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Old March 29th, 2013 #1
Mr A.Anderson
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Default Blades: Knives, Hatchets, and Saws

Just trying to make things easier to find by category instead of searching the "catch all" threads on kits and gear.


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From Sweden, hands down the sharpest factory grind out there. I have posted this before, but it bares repeating. Buy two when you purchase.

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Why would someone pay 125 bucks for an axe? If I lost my Gransfors Bruks, I would buy it again. Ray Mears would agree. Here is why.


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I keep going on about Mora knives and their quality for 12-15 bucks.
But for higher priced knives, here are three makers to look at.

Helle Knives
http://www.helle.no/

Turley Knives
http://www.turleyknives.com/

BlindHorse Knives
http://www.blindhorseknives.com/knives4sale.htm
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Becker BK2, 1/4'' thick chunk of steel for about 65 bucks. Here is a video on the Becker knives.

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Ontario Knife company: Old Hickory Butchers knife.
1095 steel, full tang, sharp spine for throwing sparks, brass harware on the handle. I paid seven bucks for mine. On the cheap or just starting out, or just wanting to put a kit together for reserve and forget about, this would be a knife to consider. If you are on the cheap, go with this knife for chopping tasks and then get a 12 dollor Mora knife for carving tasks. Between the two brands combined, you will get a hell of a lot of cutting options for twenty bucks.

This video starts out slow, but he does increase the pressure on this blade as the video progresses, and he alternates between German and English.



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Looking for a good folding saw, and thinking about one of these.

 
Old March 29th, 2013 #6
keifer
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Axe care:
Quick video on axe care from Ray Mears with his Gransfors Bruks forest axe. In this and other videos the viewer will see the importance of stripping off any varnish on handled tools. The varnish makes the wood dry out, crack and shrink. The varnish will shrink and crack which will add to the blister affect. When applying the linseed oil to the handle it will swell the wood and tighten the axe head.


More indepth and nostalgic demonstration.
 
Old March 29th, 2013 #7
keifer
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ColdSteel TrailHawk:
For twenty-five bucks it can't be beat. This and a Mora will take care of all cutting tasks with material 4'' in diameter or less. My Gransfors Bruks is most prized, but the Trailhawk does most of the work because most of the work is on the lighter side. The blade on this trailhawk is thin which is not the ideal shape for splitting, but it will do a great deal of tasks that would otherwise put pressure on a knife blade. These trail hawks are ugly when purchased, they look like toys, but removing the black paint, and refinishing the handle will give you a tool that is an obvious replication of the small Viking axe. My forest axe is not always needed, but the type of demands for general manipulation of the natural environment, I can't say enough about this tool or one like it. Very pack friendly.

 
Old March 29th, 2013 #8
keifer
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Legalities of BLM public land use.
http://fenceviewer.com/site/index.ph...ion&Itemid=938
 
Old March 29th, 2013 #9
Mr A.Anderson
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Just bought a Fiskars X7 hatchet, 14" for $24.95 at my local Walmart. They had the 7" folding saw, but after watching the review on it, I'm going to look for something else. I bought a 6" file for it. The plastic sheath is a piece of junk, so will find a leather sheath for it somewhere.

I will give it a run, and let you know what I think.
 
Old April 5th, 2013 #10
Mr A.Anderson
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A bit impractical when out in the woods to pack along the sharpening stones, but shows proper method for sharpening before you go out.



I have a small file for my pack (6" double sided medium and fine) to sharpen on the go if needed.

 
Old April 5th, 2013 #11
keifer
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I have been using a sharpening puck. They are double sided with medium and fine course. They can be purchased for under ten dollars.
 
Old April 5th, 2013 #12
Mr A.Anderson
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I was deployed back in 1994 to help with the wild fires in Idaho. We were supporting the National Forest Service. Primarily, we were digging fire lines up an down mountains (3 ft scrape, 10 ft pull back).

I worked with a Pulaski Axe. With all the cutting and scraping, we learned real quick that having a sharp tool made life much easier, and the nature of the work required cutting at the base and root level (for a proper pull back on each side of the scrape). Constantly cutting into dirt dulls a blade very quickly. I used a file to sharpen the Pulaski at every water break during the day. The steel may not have been the best, but constant attention with a file worked wonders.

 
Old April 6th, 2013 #13
Mr A.Anderson
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Just bought a folding saw today.

Wicked Tree Gear



This thing has some wicked saw teeth, and it saws through wood like butter. We have a 60 year old lilac bush/tree (it's huge) out front, and had to prune some of the branches. It cut through them with virtually zero effort (up to 3" dia).

It has nylon lock nuts to keep things nice and tight, it doesn't rattle, no loose feel to it at all. It has a high carbon steel blade, deep double sided teeth for cutting in both directions, A molded, rubberized hand grip sleeve fits the hand great over a cast aluminum frame. It weighs in at about 8 oz.

So far, I couldn't be happier with it.

 
Old April 7th, 2013 #14
Mr A.Anderson
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Yesterday the oldest boy and I went out and worked with the Fiskars hatchet and the Wicked folding saw for a bit.

The hatchet is serviceable - although I did have to improve the factory edge on it quite a bit, and it is a flat edge, not concave. It will take a considerable amount of file work to get a concave edge on it.

The Wicked folding saw I bought is PURE GOLD.

Today, I bought the inexpensive 7" folding saw from Dollar General. It was $4, not fancy, not extremely well made (plastic handle with rubber hand grip, top lock mechanism, and a blade of undetermined metal.

However, it is the same saw that is featured in the above video (which placed 2nd in the cut test), and does quite well in cutting. As an extremely inexpensive saw, with care, it does quite well. It has deep teeth made for cutting in both directions, and locks both in the closed and open position.
 
Old April 8th, 2013 #15
keifer
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The hatchet is serviceable - although I did have to improve the factory edge on it quite a bit, and it is a flat edge, not concave. It will take a considerable amount of file work to get a concave edge on it.

Just leave it as it is and purchase something more suitable to what you have in mind. Think of what you already have as a knife blade on a long handle, this is what makes the tomahawk so useful. They are not really splitters, but heavy duty knives with handles. Using the hatchet like a knife, you might find that you use the hatchet more than the knife for basic camp tasks.
 
Old April 8th, 2013 #16
Mr A.Anderson
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The hatchet splits quite well. We took several 4" branches and split them several times into much smaller pieces. It just didn't cut or chop very well. I was able to saw through the same branches with the Wicked hand saw in roughly 1/3 the time and effort.

After some file work, it did a much better job at cutting (and still didn't have the edge fold over on itself from being too thin). I realize that a hatchet is not an axe, but the factory grind on the blade was very sub-par, IMO.

I may look for a different hatchet in the future, but for now, this one will work for things that are too big for the folding saw, and as you said - using it as a large knife (shaving, shaping, etc) makes sense.

Did I mention that the Wicked saw is pure gold? LOL
 
Old April 11th, 2013 #20
keifer
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This knife seems a little gimmick to me, but people who have them love them so it seems. That alone is why I am posting this up. Tops makes some bomb proof knives, I know I have one, but their marketing is a falsification as if indians had anything to do with the invention or the development of metal.
However, as it is, I have no experience with this tool and once again it is presented here in light of the fact that this tool has a devoted following.
 
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