Anyone else here use empty 2-liter soda bottles for cutting practice???
They're great fun if you haven't. Although, they can be annoying the first time you try.
The disadvantage is they don't really simulate any particular part of human anatomy. But, they are good for gauging how well you're cutting.
For anyone who hasn't tried this:
You just fill an empty bottle with water, or if you're feeling wasteful you just never open a new bottle of sode.
Then you suspend it from something like a tree branch, I use a clothsline pole with fishing line. Now you just whack at it until you chop it in two.
It's great fun, and a nice safe cheap target to judge your soft cutting effectiveness. It can be annoying at first becuase the bottles cave in easily, and they can swing around freely, so you have to hit fast and with good form.
Today, when coming back from the woods with my Malla, I set up two bottles. My first hack sent the bottle flying, but it still cut in deep enough that it the bottle was spurting out water when you squeeze it. My second chop when right through, after adapting the stance which I developed for Euro singlehanded swords. And the second bottle went down with a single chop. This was done with a khukuri that had just chopped down a 4 inch thick dead branch without being cleaned let alone burnished or sharpened.
The cool thing was I realized today that I'm better with the khukuri coming from the left side of my body going to the right. This is for right handed use anyway. It did extremely well, and I was able to produce two very clean cuts.
Oh that was fun. Tomorrow I'm going to have to setup for some more cutting. Man I love spring break!
Bob
They're great fun if you haven't. Although, they can be annoying the first time you try.
The disadvantage is they don't really simulate any particular part of human anatomy. But, they are good for gauging how well you're cutting.
For anyone who hasn't tried this:
You just fill an empty bottle with water, or if you're feeling wasteful you just never open a new bottle of sode.
Then you suspend it from something like a tree branch, I use a clothsline pole with fishing line. Now you just whack at it until you chop it in two.
It's great fun, and a nice safe cheap target to judge your soft cutting effectiveness. It can be annoying at first becuase the bottles cave in easily, and they can swing around freely, so you have to hit fast and with good form.
Today, when coming back from the woods with my Malla, I set up two bottles. My first hack sent the bottle flying, but it still cut in deep enough that it the bottle was spurting out water when you squeeze it. My second chop when right through, after adapting the stance which I developed for Euro singlehanded swords. And the second bottle went down with a single chop. This was done with a khukuri that had just chopped down a 4 inch thick dead branch without being cleaned let alone burnished or sharpened.
The cool thing was I realized today that I'm better with the khukuri coming from the left side of my body going to the right. This is for right handed use anyway. It did extremely well, and I was able to produce two very clean cuts.
Oh that was fun. Tomorrow I'm going to have to setup for some more cutting. Man I love spring break!
Bob
