- Joined
- Feb 15, 2001
- Messages
- 340
Well, today I finished up clearing out the trail around my parents' pond. I brought along my 18" sirupati and a tomahawk just to have some comparison. And that poor tomahawk just looks sick.
I hadn't given the sirupati any heavy work to do yet, so today was its first big test. I pulled out the ceramics and got it somewhere between shaving and d**n-that's-sharp! sharp. I put a hair-pulling edge on the hawk; it just won't hold a fine edge so I don't bother.
The sirupati takes out 2-3" young pines with two hits, three if my mechanics are off. Sweetgums take about twice the work. The hawk requires more blows and because of its extreme head-heavy balance, wears out my arm much faster. It also had a bad tendency to turn in my hand. It stuck more than the khukuri.
The most impressive thing about the sirupati was that there's just nothing it couldn't do. The axe was useless for anything but cutting dense wood. 1/2"-1" saplings required three or four shots from the hawk b/c they just bent out of the way. The sirupati nipped 'em clean, one shot. Vines parted like spiderwebs. The only thing the hawk could do the sirupati couldn't was I can bury the lower point in a tree to help climb or use it as a log hook.
The whole time the knife was teaching me how to use it. "You give a little draw at the end of the chop and it seats in, gets an extra quarter inch." "Backhand left-right shots are best for little stuff." etc., etc.
A great way to spend an afternoon: A khukuri and I having a long conversation and listening to the fish hit waterbugs.
Life is very, very good here.
I hadn't given the sirupati any heavy work to do yet, so today was its first big test. I pulled out the ceramics and got it somewhere between shaving and d**n-that's-sharp! sharp. I put a hair-pulling edge on the hawk; it just won't hold a fine edge so I don't bother.
The sirupati takes out 2-3" young pines with two hits, three if my mechanics are off. Sweetgums take about twice the work. The hawk requires more blows and because of its extreme head-heavy balance, wears out my arm much faster. It also had a bad tendency to turn in my hand. It stuck more than the khukuri.
The most impressive thing about the sirupati was that there's just nothing it couldn't do. The axe was useless for anything but cutting dense wood. 1/2"-1" saplings required three or four shots from the hawk b/c they just bent out of the way. The sirupati nipped 'em clean, one shot. Vines parted like spiderwebs. The only thing the hawk could do the sirupati couldn't was I can bury the lower point in a tree to help climb or use it as a log hook.
The whole time the knife was teaching me how to use it. "You give a little draw at the end of the chop and it seats in, gets an extra quarter inch." "Backhand left-right shots are best for little stuff." etc., etc.
A great way to spend an afternoon: A khukuri and I having a long conversation and listening to the fish hit waterbugs.
Life is very, very good here.
