Tag, that is a good question. Personally there are two ways I split wood with a large knife. If the wood is squarish I will just set the blade, put one hand on the wood and torque on the blade with the other hand. If the wood will not split under this effort I resort to the second method which is to basically pound the blade straight through.
The individual who invented this rather unique method severely injured his shoulder awhile back free climbing. Basically he slipped and caught himself by one hand and the resulting stress badly jarred his shoulder. I think his lack of a pressdown ability at that time spawned this technique.
There were a couple of other factors as well. At the time I think an ontario machete was being used to split wood and it initially the pounding method was used but the vibration destroyed the handle. Since the tang is far to thin to hold onto while pounding a different technique was needed and the lateral pry I used was out for reasons described in the above.
A couple of other things are important to note. First of all none I the knives I review are worked with in isolation. Mainly because I feel it is necessary to provide a reference point to the performance. As a side effect, this often prompts much more stressful work to be done. Because quite simply if you see that a 1/8", 1095, $15 machete can do something, you don't really have an argument against using a 1/4", tool steel blade costing 10 times as much.
Secondly when I am given a blade to review, except in very rare situations, the review is finished when the blade is no longer functional. The exceptions are if the maker asks me to just look at some things or avoid doing certain things, which I generally don't do, but might depending on the situation. If I feel that an obvious weakness is being overlooked then I won't. But if I feel that it is intentional and done so as to provide better performance in another area I will limit what is done and just comment on the possible weakness in whatever area is being ignored.
Anyway that being said. The reviews are done in stages. First off comes the general performance, low stress cutting ability, edge retention, sharpening, handle and sheath issues etc. . After this is done I relax for about 3-6 months and just look for long term wear issues. After this is done the work starts to get more and more stressful. A lot of it is not done by me personally but by friends who are simply told to do whatever comes up, don't be concerned about the consequences just try to find the scope of work.
The Basic in the picture above has been in stage three for quite some time and I am never failed to be amazed that it is still going strong. I have in fact asked for it to be returned to Busse Combat for retirement but the current owner was not exactly forthcoming in returning it. I think I will probably get a NO or SHII to trade for it.
Anyway, back to the method, I think it is very innovative as it requires little upperbody strength or grip stability and can be done readily with one hand. Consider in low temp situations where your hands are numb and/or injured and holding onto the grip and pounding with the other hand may be difficult/impossible. It is also quicker than a pound through. However it does place a lot of force on the knife, in a rather sudden jarring motion.
It is not the fear of a blade breakage that would prevent me from ever using it however, but the simple fact that it is very dangerous. Depending on how the knife hits you could easily get cut.
-Cliff
[This message has been edited by Cliff Stamp (edited 04-04-2001).]
