Condor Tool & Knife golok
Sept 12, 2012 1:19:17 GMT
Post by Deleted on Sept 12, 2012 1:19:17 GMT
A few weeks ago, I was down in the (SF) Bay area. I was at a stoplight in Oakland when I looked to my right and saw… a knife store! And a parking spot.
I chatted about knives with the owner for a while. Eventually, a couple of plain-ish white boxes caught my eye. They contained a golok and parang from Condor Tool & Knife. I left with the golok. I paid around $60, although you can find these online for $50 or less. I love instant gratification, and I’m happy to help support a brick-and-mortar knife shop.
The golok is a heavy chopping knife or cleaver originating in Southeast Asia. Designs vary widely. In Don Draegers “The Weapons and Fighting Arts of Indonesia” There are three illustrations of goloks from different regions. They are very different from one another, and all quite different from the “big butter knife” look of the Condor, TFW, and Bark River goloks. The one consistent element seems to be that they are all heavy chopping blades. Blade length is less than 24”, usually in the 12”-16” range.
I have no connection with Condor Tool & Knife, or with the shop where I bought this. As previously stated, I paid full retail for this knife. I’ve been collecting and using knives for at least 20 years, if you go back to the Gerber Loveless dagger I bought with my first ever paycheck. Even before that, I was stealing my mom’s meanest-looking kitchen knives and viciously attacking her plants with them. (Sorry Mom!) My current, downsized collection consists of around 100 knives, mostly mid to high-end production pieces, so I feel fairly well qualified to review this knife. I have had some formal knife training.
First impression; The box was plain and businesslike. The knife inside was even more no-nonsense. Full tang, at least ¼” thick, wood handle slabs pinned and glued but only roughly finished, black epoxy coated blade…in short, no frills, all work. The narrow bevel looked deceptively sharpened-crowbar-ey, but the distal taper showed that some thought has gone into the design. I also noticed that the sheath seemed pretty well made, especially for a knife at this price point.
The Stats:
OAL 20 ¼”
Blade 14”
Handle 6”
POB 2 ½”
COP about 10” up the blade
Weight 1.5 lbs.
Blade thickness at pommel 0.256”
At ricasso 0.234”
At midpoint of blade 0.195”
At tip 0.120”
Full tang, 1075 carbon steel blade with black epoxy coating on the flats. Unknown hardwood handle slabs ( pos. one of the many Rosewood/Dalbergia sp.), roughly finished, but no rough spots, if you get my meaning. Brass pins and brass tube in the lanyard hole. “El Salvador” (the country of manufacture) is stamped on one side of the ricasso, and “Condor” is stamped on the other. “Condor” is also etched, or rather scribed on the spine just where the thumb traction might be placed. It doesn’t really provide any purchase for your thumb, but it does look pretty cool! A neat little touch on a knife that is otherwise totally unembellished.
This knife is a case of “looks can be deceiving” in terms of edge geometry and handling. Look again at the stats and you’ll see there is continuous distal taper all the way to the pommel. Couple that with the large pommel knob and the POB is only 2.5” or so from the handle. Far from cumbersome, this the golok actually feels fairly nimble for a knife of this type. It likes heavy work though; the knife feels “overpowered” on the very lightest vegetation. When you get into something a little thicker though, this thing really comes into its own, breezing through ¾” -1” green wood with ease. The POB does seem to make the golok less fatiguing to use for extended periods than some other big-bladed choppers. I will note here that the large knob on the handle provides excellent retention, and does not create the “hot spots” that the beak on many machetes does. Thrusts are obviously not a consideration with this blade type. I tried to use the golok on a wide variety of media. It surprised me by performing very well on light targets such as cardboard, pool noodles and small water bottles. I really didn’t think it was going to handle the pool noodles anywhere near as well as it did. The golok also did very well on medium targets like small detergent bottles, large V8 bottles, green Alder and Redwood branches in the ¾” – 1” range, and green bamboo of a similar size. My heaviest test cutting was done on dry Alder. I was able to chop through a limb 3”-3 1/2” thick in about three minutes at a nice easy pace, without trying to rush. I felt like a good small hatchet would have been faster (it is the better tool for the job), but for a knife, the golok excels at heavy chopping. By the time I was done with the Alder, the blade had dulled noticeably. I was at the river, with plenty of flat stones, so I decided to see if I could do a field expedient resharpening. I found as flat a rock as possible, got it wet, and used a stropping motion, pulling away from the edge rather than pushing towards it. This worked a lot better than I expected, though admittedly I didn’t expect much. It was soon scraping hair off my arm. I’m pretty confident that with a bit of practice and the right rock, I could keep this thing very sharp in the field. When cutting everything listed above besides the dry hardwood, it held an edge fairly well, so I’d say a good balance of edge retention to ease of resharpening, with the emphasis on ease of resharpening.
Because the blade gets thinner as you get further from the handle, the edge geometry changes slightly, but constantly, as you go down the length of the blade. There is no secondary bevel. It’s much steeper near your hand, and much, uh, “slice-ier” at the last three or four inches. I used the close bit when I was splitting 2x4s for kindling and the further-out bit when I was cutting pool noodles and such. The Condor does extremely well at splitting wood, and I noted the edge is very good about not wedging itself in and getting stuck in wood. The pommel works pretty well for hammering wood stakes and the like, I even pounded in a couple of protruding nail heads, being careful to use the tang, and not the wooden, portion of the pommel. There is plenty of thick, flat spine for batoning, though in truth I never did any because this split everything I was trying to split in one shot. I did not try skinning game or any real food prep. I think the golok could perform these tasks in a pinch, but that type of thing is not its purpose. I did try slicing an apple with the narrow point of the blade, but in truth it did as much splitting as slicing, though that’s hardly surprising. If it were coupled with a small fixed blade, or even a folder, I think the golok would be an excellent sort of do-all camp knife. In terms of building fire and shelter, at least, it seems to excel. At the $50+/- price point, the Condor golok is a great value, and super solidly built. The sheath is fairly nice, thick leather, stitched and riveted, with no retention strap. It’s certainly nicer than the nylon crap I expected to find in the box. I would definitely buy anther Condor product, and they have a wide variety of interesting designs to boot.
Pros
Great value
Versatile, well balanced, well thought out design
Unique “big butter knife” look
Solid; built to be abused
Sheath is more than just an afterthought
No “hot spots” on the handle
Cons
A functional, but ugly, black epoxy coat on the flats of the blade. As is common, it starts to come off fairly readily once you start splitting dry wood and the like.
The finish on the wood of the handle is rough, not in terms of texture, but in terms of the aesthetic quality of the finish.
Rockwell hardness is not super high (I’m guessing), but edge retention is acceptable or better, and re sharpening is a breeze.
I would recommend the Condor golok to anyone who finds it interesting. I think it would make a great knife to leave in a car or truck. Not a bad choice for a general purpose camp knife, or even just as a tool for yard work. For heavy brush/light wood cutting, there’s not a lot that’s very much better, especially at $50. It’s also fun on the usual backyard targets, pool noodles to heavy plastic bottles. It’s a pleasure to use, even for extended periods.
I chatted about knives with the owner for a while. Eventually, a couple of plain-ish white boxes caught my eye. They contained a golok and parang from Condor Tool & Knife. I left with the golok. I paid around $60, although you can find these online for $50 or less. I love instant gratification, and I’m happy to help support a brick-and-mortar knife shop.
The golok is a heavy chopping knife or cleaver originating in Southeast Asia. Designs vary widely. In Don Draegers “The Weapons and Fighting Arts of Indonesia” There are three illustrations of goloks from different regions. They are very different from one another, and all quite different from the “big butter knife” look of the Condor, TFW, and Bark River goloks. The one consistent element seems to be that they are all heavy chopping blades. Blade length is less than 24”, usually in the 12”-16” range.
I have no connection with Condor Tool & Knife, or with the shop where I bought this. As previously stated, I paid full retail for this knife. I’ve been collecting and using knives for at least 20 years, if you go back to the Gerber Loveless dagger I bought with my first ever paycheck. Even before that, I was stealing my mom’s meanest-looking kitchen knives and viciously attacking her plants with them. (Sorry Mom!) My current, downsized collection consists of around 100 knives, mostly mid to high-end production pieces, so I feel fairly well qualified to review this knife. I have had some formal knife training.
First impression; The box was plain and businesslike. The knife inside was even more no-nonsense. Full tang, at least ¼” thick, wood handle slabs pinned and glued but only roughly finished, black epoxy coated blade…in short, no frills, all work. The narrow bevel looked deceptively sharpened-crowbar-ey, but the distal taper showed that some thought has gone into the design. I also noticed that the sheath seemed pretty well made, especially for a knife at this price point.
The Stats:
OAL 20 ¼”
Blade 14”
Handle 6”
POB 2 ½”
COP about 10” up the blade
Weight 1.5 lbs.
Blade thickness at pommel 0.256”
At ricasso 0.234”
At midpoint of blade 0.195”
At tip 0.120”
Full tang, 1075 carbon steel blade with black epoxy coating on the flats. Unknown hardwood handle slabs ( pos. one of the many Rosewood/Dalbergia sp.), roughly finished, but no rough spots, if you get my meaning. Brass pins and brass tube in the lanyard hole. “El Salvador” (the country of manufacture) is stamped on one side of the ricasso, and “Condor” is stamped on the other. “Condor” is also etched, or rather scribed on the spine just where the thumb traction might be placed. It doesn’t really provide any purchase for your thumb, but it does look pretty cool! A neat little touch on a knife that is otherwise totally unembellished.
This knife is a case of “looks can be deceiving” in terms of edge geometry and handling. Look again at the stats and you’ll see there is continuous distal taper all the way to the pommel. Couple that with the large pommel knob and the POB is only 2.5” or so from the handle. Far from cumbersome, this the golok actually feels fairly nimble for a knife of this type. It likes heavy work though; the knife feels “overpowered” on the very lightest vegetation. When you get into something a little thicker though, this thing really comes into its own, breezing through ¾” -1” green wood with ease. The POB does seem to make the golok less fatiguing to use for extended periods than some other big-bladed choppers. I will note here that the large knob on the handle provides excellent retention, and does not create the “hot spots” that the beak on many machetes does. Thrusts are obviously not a consideration with this blade type. I tried to use the golok on a wide variety of media. It surprised me by performing very well on light targets such as cardboard, pool noodles and small water bottles. I really didn’t think it was going to handle the pool noodles anywhere near as well as it did. The golok also did very well on medium targets like small detergent bottles, large V8 bottles, green Alder and Redwood branches in the ¾” – 1” range, and green bamboo of a similar size. My heaviest test cutting was done on dry Alder. I was able to chop through a limb 3”-3 1/2” thick in about three minutes at a nice easy pace, without trying to rush. I felt like a good small hatchet would have been faster (it is the better tool for the job), but for a knife, the golok excels at heavy chopping. By the time I was done with the Alder, the blade had dulled noticeably. I was at the river, with plenty of flat stones, so I decided to see if I could do a field expedient resharpening. I found as flat a rock as possible, got it wet, and used a stropping motion, pulling away from the edge rather than pushing towards it. This worked a lot better than I expected, though admittedly I didn’t expect much. It was soon scraping hair off my arm. I’m pretty confident that with a bit of practice and the right rock, I could keep this thing very sharp in the field. When cutting everything listed above besides the dry hardwood, it held an edge fairly well, so I’d say a good balance of edge retention to ease of resharpening, with the emphasis on ease of resharpening.
Because the blade gets thinner as you get further from the handle, the edge geometry changes slightly, but constantly, as you go down the length of the blade. There is no secondary bevel. It’s much steeper near your hand, and much, uh, “slice-ier” at the last three or four inches. I used the close bit when I was splitting 2x4s for kindling and the further-out bit when I was cutting pool noodles and such. The Condor does extremely well at splitting wood, and I noted the edge is very good about not wedging itself in and getting stuck in wood. The pommel works pretty well for hammering wood stakes and the like, I even pounded in a couple of protruding nail heads, being careful to use the tang, and not the wooden, portion of the pommel. There is plenty of thick, flat spine for batoning, though in truth I never did any because this split everything I was trying to split in one shot. I did not try skinning game or any real food prep. I think the golok could perform these tasks in a pinch, but that type of thing is not its purpose. I did try slicing an apple with the narrow point of the blade, but in truth it did as much splitting as slicing, though that’s hardly surprising. If it were coupled with a small fixed blade, or even a folder, I think the golok would be an excellent sort of do-all camp knife. In terms of building fire and shelter, at least, it seems to excel. At the $50+/- price point, the Condor golok is a great value, and super solidly built. The sheath is fairly nice, thick leather, stitched and riveted, with no retention strap. It’s certainly nicer than the nylon crap I expected to find in the box. I would definitely buy anther Condor product, and they have a wide variety of interesting designs to boot.
Pros
Great value
Versatile, well balanced, well thought out design
Unique “big butter knife” look
Solid; built to be abused
Sheath is more than just an afterthought
No “hot spots” on the handle
Cons
A functional, but ugly, black epoxy coat on the flats of the blade. As is common, it starts to come off fairly readily once you start splitting dry wood and the like.
The finish on the wood of the handle is rough, not in terms of texture, but in terms of the aesthetic quality of the finish.
Rockwell hardness is not super high (I’m guessing), but edge retention is acceptable or better, and re sharpening is a breeze.
I would recommend the Condor golok to anyone who finds it interesting. I think it would make a great knife to leave in a car or truck. Not a bad choice for a general purpose camp knife, or even just as a tool for yard work. For heavy brush/light wood cutting, there’s not a lot that’s very much better, especially at $50. It’s also fun on the usual backyard targets, pool noodles to heavy plastic bottles. It’s a pleasure to use, even for extended periods.