My experience: Hatchet vs Machete.

Darteres said:
What kind of golok is that one? Looks sweet...
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Take a look in hybrid section too, Bolo camp knife L:


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LOL I was thinking something very similar...cept it was "I need to buy a good knife before I buy another chopper" as I was looking at my checking account balance. On the plus side, if I did buy it, the little lady would have something cool with which to kill me...
 
Elen said:
We have that lovely Gulf Stream warming up things around here, though, which Alaska doesn't have. It's surprisingly warm around here, sometimes. And sometimes it's pretty cold. Especially north of the Arctic Circle. -50 C is nothing impossible, but luckily (if you ask some folks :D ) it doesn't get much colder than that here. Unless, of course, you count the wind chill which isn't normally done around here. So, when I really like to freeze my behind off, I just go to Verkhoyansk in Sakha, where -60 C is nothing unusual in the winter, and -50 exactly what you should be expecting after Christmas. Quiet place, and not too many people around to bother you! But I digress. :eek:

I think my post about machetes breaking in low temperatures was a bit badly worded. I said "below -20 C" and that seems to emphasize precisely -20 C, but that's not exactly what I had in mind. In my experience, -20 C is about as low as you can go before you start seeing the cold seriously affect various pieces of gear. Below -20 C, things like synthetics and plastics, such as Fiskars and Mora handles and Kraton and whatnot, start turning brittle, and get much more easy to break accidentally. Applies to metals, too - heavy impacts on frozen woods covered in snow and ice are hell on especially thin blades like those on machetes. And most guys who have spent a lot of time chopping logs with axes in the winter will have seen even good axes lose nice chips off the blade due to the cold air and the frozen wood. Physics was never my strong point, but it seems that lateral stress is even more bad than usually in cold temps - a slightly sloppy swing that ends up with the blade twisting a little in the wood, and snap, there goes the blade. At -30, the effect is already easy to notice. At -40, it's almost impossible to not notice.

Now, one might say it's not really a good idea to be outside when it's below -20, and in some ways that makes sense. But sometimes you can't really avoid it. And in some places, you'd have to stay locked up indoors for months if you couldn't go out in that weather. :D
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I'm going to keep this until next summer. I can just turn off the A/C and reread this thread to stay cool.:thumbup:
 
In tropical climates things grow very fast and that causes vegetation, including tree trunk size things, to be very "green", liquid filled, and not very hard. Bananas, for example don't grow on trees, rather a very large pant. In cold climates things grow slow and become dense. Trees in the north can be hundreds of years old, yet only a few feet tall.
 
In tropical climates things grow very fast and that causes vegetation, including tree trunk size things, to be very "green", liquid filled, and not very hard. Bananas, for example don't grow on trees, rather a very large plant. In cold climates things grow slow and become dense. Trees in the north can be hundreds of years old, yet only a few feet tall.
 
Yes I agree with 'the environment' impacts the tools you use...
sorta makes me laugh a bit when I see ppl with machetes up north.. makes me think of Rambo.

I can't name any french/english settlers that used a sabre or machete up here... it was all done by axe..
 
cuphead no offense but tell that to the lappi people who have been using leuku blades for centuries..Just pointing out that there's no need to mock anyone for there blade choice..out of curiosity how many french/english settlers do you personally know?? Me personally I like em all I've said it numerous times for me when it gets cold an axe is king..that being said if I had to choose only 1 bladed implement to survive with it'd be a 12 inch machete..If I had to make a trio up I'd probably pick an axe instead..but no need to call anyone silly..there are not too many "rambo's" on this forum
 
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In response to some of the posts about the cold weather performance of tools:

There is indeed a phenomenon where tools break in the cold. The problem is accentuated with higher amounts of carbon. That is why things like car frames are made w/ low carbon steel.

It is suspected that part of the problem that the Titanic had was some iron plates that had too much carbon. Due to that, and the cold conditions the boat was in, it is suspected that the plates were barely able to withstand the stresses of floating the boat, let alone any impacts.

In the axe book that is floating around, it is noted that a proper woodsman will warm his axe under his armpit in order to prevent chips in the axe when using it in cold weather.

So, while knife people typically think of higher amounts of carbon as a good thing, many do not understand that it is always a compromise. In this case, cold weather performance can suffer. It is interesting to note that as iron is worked down, part of the process is in order to remove high amounts of carbon from the mix, as the carbon is actually detrimental in many applications.

There are many who know this much better than I do, and can correct me if I am off. I think this is the gist of it all though, without looking it back up.
 
RescueRiley said:
cuphead no offense but tell that to the lappi people who have been using leuku blades for centuries..Just pointing out that there's no need to mock anyone for there blade choice..out of curiosity how many french/english settlers do you personally know?? Me personally I like em all I've said it numerous times for me when it gets cold an axe is king..that being said if I had to choose only 1 bladed implement to survive with it'd be a 12 inch machete..If I had to make a trio up I'd probably pick an axe instead..but no need to call anyone silly..there are not too many "rambo's" on this forum
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I agree with you on this point. I have seen places very far north where there are no trees - only snow and ice. I wouldn't want to try to make an igloo with an axe, but a longish knife, say a 12 inch machete, could be very useful in helping me cut blocks to get out of the wind, toot sweet.:thumbup:
 
Long blades and choppers like goloks and machetes have been around in central european forests long before "Rambo" was invented. We call them "Standhauer", an allround forest tool for hunters. Unfortunately, this fact doesn't keep some people from calling those who like big chopping knives "Rambos". It's like you're no adult anymore if you don't use hatchets, saws and knives exclusively. I myself don't have a chopping knife yet, but that's gonna change. So far, hatchets and small knives work for me perfectly, but I want to try it and if I like it, I'll use it often, no matter what others say.
There's really no reason to become cocky. It's the same thing with archers. Some traditionalists love to call those "evildoers" with their compound bows and 3D-styrofoam-animals "weekend-Rambos", too. IMO that's uncalled for.
 
Any Cal. said:
In response to some of the posts about the cold weather performance of tools:

There is indeed a phenomenon where tools break in the cold. The problem is accentuated with higher amounts of carbon. That is why things like car frames are made w/ low carbon steel.

It is suspected that part of the problem that the Titanic had was some iron plates that had too much carbon. Due to that, and the cold conditions the boat was in, it is suspected that the plates were barely able to withstand the stresses of floating the boat, let alone any impacts.

In the axe book that is floating around, it is noted that a proper woodsman will warm his axe under his armpit in order to prevent chips in the axe when using it in cold weather.
So, while knife people typically think of higher amounts of carbon as a good thing, many do not understand that it is always a compromise. In this case, cold weather performance can suffer. It is interesting to note that as iron is worked down, part of the process is in order to remove high amounts of carbon from the mix, as the carbon is actually detrimental in many applications.

There are many who know this much better than I do, and can correct me if I am off. I think this is the gist of it all though, without looking it back up.
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That part is definitely true...I have used axes quite a bit in the cold and if it gets below about -10 c I start warming up the axe head. I usually just tuck it inside my coat for a few minutes, and once you start chopping they warm up a little more on their own.

I am sure that machetes would be more likely to crack and chip in the cold just because they are relatively thin metal...axe heads are pretty solid and it's really only the leading edge you worry about in the cold but you do worry about it! So if the leading edge of an axe was thinned down to machete thickness I would be QUITE nervous in the cold.

But then as people have pointed out, most people instinctively seem to know about what jobs you tackle with a machete, and what you do with an axe. And as long as you have a good grasp of the capabilities of your tools, you shouldn't encounter to many problems no matter which choices you've made.
 
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