What i like about it is when you cut things like that you get to hear it sing. There is a faint ting noise from that blade.
Yeah, I know....not the jg5. I had to upload pictures here so I could transfer them to BCUSA for some reason. But the cleaver is getting some TLC tonight.
They are very flat. But they don't feel that bad. I'm planning on doing some more work with it this evening on some carving and shaping. I'll know more then.
Making a quick bachelor supper. I know...but I'm posting to BCUSA also, and can't load pics from my camera to there but I can move them from here. I'll get some JG5 pics soon.
I don't know if I can justify the cost of a cleaver so far. At the turn of the century when I owned a restaurant, I would have possibly committed immoral acts for one. I had a good quality cleaver, and I had a lesser quality that was hard to sharpen, but would hack through a brick wall. Neither had the balance of the expat cleaver.
Well, pictures as promised, and a little explanation. As much as I wish it were so, I ain't no big bushcrafter, mountain man, or jungle ranger. What I'm carving doesn't fit those categories I reckon, but it is something I use and this one is a replacement. What began as a cedar stave that's been drying for about a year is my new multipurpose stock stick. It is of course a walking stick, sorting stick, Billy club (literally for bopping unruly Billy goats) snake stick, pond depth stick, and with the shaped top I can use it to pole the boat around the pond edges. My old one I threw like a spear several times at wild rabbits (concussion stun out to about 15') and a butthole goat who would sneak under a gate to get into the calf trough. The wife and eldest granddaughter have smaller ones, but since I broke my last one I decided I was going with a heftier model. The dry cedar is light, but sturdy. A quick jab in a soft spot usually convinces most any farm animal to rethink their actions. My old one was broken on a new, young bull's forehead when I jabbed the blunt end betwixt his eyes when he lowered his head at me in the barn. (I really don't always have good sense.) The stave after knot trimming and basic cleanup and shaping. It is right about 6' tall. Done with @Odinborn 's cleaver. Next I began shaping the top of the stave so that it is similar to a canoe paddle. Roughed in with the cleaver, kind of like a carving axe. Kind of... Refining the initial shape with the JG5 Note the rough fit to my rather presidential hand.
I used the JG5 more to scoop out the top handle for my fingers and palm. The belly on the blade worked really well for that. I can envision it being a good carver for spoons and bowls if you were to take small bites with the blade and use a scooping motion. Remember I'm working with dried cedar, and it's pretty tough. I'm beginning to see the JG5 as a useful farm knife, maybe even to (dare I say it?) replace my 4HM as my working knife. Don't know if I want to go there yet, but so far it has performed admirably in the 4's place. Of course, I haven't dug out a splinter yet with it...
