- Joined
- Dec 3, 2000
- Messages
- 3,002
Well, In my current occupation (working as a field hand for the Natural Gas Company) That busy time of year has come again where we're working long hours and long weeks trying to get the gas in the ground before freeze up.
The busy time began interestingly when half a dozen of us helpers (Field Hands) were brought in on a Saturday to clear all the brush out of a ten acre pipe storage yard the next town over.
So we loaded up the brush cutter, chainsaw, got a Bobcat with a brush deck on it, etc. and headed on out there. While gathering stuff I decided it may be a good time to grab my 18 inch Sirupati out of my personal truck and threw it in the crew truck. I saw it first as an opportunity to play with one of my knives, and secondly...well...I know the nature of pass around tools in the company...NOBODY ever maintains the tools cause EVERYBODY else will just abuse and neglect them.
To make a long story short, that thing wound up being swung all freakin' day. Cutting alders, vines, Birch, some of it about ten inches around, most of it in the six inch area though. Sad part was that it was quicker than the chainsaw or the pruning shears on about 70% of the stuff I was cutting.
The other hands were asking about it, and quite clearly could have cared less about culture, history, etc. all they cared about was that it worked well. And it did do a fantastic job.
It reached higher than I chould with the pruning shears, It cut most smaller stuff quicker than the (dull) chainsaw, and cut down some pretty serious overgrown patches of grass and weeds when the brush cutter died.
Overall I had a helluva good workday with the Sirupati. Granted, I'd have rather had it riding in my range bag while I spent the afternoon shooting, but since I HAD to work, the Sirupati made it a helluva lot easier.
Overall it stood up real well and came out of the day with a still functional edge, even though I discovered on several ocassions that it fails miserably when matched against steel piping and chainlink fence...
Once my belief that the Sirupati is a bit of an underdog has been reinforced. It's long enough to reach, light enough for all day use and machete duty, and still heavy enough to cut some larger diameter stuff.
It's definitely earned some respect from half a dozen Alaskan Field hands!
The busy time began interestingly when half a dozen of us helpers (Field Hands) were brought in on a Saturday to clear all the brush out of a ten acre pipe storage yard the next town over.
So we loaded up the brush cutter, chainsaw, got a Bobcat with a brush deck on it, etc. and headed on out there. While gathering stuff I decided it may be a good time to grab my 18 inch Sirupati out of my personal truck and threw it in the crew truck. I saw it first as an opportunity to play with one of my knives, and secondly...well...I know the nature of pass around tools in the company...NOBODY ever maintains the tools cause EVERYBODY else will just abuse and neglect them.
To make a long story short, that thing wound up being swung all freakin' day. Cutting alders, vines, Birch, some of it about ten inches around, most of it in the six inch area though. Sad part was that it was quicker than the chainsaw or the pruning shears on about 70% of the stuff I was cutting.
The other hands were asking about it, and quite clearly could have cared less about culture, history, etc. all they cared about was that it worked well. And it did do a fantastic job.
It reached higher than I chould with the pruning shears, It cut most smaller stuff quicker than the (dull) chainsaw, and cut down some pretty serious overgrown patches of grass and weeds when the brush cutter died.
Overall I had a helluva good workday with the Sirupati. Granted, I'd have rather had it riding in my range bag while I spent the afternoon shooting, but since I HAD to work, the Sirupati made it a helluva lot easier.
Overall it stood up real well and came out of the day with a still functional edge, even though I discovered on several ocassions that it fails miserably when matched against steel piping and chainlink fence...
Once my belief that the Sirupati is a bit of an underdog has been reinforced. It's long enough to reach, light enough for all day use and machete duty, and still heavy enough to cut some larger diameter stuff.
It's definitely earned some respect from half a dozen Alaskan Field hands!
:foot:
