Esee Expat cleaver as a compact machet/chopper?

I much prefer long handled tools for trail clearing .

Use two hands and the whole body to generate greater speed and power .

Avoids bending over and keeps me out of the briars , thorns and poison ivy .

Here's my most recent . You could sling this baby across your back , Zombie Hunter style !

 
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Apparently, the Japanese have already thought of this design for what I was thinking in the Japanese Nata. Designed to be a gardening and light chopping tool. Now if I can just find one in stainless at a reasonable price or I'll have to consider making one. I like the descriptions they're stating for the intended purpose though.

I now remember @Crag the Brewer mentioning the silky but I missed the knife style or that other brands would make it, thinking it was a specific model name instead of a design style.

Description from a website that sells them:

Takagi-165mm-Japanese-Nata-Chopper-Gardening-Hatchet-Single-Edge-Machete-Axe.jpg


"This traditional gardening tool, with a 16.5cm blade, is terrific for cutting small branches; and for smooth and fast cuts across the grain.

The Japanese Nata Hatchet has a razor sharp blade with a straight smooth cutting edge allowing for outstanding cutting performance on both soft and hard wood.

Far better than a small bladed conventional hatchet, this razor sharp Nata is great for around the garden, vineyard, grounds or wherever both large and small pruning jobs are needed.

Its blade is made of carbon steel laminated to a soft steel. The handle is made of Japanese White Oak.

With its vinyl covered wood storage case (which has a belt loop) and its laminated steel blade construction, it is very convenient to carry and will be the perfect tool for the outdoors."
 
I don't know how much that knife is sold for but given the simple shape of it... it could constitute a simple homemade project. Leaf spring steel, angle grinder, a few files... and off you go!
 
Mikel_24 said:
I don't know how much that knife is sold for but given the simple shape of it... it could constitute a simple homemade project. Leaf spring steel, angle grinder, a few files... and off you go!
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The one I showed was like $40 on the site it was listed at. No idea on the shipping cost. It would save me the time since I'll be severely strapped for time (it's a good thing) for the next few months.

Edit: It does look like a really simple design that could be made from scratch in a few hours, excluding HT. You have me thinking though, I have a tesr leuku with a leather handle I did a few months back, I could just cut the tip off, right behind the start of the belly, and have about the same thing as what I linked above.
 
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bikerector said:
The one I showed was like $40 on the site it was listed at. No idea on the shipping cost. It would save me the time since I'll be severely strapped for time (it's a good thing) for the next few months.
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For that price I would buy it and start using it right away.

Mikel
 
ESEE Junglas (8", or 10", whichever you prefer, I have both and both are great choppers as well as being useful knives). Advantage of this knife is it comes in a great quality sheath you can rig up to sling to your back or backpack to ensure a safer carry while riding.

esee junglas - Knife Center
 
I ended up getting one of the nada tools from a chain hardware store locally. The tool is pretty neat, to be honest, for $40. I have some reservations about the partial tang design on it but what the heck, it was cheap and gives me something to mess around when I get back out on the trails when the ice clears up or we get some fresh snow to cover it up... and I can find some time away from the kids.

I also picked up a felco 31, the anvil pruners, because I liked the idea that it's better for dead and dry stuff and should work okay on green stuff too. I'll probably still get some regular bypass pruners as well. These things are so, so much nicer than the fiskars pruners I have and they're much lighter as a side benefit if I'm going to pack them on the bike frequently.

lUISVIfl.jpg
 
22-rimfire said:
Years ago I was part of a survey crew and bought what I called a pineapple knife that looked much like the one you're looking at except for the handle was a simpler design. It cut. But it was too short as the briars and so forth did a number on my hands. So, my sense of the subject knife is it would work for occasional chopping much like you describe. I think you might be better off or certainly as well off with a short machete (10-12") and just strap it onto the bike frame. From what I own that is semi knife-like, I would choose the Condor Kumunga for a task like this.
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I'll second this. Go with a short machete; preferably a bolo machete. That is what they were designed for.

Tram-bolo.jpg


They are relatively light and your hands will appreciate the extra reach.

n2s
 
Mikel_24 said:
So, did you get to try the combo? Did it work ok for your needs??
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I haven't, the trail's have been covered with ice and I'm too cheap to spend a couple hundo on studded tires for my bike. Even the backyard has been cause of a few slips for me and the dog. Temps just floating around freezing so it just keeps that top layer of ice a sketch-fest.

I swung the nada around a little in the yard before the ice built up just to confirm it cuts, but it was dark already (after putting the kids down for the evening) so I didn't do much. Only chopped a few branches and it swings something like an Esee 6 but that's only from a handful of swings.
 
Took the cheap nada out to so some light delimbing of fallen branches on the back yard and I'm pleased with how well it chops for such a short tool. Certainly not a BK9 but probably at least as good as the BK2 or esee 5 for taking off branches and splitting wood. The handle adds extra leverage so it acts more like a 7 or 8 inch thick fixed blade. I might even say it chops nearly as well as my ratweiler, at least on the cherry braches I was cutting.

It should be more than enough to clean up stuff around a trail and quickly get vines cutt away from a tree so I can get the saw in there.
 
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