- Joined
- Feb 14, 2011
- Messages
- 32
As I am sure all of you have seen in the news (or had the pleasure to experience), Hurricane Irene did a number on a few spots up the Eastern Seaboard. I was fortunate enough to only lose power for about a day and a half, and had minimal roof damage. Several trees went down in the area, with one of them (red oak) being right in my back yard. As much as this is a pain to have to deal with, it gave me a good excuse to go out and chop away until my heart was content.
This is the path I cleared through the tree to get to the other side of the yard. I felt like I was harkening back to the trailblazing days, for the few minutes it took me to clear the branches. I don't have a before picture, but you could not see through to the other side before I started.
The two khuks I used were a 32 oz, 18" GRS by Bhakta and a 32oz, 18" M-43 by Tirtha. I started clearing branches from the propane tank and off the windows. Both knives were cutting right through branches up to 1" thick in one swing, and sometimes larger. It was good practice for me going between the different khuks because they seemed to prefer different cutting angles. The GRS was slightly off-set, whereas the M-43 really liked more of a 45 degree angle strike. Both blades kept up throughout the morning. Throughout the day I actually preferred the GRS.
Below you can see where I was cutting the branches down.
This is a branch that was probably 5" in diameter, (below the cut you can see a smaller branch I lopped off in one swing). This one turned out to be a bit much for the GRS.
This happened about an hour into the morning. The two chips are 5/8" and 3/8" long, and about 1/8" deep. Up until that point, it had some rolled edges. The smaller chip toward the tip happened first, and I didn't think too much of it. About 15 minutes later, the bigger chip happened. The M-43 also took its turn with the branch, and other than a few very tiny dings the blade held up great. I have already discussed them with Auntie Yangdu.
Here is the pile I finished with (for the most part, some of the bigger branches I didn't feel like moving again)
Overall, I was very pleased with both knives. A friend came over and helped at one point, and he also liked wielding them. I also got to show them off to the neighbors who were using small hand saws (and taking a lot longer) on their branches. I probably spend a total of about 3 hours giving them a workout, and beyond those chips they both seemed to just laugh at what I gave them. Even for the bigger branches they worked better than the hatchet, ax, and hand saw I had. I can't wait to get a few more to try them out as well, because there is still a decent amount of work to be done (other trees not shown).
To sum up, I feel everyone should have a hurricane knock a tree down so they can get to know their khukuris and get some good practice.
This is the path I cleared through the tree to get to the other side of the yard. I felt like I was harkening back to the trailblazing days, for the few minutes it took me to clear the branches. I don't have a before picture, but you could not see through to the other side before I started.
The two khuks I used were a 32 oz, 18" GRS by Bhakta and a 32oz, 18" M-43 by Tirtha. I started clearing branches from the propane tank and off the windows. Both knives were cutting right through branches up to 1" thick in one swing, and sometimes larger. It was good practice for me going between the different khuks because they seemed to prefer different cutting angles. The GRS was slightly off-set, whereas the M-43 really liked more of a 45 degree angle strike. Both blades kept up throughout the morning. Throughout the day I actually preferred the GRS.
Below you can see where I was cutting the branches down.
This is a branch that was probably 5" in diameter, (below the cut you can see a smaller branch I lopped off in one swing). This one turned out to be a bit much for the GRS.
This happened about an hour into the morning. The two chips are 5/8" and 3/8" long, and about 1/8" deep. Up until that point, it had some rolled edges. The smaller chip toward the tip happened first, and I didn't think too much of it. About 15 minutes later, the bigger chip happened. The M-43 also took its turn with the branch, and other than a few very tiny dings the blade held up great. I have already discussed them with Auntie Yangdu.
Here is the pile I finished with (for the most part, some of the bigger branches I didn't feel like moving again)
Overall, I was very pleased with both knives. A friend came over and helped at one point, and he also liked wielding them. I also got to show them off to the neighbors who were using small hand saws (and taking a lot longer) on their branches. I probably spend a total of about 3 hours giving them a workout, and beyond those chips they both seemed to just laugh at what I gave them. Even for the bigger branches they worked better than the hatchet, ax, and hand saw I had. I can't wait to get a few more to try them out as well, because there is still a decent amount of work to be done (other trees not shown).
To sum up, I feel everyone should have a hurricane knock a tree down so they can get to know their khukuris and get some good practice.
IIRC, the Ganga Ram is designed as a chopper. The chips are worrysome, but Auntie's excellent products and incredible shipping speed are only outdone by her top notch customer service. She'll make sure you're satisfied. Hopefully, they can get the kinks worked out. I'm guessing it's just a little too much hardening. I'm glad to hear Tirtha seems to have it down. I'm happy with my Tirtha's for sure. Thanks again for the post and I hope you get things back to normal soon. BTW, you realize that now you'll be known as the "khukuri guy" around the neighborhood right
