- Joined
- Oct 25, 2004
- Messages
- 3,178
Having spent several days admiring my new 25" Kobra, I decided that yesterday would be the day to put it to work.
The property I live on has an acre or two that's unused on account of 20+ years of briars. It's the equivalent of an old growth forest in blackberry terms -- the current layer is growing on a couple of dying layers that're growing on several dead layers, making one impenetrable mess. Several summers ago I spent a good weekend chopping a 40-yard trail from the edge of the yard to a grove of trees at the corner of the property using a $5.99 Coleman machete from Wal-Mart. (I can not recommend these under any circumstances. Use anything else.) It was not fun. I should've kept it maintained but I did not and it grew back over fairly quickly. Yesterday, I decided to try to open it up again.
I went out to look at it and got worried. While only about as high as my shoulders (most of the other stuff is over my head), it had grown back just as thick as ever. No one would've known there was a trail there unless I'd told them. I grabbed the Kobra, oiled it up, and got to work.
Fifteen minutes later I was about half (!) done.
I spent a few minutes with a file and put a sharper, coarser edge on the Kobra, then got back to work. It took me about another twenty minutes to finish the rest, as I'd decided at this point to widen the trail so that two people could walk it abreast; also, instead of clearing out the severed vines, I just chopped them to little pieces in place and trampled them down. A bit messy but they should make okay mulch (the berries are long gone) and it was extremely satisfying in a primal sort of way -- the closest thing I can experience to "grinding my enemies to dust beneath my heel" in my backyard, I guess.
It took me a few minutes to get the hang of things. I was using too much force at first, both to start and to stop the swing. (Okay, I was treating it like a machete at first. So sue me.) What worked better for me was using long, almost gentle swings and following through to the limits of my flexibility. (Just like the other khuks I own...imagine that!) Once I'd made the change, my breathing slowed down quite a bit and the work was very easy. I'm looking forward to doing a few hours straight to verify. Even though this blade is lighter than any of my other khuks, I still found it very difficult to check a swing once I'd started it. Better to aim, picture the path of the blade, make sure that no part of me is there, and let the weight do its thing. The khuk will stop when it's good and ready.
End result: it looks like a large truck drove through, except that the edges are cleaner. Despite some ground strikes and chopping through the occasional tree limb or very thick, aged and hardened blackberry stalk, the edge suffered no dings on its first run and one on the second near the tip; I can't see it but can barely feel it with the chakma. The blade dulled a very small amount through the cutting but got a bit sharper than starting after some chakma use. (Exactly like the AK bowie, in fact. Don't know if this says good things about HI edges or bad things about my sharpening. Probably both.) This thing is a briar-destroying machine. My only injury was a good blister on the edge of my hand, right where the AK had irritated me earlier. Those bell-shaped butts will take some getting used to. It wouldn't have been bad if I'd switched hands earlier but I'd been having so much fun that I hadn't even noticed the blister until I'd finished. In the meantime, I've ground the offending point off the butt and look forward to trying it again...once I've got some skin in that area again.
Once the hand heals, I'm going to try to wrangle some money out of the landlady to clear the brush for her. She's already stated a willingness to pay fairly well for the briars to be removed. Granted, I'd probably be willing to do it for free at this point but she doesn't need to know that.
Thanks to Kumar and UB for getting this monster into my hands. I can hear the blackberries whimpering as I type this.
I was going to review the 20" AK's wood splitting abilities but it shattered the chopping block in short order and is currently in the doghouse for its overzealous behavior. (That was a really nice, almost perfect round for chopping block use. It will be missed.) If all goes well, it may take a trip out to the Camp tomorrow for sectioning duties after my paperwork's done.
The property I live on has an acre or two that's unused on account of 20+ years of briars. It's the equivalent of an old growth forest in blackberry terms -- the current layer is growing on a couple of dying layers that're growing on several dead layers, making one impenetrable mess. Several summers ago I spent a good weekend chopping a 40-yard trail from the edge of the yard to a grove of trees at the corner of the property using a $5.99 Coleman machete from Wal-Mart. (I can not recommend these under any circumstances. Use anything else.) It was not fun. I should've kept it maintained but I did not and it grew back over fairly quickly. Yesterday, I decided to try to open it up again.
I went out to look at it and got worried. While only about as high as my shoulders (most of the other stuff is over my head), it had grown back just as thick as ever. No one would've known there was a trail there unless I'd told them. I grabbed the Kobra, oiled it up, and got to work.
Fifteen minutes later I was about half (!) done.
I spent a few minutes with a file and put a sharper, coarser edge on the Kobra, then got back to work. It took me about another twenty minutes to finish the rest, as I'd decided at this point to widen the trail so that two people could walk it abreast; also, instead of clearing out the severed vines, I just chopped them to little pieces in place and trampled them down. A bit messy but they should make okay mulch (the berries are long gone) and it was extremely satisfying in a primal sort of way -- the closest thing I can experience to "grinding my enemies to dust beneath my heel" in my backyard, I guess.It took me a few minutes to get the hang of things. I was using too much force at first, both to start and to stop the swing. (Okay, I was treating it like a machete at first. So sue me.) What worked better for me was using long, almost gentle swings and following through to the limits of my flexibility. (Just like the other khuks I own...imagine that!) Once I'd made the change, my breathing slowed down quite a bit and the work was very easy. I'm looking forward to doing a few hours straight to verify. Even though this blade is lighter than any of my other khuks, I still found it very difficult to check a swing once I'd started it. Better to aim, picture the path of the blade, make sure that no part of me is there, and let the weight do its thing. The khuk will stop when it's good and ready.
End result: it looks like a large truck drove through, except that the edges are cleaner. Despite some ground strikes and chopping through the occasional tree limb or very thick, aged and hardened blackberry stalk, the edge suffered no dings on its first run and one on the second near the tip; I can't see it but can barely feel it with the chakma. The blade dulled a very small amount through the cutting but got a bit sharper than starting after some chakma use. (Exactly like the AK bowie, in fact. Don't know if this says good things about HI edges or bad things about my sharpening. Probably both.) This thing is a briar-destroying machine. My only injury was a good blister on the edge of my hand, right where the AK had irritated me earlier. Those bell-shaped butts will take some getting used to. It wouldn't have been bad if I'd switched hands earlier but I'd been having so much fun that I hadn't even noticed the blister until I'd finished. In the meantime, I've ground the offending point off the butt and look forward to trying it again...once I've got some skin in that area again.
Once the hand heals, I'm going to try to wrangle some money out of the landlady to clear the brush for her. She's already stated a willingness to pay fairly well for the briars to be removed. Granted, I'd probably be willing to do it for free at this point but she doesn't need to know that.
Thanks to Kumar and UB for getting this monster into my hands. I can hear the blackberries whimpering as I type this.
I was going to review the 20" AK's wood splitting abilities but it shattered the chopping block in short order and is currently in the doghouse for its overzealous behavior. (That was a really nice, almost perfect round for chopping block use. It will be missed.) If all goes well, it may take a trip out to the Camp tomorrow for sectioning duties after my paperwork's done.
