- Joined
- Jun 2, 2009
- Messages
- 6
Ok so after round one, the tops tracker needed a serious pick-me up.
After this impression I sought a way to make more practical work of the Tops blade. I was looking for it to redeem itself in this task, if possible. Here's what I found:
After lots of playing around I found a zig zag pattern that I think is the most economical way to use the tracker's axe-blade on logs. That doesn't mean it's easy... My arm and wrist got into a pattern of snapping the blade weight into the cut, in whiplike fashion, that increased the potency and lowered the amounts of cuts needed. The best way to describe it is to say that your arm needs to do what the kukri does by design. All in all it is a fun technique! Here are pics that describe the technique:
Each cut has to be really delivered, other wise it makes the next cut messier and messier. this is partly because once a cut is partially acomplished, the seperated remaining wood either interferes or buffers the impact of future cuts. This is a difficult technique but elevates the tracker's value for cutting into logs.
Another section of testing was the remaining log chunks: splitting them head on.
Needless to say, the gerber went right thru with ease. The fiskers needed to be hammered with another log piece, though once split down the middle, went right thru remaining halves.
The kukri-machete took special persuading, as it is only 1/8 thick! A blade takes only so much force before being damaged, and knowing that zone, I smashed on the back of the machete with a log-hammer, until it split thru the wood.
Once this third was removed, the process was repeated. Systematic is the word.
When it came to the tracker, I had a mess on my hands. I was confused initially on how to attack the log! head on? So I did. The blade is a quarter inch thick, so I figured I can just hit it head on and bash the log in half with the hammer log.
Holding the handle as far forward in the hand as comfortably possible, I found the weight of it would swing pretty well. I practiced before the log demo. I embed the knife far into the log in a dangerous swing.
I bash it about half way thru the log, and it seems to say "no more". I turn the knife upward (with some help from Mr. hammerlog) and then pound through the rest of the log. The butt of the handle has a rounded face that allows for easy hammering control: a little toward the blade side adds force to the inside of the cut, a little toward the saw side adds force to the outside of the cut. This was the highlight of this demo.
I liked attacking the log vertically with the tracker, using it at first like a splitter, than as a spike. So I tried it again, though this time I used a dried cherry log, the bottom half being part of a large knot.
I lodged the knife in horizontally first, picking a strategic cut that would free a portion easily, or so I thought.
Well, it wasn't so easy! I burried it and still didn't have much goin for the process.
So, after much struggle, I had the point driving down the center, with the back of the blade bearing down the center hardwood of the log.
The log was so strong that it almost swallowed the knife.
I had to use fiskers to help me out!
Overall impressions:
Kukri-machete:
+'s: the inside curve of the blade can really bite down! even despite the fact that its 1/8 inch thick, and doesn't have a splitting edge that forces the log apart, removing the outside portions of a log thins out the remaining, eventually making splitting easier. Perfect Kindling machine.
-'s: Bashing is dangerous to the thin blade, and flat walls of knife makes for easy to get stuck. Violently flailing log and knife together is amusing only to bystanders.
Gerber:
+'s: cut like butter.
-'s: none.
Fiskers:
+'s: cut like tougher butter.
-'s: log-hammering was tricky on smaller hammerhead of the axe.
Tops tracker:
+'s: Fun! using the blade tip first seems a fun science on its own.
-'s: Time consuming, energy consuming.
The obvious:
Gerber: tool to do it all day.
Kukri machete: exercise and weightlifting combined!
Fiskers: exercise.
Tracker: fun, but not practical at all.
The next post is the third demonstration, on notch and groove making, using these tools on cherry, birch, and black walnut.
After this impression I sought a way to make more practical work of the Tops blade. I was looking for it to redeem itself in this task, if possible. Here's what I found:
After lots of playing around I found a zig zag pattern that I think is the most economical way to use the tracker's axe-blade on logs. That doesn't mean it's easy... My arm and wrist got into a pattern of snapping the blade weight into the cut, in whiplike fashion, that increased the potency and lowered the amounts of cuts needed. The best way to describe it is to say that your arm needs to do what the kukri does by design. All in all it is a fun technique! Here are pics that describe the technique:
Each cut has to be really delivered, other wise it makes the next cut messier and messier. this is partly because once a cut is partially acomplished, the seperated remaining wood either interferes or buffers the impact of future cuts. This is a difficult technique but elevates the tracker's value for cutting into logs.
Another section of testing was the remaining log chunks: splitting them head on.
Needless to say, the gerber went right thru with ease. The fiskers needed to be hammered with another log piece, though once split down the middle, went right thru remaining halves.
The kukri-machete took special persuading, as it is only 1/8 thick! A blade takes only so much force before being damaged, and knowing that zone, I smashed on the back of the machete with a log-hammer, until it split thru the wood.
Once this third was removed, the process was repeated. Systematic is the word.
When it came to the tracker, I had a mess on my hands. I was confused initially on how to attack the log! head on? So I did. The blade is a quarter inch thick, so I figured I can just hit it head on and bash the log in half with the hammer log.
Holding the handle as far forward in the hand as comfortably possible, I found the weight of it would swing pretty well. I practiced before the log demo. I embed the knife far into the log in a dangerous swing.
I bash it about half way thru the log, and it seems to say "no more". I turn the knife upward (with some help from Mr. hammerlog) and then pound through the rest of the log. The butt of the handle has a rounded face that allows for easy hammering control: a little toward the blade side adds force to the inside of the cut, a little toward the saw side adds force to the outside of the cut. This was the highlight of this demo.
I liked attacking the log vertically with the tracker, using it at first like a splitter, than as a spike. So I tried it again, though this time I used a dried cherry log, the bottom half being part of a large knot.
I lodged the knife in horizontally first, picking a strategic cut that would free a portion easily, or so I thought.
Well, it wasn't so easy! I burried it and still didn't have much goin for the process.
So, after much struggle, I had the point driving down the center, with the back of the blade bearing down the center hardwood of the log.
The log was so strong that it almost swallowed the knife.
I had to use fiskers to help me out!
Overall impressions:
Kukri-machete:
+'s: the inside curve of the blade can really bite down! even despite the fact that its 1/8 inch thick, and doesn't have a splitting edge that forces the log apart, removing the outside portions of a log thins out the remaining, eventually making splitting easier. Perfect Kindling machine.
-'s: Bashing is dangerous to the thin blade, and flat walls of knife makes for easy to get stuck. Violently flailing log and knife together is amusing only to bystanders.
Gerber:
+'s: cut like butter.
-'s: none.
Fiskers:
+'s: cut like tougher butter.
-'s: log-hammering was tricky on smaller hammerhead of the axe.
Tops tracker:
+'s: Fun! using the blade tip first seems a fun science on its own.
-'s: Time consuming, energy consuming.
The obvious:
Gerber: tool to do it all day.
Kukri machete: exercise and weightlifting combined!
Fiskers: exercise.
Tracker: fun, but not practical at all.
The next post is the third demonstration, on notch and groove making, using these tools on cherry, birch, and black walnut.