Wayne's Field Report

not2sharp

not2sharp

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Field Report – Chopping Test on Trishul Decker, Hanuman, 21’ Gelbu Special, and BirGorkha Tawar

Wayne Lau
(The Big Kahuna)

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This FR was meant to be a test of the chopping efficiency of my HI user knife/khuks/sword. Though few in number (compared to other forumites), they cover a wide range of sizes and designs. This was not meant to be a head to head test of two similar khuks. It was to compare the chopping usefulness of khuks of different sizes and blade types.

First picture

The HI products compared are:

Top: Trishul Decker – 13 inches long, 1 lb weight (16 oz), point of balance 1.5 inch from top of hand. An experimental knife by Kumar that doesn’t seem popular enough to be a catalogue item. Very thick, weight forward blade. Full tang but in a thin, long handle. With a beautifully carved handle and curved “horns” on the guard, the knife seems more display model than user (which turned out to be wrong). I like its long handle and heft (I’m 6’3” and weigh 290 lbs – so I prefer blades a touch on the big side). Mainly used as a hiking knife. Knife came dull out of the box and was made duller by use. Edge is clearly visible. Couldn’t slice cut a sheet of newspaper without tearing. Didn’t sharpen it before the test (lazy!), but wanted to see how it worked as a chopper in a pinch.

Second: BirGorkha Hanuman – Dui Chuirra, 18.5’, around 2 lbs (32 oz), POB 5’. Similar to but lighter than the large 18-20 inch Ang Khola chopper. Handle is unusually thick which fits my bear paws well. Comes with a full tool set and a bulky scabbard. It isn’t meant for belt carry (but with my fat size, it hangs on a belt just fine). Sher made. Used as base camp khukuri/axe. Sharp.

Third: 21 inch Gelbu Special – 21’, around 30-34oz (don’t have a scale), POB 5.5’. Large version of Pala’s recommendation for best all around Khuk. Large sweet spot from belly to curve. Main “carry” khuk for clearing/cutting trails, clearing underbrush around overnight hammocking spots, cutting shooting lanes. Kumar made. Can be belt carried but may jab leg. Usually carry on Terry Sisco made baldric. Sharp.

Fourth: BirGorkha Tawar – 28.5’, around 36 oz. POB 5.5’ (held close to guard). Actually a Bura made sword. But used as an oversized machete to clear thick brush/jungle in hunting. Will be taken along in that future boar hunting trip with dogs and knives for when I chicken out of using a knife. Carried on side baldric but can be put on the back Conan the Barbarian style for Hollywood effect (only problem is avoiding cutting ear off when pulling or sheathing blade J ). Not usually thought of as a chopper but wanted to see what it could do anyway. Sharp.

Note that except for the relatively small Trishul Decker knife, weight and point of balance of the khuks and swords don’t rise much even though length increases from 18.5’ to 29’. So from the point of how difficult it is to carry (versus how well it chops), the bulkiness of length may be more relevant than weight.

The stroke style used in all tests are an easy machete style stroke. Upstroke: each khuk is lifted to just above ear level (this is most of the work). Khuk is held by relaxed grip with only first finger and thumb (and maybe middle finger). Ring and pinky are free so blade falls behind back. Down stroke: grip is still relaxed. Soft closing of hand rotates blade up. Then hand and arms are loosely dropped (ideally no downward force) and falling blade is guided toward target. Just before reaching target, hand closes and wrist snaps blade into cut. Grip is still kept loose so that any handle vibration or shock (rare because downward force is minimal) can be felt but does not affect hand. Disadvantages of this stroke: a) force relies on gravity of blade and last hand/wrist snap, so power is much lower than a normal down stroke with force, b) loose hold on hand may let handle slip forward on wrist snap especially if wet. Advantages: a) accuracy - out of over 300 strokes in test, only 2-3 bounced before biting, b) ideally, only hard work is lifting khuk during upstroke, so many strokes possible, and c) hands don’t get tired as quickly (my hands got more cramped cleaning, polishing, oiling the blades, and typing this FR after the test).

The test site was a roughly 40 ft. tall jungle tree which just fell across a sidewalk. Wood is harder than pine (can’t make a fingernail impression). But much softer than fruit hardwood (cherry, etc.). Best guess is that it is somewhat softer than oak. Although all cuts were made against the grain, this wood split easily along the grain (see below). The Tawar is shown on the site pic below for scale.

Picture 2

Two tests were made, cutting a 2 inch diameter limb and a 7-8 inch diameter trunk Every effort was made to use the same limb in each test (though splitting limbs did cause two limbs to be used in the 2 inch diameter test). The khuks were held in relaxed gloved hand which naturally found its place on the handle after a few strokes (standard operating procedure). A bit of chap stick was put on sides and edge to protect blades from tree sap and help lubricate cuts.
 
For test, the number of strokes needed for each khuk to cut through the limb was counted.

FIRST TEST – 2 inch diameter limb

Blades were tested in order of smallest to longest. Here are pics for each blade before its test.

Trishul Decker
Picture 3

Hanuman on first limb (result of Trishul test on right)

Picture 4

After the Trishul Decker test, the Hanuman split the limb after 5 strokes which did not leave much limb to test all blades. So another (sadly slightly thicker) limb was found for the Hanuman, Gelbu Special, and Tawar tests.
Hanuman on second limb

Picture 5

Gelbu Special (result of Hanuman test on right)

Picture 6

Tarwar

Picture 7

2 inch diameter results (number of strokes)

Trishul Decker 67
Hanuman 13
Gelbu Special 11
Tawar 18

Points to note. After all tests, there were no changes in the blade (nicks, dents, rolls, even scratches) that I could see. Sharpness (even for the butter knife dull Trishul Decker) did not change (at least according to my thumb). I was surprised that the Tawar did not perform better given its slightly heavier weight and POB (it felt heavier on the up stroke and snap). Just to check, I did a retest of the GS and Tawar on what was left of the first limb (the one used to test the Trishul) after the Hanuman split it.

Gelbu Special on what’s left of first limb

Picture 8

Tawar on what’s left of first limb (result of GS test just to the right of the Tawar)

Picture 9

Second trial results (number of strokes)

Gelbu Special 5
Tawar 8

Results confirmed. Some points to note:

A) The Tawar did not chop as well with these small limbs. Supports the idea that the slope forward design of the khuks forcing the blade to cut at an angle to the target is more efficient that the flat Tawar blade.

B) In spite of its near butter knife dullness, light weight, and nearly non-existant leverage, the Trishul Decker worked as a chopper. Although 67 strokes may seem like a lot, the Trishul’s light weight made this very easy (although nothing quite beats that feeling of power from a few stokes with the GS). More effort was spent in lifting the Tawar a dozen times. No problems with Trishul handle shock or vibration (in spite of its small size). The handle curve helps keep a loose grip in place like the flared butts on khuks. This knife could handle some pretty big limbs in spite of its small size. I’d like to sharpen it up properly and try it out.

C) All the HI blades showed no sign of deformation (not even a scratch) nor, surprisingly, losing their sharp edge even after 60+ strokes. Perhaps this is due to the lightly powered machete stroke. But impressive nevertheless.
 
SECOND TEST - 7 to 8 inch trunk

The two longest blades: the Gelbu Special and the Tarwar were tested on a 7-8 inch diameter secondary trunk. This time the Tawar was tested first. Here are pics of each before the test. Note how large the trunk diameter is compared to the GS’ sweet spot.

Tawar on trunk

Picture 10

Tarwar splitting trunk

Picture 11

Gelbu Special on large trunk

Picture 12

Results (number of strokes)

Tawar 84 (trunk split after 70 strokes)
Gelbu Special 113 (trunk split after around 100 strokes)

Points to note:

A) The Tawar did noticeably better on the larger trunk. This was very clear while chopping. Although the GS sweet spot is unusually large, as the cut length grew up to the trunk’s diameter, less of the GS blade actually touched wood as a % of the total cut. Sometimes only the GS belly would cut wood (around 2-4 inches). But this limited cut length meant more strokes. Ironically, the GS cut was actually cleaner with wood chips flying out. The Tawar’s cut was messier with some chips staying in the cut. And the Tawar caught in the wood once (the only incident that day). This could be due to the Tawar’s thinner blade. In any case, perhaps when a cut gets to be the size of a khuk’s sweet spot, it’s efficiency drops compared to a straight blade.
B) In spite of nearly 200 strokes in total, neither the Tawar nor the GS blades showed any visible deformity nor any detectable loss of sharp edge. Again, the machete stroke is light. But that is impressive edge performance nevertheless.


SOME THOUGHTS?:

1. Although not the most popular of knives, the Trishul Decker can chop well with its thick, weight forward blade and long down curved handle (which prevents the knife from slipping out on a down stroke). It’s almost as if Kumar had this in mind. If would be interesting to do a head to head comparison against a) a big Bowie and b) a similar sized HI knife like the pen knife or even a 12 inch khukuri.

2. The khuk is a superior chopper when cut length is less that the size of its sweet spot. But when it is gets large, it seems a flat blade like the Tarwar may do better. But given the large sweets spots on khuks, we would be talking about trunks 6+ inches in diameter. Cutting down trees comes to mind. No wonder lumberjacks stick to full size, flat blade axes.

3. I am becoming convinced that the Kami’s have acquired something special from their centuries of collective experience. Using a machete style stroke, their blade edges proved amazingly hard and yet resilient through hundreds of chops. Since the power of the machete stroke depends mostly on the weight and design of a blade, perhaps the blade is made specifically to be used with the easy machete stroke. Also the flared butt caps, Hanuman heads, and Trishul curved handle are much more than cosmetics. They provided just the right support to prevent the handles from slipping out of a relaxed grip when the blades snaps into the target during a machete stroke. No need to grip the handle tightly, it naturally rests right against your relaxed hand when your wrist snaps. Even the Bura’s Tawar handle has just enough bulge in the middle to support single handed use in a machete stroke with the hand held forward against the guard.

My thanks to UB and HI for bringing this wisdom out of Nepal in their khuks and other products for people like us to use. Now if I could only learn how to make hair popping convex edge on that Trishul . . .
 
MUCH better with pics. Thanks for the review Big Kahuna, and n2s for posting. This has made me realize I need a Tarwar. Thanks for spending more of my money for me!
 
Everyone needs about 30 HI's, they just don't know it yet. Thank God. :p :D Leaves more for the rest of us.
 
I worked a long time before the one in my houise started to shape up. Once it started to get dangerous I had to sneak it out of the bedroom to work on it. That Is the wifes night time defensive weapon. That is all I get to do with it is sharpen it.

All I can say is just don't give up on it. A few minutes every day will bring it aroudn quicker than a guy would think.:)
 
Thanks for the review.

Looks like the same hardness of wood I usually get to cut. What kind of edge are on your knives? Convex, flat ground? Also thems looks like some fancy gloves. Are they standard work gloves or something else?

:confused: :)

It looks like there are houses around. Were there any spectators? If so, what did they say?
 
Bruise, edges were standard HI flat ground (haven't got the skill nor equipment to convex 'em yet). Gloves were used military surplus bought from a surplus store outside Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii (only ones in the store bid enough to fit my paws!). Bought cheap but the gloves work really well. I think you might find them on one of the many surplus stores on the web (try Cheaper than Dirt?).
 
Sorry, forgot the last question. Yup. Some apartment buildings around. Got a few stares from passing cars. But the few joggers/pedestrians who passed mostly asked about the HI khuks and where to get them. I gave them the HI web address. :) So maybe UB and Yangdu might get a few orders from Singapore! :D
 
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