a day in the woods

R

rlcanon

Joined
Jun 26, 1999
Messages
109
Had the day off, the wife had to work, time for a day in the woods! I was breaking trails in dense cedar undergrowth and comparing some new hatchets and hawks. From left to right: Husqvarna chainsaw freebie hatchet, reprofiled Craig Barr damascus hammer poll hawk, Tortorich cable damascus hammer poll hawk, Wetterlings wildlife hatchet.
chopchop.jpg


It was just above freezing so I took the opportunity to practice using my fire steel. I cheated and used commercial Wetfire tinder.

fire.jpg
 
Back out of that picture and you'll see Darkleaf lounging on his deck, Bud Lite in hand, watching a bowl game on the TV he's dragged out onto the deck. ;)
 
CitizenQ said:
Back out of that picture and you'll see Darkleaf lounging on his deck, Bud Lite in hand, watching a bowl game on the TV he's dragged out onto the deck. ;)
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I was just joking with him. Funny that the first pic is of hatchets/hawks and the next is a pic of a burning log cut by a chainsaw.:)
 
Darkleaf said:
...cut by a chainsaw.:)
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It was actually a folding hand saw. Anything I want to cut close to the ground I'll use it to get a flat stump and not risk dinging an edge on a rock in the dirt. If you pull back a bit though you would see my KLR650 and my Kermit chair with a Jetboil and Aerobie coffee press next to it, so the sitting on the deck thing isn't too far off!

As far as which one worked the best, the Husky was the clear loser. The Wetterlings bites deeper and cuts faster with less bulk and weight. The Barr hawk cuts a little better than the Tortorich due to a thinner edge profile. I literally woke up this morning dreaming about refining the edge profile on it! The clear winner, with all of them as they came out of the box, is the Wetterlings wildlife hatchet. The Swedes really seem to have the axe thing dialed! The Tortorich, though, is just so gorgeous and feels perfect in every other way so spending a little time refining the edge profile is going to be well worth it.
 
And the poor little "ColdSteel?" spetnaz shocel doesn't get any mention...

Very nice collection of tools.


Pat
 
omniviking said:
And the poor little "ColdSteel?" spetnaz shocel doesn't get any mention...

Very nice collection of tools.


Pat
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Thanks. I'll post up the modern/tactical hawks after the holidays. The shovel is new but it rips! It doesn't dig or chop the best, but for something that lets you dig, chop, throw, and bash with abandon it does everything surprisingly well!
 
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