Robbie Roberson,
That was a very nice newspaper article. It was very nice of you and your wife to donate the initial proceeds to the Children's Hospital.
Saws as outdoors tools
First let me say I am not a survival or wilderness skills expert by any stretch of the imagination. I do like go camping and such, and have an interest in the subject.
I think a saw is one of the most important tools and outdoorsman can have in his arsenal. I rarely, if ever, venture into the woods without a saw of some type.
A saw is very safe and efficient to use for felling sticks and bucking to length. For my uses, a saw is much more efficient than either the axe or the knife for this work, and history bears this out, simply look at the rise of the cross cut saw and its implications of axe felling in the timber industry. Basically, once good saws, usually two man units, came into play the use of the felling axe declined significantly. Of course this was on wood *much* larger than anyone would use for camping or survival use.
I am not trying to discount the revolver design, but I much prefer to have seperate tools, each optimized for their task. Wood saws come in a variety of sizes, fixed blade pruning saws, bow (Swede) saws folding saws (Bahco, Opinel, Gerber, etc) and my favorite the folding frame buck saws (the Sawvivor, Duluth Pack, etc).
Opinel makes two folding saws that I know of, a small one the size of large folder (5" blade or so), and it is super light and easy to carry, it will easily take dwon shelter pole sixed wood. Move up a step to the Bahco folding saw or a decent pruning saw, and you can actually take down just about any size wood that you would want to in a survival situtation. Working with anything much larger would be very energy consuming (see historical accounts of the massive food intake requirements of northern lumberjacks.)
A high quality folding buck saw, like
Duluth Pack folding Saw or the
Sawvivor is like having a portable lumber mill.
Knives vs Hatchet
First of all, I think we need to distinguish between an axe and a hatchet. A hatchet, such as the GB Mini or Wildlife hatchet, is usually defined as a one handed tool. When you move up to the axe class, such as the GB Small Forest or Scandinavian, you are talking about a different tool. A small axe is a much heavier, much more powerful tool than a hatchet. An axe uses a heavier head, longer handle and larger mucle groups are used when swinging it. This makes a huge difference. In my opinion, using the words hatchet and axe interchangable is like using knife (think a small paring knife) and a broad sword interchangably.
There are many quality axe makers, see Lee Reeve for an example of a nice custom hatchet that will outperform similiar sized GB hatchets (from reviews I have read, I don't own a Reeve). Still, when I think of quality hatchets, there is only that consistently makes the grade of hatchets I like out of the box, Gransfors Bruk. You can take lesser heads, fine tune them, add custom handles and have an exceptional working tool
See Jim Aston's site for example) , but this requires a lot of effort, epecially when you can pick up the phone or click your mouse and have a GB delivered.
I really like hatchets and axes for some uses. I have most of the GB line (Mini, Wildlife, SFA and Scandinavian), I do not own the felling axe, becuase if I need to take down sticks bigger than the Scandinavian is capable of I will be using a saw.
There have been so many disccusions about knives vs axes, by really experienced people, yet their is never a resloution becuase much of it is subjective, persoanl preference relating to style of use, tasks being performed, physical abilities and limitations and simply what people are used to.
For my uses, a big knife (10" class up to the Goloks and such) are mucj more of a general use tool, whereas an axe or hatchet is much more limited in scope.
As Cliff points out above, when the wood gets really small and springy a good brush blade really comes into its own. Here, blade velocity and edge sharpness are really the name of the game. Try clearing saplings with a double bit felling axe, it is actually very difficult. You have to have exceptional aim, a great deal of concentration (to avoid really over- penetrating), and there is just lots of wasted energy.
For a wide variety of camp chores, I find a large knife to be at least as good as a small hatchet, shaping wood for example. For many things, like food prep, the knife is the clear winner.
I've done batoning with everything from the 111mm Victorinox lockblades to Buck folders up to custom fixed blades. NONE of them is even remotely as efficient as a properly sharpened hatchet, much less an axe.
AND
We had a 6" sabre grind knife and a Wetterling #13 hatchet. The hatchet easily out performed the knife . . .
Yes, a decent hatchet will out-chop a Swiss Army knife, buck folder or even the best of the 6" class knives. Now take that hatchet and compare it to a good (not even the best) of the 10" class knives, Ranger RD9, Becker BK9, Swamp Rat, etc. Try it over a wide range of uses. I'll bet you'll be suprised by how versatile the big knife is and well it performs. Even big knives designed for lighter use (soft vegetation) such as the Livesay RCM, Ontario 12" machete, Martindale Golok and Jungle knife and such will be equal to a hatchet at most tasks, and much more efficient at others (limbing, food prep, brush work.) Note, the Martindale golok is a small machete type, not the thicker, convex forged goloks that I think of as compromising the golok class.
Now move up a step to the golok class blades, the only ones I have worked with are from Perth, AU
Valiant Goloks You can read a ton of reviews on the web, just do a meta or google search. Lots of reading in the various outdoor forums.
These are blades that exceed hatchets, and are at the small axe level. They are priced reasonably, though the wait is sometimes very long (months) before you get your knives.
I have used HI Khuks, while very powerful they do not match well with my use style of physical ability.
Re: Ranger RD9
, knifetester has one and has likely either got a thin edge specified or ground a high convex one. If he has I would put that against any cheap hatchet any day, and it should be in the same class as a decent hatchet on small woods.
The RD9 is a very solid knife. As Cliff points out, it is overbuilt for pure wood craft. However, like Cliff wrote just order it with a thinner edge (when Justin returns from Iraq.) if you will be limiting the scope of use to wood work, and even thinner still if you are planning on just clear, soft woods.
I have actually not worked woth the RD9 much outside of initial inspection. I have been waiting for a comparison blade to be finished. I wanted to compare the RD9 to the Becker BK9. While I like the grinds on the BK9, the handle design and materials are just horrible for me, though this is very subjective. So I sent my BK9 off to a custom knife maker and he is cutting off the hook and adding wood scales with contouring. Once it is back, and I ahve more time, then I can have some fun with them.
I have not reduced the edge profile on the Ranger yet. This is odd for me, since usually I would take it to the belt sander right away.
I want to do some heavy work with it (metals, hard plastics and such), then reduce the edge profile for woodcraft.
Even with its stock profile, I would take the RD9 up against a cheap hardware store hatchet anyday in terms or sheer chopping power, and it will easily outclass such a hatchet in terms of scope of work, simply much broader.
A good quality hatchet that is. More importantly is preparation before venturing into an area where a possible survival situation could occur. That being said, having the appropriate equipment at hand.
The Revolver has been used for about 2 full years now, maybe a little longer, with excellent results as an outdoor cutting tool.
, eventually I blew my tire out because it got so hot. This is a classic example of not using the right "tool" (tire) for the job. 
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