- Joined
- Oct 13, 1999
- Messages
- 1,731
Yesterday I took my new HI Bolo over to a cousin's house, hoping to test it. I got the opportunity in the form of a felled tree that hadn't been completely bucked yet.
After thirty to forty minutes of chopping, most of the tree was in more manageable portions, thanks to the bolo.
Except for some dulling, the blade held up just fine. I would say that this chops about as well as my 18" AK. Making the blades a tad thinner, maybe 3/8" or 7/16", would likely help the bolo make deeper cuts, though it did well enough as is. FWIW, Bob White's Bolo came in at 3/8" thick and it still weighed 2lbs, the weight he wanted. Blows made with the blade near the tip didn't cause too much vibration.
Unfortunately, the handle didn't fare as well. Within ten minutes of chopping, I noticed some rattling and a bit of play. I looked at the handle and found the problem.
There was about a 1mm gap between the bolster and where the handle used to meet. There was also a bit of play between the bolster and the blade. I wanted to see if added chopping would do anything else to the handle, so I continued. If the handle hadn't been pinned I likely wouldn't have done this. The gap between the bolster and handle didn't enlarge any, but the handle suffered three separate cracks. The worst was on the bottom of the handle.
Another crack extended from the handle to the right rivet/pin.
The third crack at the top of the handle. I took a picture of it, but it was small enough that it really didn't show up.
As I was working, I noticed bits of black particles that were coming out the bottom crack. They stained my hands black like charcoal would, so I would say the bits were from when the tang was burned into the handle as part of the fitting process. I can't remember if this is standard procedure for partial tangs of not, but it might have had contributed to the handle failure.
I've already taken the bolo to the post office to be returned to Yangdu. I'm interested in seeing what she thinks went wrong with the handle. I'll email her shortly with a heads up about this.
Bob
After thirty to forty minutes of chopping, most of the tree was in more manageable portions, thanks to the bolo.
Except for some dulling, the blade held up just fine. I would say that this chops about as well as my 18" AK. Making the blades a tad thinner, maybe 3/8" or 7/16", would likely help the bolo make deeper cuts, though it did well enough as is. FWIW, Bob White's Bolo came in at 3/8" thick and it still weighed 2lbs, the weight he wanted. Blows made with the blade near the tip didn't cause too much vibration.
Unfortunately, the handle didn't fare as well. Within ten minutes of chopping, I noticed some rattling and a bit of play. I looked at the handle and found the problem.
There was about a 1mm gap between the bolster and where the handle used to meet. There was also a bit of play between the bolster and the blade. I wanted to see if added chopping would do anything else to the handle, so I continued. If the handle hadn't been pinned I likely wouldn't have done this. The gap between the bolster and handle didn't enlarge any, but the handle suffered three separate cracks. The worst was on the bottom of the handle.
Another crack extended from the handle to the right rivet/pin.
The third crack at the top of the handle. I took a picture of it, but it was small enough that it really didn't show up.
As I was working, I noticed bits of black particles that were coming out the bottom crack. They stained my hands black like charcoal would, so I would say the bits were from when the tang was burned into the handle as part of the fitting process. I can't remember if this is standard procedure for partial tangs of not, but it might have had contributed to the handle failure.
I've already taken the bolo to the post office to be returned to Yangdu. I'm interested in seeing what she thinks went wrong with the handle. I'll email her shortly with a heads up about this.
Bob
