Ray Laconico Chopper

California knife maker Ray Laconico makes all kinds of designs from big choppers to slipjoint and frame lock folders.

I've been slowly and quietly building up quite a collection of his knives including this one I received yesterday.

The knife has a 5 1/8" handle and is 13 5/8" from butt to tip. The blade is 1/4" thick measured just in front of the handle scale and the steel is (maybe) 5160. The handles are black micarta and there is a stainless lanyard hole and two stainless pins.

The knife weighs 16.5 oz. and the balance point is forward of the guard. This should help with chopping.

I've been using the knife since it came in and you can see some color on the blade already. It's comfortable to hold in the "normal" way and choked up on the spine of the blade to do detail work. I need to see how it handles the sting of chopping and whether the 8.5" blade is enough when combined with a nice sharp edge.

This really is right in the size range of "big knives" for me. It's not too unwieldy but it's definitely got some heft to it.

There was no sheath so it'll have to make a trip to JRE Industries or MBHanzo one of these days once I've given it a little more tough love.

Thanks for reading,


B