- Joined
- May 9, 2002
- Messages
- 12,666
Ah the Holidays
It was that wonderful time of year when everyone seems to be in just a little bit better mood, the kids are fearful of being shafted by Santa if they aren't on their best behavior, and there are SO many wonderful things to eat and drink as the smell of baked goods permeates the house.
...then December 26th hits
You're sick of the traffic. Not only is the mall crammed full of people wanting to blow their gift cards, the streets are clogged with out of towners trying to figure out how to navigate out of your particular corner of Hades in order to get back their their own. The kids have figured out that they have pretty much 11 more months before the Jolly Fatman starts to pay closer attention to their shenanigans, and they are so twisted up on cookies and candy that they can't seem to muster any more social mores than that of a holler monkey hopped up on ill gotten pharmaceuticals. Furthermore, you now feel sluggish from over indulging. Too much eggnog. Too many cookies. Too much homemade fudge. Too much sturdy spirits when your in-laws came for an extended visit. Too many cookies. Too much rich Christmas dinner and the unavoidable leftovers. And of course, too many cookies. This is how I feel going into the first of the year:
By the eve of our new year, I NEEEEEDED to let loose some pent up aggression and a burn a few calories. I was fairly certain that my sweat was going to have a faint scent of boiled custard and bourbon. The gun range was closed and tossing some of the obnoxious toys my daughter received into the fireplace wouldn't gain me any favor in her adoring eyes (even if she was behaving like an overly medicated howler monkey). Instead, I decided to do the next best thing:
Drag the dried out Christmas tree to the backyard and put it out of its misery
I didn't get a picture of it before, but I do have to say it was a very handsome tree. About 7 and a half feet of sturdy well shaped spruce that I purchased from some boy scouts who I believe are really going to be going places in the field of selling used cars. Seriously, I'M in sales. I wanted a $40 tree...drove home with a $60 monster. Well, and a happy wife and excited 3 year old, so it wasn't all bad Anyway, it really was a great looking tree to celebrate the first Christmas in our new house.
That said, a live tree, no matter how much water you give it to drink, is going to start shedding some serious needles within a month. It was time for it to go live with its conifer ancestors in tree heaven. I will say, it put up a fight going outside. Over the last month, the branches had dropped and the needles had become cactus like. While I had no doubt that I was going to win the fight, I did not make it out without being bloodied in half a dozen places.
My weapon of choice for this project was the KLVUK I recently posted about where I scrubbed off the scale finish and gave the blade a deep gray patina. I knew this khuk was the right one as I had used it split kindling for our Christmas Day fire in our fireplace. Not only did it blast apart the frozen wood with shocking ease (and please keep in mind I have a trunk load of khuks. It takes a lot to shock me when it comes to performance), but I'm pretty sure the blade is some sort of metallurgical lovechild of Unobtanium and Adamantium. In my cold carelessness, I over struck the wood which caused the blades edge to come down with a fair amount of vigor onto my concrete porch with a melodic ring. $&#^$#*!!
....except that besides a slight marring of the edge that was easy corrected with less than one minute on a stone, there was no damage. My concrete, however, has a slice into it. I'm serious, and actual slice about 1" long and about as thick as my thumb nail
Anyway, THAT is when I knew that this was the blade to take apart my tree...and I'm incredibly lazy and it was sitting on my hearth within easy reach
It went through the soft spruce branches like butter. On more than one occasion I was cursing myself for not not drying out my steel toe boots as I was wearing very non-protective Converse All Stars. The KLVUK didn't just bite deep, it cleaved. One casual swing at an angle and it lopped through THREE 1" thick branches before embedding itself into the truck about an inch and a half.
5 minutes. 5 minutes to take a fairly robust 7.5' tall, 5' across tree down to a pile of limbs and cut the trunk in half. I didn't even break the sweat I was going for.
In short, long rambling story aside, the recent lot of KLVUKs not only seem to be just as high quality as the previous run, but they may actually be even a little bit better. I don't know if its the blade geometry or the slightly thicker spine, but this is a REAL working blade. Not only did I dismantle the tree, but I went ahead and took the time to split and arm full of seasoned oak kindling. No clean up, no edge touch up...just flat USED the blade.
It's been said time and time and TIME again, but the KLVUK may very well be the best bang for your buck for any fixed blade working knife. I simply can't imagine getting as much performance out of any other knife for the same amount of money (or even twice as much, actually). I'm so happy to have another one of these handy khuks in my brace of users. I think everyone needs at least 4 or 5 HI blades, but if you want a knife you can really wail on and not feel bad about mucking up the finish...get a KLVUK
It was that wonderful time of year when everyone seems to be in just a little bit better mood, the kids are fearful of being shafted by Santa if they aren't on their best behavior, and there are SO many wonderful things to eat and drink as the smell of baked goods permeates the house.
...then December 26th hits
You're sick of the traffic. Not only is the mall crammed full of people wanting to blow their gift cards, the streets are clogged with out of towners trying to figure out how to navigate out of your particular corner of Hades in order to get back their their own. The kids have figured out that they have pretty much 11 more months before the Jolly Fatman starts to pay closer attention to their shenanigans, and they are so twisted up on cookies and candy that they can't seem to muster any more social mores than that of a holler monkey hopped up on ill gotten pharmaceuticals. Furthermore, you now feel sluggish from over indulging. Too much eggnog. Too many cookies. Too much homemade fudge. Too much sturdy spirits when your in-laws came for an extended visit. Too many cookies. Too much rich Christmas dinner and the unavoidable leftovers. And of course, too many cookies. This is how I feel going into the first of the year:By the eve of our new year, I NEEEEEDED to let loose some pent up aggression and a burn a few calories. I was fairly certain that my sweat was going to have a faint scent of boiled custard and bourbon. The gun range was closed and tossing some of the obnoxious toys my daughter received into the fireplace wouldn't gain me any favor in her adoring eyes (even if she was behaving like an overly medicated howler monkey). Instead, I decided to do the next best thing:
Drag the dried out Christmas tree to the backyard and put it out of its misery
I didn't get a picture of it before, but I do have to say it was a very handsome tree. About 7 and a half feet of sturdy well shaped spruce that I purchased from some boy scouts who I believe are really going to be going places in the field of selling used cars. Seriously, I'M in sales. I wanted a $40 tree...drove home with a $60 monster. Well, and a happy wife and excited 3 year old, so it wasn't all bad
Anyway, it really was a great looking tree to celebrate the first Christmas in our new house.That said, a live tree, no matter how much water you give it to drink, is going to start shedding some serious needles within a month. It was time for it to go live with its conifer ancestors in tree heaven. I will say, it put up a fight going outside. Over the last month, the branches had dropped and the needles had become cactus like. While I had no doubt that I was going to win the fight, I did not make it out without being bloodied in half a dozen places.
My weapon of choice for this project was the KLVUK I recently posted about where I scrubbed off the scale finish and gave the blade a deep gray patina. I knew this khuk was the right one as I had used it split kindling for our Christmas Day fire in our fireplace. Not only did it blast apart the frozen wood with shocking ease (and please keep in mind I have a trunk load of khuks. It takes a lot to shock me when it comes to performance), but I'm pretty sure the blade is some sort of metallurgical lovechild of Unobtanium and Adamantium. In my cold carelessness, I over struck the wood which caused the blades edge to come down with a fair amount of vigor onto my concrete porch with a melodic ring. $&#^$#*!!
....except that besides a slight marring of the edge that was easy corrected with less than one minute on a stone, there was no damage. My concrete, however, has a slice into it. I'm serious, and actual slice about 1" long and about as thick as my thumb nail Anyway, THAT is when I knew that this was the blade to take apart my tree...and I'm incredibly lazy and it was sitting on my hearth within easy reach
It went through the soft spruce branches like butter. On more than one occasion I was cursing myself for not not drying out my steel toe boots as I was wearing very non-protective Converse All Stars. The KLVUK didn't just bite deep, it cleaved. One casual swing at an angle and it lopped through THREE 1" thick branches before embedding itself into the truck about an inch and a half.
5 minutes. 5 minutes to take a fairly robust 7.5' tall, 5' across tree down to a pile of limbs and cut the trunk in half. I didn't even break the sweat I was going for.
In short, long rambling story aside, the recent lot of KLVUKs not only seem to be just as high quality as the previous run, but they may actually be even a little bit better. I don't know if its the blade geometry or the slightly thicker spine, but this is a REAL working blade. Not only did I dismantle the tree, but I went ahead and took the time to split and arm full of seasoned oak kindling. No clean up, no edge touch up...just flat USED the blade.
It's been said time and time and TIME again, but the KLVUK may very well be the best bang for your buck for any fixed blade working knife. I simply can't imagine getting as much performance out of any other knife for the same amount of money (or even twice as much, actually). I'm so happy to have another one of these handy khuks in my brace of users. I think everyone needs at least 4 or 5 HI blades, but if you want a knife you can really wail on and not feel bad about mucking up the finish...get a KLVUK
