some really abusive wood cutting

[Cliff Stamp]

This is one of the things that is really demanding, so much so that actual felling axes would never be used to do it :



This is a before and after picture of a really rough patch of wood. When trees are very crowded and the libs die they go extremely hard and chopping them becomes impossible as they won't cut cleanly and they just fracture. The best method to cut them is to actually beat them off with a stout club or the back of an axe. If you have to cut them off then cut the tree down with a saw and then limb them from base to tip.

However I sheared them in a straight line towards the base using a heavy wrist snap and elbow drive. This was done as a worse case senario as in how would the blade perform with someone fairly aggressive without much knowledge. Mears talks about this in one of the episodes of his tv show where he uses a martindale golok on such wood and notes that you don't want a fine edge because the wood is too rough. Here is another patch :



It only takes about 10-15 minutes to clear out those little spots and remove the debris. I did this for about two hours. No damage to the edge was visible by eye, later it was checked and no damage visible under 10X mag. It could still slice newsprint but was catching in a few places. The edge bevel has a heavy convex grind, it goes up to about 18 degrees in the final 0.025" and quicky sweeps back to about 10 degrees. The knife used was the large bowie described here :

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3990567

The edge angle is a bit high for what I normally run so I am still not convinced about the performance as I generally run about 14 or so for the final bevel on most of my knives, but I generally avoid the type of work done here. I definately am convinced that the performance is there to take the edge down though. I also spent some time carving and splitting and collecting brush to make a fire. I was doing some time trials on wood to see how long a flare would be produced from a given volume of wood.



This shows the type of wood and the resulting flame, this is instant, meaning those boughs will produce that level of flame with the right tinder basically as soon as they are lit. About a foot of the boughs produces about 5 feet of raw flame and only lasts minutes.

-Cliff

 

[Kevin the grey]

I definately am convinced that the performance is there to take the edge down though. Quote Cliff :

Cliff I don,t quite get that and it seems a telling point .

Also Your beginners approach(by design) to smacking off those dead limbs is exactly how I would have done it . I guess that just proves the point . L:O:L
Having the proper and well sharpened equipment may influence my method .

I think a small bow saw like I used to carry would be a good item to keep in the trunk . It would be rare I would have to clear out more than one or two dead trees .

 

[Cliff Stamp]

I don,t quite get that and it seems a telling point .

This was a prototype and I wanted to check the edge on some standard work before I reground it to the profile I am more familiar with.

... smacking off those dead limbs is exactly how I would have done it .

It is really demanding work due to a combination of the hardness of the wood, the small diameter, the close ingrowth and the way it tends to break and twist. For example I have seen lots of blades which could chop into a concrete block with little damage, but it doesn't take long doing that work before the blade would be completely destroyed.

I think a small bow saw like I used to carry would be a good item to keep in the trunk .

That is the best way to remove them, plus once they are cut down you can limb from the base of the trunk up which is vastly easier on the knife. This kind of wood burns exceptionally well. Generally greener wood is nicer for shelter building as it gives more cover and is much softer.

-Cliff