Just For Kicks: Doing axe work with a machete.

FortyTwoBlades

FortyTwoBlades

Baryonyx walkeri
Dealer / Materials Provider
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Took a little video of a Rinaldi machete in action yesterday, and amongst the other more typical tasks I tackled with it I took down a large, dead, standing birch with it. The tree was fairly recently dead, and while the top third was fairly punky the bottom two thirds were still pretty solid wood with only the initial signs of spalting setting in. It was obviously of such a size that a decent-sized axe or a crosscut saw would be the manual tools of choice for this kind of work, but it made a good demonstration of how a suitably heavy machete pattern can tackle large targets like this in a pinch if more suitable tools aren't on hand. The technique is similar to that used with thin-bitted axes, in that rather than trying to pop a big chip, you cut your initial notch and then make paring cuts to take slices off each side of the notch to keep deepening it. With a machete, however, it starts getting tricky once you hit a certain depth because you have to try to minimize the contact surface of your blow so you still get decent penetration. A bit of a "stretch" target, for sure, but not out of reach.

[video=youtube;cXYAut2GNZ4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXYAut2GNZ4&feature=youtu.be[/video]
 
First let me say. Love the caffeine -o- vision.
What is the thickness of the machete?
What do you find more useful a machete or hatchet of similar length and weight? I know a hatchet will almost always weigh more.
How much work did you do to the edge before the video?
 
Thickness is varied over the length because it's forged construction with distal taper, but it's about 4.5mm at the base of the blade and 3.2mm at the tip.

As far as machete vs. hatchet it depends on the context of use. The less specific the context gets, though, the more I veer towards the machete because it's able to appropriately tackle a monumental range of tasks, while a hatchet is geared more strictly towards woody targets. However, if my work was going to be exclusively chopping and splitting of woody targets then the hatchet would pull ahead by a good margin. In general, machetes tend to be more of the "jack of all trades, master of none" tool out of the two.

Very little work was done to the edge, and deliberately so. Rinaldi ships their tools with a near-usable edge that's been fully apexed (a significant burr is left on them) and while I thinned it a little, I did so with an 80 grit "gator" belt, deburred it, and left it at that--only took me about a minute to do. When I do "Special Grade" work on these I bring the edge all the way down to the base of the blade, but left it alone for this demo because I wanted it to best represent the base product.
 
Thanks for the response.
I thought it must be a thicker machete.
All else being equal I find the a machete on the thick side a good jack of all trades tool.
 
The weight helps plus the thicker blade doesn't stick like a thin machete would. How's you arm after that?

In any case I admire your persistence.
 
My arm's fine, actually! Just a little fatigued in my deltoid 'cause I don't usually give that particular shoulder muscle that much of a workout. You'll notice I varied my muscle engagement by using slightly different strokes throughout, and towards the end in particular began to use a lateral shift in my body weight to take the load off my arm a bit. Another factor beyond thickness that plays a role in wood chopping performance is that it's a well-executed hidden tapered tang. That shifts the balance forward compared to a full-profile tang machete, and gives increased chopping performance for its total weight.
 
Yes--Rinaldi offers it in both a synthetic and a traditional stacked leather handle. Most billhooks and other choppers in Italy use stacked leather handles, likely taking advantage of the abundance of scrap from their massive leather goods industry. They almost always have a large top washer that acts like a guard, but it's more flexible than a metal one and doesn't get in the way at all as a result. A nifty feature I haven't really seen employed anywhere else.
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
Yes--Rinaldi offers it in both a synthetic and a traditional stacked leather handle. Most billhooks and other choppers in Italy use stacked leather handles, likely taking advantage of the abundance of scrap from their massive leather goods industry. They almost always have a large top washer that acts like a guard, but it's more flexible than a metal one and doesn't get in the way at all as a result. A nifty feature I haven't really seen employed anywhere else.
Click to expand...

Ah yeah, I thought it looked like the guard was leather as well. I like it.
 
Decided to go measure the diameter to see what it actually is and it's 13" across. Examining the downed trunk it seems to have had some sort of insect infestation because it was riddled with woodpecker holes.
 
A little off topic but you keep finding brands I have not heard of. Is their any brands you would like to carry but haven't worked it out yet?
 
It's a matter of not getting folks excited about things I don't have access to yet. Nothing worse than getting expectations up and then having things take forever until no one cares anymore. I see that happen with preorder releases all the time, for instance. Since I have no realistic clue about if and when I'll be able to open channels to many of those companies, it's something I have to remind myself to sit on my hands about. :D
 
Always interesting to me to see the power of wood, grain, etc. That tree appeared to have a lean to it, and it still held on with barely any support.

I almost lost my mind watching that, as I guess my ADD and CaffeineOVision don't go together. LOL
 
Yeah it had a very significant lean to it, so it was pretty surprising to see how long it held on! The wood at the base was nice and solid but starting to show signs of spalting, and there was a ton of woodpecker holes all down the length of the trunk.
 
For some reason (my lack of computer skills) I had no sound with the video, so I dont know what you were saying.
I have some safety issues with your video. You should ALWAYS put a front notch in the direction of fall before you put your felling notch. The barber chair that you created by only putting a felling notch can turn a felled tree into a killer in a split second. And if you ever do much felling of timber that size you will find out the hard way why you should ALWAYS wear a hardhat.
 
I didn't say anything in the video so you're only missing out on the sounds of chopping.

While I understand and respect your opinion, the tree had so great a degree of lean to it that there wasn't any way it was going any direction other than where it ended up, and I was well clear of the area long before it went down. I normally do put a front notch in, but in this case doing so would have been difficult because of adjacent live trees/branches obstructing the area where I'd need to stand to effectively do so, and the lean was so great (see 4:15) that there was little chance as to where it was going to fall. Safety is always a great concern of mine.
 
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