Has anybody ever used a Kukri style machete in lieu of an axe?  I have heard they split wood just fine, and cut down on weight in your pack.  If that is true, I am going to get one for sure.

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Don't have any experience with this knife, but I used a Philippine Bolo as a kid growing up.  It had enough mass to do some significant chopping.

BTW:  The knife you identified is currently listed on eBay for less than half of the price stated in your link.

dd

Thanks Doc.  Ka-Bar is almost alwasy cheaper when bought from one of their vendors.  This was just the best picture I could find.

One rainy afternoon during last summer's trip to Woodland Caribou, I destroyed a cheap folding knife to get at some heartwood to use for fire starting. Though I destroyed the knife it made me realize that an ax is not really necessary and a good heavy knife could be the way to go. I've always been against having an ax along if I think it could wind up in the hands of someone who might be careless with it. This Ka-Bar looks interesting.

My friend had one or something very similar with the same BOLO shape.
We were at his house and making a hot dog roasting fire in his backyard.
He had some pine logs about 3-4" in diameter, and under a foot or so in length.  This is what I observed.
He set a log on a flat rock and swung down hard. The forward cant of the blade threw him, and ended up sticking blade in log and whacking forefingers of his chopping hand.
We laughed, he regrouped and the second cut was better, but still didn't split log. He ended up doing what us Hatchet/Small axe guy's do, hold the log steady with hatchet, and take another small log and pound back of axe, splitting log. Doing it THIS way, the hatchet was the clear winner ;D
He then decided it would work better on smaller logs to split for kindling.
He faired a little better this time. He tried balancing the little log on end and taking a chop, but most of the time he either didn't split it all the way, or he hit so hard the blade dug into the ground, which you don't want. Ended up holding log with blade on top, and tapping on ground until blade "bit", then hammered down until wood split. Again I didn't see the how "it" was a big improvement? Lighter maybe a little, but I still think a small axe/saw combo is hard to beat, especially when its wet and rainy and you need to get some dry "heartwood" for a good fire.
Beaver-wood is fine, but as some recent trip reports noted, when you've had a lot of rain, you need a "better" fuel source for a good hot fire.
 I'm sure for clearing brush/trail, it would be a good choice, I didn't see the "advantage" over a hand axe and small saw.
 Still, I'd get it if the price was right and do you own test and see what you think? I just think that swinging hard at a log that's close to ground and missing or hitting too hard is a good way to dull a blade fast, or hurt yourself if not careful.
 I think that the head heavy shape cuts thru brush/vines at an angle with a downward slice, not sure if that's the optimum stroke for "splitting" a small log :-/

DentonDoc wrote on Sep 24^th, 2009 at 5:43pm:

Don't have any experience with this knife, but I used a Philippine Bolo as a kid growing up.  It had enough mass to do some significant chopping.

Let me clarify.

My dad brought the bolo back after his "adventures" in the Pacific Theater during WWII.  The knife was re-crafted from a VERY heavy file.  Not exactly what I'd call a "lite" implement ... it would have weighed in at about the same heft as a smaller hatchet.

dd

There's a reason why axes were invented.  Axes do a better job on jobs that they were designed for.  I think you are better off using an axe for splitting wood.

Westwood

That thing looks kinda cool to whack things with - and downright dangerous.

I'm a big fan of split wood. The hatchet I bring is 8 oz. heaver, including it's pretty leather sheath and covered metal grip. The only chopping it's ever asked to do though is removing small branches from deadfalls across portages and the occasional branch on 'not quite fully seasoned' firewood to be split later.

If you also bring a saw, hatchets serve really a more a wedge w/ a handle type function. Normally you set the wedge on what you want to split and whack the fat part with a bigger stick. This is thiner though so it may go through easier. I've seen people split small type stuff w/ big Bowie knives - also thiner than a hatchet. It works fine with smaller straight grain pieces, but those knives also have a flat, whackable edge. The shape of the presumed hitting surface on this doesn't look conducive to what I'm familiar with seeing and I expect that's also where solotripper was aiming.

If you end up giving it a try I'd love to hear a review. Hopefully a count, assuming you currently have ten fingers and a corresponding number of toes won't be necessary.  ;)

I have often brought a cheapo, light, thin bladed machete with me to Quetico.  Its use was more for clearing protage trials than for chopping or splitting wood.  

It functioned quite well for clearing trials - generaly brushing around blowdowns or trimming the branches off blowdowns.  One whack and a bent over alder or maple an inch and a half thick is cut thru, and it works much better than an axe for thinner stuff.

It stays in the back of my pickup normally, and I use it for splitting kindling and watermelons, and whittling tooth picks.  It is quite useful.

But it is too light to be effective at splitting heavy chuncks of wood - usually the blade will just stick and I might clobber it with another chunk of wood to drive it thru - it won't work very well on wood with a lot of knots.   It is better to carefully split off a wedge shaped piece from the first block of wood, and then use that wooden wedge for splitting.

I'd say it depends on what you have in mind - if you are going to cook over a fire and needing lots of split wood, you'd be better off taiking something like a Hudson's Bay axe - overall length of 24" is only 7" longer than the machete you linked to, and I'd guess about a pound heavier, but way more effective for splitting and chopping.  On the other hand, if you only want the machete for occasional use, it will probably do well enough once you find out its limitations.

Well,

Winter is coming and I've got a bunch of logs waiting to be split.  So I ordered this thing and will perform a thorough examination of its  capabilities.  If it doesn't work as a splitter, no matter.  Ka-Bar makes a durable blade so I know I won't ever have to buy another machete.

I will be sure to post my findings.

IF the bolo knife doesn't work out, and you still want a knife like tool to split small logs into kindling, you might look at these 2 items?
Both will take too being "hammered" for splitting chores.

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I have a Philippine BOLO.  My (ex) father in law gave it to me in the mid 80s over there.  It was a better deal than that daughter of his. He said it was made from a leaf spring of a bus.  It is crude, I have never sharpened it. The spine profile is fairly thick and it quickly tapers to the cutting edge, so it is very wedge like blade.

It is an excellent wood splitter.  Rarely need to mallet it past a knot.
I saw relatively short lengths.  Packs easy.

I've noticed at campsites in the last few years, there are remnants of a lot of  people that don't know how to, select wood, (i.e. either green or big enough to make a dugout aircraft carrier) or prepare wood for combustion.   Too many sites left with 20foot chunks of punk birch, that JoeSchitt the firescientist was going to meter feed into the fire.
Rant over...

It's been a great paddling summer and fall looks even better... 8-)

Jeff

Quote:

Too many sites left with 20foot chunks of punk birch, that JoeSchitt the firescientist was going to meter feed into the fire.

Old Joe must get around pretty good, OR he has a lot of KIN :'(

Ok,

I got the Kukri Ka-Bar, and it splits wood.  However, as posited earlier, there are better tools for the job.  However.  if you are a zealous weight freak like I am, you can save weight in your pack bringing the Kukri machete instead of the slightly heavier hatchet, or axe.  It made neat work of seasoned 10inch/4 inch logs which is about as big as I'd ever need on a trip.