Jay,
I wish I could find the videos of this older Nepalese gentleman chopping with a kukri. It completely changed the way I deal with the kukri.
In short this is what he was doing. In one video he was kneeling on the ground beside a branch he was chopping. (the branch was on a log) For a visual, think of him as standing and his body as being a vertical line, straight up and down. Now extend out your arm in front of you and then draw another vertical line an arm distance away from you, just as if another person were standing there. As he was chopping he did so in two slightly different ways but in both, the blade traveled down that other vertical line but, slightly slanted away from his line.
One type of motion was from the elbow. His arm was out in front and he mostly used the momentum of the blade to do the chopping. But the kukri was always traveling away from him. No matter what happened the blade was traveling away from him, under control and it was never moving at any fast speed. Even if he missed the branch completely the kukri would have simply hit the ground. The only work he was doing was bringing the blade back up to the swinging position.
The second way was very similar except he used more shoulder movement. But the blade was still always swung away from the body and he still used very little muscle. The blade was always under control and always moving away. Again, the only work he was doing was bringing the blade up. In this case most of the motion came from his shoulder joint but the elbow moved to keep the kukri moving slightly away. In this video he was cutting some kind of long grass but later he used the same motion on some branches. But if you think of the times you have seen tribal women chopping grasses with a machete, that is the motion he used except little or no wrist motion.
When I tried this I was amazed at how little difference there was with this type of swing compared to what can be called a hatchet swing. Both swings took out almost the same amount of material but when you go slower your aim is better and you use less swings than when you are being wild. The three big differences when you swing in "hatchet" mode? One, it takes a lot more energy to swing. Two, you are constantly out of control with at least some part of your body "in the danger arch." Three, you always get hand fatigue/blisters.
If people would learn to swing a kukri like they would be swinging them "all day, every day" they would learn this simple lesson. And once you see how a properly sharpened, properly made kukri removes material, even with a casual swing, you will never go back to "swinging for the seats" and putting your body in jeopardy. Another important part is using the correct kukri for the job.
Now granted, a person will have to use some brain energy to take that lesson and use it for taking down a standing tree but this shouldn't be too difficult to imagine. It's the swing and the mentality that is important. Swing away from your body and let the tool do the work. It may take a few more chops but it uses a lot less energy and is a lot safer. If you say to yourself, "there is no way to chop this with my body out of the way," then you are using the wrong tool and you shouldn't make the chop.
Bill
Virginia
