Why do you guys chop so much?

WILLIAM.M said:
That looks like a re-handeld Cold Steel Trailmaster to me

Is it Big Mike???
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Yes and No. :rolleyes:

The blanks for those where purchased at auction, I do believe they where destined to be Trailmasters.





"If you're not living on the edge, …you're taking up too much space."

Big Mike
 
Hmmm. These replies have all been intelligent, well reasoned, and useful.

In my case, I chop because I can.

And maybe my childhood was chop-deficient. Who knows? Not I! :cool:
 
Big Mike

That's not a huge knife and that's a good size limb you chopped with it :thumbup:

Says a lot about your chopping technique! Kickass:D
 
Good answers all, keep 'em coming...

How much do you chop?????? :D :D
 
I just chopped up a bunch of Roma tomatoes, tomatillos, sweet onion, and cilantro. Does that count? :p

Steak tacos on the way!!!

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To be honest I think most of the chopping guys here chop because they want to - or as seen in this thread have a specific project or circumstance that leads them to chop a lot on their own property.

How much do I need to chop for survival purposes? Not very much!

But it does happen if you spend a lot of time in the bush in bad weather that you need to cut in deep into standing deadwood to get a fire going.

The northern tip of Vancouver Island in winter has had me cutting eight inches into standing deadwood to get anything dry, on a tree two feet in diameter. Think of that! That is a ton of work even with a good axe.
 
WHY :

I chop so much because its the only way to get thru the hellishly thick big BC woods. Thanks to 50+ years of Forest service fire mismanagement (put every fire out, nothing must burn), there is massively thick undergrowth to wade thru.

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How much do i chop? piles of dead limbs when clearing trails, a good bunch of arm sized wood for fire, smaller for shelters, and a lot of the times for the shear (no pun) joy of usiung my blades
 
To be honest, I really don't chop much, but all these thread have got me thinking I need an axe and some giant logs!
 
^ chainsaw, you want a chainsaw, trust me ;)

nothing like Husky 3120 with a 28" bar, .404 chisel chain.
 
Saw.
Deadfall only.
On NYS land green (live) trees are off limits.

I do occasionally split what I saw.
 
I sometimes chop to test a knife for it's ability but in 60+ years of camping, I have never had to chop or baton wood. I always have one of my Estwing axes or hatchets while on camping trips but it's real rare to not be able to find plenty of burning size wood just laying around. I always have at least one small saw as well, it's in my camping kit. I did a lot of camping in the military but it was seldom acceptable to have a fire in hostile territory.
 
kgd said:
The question for this thread is why and how much chopping do you actually do when you are outdoors?
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Personally I don't do much chopping when outdoors.

Why? The self prunning nature of our Eucalypts means there is generally an abundant supply of dead fall lying around.

Combine this with the fact that I hike/camp in areas that aren't frequented by others and I have no shortage of deadfall to use.

If it's too long to fit fully onto the fire, I either break it down to size by using the fork in a tree, or feed it onto the fire as it burns. Lazy I know, but it works for me :D



Kind regards
Mick
 
kgd said:
The question for this thread is why and how much chopping do you actually do when you are outdoors?
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It really depends on what I'm doing there and where I am, and when. I chop quite a lot, typically for clearing fallen trees and limbing them, and clearing paths that are supposed to be clear (otherwise, I don't "trailblaze", I'll rather go around thickets than chop through them). Out backpacking, I sometimes chop for firewood, because there isn't always enough dry and fallen wood available on the ground - that may be the case especially in the winter. But I haven't seen any situation where it was "chop or die" or even "chop or be very uncomfortable" - there was always another solution from batoning or burning to just not making a fire at all and relying on natural shelter and warm clothing.

Chopping I don't find very "necessary" in the survival sense, but it sure is fun and not too bad exercise, and it's one way to keep places clear of excess dead trees and stuff. So yeah, I mostly chop for fun and profit, not out of necessity. :D
 
i do alot of chopping. not at all because it is necisary, as that is hardly the case. i maintain the wood pile, and since i dont like to use a chainsaw too often, i usually use my GB or Koyote chopper of or a leuku. alot of my chopping is also to test knives, as i like to do reviews. however, i dont see it as being necisary during most survival situations.
 
Hi all,

kgd Well I chop so much because, Well I really like it:D sawing is ok, but it must be a boy thing my Mom always said LOL I liked it then and still do. I grew up on a farm and we heated with wood. Now we do not heat with wood but I have campfires alot. I still live on a farm and go for walks in the timber pretty much every day with Kelly girl ( My beagle )
The best little chopper I have is this one that I made and I use it and carry it on my pack that I take when in the timber it just works for me. I have several different kinds and not one of them is THE ONE LOL so I took the best things I liked from the several that I have and made them into what I really like.
Here is a pic of it.

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here is an in hand shot of it.

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I really like to carry a hatchet along with my other gear. Here is apic of it on my water bottle pouch . I sewed a couple of straps on it and then slide this little guy down into them and it just works for me.

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This little guy really does amazing job in clearing trails and even on spring branches I think it does better than my knife. Yesterday rocketbomb from here on the forums came to the farm here where I live and make knives to pic up his new knife. we got to talking about cutting tools and I showed him my little hatchet and then we went out in back of the shop where there are some ceder trees and I showed him how well this little guy does. Snap cuts are a breeze with this hatchet from twig size branches to big thumb size and Brent was like that really does not just cut them branches but is slices throught them huh. I said yea it really does. I took out my knife and did some snap cuts the same type of branches and the hatchet just blew my knife away for cutting power.
I think chopping is a lot of fun I will sit at my campfire and split smaller rounds into pencil size sticks. I use a batton at first on the back of the hatchet head and then pound down on the handle try that with a wood handle LOL This is just a slick little way of chopping up wood that just works for me and is a lot of fun to boot.
One think about a hatchet is chopping through Ice to get at water, it is alot easyer than with a knife even a big knife, Plus a hatchet just seems to go hand in hand with walking through the timber.

Well that is my thoughts on the chopping subject

Bryan
 
I'm 56 years old and I've never batoned in my entire life. :eek:
I spend time outdoors whenever possible, and I do carry a relatively sizable knife along when I wander far from the asphalt (among numerous other pieces of emergency gear).

I don't backpack, and I find a pocket chainsaw to be much more energy efficient (and light enough to have on my body should I get separated from the ATV) than chopping a 2-4 inch tree (or part thereof) for shelter with a knife of any size.
Firewood has always been around in just about any size from twigs to bushes to sagebrush to logs.
I plan to continue on for the rest of my days without ever batoning. :p
That said, I'll still tote at least a 7-inch KA-BAR along on my carcass & a larger Swamprat blade, just in case. :D
Around town it's a Spyderco Mannix.

I carried my old KA-BAR for many years before I started to get into the bigger-is-better mind set, and while I do like having a big blade along, I can't truthfully say I've ever really needed to do anything I couldn't do with that trusty KB.

Everybody has different needs, batoning isn't one of mine. :)
May be one of yours. :thumbup:
May not be. :thumbdn:

Happy Saturday Night!

Denis
 
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