- Joined
- Dec 26, 2013
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- 6,067
Today I was about to head out to the store with my kids when I was blocked in by the mail man. All was forgiven when he walked up and handed me a rather large package. Straight from Tennessee to my doorstep a brand spanking new #5603 Johnson Adventure® Parangatang. Graciously sent to me from the contest: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1287444-CONTEST!!!!!-Every-Which-Way-But-Loose!!!!!. I cannot thank KA-BAR, Guyon, and Moose enough for this awesome piece of 1095cv goodness!
I couldn't wait to open the box, so while my wife went into a store for hair products and I was stuck in the van with the kids I unwrapped it
my reaction was; wow, this thing was a little bit bigger then I was expecting! I grabbed my BK5 out of my EDC bag for a comparison shot.
It makes what I would consider a large knife (the 5) look tiny.
At this point now I couldn't wait to get it home to see what I could do with it!
Every single KA BAR I own has always come out of the box with an amazing edge on it. This one is no exception:
For those of you that didn't know, the design of the Parang comes from South East Asia. Some of the earliest ones can be found originating in Indonesia. Much like a machete but they were thicker due to the vegetation of the region being more 'woody' then your regular jungle environment. This version was designed by Steve Johnson. As per the box: "an industrial engineer by trade and adrenaline junkie at heart. The Adventure knives are build to withstand abuse and never fail, even in the most demanding conditions like rugged terrain and extreme temperatures.". After my afternoon with the Parangatang I can see this to be true.
When we got home my wife reminded me of a promise I made to her in regards to our backyard vegetation. As soon as my 'prize' got here I would test it and trim down some of the bushes we have in the back. As you can see from this photo, the vine is trying to eat my kids play house.
They even stretch out and start winding their way up the maple tree we have closer to the fence.
No problem! in a very short amount of time what was once over grown and creepy was now just a pile of trimmings. Beautiful clean cuts the entire way.
I found I got the best results when slicing in that 'sweet spot' right about here
At one point while trimming the bushes I had a mosquito land on my leg. Without thinking I went to itch it with the Parangatang.... I did mention it was sharp right? Lost a little bit of hair on that one
Well, I couldn't just leave it at that. Not after reading what was on the side of the box. This beast is .188 inches thick..... Let the splitting of the wood begin! Some light batoning of a 3 inch thick piece of seasoned maple.
Then I split it up into even more smaller pieces like I would to start a fire. After I decided to see how it would chop. I got a 4 inch thick piece of maple and had at her! She bits pretty deep!
Fini!
I don't know if you can see it in this picture because I'm only using my cell phone for a camera.... but I decided to test the edge after all that again (from where I was chopping), and it still shaves. There is some hair on the blade falling onto the chopped wood.
Now I've been told that you never really know how well a knife will treat you until you do a few smaller tasks with it. So instead of using my smaller pieces as kindling right away, I carved them into tent spikes. Because of the large blade and the balance being more on the blade, the finer tasks took a little more effort. The knife is blade heavy (like any good chopper should be), and the balance point is 3 inches up from the handle scales. I even made a little feather stick, it can make some fine curls. I did mine in a hurry
Now I've read other reviews on this tool before I received it. One of the biggest complaints is about the grip. It takes a little bit of getting used to. I put the palm swell where it needed to be in my hand and it kind of fit like this.
wrap the other fingers around and you get the main grip I used for chopping
This puts the little ridge in the grip between my first and second finger. I found it was comfortable to use while I was clearing brush. Depending on what kind of task I was doing I alter my grip up or down the ridge. For snap cuts and slices I choked up a little bit and had that ridge resting between my ring and middle finger. For the finer work I moved all the way up to where the ridge sat between my ring finger and pinky.
After using the knife for a solid hour (and a bit more) I did not find any hot spots, my hand is not cramping up as I type this, and I could use it a lot longer if need be.
Now here she rests in all her glory. The new not yet completely knocked off, but I'll definitely need to spend some more time getting to know it a little better.
I know this one will be with me the next time I travel up north for some more fun!
One more big thanks to KA BAR and the KREW! Keep em sharp and pointy!
Toss in something smaller like a BK11 / 14 and you would have all your bases covered 
