- Joined
- Feb 1, 2011
- Messages
- 221
I'm finishing up a three month volunteering session with the American Conservation Experience (Ace Conservation) in Flagstaff Arizona. During my session I worked on maintaining and building trails all through Arizona and Utah, working on the Arizona Trail in Tonto National Forest, mountain bike trails in St. George, Utah, and on community trails in Walnut Canyon. During most of these projects I had my trusty 15" Himalayan Imports Ang Khola knife at hand.
(seen here as it arrived new)
The blade has seen some serious use in felling small trees, cutting up firewood, and most importantly for this project, helping me with brushing trails and cutting roots while pulling stumps
(dat patina)
if you look closely you'll notice how the blade has receded slightly from around the sweet spot as it gets occasionally dented and resharpened, take note if you heavily use these blades, they are quite soft aside from the sweet spot and accidents will happen, but sharpening back to a working edge is not a hard task. The dry air of Arizona was only an issue until I started using Bert's Bee's chapstick to rehydrate the handle on occasion.
One requirement of the task at hand was that our stumps from brushing the trails had to be low to the ground and flat (so as to not injure a falling hiker and for aesthetics) The Ang-khola was up to the task
hard wood such as oak and Juniper was not a problem either
the medical relief fund sheath that I used worked very well and was quite comfortable even after 200 miles of hiking to and from work sites
The only fix that I had to make to it was to duct tape the tip to prevent splitting
I was very satisfied with my Himalayan Imports Ang-Khola made by Bhakta Kami, it was not only a very useful tool to have while building trails, but it also impressed many of my co-workers, some of whom have been directed to this forum.
The blade has seen some serious use in felling small trees, cutting up firewood, and most importantly for this project, helping me with brushing trails and cutting roots while pulling stumps
if you look closely you'll notice how the blade has receded slightly from around the sweet spot as it gets occasionally dented and resharpened, take note if you heavily use these blades, they are quite soft aside from the sweet spot and accidents will happen, but sharpening back to a working edge is not a hard task. The dry air of Arizona was only an issue until I started using Bert's Bee's chapstick to rehydrate the handle on occasion.
One requirement of the task at hand was that our stumps from brushing the trails had to be low to the ground and flat (so as to not injure a falling hiker and for aesthetics) The Ang-khola was up to the task
hard wood such as oak and Juniper was not a problem either
the medical relief fund sheath that I used worked very well and was quite comfortable even after 200 miles of hiking to and from work sites
I was very satisfied with my Himalayan Imports Ang-Khola made by Bhakta Kami, it was not only a very useful tool to have while building trails, but it also impressed many of my co-workers, some of whom have been directed to this forum.
