- Joined
- Oct 13, 1999
- Messages
- 1,731
A few days ago a branch came off of one of the trees in my yard during a storm. I was off today so I figured that I'd take care of it. I first thought about using the 15" GRS I got at the MWKK05 but I had used it recently on a few dead branches (short story: it worked great, though I need to do something about that center ring). Remembering Munk's recent advice that every new khuk should have its honeymoon, I decided on the 21" Chainpuri that I had bought awhile back on ebay. It had obviously seen use by it previous owner so I wasn't worried about smudging up the blade for one branch anyway.
The branch in question was only about 2 1/2" to 3" at its thickest but had died several years ago. It was therefore pretty seasoned. I started chopping the first section off and found the handle of the Chainpuri to be a bit uncomfortable. The Chainpuri also produce detectable vibration. Chopping with the section of the blade just past the recurve helped but the handle still bothered me. It had broken the skin on the webbing between the middle and ring fingers on my left hand by the time I made it through the branch. For the next section of the branch, I leaned it against the tree hoping to make the task easier. Chopping was still on the unpleasant side. Then about halfway through I got an idea. Hollowdweller and a few others here had talked about "nibbling" through wood before, so I figured it was worth a try (the branch wasn't too thick anyway). The handle became a lot more comfortable and I went through the second and then a third section of the branch.
When chopping with a khukuri, its pretty common for me to use several rapid strokes, especially with lighter and narrow bladed models. The experience with the Chainpuri was the first time I had tried nibbling type chops before. I can see where such a technique can come in handy in some instances.
As an aside I had taken a few pics at the end of the carnage but I'm having trouble downloading them on the computer. Maybe I'll have better luck latter.
Bob
The branch in question was only about 2 1/2" to 3" at its thickest but had died several years ago. It was therefore pretty seasoned. I started chopping the first section off and found the handle of the Chainpuri to be a bit uncomfortable. The Chainpuri also produce detectable vibration. Chopping with the section of the blade just past the recurve helped but the handle still bothered me. It had broken the skin on the webbing between the middle and ring fingers on my left hand by the time I made it through the branch. For the next section of the branch, I leaned it against the tree hoping to make the task easier. Chopping was still on the unpleasant side. Then about halfway through I got an idea. Hollowdweller and a few others here had talked about "nibbling" through wood before, so I figured it was worth a try (the branch wasn't too thick anyway). The handle became a lot more comfortable and I went through the second and then a third section of the branch.
When chopping with a khukuri, its pretty common for me to use several rapid strokes, especially with lighter and narrow bladed models. The experience with the Chainpuri was the first time I had tried nibbling type chops before. I can see where such a technique can come in handy in some instances.
As an aside I had taken a few pics at the end of the carnage but I'm having trouble downloading them on the computer. Maybe I'll have better luck latter.
Bob
