- Joined
- Oct 25, 2004
- Messages
- 3,178
Yes, you read the title right: the Foxy Folly has completed its sea trials in an exemplary manner. I am now completely satisfied with its performance and my fears have been put to rest. It is, indeed, heavy duty.
And on that note, please don't do any of this stuff to your khukuris. They're nice khukuris. They don't deserve this. Consider this an example of what not to do, but what might be done if need be.
I didn't get around to the testing until the afternoon so I had to take it easy; I got a touch of heat exhaustion yesterday (making for a very unpleasant drive home, might I add) and while practice makes perfect, there are some things that I don't like to do twice. It gets up in the high eighties/low nineties in the afternoon currently and while there are clothing articles that are hotter and less breathable than woodland BDU's, there aren't many.
First up, bucking some logs. As a rule I only go after trees that have been down for a while; green wood is too easy to cut and I don't see the joy in dropping a healthy tree that doesn't need dropping. We've got plenty of fallen trees at the Camp.
It's a bit hard to see due to the angle and the coloration of the bark (not to mention my poor photography) but note the deep penetration that even a single swing achieves. That narrow edge really gets in there. The chop that put the FF there was pretty halfhearted; if I load up on the swing I can get it quite a bit deeper but it tends to bind if the swing is too hard. Even khukuris must obey the laws of physics.
How about the gnarled, rooted base of an overturned tree? This particular one had fallen across a game trail that I'd claimed for my own, necessitating either removal or a new trail. For the deer, of course, not just for me. Going around is not fun; going through is more satisfying.
It was far easier than it looks - too easy, in fact. Part of it was punked out. I didn't consider it a fair test.
We have a stack of sections from a telephone pole or something similar that have been sitting out in the sun for years if not decades. I took a few swings for the hell of it. And I thought that seasoned pine was hard...after some flailing and cursing, neither the khuk nor the pole were any worse for wear. The khuk got away with a slathering of Creosote and the pole sustained a few superficial cuts. What impressed me the most was that the Foxy Folly wasn't damaged by this. If I ever have a few free hours I may just try to chop through one.
Seasoned pine? No damage to the edge. Nice.
I figured that we had the wood pretty much covered - it was time to move on to bigger, tougher game. Remember those old cars that I mentioned?
Yep, that's them. Like I said, they've been there for a very long time and are indeed riddled by bullet holes. My best guess is that the Marines used them for target practice during the '40's or '50's.
They're quite rusty so I reasoned that they wouldn't be too tough to cut. What I wasn't counting on was that back then, cars were not built from plastic and sheet aluminum. They were constructed of good, heavy gauge steel, and even with some rust it's pretty tough stuff. Chopping on the flat areas, even at full power, barely grooved it. Two-handed overhead stabs barely penetrated. The tip had been quite acute to this point (pardon the pun) and I lost about a millimeter of it on the first stab. It didn't seem to mind the abuse after that.
I don't want to stab holes in a car, though...I want to cut my way into or out of one. I picked a heavily rusted and weak area, broke through, and proceeded to seperate one side of a panel from the post it was welded on.
I did it by swinging in there at first; when I ran out of room to swing, I pounded on the spine to force it through. If it hung up I worked the handle up and down to pry the metal free.
The Foxy Folly saw a lot of prying today, both wood and metal. Unlike most HI blades it flexes noticably (perhaps alarmingly) under a heavy load but it always returned to true. I'm sold on fullers.
Here's the champ as it looked when it came home today.
The damage doesn't look too bad in the pic. It's not. A few dings, a lot of scuffs, one small area where it rolled over and smeared. Inconsequential. Five minutes on the belt sander will fix all this. And, I have to keep reminding myself that it's only been sharpened twice - I may not be down to the good stuff yet.
It would be unfair to compare this to any of my other khukuris because I believe that it's in a different class - not necessarily better or worse, but very different. Life is not fair and neither am I. My #1 go-to khukuri, one of Bura's 15" BGRS villagers (which I had to go all the way to Ohio to get
), has a magic edge...probably why I like it so much. I have chopped wood and brush all day with it, complete with the occasional swing into the ground or hit on a rock, and after a brief session with the chakmak it was literally shaving again.
The Foxy Folly to this point can't do this. The first few swings into good seasoned wood blunt it past shaving and the chakmak won't restore it. However - and this is a rather big however - it really doesn't get any duller after that, and "dull" is a very relative term in this case. (Meaning, sharper than any hatchet you will buy at a hardware store.) Different magic, I guess.
But, such a comparison is apples and oranges. The Foxy Folly is not a villager and it's nowhere nearly as thick as a BGRS. The BGRS feels anything but weightless in my hand.
That's it. That's the only complaint that I could come up with and it's not even much of a complaint. Well, that, and there was a minor crack in the handle when it arrived. I never got around to drilling the end and gluing, and the crack never got around to growing. I guess that we've grown to tolerate one another's company.
Besides the balance (which is beloved by everyone who has ever picked this blade up, regardless of their background or experience), which is superb, there's another thing that I like about it: it has a "trick" for wood. You know how some khuks chop better than they should, like the Pen Knife or the GRS? The Folly has a trick of her own and I'm not sure if it's intentional, but here it is - it's that first fuller, and it works wonders. Allow me to explain.
That narrow edge drives into wood like you wouldn't believe, even the hard seasoned stuff. I'm not normally a fan of deep penetration on woodworking tools; it's far more effort to work an edge free than to simply take another swing or two and get to the same point without binding. However, that first fuller (closest to the blade) is positioned nearly perfectly as a safety stop of sorts; if you're not loading up too much on the swing (and, as I've learned, swinging hard is inefficient and only marginally faster than an easier swing), the edge will dig right down in there and the first fuller will brake it just before it gets in too deep. When the edge stops on the fuller, simply give the blade a twist, the chips fly, and you're ready for the next swing. (I suppose that you could just pull the blade out and swing again but what's the fun of that?) Unless you're really trying to bind up the blade the fuller's ridge will keep you from doing so.
I can't believe that this was intentional. Regardless, I find myself wishing that all of my other woodworking instruments featured something like this. It takes the guesswork out of chopping wood. Scroll back up to the first picture again and look at both the number and size of the chips. Look at the angles of the cut. A 24 oz. khuk should not be throwing chips of that size. This thing rocks.
The handle is great. The balance is great. The edge is great. (Not a magic edge, or it would be perfect.) The scabbard fits properly. The chandan looks great. (Except for that crack and I'd have to point it out for someone to see it.) I had my doubts about it when I first saw it, and again when I saw how it flexed under a good load, but the kamis had the heat treat figured out. If the rest are like this...wow.
I need to find some more wood. This one's a keeper. It ought to do well at pretty much anything.
Thanks to Yangdu, Yvsa, and Dan Koster for making these a reality. I'm not sure if it's the perfect khuk, but it's the best one that I've ever used by a wide margin.
And on that note, please don't do any of this stuff to your khukuris. They're nice khukuris. They don't deserve this. Consider this an example of what not to do, but what might be done if need be.
I didn't get around to the testing until the afternoon so I had to take it easy; I got a touch of heat exhaustion yesterday (making for a very unpleasant drive home, might I add) and while practice makes perfect, there are some things that I don't like to do twice. It gets up in the high eighties/low nineties in the afternoon currently and while there are clothing articles that are hotter and less breathable than woodland BDU's, there aren't many.
First up, bucking some logs. As a rule I only go after trees that have been down for a while; green wood is too easy to cut and I don't see the joy in dropping a healthy tree that doesn't need dropping. We've got plenty of fallen trees at the Camp.
It's a bit hard to see due to the angle and the coloration of the bark (not to mention my poor photography) but note the deep penetration that even a single swing achieves. That narrow edge really gets in there. The chop that put the FF there was pretty halfhearted; if I load up on the swing I can get it quite a bit deeper but it tends to bind if the swing is too hard. Even khukuris must obey the laws of physics.
How about the gnarled, rooted base of an overturned tree? This particular one had fallen across a game trail that I'd claimed for my own, necessitating either removal or a new trail. For the deer, of course, not just for me. Going around is not fun; going through is more satisfying.
It was far easier than it looks - too easy, in fact. Part of it was punked out. I didn't consider it a fair test.
We have a stack of sections from a telephone pole or something similar that have been sitting out in the sun for years if not decades. I took a few swings for the hell of it. And I thought that seasoned pine was hard...after some flailing and cursing, neither the khuk nor the pole were any worse for wear. The khuk got away with a slathering of Creosote and the pole sustained a few superficial cuts. What impressed me the most was that the Foxy Folly wasn't damaged by this. If I ever have a few free hours I may just try to chop through one.
Seasoned pine? No damage to the edge. Nice.
I figured that we had the wood pretty much covered - it was time to move on to bigger, tougher game. Remember those old cars that I mentioned?
Yep, that's them. Like I said, they've been there for a very long time and are indeed riddled by bullet holes. My best guess is that the Marines used them for target practice during the '40's or '50's.
They're quite rusty so I reasoned that they wouldn't be too tough to cut. What I wasn't counting on was that back then, cars were not built from plastic and sheet aluminum. They were constructed of good, heavy gauge steel, and even with some rust it's pretty tough stuff. Chopping on the flat areas, even at full power, barely grooved it. Two-handed overhead stabs barely penetrated. The tip had been quite acute to this point (pardon the pun) and I lost about a millimeter of it on the first stab. It didn't seem to mind the abuse after that.
I don't want to stab holes in a car, though...I want to cut my way into or out of one. I picked a heavily rusted and weak area, broke through, and proceeded to seperate one side of a panel from the post it was welded on.
I did it by swinging in there at first; when I ran out of room to swing, I pounded on the spine to force it through. If it hung up I worked the handle up and down to pry the metal free.
The Foxy Folly saw a lot of prying today, both wood and metal. Unlike most HI blades it flexes noticably (perhaps alarmingly) under a heavy load but it always returned to true. I'm sold on fullers.
Here's the champ as it looked when it came home today.
The damage doesn't look too bad in the pic. It's not. A few dings, a lot of scuffs, one small area where it rolled over and smeared. Inconsequential. Five minutes on the belt sander will fix all this. And, I have to keep reminding myself that it's only been sharpened twice - I may not be down to the good stuff yet.
It would be unfair to compare this to any of my other khukuris because I believe that it's in a different class - not necessarily better or worse, but very different. Life is not fair and neither am I. My #1 go-to khukuri, one of Bura's 15" BGRS villagers (which I had to go all the way to Ohio to get
), has a magic edge...probably why I like it so much. I have chopped wood and brush all day with it, complete with the occasional swing into the ground or hit on a rock, and after a brief session with the chakmak it was literally shaving again.The Foxy Folly to this point can't do this. The first few swings into good seasoned wood blunt it past shaving and the chakmak won't restore it. However - and this is a rather big however - it really doesn't get any duller after that, and "dull" is a very relative term in this case. (Meaning, sharper than any hatchet you will buy at a hardware store.) Different magic, I guess.
But, such a comparison is apples and oranges. The Foxy Folly is not a villager and it's nowhere nearly as thick as a BGRS. The BGRS feels anything but weightless in my hand.
That's it. That's the only complaint that I could come up with and it's not even much of a complaint. Well, that, and there was a minor crack in the handle when it arrived. I never got around to drilling the end and gluing, and the crack never got around to growing. I guess that we've grown to tolerate one another's company.
Besides the balance (which is beloved by everyone who has ever picked this blade up, regardless of their background or experience), which is superb, there's another thing that I like about it: it has a "trick" for wood. You know how some khuks chop better than they should, like the Pen Knife or the GRS? The Folly has a trick of her own and I'm not sure if it's intentional, but here it is - it's that first fuller, and it works wonders. Allow me to explain.
That narrow edge drives into wood like you wouldn't believe, even the hard seasoned stuff. I'm not normally a fan of deep penetration on woodworking tools; it's far more effort to work an edge free than to simply take another swing or two and get to the same point without binding. However, that first fuller (closest to the blade) is positioned nearly perfectly as a safety stop of sorts; if you're not loading up too much on the swing (and, as I've learned, swinging hard is inefficient and only marginally faster than an easier swing), the edge will dig right down in there and the first fuller will brake it just before it gets in too deep. When the edge stops on the fuller, simply give the blade a twist, the chips fly, and you're ready for the next swing. (I suppose that you could just pull the blade out and swing again but what's the fun of that?) Unless you're really trying to bind up the blade the fuller's ridge will keep you from doing so.
I can't believe that this was intentional. Regardless, I find myself wishing that all of my other woodworking instruments featured something like this. It takes the guesswork out of chopping wood. Scroll back up to the first picture again and look at both the number and size of the chips. Look at the angles of the cut. A 24 oz. khuk should not be throwing chips of that size. This thing rocks.
The handle is great. The balance is great. The edge is great. (Not a magic edge, or it would be perfect.) The scabbard fits properly. The chandan looks great. (Except for that crack and I'd have to point it out for someone to see it.) I had my doubts about it when I first saw it, and again when I saw how it flexed under a good load, but the kamis had the heat treat figured out. If the rest are like this...wow.
I need to find some more wood. This one's a keeper. It ought to do well at pretty much anything.
Thanks to Yangdu, Yvsa, and Dan Koster for making these a reality. I'm not sure if it's the perfect khuk, but it's the best one that I've ever used by a wide margin.
What have I been telling you guys?
