- Joined
- Mar 8, 2008
- Messages
- 26,080
Sorry--no pictures. 
So after the weekend snow storm that dumped on New England this past weekend, I had some cleaning up to do in the horse pasture. Five large birch trees had sagged over under the weight of the heavy wet snow, and were leaning on the electric fence lines, and a bunch of scrub brush near the fence had decided to do the same. I grabbed the nearest of my many choppers to take care of the downed fence pronto, and that chopper happened to be my personal Baryonyx machete prototype.
Walking around the fence perimeter, I used my boot to lift the bottom line of fencing up out of the snow. Where I encountered brush leaning on the fence and grounding it out, I used the hook side of the Baryonyx to cut it away. When I got to the arched trees, I used the main chopping edge to cut hanging branches free to clear some work space, and first tried to "top" the trees by pulling the sagging tip of the tree as close to the ground as I could, and cutting through the farthest point I could reach. In two of the five cases, this removed enough weight from the tree to allow it to spring back up part of the way, and clear of the fence.
In the other cases I had to actually fell the trees to remove the obstruction they were creating. Cut placement had to be careful to avoid the trunk from falling directly on top of the fence and causing additional damage, and this usually meant cutting a decent way up the trunk. The initial cuts were super easy due to the tension on the trunk, so the fibers busted apart as soon as the blade bit through them. The tricky part was properly cutting through the top of the trunk and not just the top of the side facing me. The hook came in handy here, as the curve of the hook followed the curve of the trunk and allowed me to chop sections I actually couldn't see. After the trunk was severed, I then used the unsharpened crook of the machete tip to push the felled section to safe ground. I then used the Baryonyx like an axe to limb and section the trunk, taking large chips. I then sunk the point of the hook into the resulting logs to drag them free.
Though the prototype is thicker than I'd like a production version to be, it outperformed my wildest expectations and made the whole process a breeze. This hard use combined with my previous experience using the tool to split, drill, and drawknife, I can say I'd feel very comfortable using it as my only woods blade. I just hope to see it make it to a production model (Condor MIGHT pick it up in 2013), as it would be a lighter and even more effective tool--and having a sheath would be nice! I have a "hobo leather" (pronounced "cardboard"
) sheath for it for storage purposes, but when I don't want to set it down in the snow...
All in all, I'm super pleased with the results and it'll be the first thing I grab if the S ever hits the F...or I'm just bumming around in the woods. I'll try to get some pics next time.
If anyone has a chopper they especially like as a go-to for cold weather or temperate zones, feel free to share your experiences!
So after the weekend snow storm that dumped on New England this past weekend, I had some cleaning up to do in the horse pasture. Five large birch trees had sagged over under the weight of the heavy wet snow, and were leaning on the electric fence lines, and a bunch of scrub brush near the fence had decided to do the same. I grabbed the nearest of my many choppers to take care of the downed fence pronto, and that chopper happened to be my personal Baryonyx machete prototype.
Walking around the fence perimeter, I used my boot to lift the bottom line of fencing up out of the snow. Where I encountered brush leaning on the fence and grounding it out, I used the hook side of the Baryonyx to cut it away. When I got to the arched trees, I used the main chopping edge to cut hanging branches free to clear some work space, and first tried to "top" the trees by pulling the sagging tip of the tree as close to the ground as I could, and cutting through the farthest point I could reach. In two of the five cases, this removed enough weight from the tree to allow it to spring back up part of the way, and clear of the fence.
In the other cases I had to actually fell the trees to remove the obstruction they were creating. Cut placement had to be careful to avoid the trunk from falling directly on top of the fence and causing additional damage, and this usually meant cutting a decent way up the trunk. The initial cuts were super easy due to the tension on the trunk, so the fibers busted apart as soon as the blade bit through them. The tricky part was properly cutting through the top of the trunk and not just the top of the side facing me. The hook came in handy here, as the curve of the hook followed the curve of the trunk and allowed me to chop sections I actually couldn't see. After the trunk was severed, I then used the unsharpened crook of the machete tip to push the felled section to safe ground. I then used the Baryonyx like an axe to limb and section the trunk, taking large chips. I then sunk the point of the hook into the resulting logs to drag them free.
Though the prototype is thicker than I'd like a production version to be, it outperformed my wildest expectations and made the whole process a breeze. This hard use combined with my previous experience using the tool to split, drill, and drawknife, I can say I'd feel very comfortable using it as my only woods blade. I just hope to see it make it to a production model (Condor MIGHT pick it up in 2013), as it would be a lighter and even more effective tool--and having a sheath would be nice! I have a "hobo leather" (pronounced "cardboard"
) sheath for it for storage purposes, but when I don't want to set it down in the snow...All in all, I'm super pleased with the results and it'll be the first thing I grab if the S ever hits the F...or I'm just bumming around in the woods. I'll try to get some pics next time.
If anyone has a chopper they especially like as a go-to for cold weather or temperate zones, feel free to share your experiences!
