Thoughts on weight versus performance, please read.

Yes, up to a foot in diameter. I don't use guy lines, so the posts have to be pretty stiff. Besides, trees tall enough to build one of these things don't come much slimmer. I'm not paticular about the type of tree, pine works if you don't mind the pitch, cyprus is great if you can get it, Florida oak is mostly scraggly and not straight enough, plam works, but doesn't last so long.

I don't build these every time I go out. To do one right takes about a week. I usualy kill something big like a pig so I don't have to worry about food during construction. It goes a lot faster if I have some help.

This is a long-term thing. I only do it if I'm going to be out for more than a month, which does happen occasionaly, usualy when I'm feeling down. Helps me sort things out.

The cool thing is a good one can last a year or more, so you can go back to it if you want to. Sometimes I show my buddies where I've built one so it can be used as a basecamp for hunters. I hate to see the trees go to waste. I've built a couple of these things, but not a whole bunch.

For more usual trips, I sleep in my surplus wool blanket. What you do is fold the blanket in half, tie a rope to one end real good, give it several wraps, climb up a tree with this rope in hand, give it a bunch of wraps around the trunk, and make sure that the top of the blanket doesn't have more than 2 or 3 feet of rope between it and the trunk, then haul up the other end of the blanket, and lash it very securely with the tail of the rope. Make sure that it's pretty close to the other end of the blanket.

It takes some getting used to for sleeping in comfortably, and I could show you how to do it better than I write, but done right it's pretty safe. I've only fallen a couple times, and that's only when i was working out the details. I tried this pretty low to the ground at first to be safe.

You fold the blanket in half so it naturaly covers you so the mosquitos don't get at you. If yo aren't covered from the mosquitos, your face will be swollen to twice it's natural size when you wake up. It really sucks.

This is for trees that don't have big branches, like palms, or the branches are real high up, like pine. If you have a big horizontal limb not too high up, just sling the blanket like a hammock from the limb.

I'm working on a purpose-built blanket. I wnat to give it a waterproof exterior for sure, maybe some eyelets.

I used "drag" in the generic sense of "get it over there any way you can". You can't shoulder these too well, as they are around 15 to 20 feet long. Bugs suck. I will go to any lengths to avoid them.

A Project isn't the most efficient tool for this job, an axe is(or chainsaw, but htey don't count). I don't have enough need of an axe to justify it's purchase or packing. A hatchet is somewhat better, but again, I can do more with the knife. Besides, I don't cut all the way through. Just half/3/4 of the way and then give it a berserk kamakazi charge to bowl it over. Yeah, it hurts. It seems to work best to remove material from all around the trunk.
 
Comparing weight as a measure of performance means very little when you don't also consider the tools general balance, center point of balance (handle, guard, blade) blade length, handle engonomics, blade geometry and whether the tool is designed more for cutting than chopping, visa-versa or 50% cutting and chopping.

Weight may be an important part of the performance equation, however all these factors combined effect a tools performance much more than weight alone.

David Bloch

---------------------------------------
Anyone who says a dull knife is more dangerous than a sharp knife has never cut themselves with a REALLY sharp one!
 
Snickersnee :

How do you construct the shelter? How do you keep the logs together? Lashing? Why not use some smaller wood for posts and just use multiple sticks?

I don't use guy lines, so the posts have to be pretty stiff. Besides, trees tall enough to build one of these things don't come much slimmer
Click to expand...

Trees around here don't run like that. For example our telephone poles are not that big and they are easily well over 15 feet tall. You should live around here. You would have a much easier time making a shelter.

You can't shoulder these too well, as they are around 15 to 20 feet long.
Click to expand...

I assumed it was much longer than that. If they are only 15-20 feet long you must be topping them. As for moving them, consider the following, most people can easily give another a piggy back ride. Even small kids can do this. Not walk but even run. Compare this with dragging a person who has gone limp. It is much more difficult.

Getting the wood on your shoulder is very easy, you only need to lift about 1/3 of the dead weight. This means a normal healthy individual could easy prop up a 200-300 lbs log (that is a fair size). The hardest part is getting the technique right and once that is over handling the pain of the wood digging into your shoulder. If you have not done this before, after about 1/2 an hour you will be very tender.

-Cliff
 
Marion,

The Golok is a style of knife, and certainly not a production piece. There is a wide range of variation.

George Cameron Stone, A GLOSSARY OF THE CONSTRUCTION, DECORATION AND USE OF ARMS AND ARMOR (1961-SOUTHWARD PRESS), defines it as "a heavy, single-edge blade, straight of the back, nearly square next to the hilt with a highly convex edge." The Goloks I have seen for sale in the US tend towards ~1/4" thick blades.

Anyway the point is that there is no perfect knife. If such a thing were poissible then we would have little need to collect knives and the wide variations we see today in production, and, custom knives; or, in aboriginal knives and relics just wouldn't be there. Each knife offers a specific advantage over a specific set of circumstances, and as circumstances vary so do the knives.

I would agree with many that a 12" machete is a good light weight choice to add to your kit for North America, but I would also include a 5-8" knife of at least 3/16" steel for lateral strength, and a SAK or similar folder for everything else.


 
It's not so much the weight or not being able to physicaly shoulder them, the brush is just too thick to make carrying anything longer than 8 feet practical. It gets all hung up on brush, trees, vines, etc...

Still, at that length I do find carrying stuff on the shoulders unwieldy. Maybe it's just `cause I'm kinda light and short or something.
 
Snickersnee- If I am ever down in Florida, I am going to have to take a pig, share salt and see your tree stand.

Cliff- Thanks for the info, I am think I am going to be reading this for some time.

Bloch- You are right, if is a total package.

PJ- I may get one of your Uluchets, just to see how I like it.

Darrell- I carry multiple knives.

Thanks all,

------------------
Marion David Poff aka Eye, one can msg me at mdpoff@hotmail.com

I wrote a review of the Kasper AFCK variant, an interview of Bob Kasper, and some thoughts and brainstorms of the AFCK in general. It can be found at http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/000568.html . Check it out and tell me what you think.

"I'm just an advertisement for a version of myself." David Byrne

"It's the action, not the fruit of the action that's important. You have to do the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing there will be no result." Gandhi

 
Wow! Marion, you sure started a conversation here. I think if I had one edged tool to depend on it would be a 3/4 size single bit ax, something between a lightweight Hudson's Bay and the much heavier (but a great chopper) Iltis. I've used my Iltis like an ulu for butchering moose and deer. You can pare your nails with an ax or build a cabin, or practically anything in between, but you'd be hard put to do the same even with the finest big knife. (Not that I wouldn't like to also pack a Battle Mistress of Trailmaster, too.)
 
Snickersnee, brush would be a problem for sure. Generally I clear cut so its not. As for the length, as a rule, it will be more stable the longer it is. Longer logs resist off balance motions much better. Short heavy logs are killer to carry as they want to move around a lot. Its all technique though, it requires no amount of strength. Just get the center of mass behind your shoulder and your arm resting along the top in front and you have a very stable equilibrium.

Ed brings up a good point in that larger tools have the advantage of being able to do anything a smaller tool can do but just being a bit awkward at the more precise stuff. You can however reduce the disadvantage by a lot of work. I never used an axe for close up work on a regular basis always having a knife at hand, so I never became that skilled with its use in that aspect. I do know people who were though so it is possible. Just take it slow and easy until the skill comes.

I remember watching a nature type show once where they had a guide who was promoting the use of an axe over a knife in terms of survival and that was his basic arguement. He built a shelter and prepared a meal (cleaned some fish) all with the same axe and he made it look very easy.

-Cliff
 
I don't know about an axe, but I am heavily considering a hatchet as my next knife.

Have to get a custom though, I haven't seen anything that really grabs me. The Uluchet doesn't look bad(combo of ulu and hatchet?) function-wise, but isn't exactly to my mind "styl'n".

I would agree for most stuff a hatchet will work as well or better than a big knife, however, because I also carry this thing around in an urban environment from time to time, the smaller profile of the knife is preferable. Also, I'm a knife guy, so what do you want?

An axe I just wouldn't pack, I'm of the streamlined and lightweight persuasion, and an axe would get hung up too easy where I go. The biggest advantage of the knife over the hatchet is clearing vines and such, easier to hit with the longer edge of the knife. I'm also in the market for a good machete.

On a sadder note, I finaly broke my XlTi two days ago. By prying. It did all right, but I pushed to hard. I was locked out and was trying to use it to spread the door jam, bad idea.

I'm, in the market for a new folder now. I'm looking at the Gerber Gator, but I don't know how i feel about a plastic knife.
 
Gentlemen:
The tool that might fit this catagory also is the folding handle khukuri that we just finished the testing protos on, it seems to be chopping well on a variety of materials. It has the same style of handle lock system as the Uluchet and the blade is always exposed too. Closed you have a 12.5 in. tool for knife chores, open it's 15.5 in. of weight forward chopper.It is .250 thick D-2, 56-58 with cryogenic treatment, same as the Uluchet, roughly 1.25 lbs. balance is slightly blade heavy when closed and very blade heavy when open.

------------------
P.J.
YES,it is sharp, just keep your fingers out of the way!
www.silverstar.com/turnermfg


 
Snickersnee, I have used an old Gerber Gator. Very nice comfortable handle. Very poor steel though. Chips out easily and requires constant sharpening. Does have a nice thin grind. They have upgraded the steel to ATS-34 last I heard.

By the way, what happened to the Buck? Did the blade snap or the handle get damaged. Why not ask about getting it repaired by Buck. That would probably be a lot cheaper than buying a new knife.

-Cliff
 
The blade snapped. It was about about an inch from the tip, the spine hadn't quite reached it's thickest yet, plus since this is the clip, it was also at it's skinniest.

Basicaly too much stress on too little steel. Still, it flexed noticably, that is to say enough to warn you, before it snapped. I'm betting about 20 degrees, maybe 25.

The ironic thing is that I never actualy managed to spread the jam enough, but since the weakest part of the knife had snapped off, I managed to use the rest to lift the sliding glass door off it's tracks.

I don't as a rule send knives in to be fixed when I break them, I don't use warrantees much. Besides, I threw away the remnants.

I might end up buying another, but I want to check some other stuff out first. I'm intrested in the new non-liner, non-integral locks. I wonder if they put any on a knife with a blade and handle that agrees with me...
 
PJ- That folding kukri sounds cool.

Axe, not a bad idea, Steven Dick once wrote in Blade that an axe would be his one tool.

Keep it coming,

------------------
Marion David Poff aka Eye, one can msg me at mdpoff@hotmail.com

I wrote a review of the Kasper AFCK variant, an interview of Bob Kasper, and some thoughts and brainstorms of the AFCK in general. It can be found at http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/000568.html . Check it out and tell me what you think.

"I'm just an advertisement for a version of myself." David Byrne

"It's the action, not the fruit of the action that's important. You have to do the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing there will be no result." Gandhi

 
If its spreading door jams you're about, check out the intrusion team knife at http://members.tripod.com/~Newt_Livesay/ITK.html .

Personally I really like my Livesay Machete as a state of the art field knife http://members.tripod.com/~Newt_Livesay/RCM.html . This is sort of a cross between a collector's piece and a using knife for me. I have tinkered with it -- sliced through about 150sq yds. of very high grasses and brush and it worked great! It is a marvelous example of a high-end machete, but I think it is too heavy for me to justify carry on any of the sort of camping adventures I'm likely to get into for the forseeable future...

 
So,

If I take an axe, machete and belt knife I should be fine right?

------------------
Marion David Poff aka Eye, one can msg me at mdpoff@hotmail.com

I wrote a review of the Kasper AFCK variant, an interview of Bob Kasper, and some thoughts and brainstorms of the AFCK in general. It can be found at http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/000568.html . Check it out and tell me what you think.

"I'm just an advertisement for a version of myself." David Byrne

"It's the action, not the fruit of the action that's important. You have to do the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing there will be no result." Gandhi

 
I am still testing the Uluchet (well, more accurately, I'm still not getting around to completing my testing) but preliminary results indicate you'd be well equipped for anything short of felling large trees with a Uluchet and a pointy thin-bladed knife -- and with very little weight to carry. The Uluchet weighs very little and the knife to complement it should be even lighter. As well as good for chopping, the Uluchet is *great* for skinning and such tasks that call for plenty of belly and no point, so your complementary knife won't have to do those tasks, or anything that calls for a thick sturdy blade, either -- so choose a thin pointy knife that'll be good for removing splinters and such to complement it and you'll be all set for anything.

Go to PJ's website for details, and keep an eye on the Reviews forum ... I'll post a detailed review eventually; sorry I'm taking so long....

-Cougar Allen :{)
 
Marion, with those three tools you will be well suited for any cutting task. Most larger knives attempt to graft some combination of those together. For example the BM is a combination of all three while say a heavy khukuri (AK) would be an axe/machete mix (heavy on the axe).

If you can afford the space and weight then the more gear you can carry the better prepared you will be. However I wonder if the gain in performance will be worth the effort in carrying the extra gear. It just depends on how much of what you are going to be doing.

Cougar, looking forward to your comments on the Uluchet. P. J. is selling a fine product and is one of those with the personality to match. All of those I showed it to were really attracted to it from a hunters point of view.

-Cliff
 
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