- Joined
- Oct 23, 2002
- Messages
- 1,147
Over this last weekend I ended up having some fun in the backwoods. (Yes there is something resembling wilderness in CA) I took along my SH-E and as a comparison for chopping also brought along a Vietnam Tactical Tomahawk, for a comparison of cutting for utility purposes (i.e. whittling sticks with the kids I brought with me) I also had a Dawson model 98 and some fixed bladed Kershaw I cant remember the name of.
The tasks performed were cutting branches up to 3 inches thick for a proposed shelter, whittling sticks (interpret that as fun and campfire preparation), cutting cord and even minor food preparation.
The SH-E outperformed them all by a significant margin! The Tomahawk, while intimidating and perhaps a better tool for defense was unable to chop half as well as the SH-E. I found myself having to swing harder and more often to get through similar diameter branches. The two other knives, one 1/4 thick and the other 1/8 thick steel were still no match for the SH-Es prowess in slicing through or carving braches of any shape or size. The kids were in fact amazed at how fast I could cut through a branch they were struggling with and turn it into lets say a spear or fuel for a fire. Admittedly the SH-E is a bigger knife than the others so having it outperform them in chopping was no surprise but handling the knife for smaller cutting tasks was not only easy it was impressive.
Once home I cleaned all the knives and hawk up easily enough and even though the SH-E was used more than any other tool it showed no damage at all and is still shaving sharp. The other knives have very small nicks on the edges, no damage to the hawk.
You can all flame me now as my camera battery died before I could take any pics of the knives, sorry! Next time I will bring battery backup! I have nice pics of the woods though, but those are not as pretty when they dont contain any knives, doh!
The tasks performed were cutting branches up to 3 inches thick for a proposed shelter, whittling sticks (interpret that as fun and campfire preparation), cutting cord and even minor food preparation.
The SH-E outperformed them all by a significant margin! The Tomahawk, while intimidating and perhaps a better tool for defense was unable to chop half as well as the SH-E. I found myself having to swing harder and more often to get through similar diameter branches. The two other knives, one 1/4 thick and the other 1/8 thick steel were still no match for the SH-Es prowess in slicing through or carving braches of any shape or size. The kids were in fact amazed at how fast I could cut through a branch they were struggling with and turn it into lets say a spear or fuel for a fire. Admittedly the SH-E is a bigger knife than the others so having it outperform them in chopping was no surprise but handling the knife for smaller cutting tasks was not only easy it was impressive.
Once home I cleaned all the knives and hawk up easily enough and even though the SH-E was used more than any other tool it showed no damage at all and is still shaving sharp. The other knives have very small nicks on the edges, no damage to the hawk.
You can all flame me now as my camera battery died before I could take any pics of the knives, sorry! Next time I will bring battery backup! I have nice pics of the woods though, but those are not as pretty when they dont contain any knives, doh!
