absorbs a lot of the shock coming into the hand, which seems to improve the bite of the blade.  The Golok's handle is very large, even for my hands (I wear an XL in gloves), and I didn't get nearly as many clean hits with it as with the C10. 

3) The shorter length and lighter weight of the C10 provided a lot more control and maneuverability than the Golok gave, particularly because of the awkward handle.   I found the Golok hard to control and harder swings than the C10 and which reduced the amount of clean hits and reduced how well the blade bit into the wood.

I'll try and write up a more comprehensive post about the knife some time soon, but I can't make any promises; have a lot going on right now, some big life-issues I've got to deal with, so this thread may be all I can contribute.  But, in short, I am very surprised and pleased with the performance of the C10.  It chopped very well and was easy to control and maneuver. 

The blade shape has been called a "Kukri style" in some of the reviews on boob-toob, but I don't think that's accurate; I'd call it a "bolo" style blade more than it's a kukri shape.  Regardless, that concave curve on the lower edge of the blade works exceptionally well for short, controlled power strokes, such as when delimbing, and shaving down a small log to make a fire board for a hand or bow drill for a friction fire.  The convex portion at the end of the blade works great for chopping and other heavy use cutting. 

The only down sides I see after my limited use are the heat treating seems to definitely be on the soft side, and the coating of the blade is not very durable.  I've used my Golok a lot more and its coating, while showing some scratches and dings, isn't wearing through at all like that of the C10 after just one outing with limited use.  Overall, I'll give it 4/5, mostly for its value and excellent design, and also because of its soft heat treat and thin and easily abraded coating.  But, for the money, it's hard to beat this knife.  I already like it for camp chores and the like much more than my Golok.  (I'm thinking now the Golok might be needing a reprofiling and a re-handling!)

[Grathr]

Nice review! 

I really like the improvised C10 -Mora sheat combo! 

[Heinz Doofenshmirtz]

Nice review! 

I really like the improvised C10 -Mora sheat combo! 

Thanks Grathr!     It didn't take too long to figure out how to put all that together either.  I'd say less than an hour from start to finish.  My wife, who despite also being an avid camping, hiker, and backpacker as well, kept teasing me about it; no shortage of Crocodile Dundee jokes and the like...    

I was surprised by how comfortable it was when it was finished.   I have the belt loop set up for the knife to ride lower, and the leg cord really did a great job of stabilizing it and keeping it from moving around much at all.  I found too, that tying the leg cord a little higher made the C10's sheath ride at a very slight outward angle, so the handles of the knives were pointing away from vertical by a small angle, probably 15 degrees or so, which made drawing and resheathing both blades much easier and more comfortable.

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with myself for how it turned out.  This is definitely going to be my camp/bush knife set up for the foreseeable future.  All I need now is to make sure I've got some kind of small stone or hone with me to touch up the edges with, and a small SAK in my pocket to round it all out.  I may eventually change out the 2000 for one of the newer Bushcraft Forest models, or a Companion though...  I've come to like the profile ground blade shape more for general use than the Companion's blade shape, but I think the Companion's blade profile works better as a carving/whittling/wood-working blade.  I'll just have to wait and see.   

[Sparky415]

Nice review! 

I really like the improvised C10 -Mora sheat combo! 

+1 I like the look of the No 10 

[Gareth]

Good read mate, cheers.  Suddenly I feel the need for another big chopper.

[mvyrmnd]

Goddamnit I hate this place...


I've just gone and ordered one...

[Heinz Doofenshmirtz]

I got a new DMT "duo fold" diamond hone/sharpener today, with a folding handle.  It's about 1.25" wide, 5" long, and about .4" thick.  Nice and very compact.  Stuck it in a nylon sheath I have and put it on the sheath of the C10 with my Mora 2K.  I'll post a pic of it later if anyone's interested.

[Grathr]

Please do! 

[Heinz Doofenshmirtz]

Okay, after trying out the sharpener on the sheath, I didn't like it.  The kit as a whole felt too awkward and bulky, a bit unwieldly, so I took both the sharpener and the fire steel off.  It's just the C10, my Mora 2000, and some paracord on the sheath now.  I'm even considering taking the paracord off.

Here it is, in all of its slimmed-down glory.  The new DMT sharpener is next to it with the pouch I'll be keeping it in.

[Grathr]

That looks like a nice setup. 

[mvyrmnd]

I just got my Camp 10 - and it's a mighty  beast! It made short work of some redgum blocks I have lying around at home. (I'll post the video later)

It'll live in my camping toolbox - certainly not as well accompanied as Heinz's setup - but will be used and abused accordingly.

[mvyrmnd]

Here we go