OK, last time I went camping, and I was shunned for not including photos (no camera on the trip). This week, I went to the same place, and camped again, and this time took a few photos.
This time we went with different neighbors/friends, and I had a little knife safety course with them before we got out there (main points... dont hand them back to me blade first, and don't slam them into the ground). So there were no mishaps there this time.
My BK2 on this trip was even better than it was last time, and I used it for more as well. I did more batoning, more chopping and more making marshmellow sticks. And I continue to love the Scout carry style sheath that I have.
Here is where we went camping. I'll be honest, it was beautiful.
*Batoning - This thing is great, even though the wood I was batoning was the spawn of satan. Almost every piece I batoned had more than a 90 degree turn in the grain. I have no idea what kind of wood this is, but I hate it, you had to baton through the entire piece before it would split, and even though it was dead and laying on the ground, it was super wet.
Here I am halfway through one of those pieces. The crazy thing is that if you took the knife out, it would almost close up almost all the way, and you couldn't even pry it apart the rest of the way. Check out the forces on the BK2, and how its not even a tiny bit bent
.
As long as the BK2 is long enough to get through the wood, it will keep on going. The thing I noticed, is that I need a larger knife for some of my batoning needs around here. Lots of the wood that is available is between 4-8in thick, and the BK2 just doesn't cut it (literally) for anything thicker than 4.5in or so.
This is about where you had to get the blade to before you could just pull the pieces of wood apart.
Finally, it got through this piece!
Here are some of the initial results of the work. The hatchet was only used to baton through some of the thicker ones (from the sides). The cutting was done by a corona 10in saw, which is not pictured.
*Chopping
The BK2 is not a chopper, but it can chop. I have found that with harder wood, if what is going to be cut is bigger than about 2 fingers width, I'll reach for something else, preferably the saw. With green wood, it does MUCH better I cut through a few things thicker than my wrist from a downed aspen in like less than 20 strokes. Sweet.
So anyway, hopefully that helps make up for the lack of photos from last time, and now I'm on the lookout for a larger knife that will help with my batoning needs (my wife even noticed that I could use a bigger blade, so I think I'm good getting one semi-soon ).
And finally, here is the area again, just because...
This time we went with different neighbors/friends, and I had a little knife safety course with them before we got out there (main points... dont hand them back to me blade first, and don't slam them into the ground). So there were no mishaps there this time.
My BK2 on this trip was even better than it was last time, and I used it for more as well. I did more batoning, more chopping and more making marshmellow sticks. And I continue to love the Scout carry style sheath that I have.
Here is where we went camping. I'll be honest, it was beautiful.
*Batoning - This thing is great, even though the wood I was batoning was the spawn of satan. Almost every piece I batoned had more than a 90 degree turn in the grain. I have no idea what kind of wood this is, but I hate it, you had to baton through the entire piece before it would split, and even though it was dead and laying on the ground, it was super wet.
Here I am halfway through one of those pieces. The crazy thing is that if you took the knife out, it would almost close up almost all the way, and you couldn't even pry it apart the rest of the way. Check out the forces on the BK2, and how its not even a tiny bit bent
.
As long as the BK2 is long enough to get through the wood, it will keep on going. The thing I noticed, is that I need a larger knife for some of my batoning needs around here. Lots of the wood that is available is between 4-8in thick, and the BK2 just doesn't cut it (literally) for anything thicker than 4.5in or so.
This is about where you had to get the blade to before you could just pull the pieces of wood apart.
Finally, it got through this piece!
Here are some of the initial results of the work. The hatchet was only used to baton through some of the thicker ones (from the sides). The cutting was done by a corona 10in saw, which is not pictured.
*Chopping
The BK2 is not a chopper, but it can chop. I have found that with harder wood, if what is going to be cut is bigger than about 2 fingers width, I'll reach for something else, preferably the saw. With green wood, it does MUCH better I cut through a few things thicker than my wrist from a downed aspen in like less than 20 strokes. Sweet.
So anyway, hopefully that helps make up for the lack of photos from last time
, and now I'm on the lookout for a larger knife that will help with my batoning needs (my wife even noticed that I could use a bigger blade, so I think I'm good getting one semi-soon ).And finally, here is the area again, just because...
.
