A day spent chopping ( a few pics from iPhone)

pmwc78

pmwc78

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Well a friend of mine had some overgrown trees on his property that he needed to trim back. Naturally I seized upon the chance to get some chopping time in.
It turned out that he has a LOT of clearing to do and we only got to one of four trees today.

Not many pics (sorry) we were working after all.


we ended up with five piles of four feet by eight foot "trimmings" and and ungodly amount of good sized branches that were hacked to four foot lengths for firewood when they dry.

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I took several khuks including the 20" SCAK, an 18" AK, a 22" Dharan, an 18" Malla (B43), a 17" Gelbu, and 15" GRS.

Those last two were to be exclusively for the light trimming. Unfortunately the GRS, which always had a full length razor edge, snapped at the tang :( It sailed through a small branch and stuck in a larger one, and "ping".

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You can see it at the front of the group there.

Such is life.

Now on to lot's more cleaning, sharpening, and treating blisters from not chopping often enough.:rolleyes:
 
The Sgt. Khadka SCAK Chops like a competition axe. It bites deep a throws of huge chunks of wood. Really a joy to use. Even considering it's weight it is an efficient tool. Those oak branches were up to 8" diameter and it went through in fewer than a dozen strikes in most cases. Obviously if the wood were dried and seasoned it would be a different story but having the other khuks there for comparison showed it to be an elite chopper.
 
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pmwc78 said:
Well... Unfortunately the GRS, which always had a full length razor edge, snapped at the tang :( It sailed through a small branch and stuck in a larger one, and "ping"...
Click to expand...

Had you previously performed a full power whack test on this knife?

Had you previously used it for any hard chopping at all?

Usually a tang failure, if it is going to occur at all, will occur under the first hard blows. During a whack test one is prepared for the potential failure. Having an unexpected failure can be quite dangerous, as no one is expecting a heavy blade to come loose and go flying off in an unpredicted direction.

I hope you'll give Yangdu a call about the failure. These knives should not fail at the tang.
 
Gee thanks for the nice review!

Could you take more pics of the SCAK itself?

I'm drooling already!

From here i could feel Cotherion's sweating over his .....:D

On the failed GRS, you mentioned you struck a big branch. How big are those anyway?

Like Howard said, it shouldn't fail. You should inform Auntie about it.
 
Howard,

This was the first hard use it's seen. Previously it'd really only been used to feather some firewood for kindling and slice through a box or two.

I'll see if I can get a decent pic of the break. Still can't find my camera, hence the crappy iPhone pics.
 
Sorry to hear about the GRS failing at the tang, how old was that Khuk? I think you should listen to Mr. Wallace's advice. I purposely beat my astk up the other day while performing the whack test. After even more reading (i find myself here reading paragraph after paragraph on a daily basis now) I've seen it come up often to test your blade as soon as you get it. Here's a link to where Uncle Bill (R.i.p.) speaks about Yvsa's arrival test

other than that have fun with the rest of the chopping & thank you for the pics
 
SCak.... Me likee :)

Water accidentally splashed onto hidden tang is what I say may be cause of the accidental ping. Talk to Auntie about it.
 
Ok I'm gonna try some comparison pics with an Old Durba-made BAS.

Both on the huge box the Scak came in

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My small-med hand for scale

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You can see how acute the edge gets

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Here you can see this is a different animal from Wolf's.

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If I were to harbor a guess, I'd say that there was a little water splashed on the tang while it was hot. It's scary when it happens, but it does from time to time.

Like Howard said, it shouldn't fail there. I'd give Yangdu an email or call.
 
pmwc78,

Good to hear about your SCAK doing such a fine job. Shame about your GRS as it should excel at the same work. Sounds like another Dasien(sp?) casualty...the kamis get eager to get to celebratin' and splash a little water onto the tang in their haste. (Now I'll have to check a couple of mine out just to me sure.) I'm sure Yangdu will get you a replacement. I love the way my GRS works and I'm sure that you'll like yours. too, once you get a replacement.

The whack test still should be done by all as early as possible. Besides preparing yourself for a flying blade, I would add another caveat. I tested my Malla out in the woods and about the second or third whack on the second side of the blade, I caused a crack in the non-chiruwa handle just past the bolster. No problem, it glued up fine.

In the end, no one got hurt and you have a good chance to put your blades to work with all those trees. Go have fun and continue to be safe.

Peace

Rick
 
pmwc78, sorry to hear about the Ganga. I hadn't tested any of mine, per the guidelines. After seeing this, I figured it was time for what ever testing I could do. I don't have anything large to chop, but one of my little oaks had a nice "V" in it. I took out every HI khuk I own: 2 WWIIs, M43, B43, CAK, and the 12.5" GRS/BC. One by one I stuck them into the V and pushed. I leaned and even bounced. By the end, I was bouncing pretty hard. They all returned true and not once did I hear the dreaded snap, which would have sent me to the ground at that point since I was leaning so much. I got a pretty good flex out of the M43, with it's 5/16-3/8" thick blade, but it came back every time. It was made last September, which was the pre-Dashain period. It's solid though and really an awesome blade:). The little GRS/BC took everything in stride. It even had three nasty cracks near the cho, but not one opened up a bit and I didn't go easy on it I'll finish the whack portions when I get something to whack;).

I didn't mean to hijack your thread, but you brought up an important issue. Auntie will certainly make it right for you. You've got a nice collection there. I couldn't help but notice the B43. I'm really liking mine a lot:D. Be careful, take care, and God bless.
 
I suppose I had just gotten complacent and had not really tested this one. Having had perfect performance from my HI khuks for the last decade may have made me a bit lax. Now, all my recent purchases have been tested and my older ones are proven vets. I'm almost glad this happened, no one was hurt and it served a purpose for myself and others.

BTW did I mention the SCAK is a beast? Really, I'm amazed by that knife.
 
BTW did I mention the SCAK is a beast? Really, I'm amazed by that knife.
Click to expand...

Ditto. The ratio of the size to your hand are just outrageous.
I thought it was a 22-23".

Ah...Super CAK.
 
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