- Joined
- Feb 19, 2006
- Messages
- 14,602
Last month I trimmed some branches off our Birch tree, then left them in the yard for our daughter to play with. Yesterday it was time to cleanup; as good an excuse as any to use some new steel.
They were about as thick as my thumb. First up was the new Crash Rat. Just an easy swing, but failed to penetrate. I would say the thick profile causes wedging. OTOH, this tool is not optimized for wood work.
Same branch, easy chop with the Clip Point SHSH. Almost through. This knife is 0.22" at the most, and with the thick scales, is handle heavy. It feels quick in the hand, not like a chopper.
Then the Custom SHBM LE. Easily cleaves the branch. Good weight and the zero edge make the difference.
Of course the other two will chop through with a little more oomph in the swing. I just used all three to chop the pile into little bits. The SHBM did work the best.
Lesson learned? Not much, just having fun.
n.b. * I may have drunk the Busse Kool-Aid
rolleyes, but I do not operate under the happy delusion that one needs to spend $$$ on a knife to do this work. I normally just cut the stuff into 4 ft lengths with a pruner and bundle it with twine. I could have used my $25 Cold Steel "khukri", especially after tuning the edge with the Harbor Freight belt sander. But the new steel wanted to play.
* Vocabulary builder time. Extra credit if you know what this means. English majors (Guyon) need not apply. Dictionary or Google is cheating.
They were about as thick as my thumb. First up was the new Crash Rat. Just an easy swing, but failed to penetrate. I would say the thick profile causes wedging. OTOH, this tool is not optimized for wood work.
Same branch, easy chop with the Clip Point SHSH. Almost through. This knife is 0.22" at the most, and with the thick scales, is handle heavy. It feels quick in the hand, not like a chopper.
Then the Custom SHBM LE. Easily cleaves the branch. Good weight and the zero edge make the difference.
Of course the other two will chop through with a little more oomph in the swing. I just used all three to chop the pile into little bits. The SHBM did work the best.
Lesson learned? Not much, just having fun.
n.b. * I may have drunk the Busse Kool-Aid
rolleyes, but I do not operate under the happy delusion that one needs to spend $$$ on a knife to do this work. I normally just cut the stuff into 4 ft lengths with a pruner and bundle it with twine. I could have used my $25 Cold Steel "khukri", especially after tuning the edge with the Harbor Freight belt sander. But the new steel wanted to play.* Vocabulary builder time. Extra credit if you know what this means. English majors (Guyon) need not apply. Dictionary or Google is cheating.
.....and seeing that SHSH makes my heart break 
