Machetes, Kukris & Hybrids

September 23, 2018, 11:12 pm. Autumnal equinox.

What better time for my 3500th post?

 

Well, now that the big holiday is over, and the celebrations about 3500 have quieted down (hey, life is short; any chance for celebration, eh? ), we'll get back to the topic at hand.

I think I'm going to sleep out in the hammock tonight -- totally clear sky today/tonight forecast, should be good full moon viewing. Heading out within an hour to enjoy the afternoon. (Hey, any reason to skip out of work early.)

I'm also wavering on getting another makuk just yet. Partly financial -- might strain things a bit until my cash flow picks up again -- but also partly I feel a need to get to know this one better first, and -- importantly -- learn how to use these blades safely and effectively. Prudence. Then, I can grab a second one later to compare.

I'll be off line tonight, but later in the week, I want to write up a short summary of all the tips and tricks I'm reading about for comment by you more experienced users to comment on, add to, correct, etc.

 

Reporting in the next day (23:44).

I didn't stay in camp all night. Walked back to base camp at 01:00.

Why? In no order of magnitude:

• Incessantly barking dog (full moon) 1/5 mi away
  
• 3F lower than expected T (prediction was high 30's. I hit 35 by dark.)
  
• Couldn't make the hammock comfortable enough given:
  • I thought I had the hang dialed in, but the trees were too close (15'; better hangs at 18'),
    and I didn't have the angles on head and foot ends right. Lesson learned.
    
  • My insulation. (Note to self: get a better top quilt; woobie got me to that point.)
    
  • Getting in and out of a top quilt in a hammock that close to freezing is ... challenging

But the good news is, I got some decent full moon images,
and I've decided I love this makuk. I've developed exercises for it.

More after sleep ...

 

Best of the still images.

This was taken from the hammock
with an inexpensive Canon at 200X and 34F with cirrus.

Makuk was on the table just to my right, on the other side of the tripod.

 

Continuing my crash course study of how to effectively and safely use the big blades. I watched this by Joe Flowers while I ate dinner, part 1. (I eat several small meals spaced out a bit -- better for my digestion.) Someone upstream recommended his videos for good reason. (I just checked; it was @STPNWLF.)

But one minor point of confusion for me. This is by Machete Specialists. So is he the original owner (that sold the company to others), or did he just shoot this for them to use?

 

Confession.

For the last two hours, after dinner #2, while watching a Nova documentary about Vikings (mostly in Iceland, Greenland, and Newfoundland), and during a thunderstorm during which the iMac was unplugged (if you've never lost electronics to lightning, you may not understand why), I ... fondled, played with, exercised with, and practiced stroking angles with my makuk. I'm exploring the handle -- it really is a brilliant design as I get to know it over the last two weeks (extremely grippy, and that palm swell in the middle makes more and more sense to me).

I'm exercising arm muscles need for short, quick cuts/chops, especially forearm. I'm practicing pinch grip. I do ten minutes of large blade calisthenics -- hard to explain that one, but involves moving the tip in numerous planes quickly (but away from anything it could damage, especially my skin), exercising the muscles involved, making them less prone to moan when said motions are needed over significant periods of time.

Oh, and all this is with both right and left hands, and both hands. I practiced choking up and cutting some seasoned wood in the studio with the distal waist near the handle.

Does this make me weird? (At least more than many perceive me to be anyway?)

 

Oh, I forgot one important point about the handle, especially that palm swell. The handle material is some kind of space age rubber. It's ever so slightly squeezable (elastic, like a rubber ball). I'm sure it's only a few microns (maybe 100), but still, it does. The sensation is like squeezing a hard rubber ball. For those of us who (attempt to) earn our living using keyboards, mice, track pads, ect, where RMI (repetitive motion injury) is common, those kind of hand exercises are important for health.

So, it's not just a cutting tool, but a hand/arm exerciser as well.

 

you have got to try some Busse/SwampRat/SYKCO Resprirene-C grips

 

Your're hooked Dude....go ahead and start looking for tiny brook trout to cook over twig fires.

 

Suriname I think is where the photo was taken. One of many photos I found in my study (obsession) of machete culture all over the world.

 

Well, then, it's a good thing that I have no plans -- zero -- to use this tool (or any other for that matter) for longer than an hour. If I can't get it done in that amount of time, then I'll take a break, go for a walk, take up some other tasks, and get back to chopping later in the day or tomorrow.

Probably more germane to this particular part of the discussion, except for goofing around in base camp (see "exercises" above), I always wear gloves when using this tool, or any others with a blade longer than about 2.5". That includes saws. Why? Mainly because I tend to lose blood quicker without gloves, and gloves improve my grip noticeably.

 

Makuk report, 22:50.

I walked out back for two hours today, from 1700 to 1900, sundown at this latitude on this date (09.27).

"Out back" is 1500 m of trail that I've put in on land belonging to others (with their permission).
It's a 1000 m loop trail in eskers and ravines,
punctuated with several side trails
to special places that I've found.

During that time, I cut with makuk.
"Cut" means chopping, splitting, batoning, stripping bark, and hammering.

It means I cut & split some seasoned sugar maple. One of the hardest woods up here.
It means I cleared a downed tree off one of the spur trails up from Big Oak near the clear cut.
It means I cut some kindling with 45 deg cuts on a dead log hip high.
It means I pounded a 2" stake (with an end sharpened by makuk) with the spine of makuk.

I took only steel, no electronics.
So I can't offer photos or video.

But I can say this: it got the job done.
No diminution of the edge.

Of course, I still touched it up for tmw with the diamond stone,
but that's just because I like sharp edges.

 

Seasoned, hard, knotty oak. Batoned into lengthwise sections and then chopped into shorter pieces. No mercy.

 

Cranking it up ...

 

Th BK-21 is credible. It chops, it splits, it's well made.
Not full-on kuk-weight, which I prefer over the traditional behemoths.
Though for brush and light stuff, a long, light, straight or trailing point blade is definitely the performer.

 

Have been thinking on a small Kukri for out in juniper county here in the Southwest. Was looking at the Pen Knife from Himalayan Imports:
http://yhst-7333098713883.stores.yahoo.net/penknife.html

Might end up going with a short parang though. Had this one in mind for a while.

https://www.knifecenter.com/item/MY...e-carbon-steel-blade-wood-handle-nylon-sheath

We'll see. Like this thread though!

 

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