What's up with all the chopping

Guyon said:
I hear those make great door stops when you run out of gas & oil. :p
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nono, your thinking of Stihl chainsaws. :D

one more trio I thought i'd list:

- my 14" truck spring, bone handle bowie
- Tramontino Arizona curved skinner
- Bark river Micro slither
 
CanDo said:
Have you considered that splitting wood is for more than just making a fire, such as making bows? You can use choppers for cutting food, stunning trapped animals, as a spatula, as a draw knife, and as a hammer. Can you clear thin brush with your saw?
You bring a saw into the wilderness, I'll bring a chopper; let's see who's living more comfortably in a week :)
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Well, if I carried the usual couple of knives I normally have (no choppers or batoners) it would be no contest. I've not needed a hammer yet, but I could make a pounder easily enough with a saw and knife. The rest of it I've done with both folders and fixed blades although I prefer folders.
 
Bernoulli said:
Well, if I carried the usual couple of knives I normally have (no choppers or batoners) it would be no contest. I've not needed a hammer yet, but I could make a pounder easily enough with a saw and knife. The rest of it I've done with both folders and fixed blades although I prefer folders.
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Aha! It is a set of knives you are armed with. In this case, I bring a full size axe, 18" Machete, Bow Saw, Spyderco Delica, and a small mora :)
 
Yoshi said:
Hello Misanthropist, I disagree about an axe being more effective in those conditions, certainley quite a few Royal marines prefer to use khukuri in Norway, and a couple of Bushcrafters have also recently tried khukuri in Norway with good results, link to report below;
http://www.britishblades.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44811
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Well, they might have different requirements than I do - on the other hand it may just be a matter of what a person is used to.

One thing is for sure - while SOME people who chop a lot of wood favour a knife, MOST people favour an axe. But that does not make it the only good selection! Use the tool that gfits YOUR requirements!


Forgot to mention - I like the single bits because of the curved handle shape but a double bit axe is also a nice tool!
 
Stephen Tolar said:
Alright already. I followed the thread, thought a chopper looks like fun. Now I've got a FFBM on the way.

I blame Guyon!
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In the past several days, I've turned one person onto Victorinoxes at Amazon, another person onto Leathermans at TJ Maxx, and now this.

If only I got kickbacks from all these places... :p
 
Thomas Linton said:
The curved handle is a relatively new development -- most likely not an improvement from a functional standpoint.
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You might not find it to be an improvement, but I do...I like the blade indexing I get with a slight curve at the bottom of the handle and I also prefer how it positions my shoulders if I am cutting for a long time. I find that a straight handle pulls my left shoulder in a bit and if I am swinging the axe all day, my rotator cuff bugs me a bit by the end. The minor change in angle by curving the handle seems to be better for me.

So in my case at least it is definitely an improvement from a functional standpoint!
 
runningboar said:
It seems every other thread on this forum is about chopping and what chops better.
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Out of the top 25 threads in this forum, two are about chopping knives and one about hand axes.

You must he having a good influence on us. :D

(OR a very evil influence. :p)
 
Thomas Linton said:
Out of the top 25 threads in this forum, two are about chopping knives and one about hand axes.

You must he having a good influence on us. :D

(OR a very evil influence. :p)
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After spending a week in Maryland I wanted to chop and burn everything I could find, I don't see how people can live where it gets truly cold.

Driving home this morning there was freezing rain on all the overpasses on I95 and cars were crashing everywhere and people were still driving 75. :confused: Chris
 
runningboar said:
After spending a week in Maryland I wanted to chop and burn everything I could find, I don't see how people can live where it gets truly cold.
Driving home this morning there was freezing rain on all the overpasses on I95 and cars were crashing everywhere and people were still driving 75. :confused: Chris
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Ahhh, ya just have to get used to it. I spent a summer in Phoenix once, and couldn't wait to get back to Wa State.

I love snowboarding, and snow shoeing. I'll admit when it gets around 10 degrees, and the wind starts up, it's a bit much. We normally only get a week or so of that bitter cold. Most of the winter it's 25 and 35 degrees. Makes Spring that much nicer. :)
 
runningboar said:
Driving home this morning there was freezing rain on all the overpasses on I95 and cars were crashing everywhere and people were still driving 75. :confused: Chris
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The entire southern united states sounds pretty stupid to us northerners because of how southerners drive in bad weather. It's very frustrating to drive home from work over more ice and sleet than pavement and then see in the news that thirty or forty cars ended up in the ditch in some warm state because of less than a quarter inch of snow. :mad:
 
runningboar said:
After spending a week in Maryland I wanted to chop and burn everything I could find, I don't see how people can live where it gets truly cold.
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This is why its hard to explain why chopping is so important in the bush when its bone cold to people who dont understand cold.

On the flip side I actually melt in that sauna jungle heat of the south, how do you live with it.

Skam
 
In keeping with the theme of the thread, I went outside this morning to do some clearing in the back lot of my property today.
I decided to try out the Leuku I recently received from Ragweed Forge. The website says "It combines the functions of knife and machete, and is the constant companion of this northern nomadic folk. It is used for gathering firewood, butchering reindeer and similar tasks.", so I figured I'd try it out on palmettos and limbing some smaller trees and saplings that were growing too close to the foundation and had to be removed.

Simply put, even at 7" of blade, it sucks hard at chopping. It does have a scandi grind and came shaving sharp, the edge was very uniform and straight. Used in cutting mode, it went through paletto stalks with ease. It was useless for all but the smallest branches.

Once again the kukri proved its worth in felling the small trees and in limbing them. When used properly, it did well on the palmetto stalks, but the leuku was easier to use.
 
In case it has not been said, the leuku was developed for use above the timberline - nothing much but brush that far north.
 
Yeah, a leuku isn't really a chopper. It was made for butchering game. It was usually accompanied by an axe.

The best leuku for chopping would be the Roselli which is 3/16" thick. None of the others come close. Most are 1/8" or so.
 
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