Not being into standardized test, I performed the following unconventional one:
I have this banana tree to cut in the garden:
The main tree (hidden behind on the picture) is 3 meters high, for a trunk diameter of 20 cm at 1 meter height.
I'll use the Survival Golok M, the Baiwan, the Loka, and then the Borneo Parang.
Banana trees are for those that never encountered one structurally like rolled cardboard, filled with water. They produce a kind of gum which get very sticky and stops penetration. But the penetration of a big blade in a 20cm diameter is impressive. They make a good test to check how blades penetrate in wood, as the lenght of the penetration is bigger, and thus can be measured.
You can see here the the Survival Golok, the Baiwan, the Locka, from top to bottom.
The deeper penetration is the Survival G. The baiwan did not enter at same angle, so I retested it later, with the same angle, it is second, The Locka glanced, and would be last, but not by much. Actually, the lock again shows it is a contender, because, though I had little space for movements, I could accelerate it more, and therefore get a similar result.
I could not add another blade on the tree without crossing blades, which if I remember well "ghost busters" could cause the end of the world, so I then removed them and tested the Borneo Parang. I have no picture, but the Parang does slighly better than the Survival. (I got excited and compelled to take the tree down at that moment, that is why there is no picture)
No blade went though, but I expected this, as I chosed the tree this way. 70 kg falling on you while holding a big blade is no fun.
The place cleaned:
[image]http://outdoors.free.fr/upload/banana-19.JPG[/image]
The blades are back in the backpack, the leaves in the front I'll use tonight for cooking my chicken curry, eh eh! They are typically of use to survirvors like you guys. The core of the tree can be eaten, and is just a bit more fibery than palm-tree core, but less tasty.
A bit more fun: the Baiwan and huge leaves
The cut-up trunk and card board stucture.
The compost heap:
The trunk has been dispatched in little pieces. The Borneo Parang was the only one that could slice totally though the whole diameter of the trunk, the SG was just behind, and needed a bit more swing.
So the order is:
1 Borneo Parang, best peneration.
The Borneo Parang is for sure a smooth blade, requiring very little power to be efficient
2 Survival Golok. 2 cm behind Parang on the banana tree penetration scale
The SG does not need more comments, Jimbo, V-schrade, Stamp And I have discussed it a lot already. I'll just say again that even in this context, it is the more versatile.
3 Baiwan, 2cm behind SG on the banana tree penetration scale
The Baiwan I have been using a lot recently, and though it looses a bit of efficiency because of the straight edge, it is equilibrated right between a Loka and a SG, a very efficient swinger. The handle feels Huge at first in the hand, but is very secure, and nice to use (again Wandi amazes me with a handle about which I doubted at first).
4 Locka 1cm behind Baiwan on the banana tree penetration scale, if the hit is accelerated, 4cm if same energy is involved.
The short sword, light, but not totally inefficient. It can perform very close to the others, though will be a bit more tiring as the lack of weight will have to be compensated by speed. The gap is larger, if the test uses the same amount of calories for each blow.
Curriously, this follows the center of gravity repartition of the different blades, thus confirming what everybody knew, a good chopper has weight in the front, the axe is a very good tool for chopping. Seriously, an axe or hatchet would not have allowed me to dispatch this tree in 1/2 an hour.
Still, check the pictures, differences are minimal ( I also base my classification on the later dispatching on the compost heap)
Well the fun took me 1/2 hour, the cleaning of the blades another 1/2 because this bloody gum had sticked to them. the kitchen cleaner and scratch pad could not get rid of it, and I had to resort to citrus dissolvant....
Needless to say, no blade was damaged, I do not see how they could in such a tree
The blades involved:
Borneo Parang, Baiwan, Loka, Survival Golok M, Hitam (not used here)
