- Joined
- Feb 4, 2007
- Messages
- 142
I've been using this machete now for about a year and it has proven to be a good tool. I'm in the Huron River watershed area in Southeastern Michigan and it gets pretty wet and veggie around here so a good machete comes in real handy. I have a swamp in my backyard and have used my Backwood Chopper to blaze a virgin trail all the way around the opposite side of the swamp out to a point where everything turns kind of marshy and full of reeds and cattails. It's a cool area and I am enjoying the Backwoods Chopper.
First of all, I like the handle a lot but I have mixed feelings about the D-guard/brush guard thing. I think it looks cool as hell, especially after I wrapped it tight in OD 550 paracord. But it kind of gets in the way when I'm wearing heavy work gloves, it doesn't protect my hand from anything really and it kind of causes me more fatigue and limits the angles with which I can chop. So I'm thinking I might have liked a version without the brush guard better, but I fell victim to aesthetics. I may cut it off some day, we'll see.
The blade is great and I like the steel so far. I'm getting ready to use it for a job my landlord asked me to do clearing some brush around the swamp and I was cleaning and sharpening it tonight. This blade is capable of a pretty sweet edge. I touched it up with a Smiths drag through sharpener (that yellow handled thing with the carbide cutting pieces screwed into it) and then used a carborundum stone to work the rounded part towards the tip. I barely touched the blade and nicked my finger pretty deep. Nothing to be worried about, but for as lightly as I contacted the blade it really bit me good!
I guess they make this model in a 12" version but I chose the 18" version because the ground vegetation grows real fast down by the swamp and I have to clear my trail somewhat frequently. If there's a ton of thick stuff I use a sickle, but for touching up the trail I just swing the machete side to side using the broadside against the weeds and I don't have to stoop over too much. I had previously used a Cold Steel Heavy Chopper on this property so I wanted something a little longer to pair with it. The cold steel is great for cutting thicker stuff and for chopping roots or even digging, but I mostly just let my gf's son use that one when I need his help. It's a great chopper though and has given me a lot of years of yeoman's service between Arizona and Michigan (mostly hacking back oleanders in AZ). I am interested in the 12" version of this Backwoods Chopper though and I might just pick one up to stick in my pack for a JIC machete. I bet it works pretty good, although you must have to swing it more often to clear the same amount of brush. I'd like to hear feedback from anyone using the 12" version regularly.
Some people complain about the sawback and say it doesn't work well and I can understand that. It's just a simple saw pattern and the teeth aren't angled aggressively or anything. It seems to me as though the sawback was added quickly, more as an afterthought than anything. I considered reprofiling the saw with a small file or my Dremel, however I like the factory sawback for two reasons. One, when I am hacking brush and stuff I like to be able to flip the machete over and use the sawback to snag the cut vegetation and fling it off to the side of the trail or at least behind me. This factory sawback works really good for that purpose. Second, I enjoy tinkering around with traps and the squared-off profile of the factory saw pattern works great for notching trap triggers, just like the Ontario Pilot's Knife sawback does. I don't mind not having a great saw on the back since I mostly use this chopper in my yard and if I expect to be doing any real sawing I just grab my bow saw and be done with it. If I really wanted to count on this machete for any real sawing duty I would probably re-profile the back half of the saw blade with aggresive, angled teeth. That would leave the front squared for snatching cut brush or notching trap triggers and the back half (closer to your hand) would be a better short saw for cutting wood, bone or whatever.
I got the plastic GI sheath for this chopper and that rides fine on my web pistol belt I have rigged up with some "H" suspenders and a bunch of gear for battling the encroaching jungle around my yard.
All in All, for the price I think this is a good tool and would recommend it to anyone looking for a nice little workhorse that can be pretty versatile. If you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them for you. There were some other threads about this particular blade, but they were old so I figured I'd start a new one to honor the Ontario 18" Backwoods Chopper!
First of all, I like the handle a lot but I have mixed feelings about the D-guard/brush guard thing. I think it looks cool as hell, especially after I wrapped it tight in OD 550 paracord. But it kind of gets in the way when I'm wearing heavy work gloves, it doesn't protect my hand from anything really and it kind of causes me more fatigue and limits the angles with which I can chop. So I'm thinking I might have liked a version without the brush guard better, but I fell victim to aesthetics. I may cut it off some day, we'll see.
The blade is great and I like the steel so far. I'm getting ready to use it for a job my landlord asked me to do clearing some brush around the swamp and I was cleaning and sharpening it tonight. This blade is capable of a pretty sweet edge. I touched it up with a Smiths drag through sharpener (that yellow handled thing with the carbide cutting pieces screwed into it) and then used a carborundum stone to work the rounded part towards the tip. I barely touched the blade and nicked my finger pretty deep. Nothing to be worried about, but for as lightly as I contacted the blade it really bit me good!
I guess they make this model in a 12" version but I chose the 18" version because the ground vegetation grows real fast down by the swamp and I have to clear my trail somewhat frequently. If there's a ton of thick stuff I use a sickle, but for touching up the trail I just swing the machete side to side using the broadside against the weeds and I don't have to stoop over too much. I had previously used a Cold Steel Heavy Chopper on this property so I wanted something a little longer to pair with it. The cold steel is great for cutting thicker stuff and for chopping roots or even digging, but I mostly just let my gf's son use that one when I need his help. It's a great chopper though and has given me a lot of years of yeoman's service between Arizona and Michigan (mostly hacking back oleanders in AZ). I am interested in the 12" version of this Backwoods Chopper though and I might just pick one up to stick in my pack for a JIC machete. I bet it works pretty good, although you must have to swing it more often to clear the same amount of brush. I'd like to hear feedback from anyone using the 12" version regularly.
Some people complain about the sawback and say it doesn't work well and I can understand that. It's just a simple saw pattern and the teeth aren't angled aggressively or anything. It seems to me as though the sawback was added quickly, more as an afterthought than anything. I considered reprofiling the saw with a small file or my Dremel, however I like the factory sawback for two reasons. One, when I am hacking brush and stuff I like to be able to flip the machete over and use the sawback to snag the cut vegetation and fling it off to the side of the trail or at least behind me. This factory sawback works really good for that purpose. Second, I enjoy tinkering around with traps and the squared-off profile of the factory saw pattern works great for notching trap triggers, just like the Ontario Pilot's Knife sawback does. I don't mind not having a great saw on the back since I mostly use this chopper in my yard and if I expect to be doing any real sawing I just grab my bow saw and be done with it. If I really wanted to count on this machete for any real sawing duty I would probably re-profile the back half of the saw blade with aggresive, angled teeth. That would leave the front squared for snatching cut brush or notching trap triggers and the back half (closer to your hand) would be a better short saw for cutting wood, bone or whatever.
I got the plastic GI sheath for this chopper and that rides fine on my web pistol belt I have rigged up with some "H" suspenders and a bunch of gear for battling the encroaching jungle around my yard.
All in All, for the price I think this is a good tool and would recommend it to anyone looking for a nice little workhorse that can be pretty versatile. If you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them for you. There were some other threads about this particular blade, but they were old so I figured I'd start a new one to honor the Ontario 18" Backwoods Chopper!
