Most Efficient Number of Knives to Carry, Maximum Potential, Minimum Waste

[Burke]

I second what someone said above -- one blade. Make it a Bob Dozier Pro Guides knife, and you'll be all set for cleaning game, self-defense, shaping logs, etc. No, it's not good for felling trees, but you don't usually need to do that while hiking or camping (find a downed branch, and a bunch of leaves, and you've got a good survivial shelter), and remember the title of this topic is "Most efficient...Least Waste."

 

[Cliff Stamp]

Storyville :

a Pocket Chainsaw will do nearly everything a big knife, blade saw, or axe can do -- and do it faster, more effectively, and with less energy.

Recently I compared the performance of some small saws (SAK Rucksack, Supertool) to a mid sized blade (Steel Eagle) and they were far behind in terms of speed and effort of cut. I then remembered you posting this and asked Will Kwan if he could give me an estimate of the performance of one of his pocket saws compared to a khukuri as I wanted to discuss this and didn't have the saw. He took a Short-Kutts model and cut through a number of 2x4's and sent me the times. This is his description :

I timed myself cutting/chopping through fresh 2x4 (spruce). For sawing the 2x4 was trapped in a vise vertically and for chopping it was horizontal. The saw works best by walking around the 2x4 as I sawed. With the saw about 1 square cm of wood was left, then the 2x4 was snapped by hand and timing was stopped.

For the saw he got 60 +/- 5 seconds, for the khukuri 21 +/- 2.

-Cliff


[This message has been edited by Cliff Stamp (edited 02-14-2000).]