I'm getting the chain saw

M

munk

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Mar 22, 2002
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I took my 6 year old son to a remote spot by some limestone cliffs last night to camp. A real cougar haunt, and the occasional scoundrel following the jeep trail to the end of the road sometimes will find his way there. For them I carried my 4" 41 and a M1 carbine. Yeah, I know, puny carbine..but that was more than enough for a 'camp' gun. I had the BAS for hiking and a 19.5 31 oz AK for wood gathering. Not for camp; for the coming winter which may very well be a real bitch, if the amount of cold and rain we've had this spring and summer are indications.

Here's the story: in a tight narrow gulch, (once found fresh cougar kill sign in the snow there, blood and tracks everywhere) a huge old pine had fallen. This pine was old, with moss on its upper branches.

I could barely cut through one of the smaller branches, about eight inches diameter. There was a ring of pure resin. I don't how hard all the hickory and oak all of you have been whacking at in the posts in HI, but this pine was nearly inpenetrable. The blade would barely ding it. Pine is supposed to be soft, but this tree was old and cranky, twisted and sinewy. This tree was pine only by an act of birth, not of nature.
I thought I'd break the khukuri's edge. I'm serious. I could just see Bill's face..."you broke another one!!!" Well, that didn't happen. But soon as I can I'm taking the chain saw to that tree. I have a 20" blade and that is too small for the trunk. But even if I just trim the branches off I'll get a load of wood. The wood must be carried out of the ravine some 30- 40 yards so most people wouldn't bother.


Anyway, what do you all think? What could a 25" AK do to this tree?


munk
 
IMO, eight inch diameter is getting fairly big for a khuk if the wood is hard. Your'e trying to sink more edge in than an axe has and with less leverage. But I sure would prefer a good saw of any variety over the axe for stuff like that. Sounds worth it though--should make awesome kindling if you can split it. Maybe that's a job for the AK, and maybe also a baton if the grain's twisty.
 
Originally posted by munk
Anyway, what do you all think? What could a 25" AK do to this tree?

munk
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Munk in my opinion a full size Ganga Ram Special with a proper convex edge would do better than the AK if you could get Bill to order one from the kamis per his instructions on the edge.
Cutting 8" branches is more akin to felling than limbing IMO.

The pine filled with the heavy pitch is hell on chimneys but will start a fire even when wet and/or frozen and you're right it is extremely hard!!!!
A few small sticks of the pitch impregnated wood in an emergency pack would be mighty handy to have if you ever happened to be caught out in really bad weather.:D
 
I'm with Ysva on this.
The proud owner of a (now) convex edged 25" AK that Art reworked for me I find it has excellent balance and is perfect for limbing the fir and pine on my property...have used it on stuff up to about 4" -5".
Anything else is work for my chain saw.
The idea of cutting through an 8" branch sounds too much like work!
I have an 18" chain saw that makes short work of about anything I have to deal with (up to about 20" so far).
I have played with the 25" AK on some of the logs and bigger stuff and share your experience...for "soft" wood fir is sure hard stuff. Doesn't cut well enough to be practical.
The edge has held up well since Art ground it down from its original flat / hollow grind....like Ysva, the bigger ones are best if convex.
 
I got the chain saw, 20" stihl, that I use for wood in winter. I think it's around 3.75 HP. It doesn't like heavy pitch either. Just limbing the Beast tree filled a pickup. I had to carry the wood sections 30 yards out and 30 feet up to the truck. More work than most people will bother with for tree.

I have cut a 8" diameter pine tree down with my 19" chitlangi. I've cut a 9" with the AK. If you do not swing harder than the blade can cut, easy will do it. Unless the khuk has the weight to back up the extra force, it won't cut deeper and you've wasted arm strength.

If memory serves, a full size ganga ram is 22" or so?

There are lots of times I am out somewhere and can have a khuk on hand, but don't want the hassle of the chain saw. A khuk that could cut better would be nice. I have an Axe too...but I like KHUKS.

munk
 
Yvsa has it right, as usual. That old pitch soaked wood is great for starting a fire under bad conditions. You could probably get a lifetime supply of firestarter from that twisted and pitchy old elder.
 
I have an Axe too...but I like KHUKS.
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LOL

We understand.:)

And they do help to make work more fun. But sometimes a good thin axe has gotta be better. Not enough chopping to be done here for me to get one where I am now though. (Especially with a few khuks laying around.) I have been tempted to get a Gransfors axe even so after seeing rave reviews on them. Especially after all the axe guys say that they're much better shaped than the double-bit ones used in logging operations which is what I've used mostly. But maybe it's been long enough since I did that those aren't like they used to be.

I think my GRS is on the small side, 21" and three lbs. Also very nicely redone by Art. I may be a wimp, but I can't imagine using one much heavier for very long.

A good load of that pitch-wood is worth the effort, it should last a good long time if you use it just for starter. I've seen little, nicely tied bundles of it offered for sale at incredible prices in yuppie catalogs. Mail-order kindling! Just make sure THAT woodpile never catches fire.
 
My ndn friend Bear agreed with the pitch crowd. Think when I go back I'll build up a supply..as well as chip some off what I already have. It was a damn shame to see such a great tree down, but that is what happens to all great trees and humans too.

I've got a Gransfor wood axe...khuks do as well in many applications, though not all.

munk
 
Another good field report. Chain saws have their place in the tool shed but there are things they don't like -- like dirt, nails, gum, sap, pitch, etc.
 
Good advice, Yvsa I keep some wood shavings in an airtight medecine container for such an event, but the pine sap soaked wood woudl be a natural fuel stick, with much more burning power than hemp rope frayings of wood shavings.

Keith
 
Here's one on having a Khuk handy at all times; took Mother in law to the Billings airport, and on the long ride home stopped at a petrified wood area I figured after the heavy rains might be showing some. I rambled in the brush about 40 minutes, found nothing but crumbs, hand and finger size. Stopped by a hill I knew and said, "Ok Lord, please give me a BIG piece of petrified wood." I don't know how many acres I've covered looking for wood and agate. A lot. Many days. Weeks... I've said this prayer before. It doesn't come with a guarentee.

I walked 60 yards from the truck and in about a minute found a spine of petrified wood sticking out of the clay, maybe an inch or two high and about eight inches long. I tried digging it out but it wouldn't wiggle much. Back to the truck for the BAS. That's right, I used my very sharp BAS to dig in clay while my truck full of groceries sat in the Sun, still a hundred miles from home. Then though I swore I knew exactly where the rock was, by the big white dry cowshit, I couldn't find it at first. I had few moments of nervousness. Even though I was on a BLM patch of ground you never knew when the cousin of the son of the man who watched his Pa die in bed 10 years ago at the ranch wouldn't try to kick you off, "his land". I have a lot of sympathy for this view at those moments I'm not pulling up a slab of wood bigger than a cantelope.


The wood weighs over 20 pounds, is a foot long and 8" across at the base. A triangle. It is probably the second largest chunk I've ever found. While gleefully digging, with a cackle or two and a big grin on my face, a farmer drove by in an old Ford. Once a vehicle has been long enough on the farm or ranch it is, "an old Ford" or Chevy, or... they all look about the same. He didn't even glance my way. I was tempted to raise the Khukuri up into the sunlight and catch the shine..but you know, try and show some restraint, a little sanity. The guy wearing the bright flowery shirt his Mother-in-law gave him, wrestling around in the dirt with a large blade meant nothing to the Ford.



munk
 
Originally posted by munk
That's right, I used my very sharp BAS to dig in clay munk
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Congratulations on the find, must be a beautiful piece, all the more so for having found it and dug it up yourself:D
I have to ask...what about the BAS?
and the groceries?
 
The BAS seems about as sharp as ever...I thought I'd finally get 'baptised' by blood but once again the Kamis and a few hundred years of know-how did me right. I stopped using a hand on the blade and kept both on the handle. Duh. Clay washed off later and the BAS sits at my computer once again. The long AK that smashed into the pitchy branches last night? Still sharp. Smeared with resin, but still workable sharp.

Groceries...the warm pizza in Billings was dry 200 miles north. Kids and I munched it down fine. The wife ate leftovers from another meal instead...She's a woman..she doesn't eat hard tack...nectarines made it OK, grapes OK, one loaf of bread crumbled like a Roman ruin, not liking the air conditioning one hour and the hot prarrie the next. Pastries no longer should be believed when they advertise sell by 8-21. The desk chair I bought so my back would stop going numb had dirt on the box but was OK, and the mosquitoes I transferred from one end of Montana to the other in ther truck cab no doubt were chock full of Nile virus..(kinda scary about my back..a band of numbness around my waist and back...YOu want to know what brilliant medical science has to say about this and more? Don't pick up rocks, don't chop wood, but DONT SIT STILL. Yeah. Screw em. I'm doing exercises, cutting wood, picking up some rocks, and I'm stronger than ever and in less pain. In short, they had no answer, but just wanted to cover all the bases. And now the numbness is gone too. My only real fear was the numbness would drop eight inches and I wouldn't know if I was peeing or not....)

I show my wife the Rock and the first thing she says is: "Did you thank God for showing you where it was?"
Well, yes, I did. This could get scary..my holy grail is finding a LOG of Petrified wood.

Me and the Bear man think we know a range where some are left. These rocks are worthless to rock collectors/salesmen. They are cracked, weathered, veined, multicolored...in short, I think they are awesome. Collectors want only highly agatized specimens they can cut in thin wafers to show the tree rings and sell at a hundred bucks a slice.


A chain saw or an axe simply are not the versatile tool a good HI Khukuri is. What else can you take anywhere and do so much so well?


munk
 
My wife and I try to pick up pieces of it every chance we get. We have several pieces that are fairly good size but, not any thing like you are talking about Munk. When we get them home I wash them and when wet the colors are amazing. Any of the bigger pieces I wouldn't have nerve enough to cut them up. Even the small stuff I would have to have a very good reason for cutting them. I can't think what that would be right now so I guess they are safe for now.:)
 
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