First full day with the dog father and the fiance is on a business trip, so the trusty dog (my real dog, a german short haired pointer) and a bag full of steel went to the park.
The plan was to strap the dogfather to the end of a stick and see how the added leverage increased cutting efficiency. The lowlands next to the creek didn't have much in the way of straight, strong, unrotted wood, so i ended up using a 2.5 inch diameter branch to keep things safe. After finding suitable wood it must have taken me another 15 minutes to get the darn thing tied on in such a way that accurate strikes could be made without the blade twisting or flopping around. 2 strikes into a rotten log and the pole snapped. 20 minutes of hunting for wood, shaping the end, and tying later and the dogfather was ready for a second test. Would you believe that the second stick broke, too? I considered using green wood as this would likely eliminate breakage but there was so few healthy trees where i was that I couldn't bear to kill any.
Polearm initial observations: Seating and tying the knife involved splitting a section of the branch off large enough to provide a flat for the side of the handle. This method was the most stable while also being fairly well balanced. I tried forking a branch as well as putting the spine against the stick with less than stellar results. In the forked branch, it was difficult to fasten the knife without using a weaker skinny branch. With the spine against the flat of the stick the blade would tend to rotate, loosening the paracord and ending the test. Perhaps most surprising was the deformation or erosion of the res-c handle material from the paracord, branch, as well from simple hand friction. After the second stick broke the poleaxe test was terminated because I noticed ribbing where the cord had been. The ribbing is visible to the eye as well as to the touch. If rubbed with the pad of a finger the black rubber will ball up and begin to form deposits.
The rest of the afternoon was spent chopping and splitting by hand. In this capacity the dogfather faired very well. During the course of this short test the number of strikes required to notch pieces of hardwood with the gerber handaxe and the dogfather were essentially the same. Having no prior experience with a large knife of this type the handaxe did feel more natural in use but provided equivalent cutting power. Bark removal and splitting was performed with more speed with the dogfather.
Initial conclusions: The dogfather is a versatile tool providing additional functionality and edge retention when compared with the gerber handaxe. There are no rolls or chips in the edge of the dogfather and it feels as sharp as it did when received. The handaxe takes a keen edge but doesnt hold it through chopping, making a quick touch up neccessary when going from chopping to finer woodworking (peeling, carving). The handle of the dogfather is very comfortable and secure, yielding no hotspots or fatigue. However, the durability of the material is questionable.
This was just a preliminary test. More work will be performed as well as actual numbers being taken in the near future. Hopefully I can polish the hazing out of the camera lense to get some better pictures as well. The polearm test will be performed again if wrapping the handle in canvas eliminates further damage.
The plan was to strap the dogfather to the end of a stick and see how the added leverage increased cutting efficiency. The lowlands next to the creek didn't have much in the way of straight, strong, unrotted wood, so i ended up using a 2.5 inch diameter branch to keep things safe. After finding suitable wood it must have taken me another 15 minutes to get the darn thing tied on in such a way that accurate strikes could be made without the blade twisting or flopping around. 2 strikes into a rotten log and the pole snapped. 20 minutes of hunting for wood, shaping the end, and tying later and the dogfather was ready for a second test. Would you believe that the second stick broke, too? I considered using green wood as this would likely eliminate breakage but there was so few healthy trees where i was that I couldn't bear to kill any.
Polearm initial observations: Seating and tying the knife involved splitting a section of the branch off large enough to provide a flat for the side of the handle. This method was the most stable while also being fairly well balanced. I tried forking a branch as well as putting the spine against the stick with less than stellar results. In the forked branch, it was difficult to fasten the knife without using a weaker skinny branch. With the spine against the flat of the stick the blade would tend to rotate, loosening the paracord and ending the test. Perhaps most surprising was the deformation or erosion of the res-c handle material from the paracord, branch, as well from simple hand friction. After the second stick broke the poleaxe test was terminated because I noticed ribbing where the cord had been. The ribbing is visible to the eye as well as to the touch. If rubbed with the pad of a finger the black rubber will ball up and begin to form deposits.
The rest of the afternoon was spent chopping and splitting by hand. In this capacity the dogfather faired very well. During the course of this short test the number of strikes required to notch pieces of hardwood with the gerber handaxe and the dogfather were essentially the same. Having no prior experience with a large knife of this type the handaxe did feel more natural in use but provided equivalent cutting power. Bark removal and splitting was performed with more speed with the dogfather.
Initial conclusions: The dogfather is a versatile tool providing additional functionality and edge retention when compared with the gerber handaxe. There are no rolls or chips in the edge of the dogfather and it feels as sharp as it did when received. The handaxe takes a keen edge but doesnt hold it through chopping, making a quick touch up neccessary when going from chopping to finer woodworking (peeling, carving). The handle of the dogfather is very comfortable and secure, yielding no hotspots or fatigue. However, the durability of the material is questionable.
This was just a preliminary test. More work will be performed as well as actual numbers being taken in the near future. Hopefully I can polish the hazing out of the camera lense to get some better pictures as well. The polearm test will be performed again if wrapping the handle in canvas eliminates further damage.
