- Joined
- Nov 24, 2005
- Messages
- 10,038
I wailed on a genuine hard use folder - 2 days in a row, last week too - just because! I didn't do any throwing though as I felt it would have no problems. 
I walked around the back of the property with my Beretta 92 and a couple of mags for noise and looked at various trees to wail on with the XM-18.
I got over to the apple & pear trees and shot apples off two limbs which exhausted my 9mm's.
I took out my knife and shaved kindling chips off the dryer branches of a pear tree. I have a fully tied (across the read end) lanyard. It's long enough that with the ti bead and knots, it'll serve as a loose handle and whip the blade into branches for cutting.
I took off about 4 or 5 finger thick branches in a couple of swings each. I forgot to mention that I had to slice off all of the leaves and small sugar pears beforehand. I whittled them sharp and speared other small apples & pears with them. The extra whip of using the lanyard really cut well, with a few swings resulting in one swat cuts.
Finally I checked on the point by stabbing juvenile black walnuts (about the size of tennis balls) I was only ably to carve the hull away as the core/nut wouldn't come out and I had no way to hold them firmly. (didn't want to stab myself) This left a very brown and staining looking juice all over the blade.
I went in immediately to remove this juice while thinking the blade would be fine and it was. All of the branch cutting, nut splitting and whittling didn't leave the slightest mark on the beautiful stonewash finish. Just a little dish soap and some normal scrubbing with a soft rag and the edge looks like brand new! No rolls, chips - nothing but a solid working edge.
Day 2 -
Okay. I went out to the range area today and did more cutting w/o any touch-ups on the edge. Here's lots of pics.
First I batoned on the edge of an ancient piece of hardwood but only got partway through and the wood split out the side. The thin board on the ground was my baton - using the edge to hit both sides of the blade:
The wood batoned into was from a section of Lord knows how old telephone pole which the phone company replaced about 10 years ago. It was hard to chainsaw it back then if I recall correctly very dense and hard.
Here's some small green pear branches. All went off in one swing;
A few good whacks on this dead branch reduced this:
To this;
I visited the limb that I shot all of the little apples off yesterday (and a yard sale watch today) with my Beretta 21A and lopped it off.
After that I show what it looked like before I shot the apples off to the branch next to it - both then fall to a little chopping with the XM-18.
Next branch over with some fruit starting out;
The XM-18 makes short work of them
I carved up one of those immature black walnuts on the other side of the barn (btw, my fingers are still stained brown from the juice since yesterday)
The blade, still no dings, rolls, chips etc. First full of black walnut juice and then cleaned up shortly afterward with today's smaller companion pistol
I walked around the back of the property with my Beretta 92 and a couple of mags for noise and looked at various trees to wail on with the XM-18.
I got over to the apple & pear trees and shot apples off two limbs which exhausted my 9mm's.
I took out my knife and shaved kindling chips off the dryer branches of a pear tree. I have a fully tied (across the read end) lanyard. It's long enough that with the ti bead and knots, it'll serve as a loose handle and whip the blade into branches for cutting.
I took off about 4 or 5 finger thick branches in a couple of swings each. I forgot to mention that I had to slice off all of the leaves and small sugar pears beforehand. I whittled them sharp and speared other small apples & pears with them. The extra whip of using the lanyard really cut well, with a few swings resulting in one swat cuts.
Finally I checked on the point by stabbing juvenile black walnuts (about the size of tennis balls) I was only ably to carve the hull away as the core/nut wouldn't come out and I had no way to hold them firmly. (didn't want to stab myself) This left a very brown and staining looking juice all over the blade.
I went in immediately to remove this juice while thinking the blade would be fine and it was. All of the branch cutting, nut splitting and whittling didn't leave the slightest mark on the beautiful stonewash finish. Just a little dish soap and some normal scrubbing with a soft rag and the edge looks like brand new! No rolls, chips - nothing but a solid working edge.
Day 2 -
Okay. I went out to the range area today and did more cutting w/o any touch-ups on the edge. Here's lots of pics.
First I batoned on the edge of an ancient piece of hardwood but only got partway through and the wood split out the side. The thin board on the ground was my baton - using the edge to hit both sides of the blade:
The wood batoned into was from a section of Lord knows how old telephone pole which the phone company replaced about 10 years ago. It was hard to chainsaw it back then if I recall correctly very dense and hard.
Here's some small green pear branches. All went off in one swing;
A few good whacks on this dead branch reduced this:
To this;
I visited the limb that I shot all of the little apples off yesterday (and a yard sale watch today) with my Beretta 21A and lopped it off.
After that I show what it looked like before I shot the apples off to the branch next to it - both then fall to a little chopping with the XM-18.
Next branch over with some fruit starting out;
The XM-18 makes short work of them
I carved up one of those immature black walnuts on the other side of the barn (btw, my fingers are still stained brown from the juice since yesterday)
The blade, still no dings, rolls, chips etc. First full of black walnut juice and then cleaned up shortly afterward with today's smaller companion pistol
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