"Choppers" vs. a saw

W

Wildewinds

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Nov 20, 2006
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This past weekend at the CA Bush Bash, we did a lot of firewood gathering. We put some knives, hatchets, tomahawks and saws through their paces.

While the bigger knives made short work of branches around 1.5" thick, nothing compared to the little folding saw (Kershaw folding saw) for thicker stuff. It really was no contest, even against the bigger tomahawks. The 10" hatchet sucked.

Aside from a jungle environment or somewhere else where you need a machete type blade to clear a path, I don't see the point of having a big chopper. For camping/backpacking purposes, all you really need is a smaller knife and a saw. The smaller knife can be used for batoning if you need to split something. The saw can handle the rest of the wood cutting tasks.

Here's the saw. It worked really well, and it's pretty damn light:

K2550-2.jpg


Thoughts?
 
definately something cavemanish and primordial about using a chopper. I love folding saws, they're super effective like you said, however for a long term survival situation they won't nearly as long as a quality axe. That thing would be toothless or uselessly dull long before a good hatchet or machete will catastrophically fail on you. My dad has a 66 year old axe in his basement that his family has used in the northwoods of Minnesota since his family moved to the US from Norway. And I'd like to see someone cut down a big tree with a folding saw, you can get all Sawvivor on me if you want but a vast majority of them aren't longer than 10 inches. That limits you to small branches and bolts. There are some types of forrests, like sequoia and ponderosa for example, where you would have to climb 20 feet up a tree trunk before reaching a small enough branch to cut with a folding saw.
 
Chopping is fun, but for those who are aged, infirm, or just lazy, the saw wins hands down.

In a situation where you might be cold and wet, and need to process some wood quickly and easily, the saw wins.

Don't get me wrong: I love my choppers, too. It's just that a toolbox can contain more than one tool, and they're there for a reason, so choose the best one for the job.

Remember, saws are blades, too.
 
Hmmm...I'm always able to chop stuff with a machete (even trees) faster than I can saw through them by hand. I use a saw mostly for making precise cuts where I might hit big rocks. Maybe my sawing technique isn't as good as my chopping? :confused:
 
Bruce Culberson said:
Choppers are funner:D
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This.

While I will agree with you that saws are indeed much faster, using a chopper is a ton more fun. It may also use more energy, so if I were in a situation of conserving energy, I would use a saw. However, I like to chop for the fun of it, rather than because it is the most efficient way to get things done.
 
Katdaddy said:
Somebody call me????:confused:
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LOL! Well, I was trying not to mention that I meant me, but everyone in the old guy's club knows what I'm talking about.

Back when I was a young stud of, say, 50, I was still a chopping fool. Now that I'm somewhat past that, we can probably forget about the chopping part.:D

Guess I'm a sawing fool, nowadays. What about you? Are saws easier to use now than choppers?
 
Yeah, I have carried a folding saw over a big chopper for that reason awhile now! A fellow member here and I went head to head with his FFBM vs my 10" Corona folding saw and I finished about a minute before him :)

The chopper is better to get rid of that aggretion though ;)
 
I wouldn't necessarily say these small saws are faster. I can clear an entire sagebrush, a 4 inch doug fir branch etc with one solid swipe from my Condor Bolo, and alot of smaller branches you can wack with a beat stick and they will come from together, but the saw definately has its place and I carry one on most day+ hikes. They have alot of other uses too, notching for traps and shelters etc. Saws also produce SAWDUST!!! which makes great tinder. I always lay a good sized piece of bark under whatever I'm sawing to collect sawdust. I also use it just to soak up moisture from the ground where I will be building my fire, tends to make life easy in the first 5-10 minutes of the flame.
 
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I've gone through 6 inch plus diameter logs with my M-43 Kukri in 4- 6 strokes dozens of times.

However if I have to crosscut a lot of pieces a saw is a Godsend. I prefer a 36" Swede saw myself. If out in the field and I don't feel like carrying one of those then I take along a pocket chainsaw which I fit up in the field and turn into a frame saw.

Long term durability as Payette already pointed out goes to the chopper, as does ease of maintenance.

Versatility goes to the chopper as well.

To me it is more than worth the weight to take the chopper along.
 
I never said don't take a chopper along: I generally have one with me for when I want to, well, chop.

It goes back to the toolkit I mentioned. Mine consists of a 14 inch bolo machete, a Silky saw, a Becker BK-2, and a Vic Farmer. Between them, they cover all the bases for me, short of building a log cabin — which I'll never do at my age.:D

I like choppers but, for actual processing of wood, they require far more energy than I want to expend.
 
Definitely the saw. I find small choppers to be horribly inefficient and big ones to be rather unwieldy and dangerous. I was using a NMFBM with my grip fatigued and palm sweaty, a glancing blow twisted it right out of my hand, could have been a serious accident.
 
I have never used a small saw like that.

I have used this one:

http://www.rei.com/product/404040

Reason I was asking about how thick is I think the length of the saw blade, or the thickness of the wood on whether one is better than the other.

Also technique plays a part.

Saw was faster for me on a lot but not all.

Thicker stuff was easier with hatchet due to limitations of blade size on saw.

Hatchet easier to fell with because the blade doesn't get pinched.
 
Dawsonbob, Man I hear you on the chopper and the older guy club. My bad shoulders prefer the saw 100 to 1. I have several saw that make childs play of 4 inch or smaller limbs and works almost as well on 6 inchers. As some of these guys age, they will see what you mean.

I gotta try that Kershaw saw too. I have heard that the SOG saw is decent as well, I have not tried that one.
 
I agree.

A big knife is a very useful too, as is an axe, but they’re big energy burners in my opinion.

I’ve got a Gerber folding saw and it eats wood for lunch. I’m starting to play with my ESEE Lite Machete some, but a folding saw with a spare blade weights less than half what most choppers do and it can do a lot of work.

With that said, chopping is a lot of fun. But again, you’re going to use some calories.
 
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