A cutting tool is the most important item of equipment to be carried, a necessity for any trip. With it you can make fire and shelters i.e. keep warm, cook food and purify water. The most useful and versatile of these is the knife, be it a Swiss army knife or machete, leading to the saying, “the best knife is the one you have with you, be prepared”. A good set of knives of varying sizes are an essential piece of kit if you are going to do any carving, however, these have to be used in compliance with UK laws. To my understanding an adult is allowed to carry a folding knife up to a 3" blade. Fix blade knives or knives with longer blades can only be carried if you have an immediate and legitimate reason for doing so. Typical examples given are a chief carrying kitchen knifes home or a farmer clearing a hedgerow with a Billhook i.e. work related activates. My personal feelings are that unless there is a specific requirement for a cutting tool they are best left at home (especially the larger knifes).
Back to Index
Figure 5.2.0 : Commercial bow saws
Folding saws are good for a wide range of jobs, but when you need to saw up fire wood a larger saw is required i.e. logs thicker than your arm. Damp and green wood can also cause problems for smaller saws as the wood clogs their finer teeth, jamming the blade. This problem is solved in larger blades as they have bigger gaps between their teeth to clear the cut wood. A bow saw as shown in figure 5.2.0 is a useful tool to have. Two commons versions are available; cut down and full depth saws. The cut down saw has the advantage that it is slightly smaller, however, the reduced depth limits the size of log that can be sawn i.e. as you cut into a large diameter log, the deeper you cut the less saw blade will be available to cut the wood, eventually forcing you to rotate the log to continue the cut. Below are some useful documents on bow saws I’ve found on the web (due to possible copyright conflicts these are only accessible from the local machine) :
Figure 5.2.1 : Other buck saw, frame saw examples
Figure 5.2.1.1 : Frame saw
The traditional version of the bow saw is the buck or frame saw, some examples are shown in figure 5.2.1. This is made from a wooden (or metal) frame tensioned via a top windlass. Two suggested designs are described in the above documents I found on the web. However, I’ve taken a slightly different approach to constructing a frame saw as shown in figure 5.2.1.1. I decided from the beginning to use mortise and tenon joints to make the frame more stable, resistant to twisting when sawing. Other designs I’ve seen just use a simple concave or ‘V’ recesses carved into the ends of the cross beam, with the tension in the windlass holding the frame together i.e. a ‘H’ frame. To start with I also constructed a ‘H’ frame design. This worked, however, when significant force was applied, the frame tended to flex loosing tension in the blade. To prevent this I added an additional cross beam, which locks the back upright in position i.e. forms a triangle. Therefore, blade tension is now achieved through the force in the windlass rotating the front upright about the cross beam. The traditional windlass is tensioned in the middle, through a loop of cord using a wooden rod. The problem with this implementation is that as the tension increases it becomes more difficult to move the tensioning bar through the cord. To remove this problem I’ve used a metal ring which is attached to the front upright through a hole via a piece of cord that is free to rotate. Tip, two washers are used to allow the stop knot in the securing cord to rotate freely. The windlass is formed by passing a loop of string through the metal ring and around the back upright. Finally a 21" blade is inserted into slots at the bottom of the uprights, being retained by two bolts + a couple of washers. Tip, when sawing hold the saw down at the bottom of the uprights by the blade.
Figure 5.2.2 : Billhook
Also called a Hedging bill or Hand bill, the Billhook is the British (European) equivalent to the large jungle knife such as the Machete, Golok or Parang. This type of knife has a significant weight, the nose of the knife being thickened, weighted to improve its chopping action. As such its not intended for carving etc, more as an axe replacement designed for heavier chopping or snedding (limbing, stripping small branches from a main branch) type jobs. Has a curved blade, sharpened on the inside edge, typically 8" - 12" long with either a short wooden handle or longer pole. The front curved section of the blade helps prevent the knife from sliding out of the cut when stripping off smaller branches, maintaining blade edge contact throughout the cutting stroke. The example shown in figure 5.2.2 is an older version made by Whitehouse Bros from Bannook (stamped into the blade), similar in style to the Devon class of Billhook. The original handle had a bit of wood worm damage and was cracked, therefore it was replaced. The blade has a needle tang, I decided to extend this tang by approximately an 1" (a bit less) using a hacksaw to remove metal from the base of the blade. This allowed the tang to be riveted at the back of the new handle instead of the basic friction fit as used in the original design. The advantage of this being that if the blade was to work loose from the handle the back rivet prevents the blade from flying out, however this does reduce the blades length to 9". Traditionally the handle would of been made from Ash, the only seasoned wood I had to size was a piece of Beech which worked just as well. Roughed out a basic handle, then using a power drill, drilled out a recess for the tang (had to drill from both ends and push through with a metal rod to enlarge the hole). The hole should be slightly smaller than the tang’s width to ensure a good tight fit, but not so small that the handle cracks when hammered into position. To help secure the handle and to prevent water from accumulating inside it I filled the hole with a little two part Epoxy glue before assembly. When in place a square washer (approx 2mm thick) is placed over the end of the tang and riveted in place using a ballpoint hammer (rounding the end of the tang over the washer). When the glue has set the handle is shaped and sanded, a bulge at the back prevents the handle slipping out of the hand and smaller one at the front to stop the hand sliding onto the blade. Needs a little more shaping but with any carving always best to pause and consider before removing more material. Due to its curved shape and convex bevel you can’t use a normal water stone to sharpen this knife. Tried a couple of different small diamond and grit sharpening stones, but as these blades are normally made from a medium carbon steel the best thing I’ve found to use is a small flat, fine toothed file, approximately 10 mm at the base tapering to 5 mm at the tip (the narrower tip is useful for sharpening the curved section). I like the Billhook, more compact than an axe, a nice tool for cutting / splitting medium size branches, ideal for shelter building, cutting thatch or fire wood. Tip, when using a Billhook to limb a branch, hold the wood between yourself and the blade i.e. stripping off the top branches first, this helps to protect yourself in the event of the blade jarring / slipping. Also on the back swing ensure the blade always remains below (in front of) the hand holding the wood, otherwise there is a danger that you might cut this hand.
Figure 5.2.3 : Golok
I was given a British army Golok, similar in style to the Martindale Number 2, basically unused, a little movement in the handle as the front rivet washer was missing allowing the rivet to work loose. This type of knife originates from Southeast Asia, Indonesia, Burma etc. There are a number of different regional variations in shape, length and weight, but generally they have a straight blade, approximately 5mm thick and 250mm long. Designed for chopping woodier jungle vegetation and for cutting / splitting wood. From what I’ve read a Machete varies from a Golok in that they tend to be longer, having a thin flat blade, being a lot more flexible, primarily design for cutting light jungle vegetation. Searching the web the word is pronounced g-loc, the best description I found was "Go-Lok : Go as in goblin, lock as the one using a key". First impressions of this knife, not that good, took a number of strokes to cut through even relatively small branches (when compared to a Billhook or Axe). Don’t know if this is more of a comment on how I was using it, but I could relate to the army slang for a Golok, which is "tree beater". As the handle was loose I decide to make a few changes to the knife. The main problem I found was that the blade had little cutting penetration, when you decrease the angle of the stroke to slice through the wood the blade would slip off down the branch. To give the blade a bit more bight and cutting power I decide to re-profile the blade and extend the handle a little i.e. a thinner blade with more leverage. Originally the knife had a double or compound bevel, the primary bevel starting about 15mm from the edge, the secondary bevel being quite small sacrificing sharpness for a more resilient edge, manufactured for worst case scenarios i.e. cutting hardwoods, through knots etc. Another feature I didn’t like is that only the top 2/3 of the blade is sharpened, the lower 1/3 doesn’t really have an edge at all (as shown in the top frame of figure 5.2.3). Not sure why this is done, safety maybe, separating the hand from the main edge?
Figure 5.2.4 : Lofty Wiseman survival knife
Figure 5.2.4.1 : Golok and sheath
I decided to extend to bevel back to the hilt, dividing the blades edge into three region (like the Lofty Wiseman survival knife), fine work (base of the blade near the handle), heavy chopping work (middle of the blade) and fine slicing work (tip of the blade). The blade was then thinned down a little to allow it to cut / pass through the wood more easily, as the majority of work will be cutting softer woods etc. The primary bevel is extended back a little and additional bevels filed into it to converting the middle section into a convex like grind (not a true full convex bevel). Obviously you cant thin down the blade too much as this will cause the edge to rollover or chip i.e. not enough metal behind the cutting edge to support it against the applied force. The base (first 50mm) and tip (last 15mm) of the blade have a flat or sabre grind, increasing sharpness, as these will be used for fine carving, not heavy chopping type work. An angle grinder was used to remove the bulk material, very light pressure, regularly cooling the blade in water to ensure the temper was not affected. A fine file was then used to flatten the surface, profile the edge and remove any remaining grind marks, before being polished with a sanding disk. Finally, the blade was sharpened on an oil stone.
To add the handle two new holes needed to be drilled into the blade (original top hole not used), allowing the handle to be mounted a little further back, increasing length. The new handle is approximately 70mm longer, increasing length and leverage, also balancing the knife a little with a heavier pommel. As the blade is hardened steel normal high speed metal drills don’t even scratch it. The only way I found to drill the holes was to use tungsten tipped masonry drills, a thicker one with its tip ground to a point to start off the hole (allows more downwards pressured to be applied) and thinner one to enlarge it. Took approximately 30 minute to drill each hole. The handle was carved out of a piece of Beech. Holding the wood in a vice an initial slot is sawn out (very rough edges), enlarged using a drill as a router, finally sanded clean. Hole positions were then marked out on the handle and drilled, small drill at first to ensure the holes were located correctly, drilled from both sides to prevent misalignment, before being drilled through with the final diameter drill and counter sunk (grind stone used to flatten out the base of the hole). The rivets are made from 5mm brass rod and washers, one end hammered flat / round before being placed into the handle. A 10mm metal rod was clamped into the vice to act as a anvil whilst the top of the rivet is hammered flat / round. Before the blade is placed into the handle a little two part epoxy was placed into the slot, also used to fill the rivet holes so that the handle can be sanded smooth.
The new knife now works a lot better, easily chopping through branches as thick as your thumb in a single blow, also sharp enough to carve fine feather sticks etc. Due to its blade length the Golok is a dangerous tool to use. Before cutting ensure that there is sufficient room to swing the blade freely i.e. no over hanging obstructions / branches etc that may deflect the blade. Also consider the arc the blade will travel and its follow through, always ensuring your free arm and your legs are safely behind this arc. This is a particularly important point when using the Golok as you tend to use shallower angled cuts compared to other cutting tools. This increases the risk of the blade glancing off the target object and potentially hitting a miss placed leg or arm. With such a long blade it goes without saying that a sheath is required as shown in figure 5.2.4.1. Due to the increased handle length the blade was a bit unstable in its sheath. To compensate for this I’ve added an extra buckle to the top of the sheath to hold the handle in position, stopping the blade from accidentally slipping out. Note, the buckle is formed through the top clip loop using a length of cord, the loop is made using a Bosun’s whistle knot with a small notched peg whipped onto the other end.
Figure 5.2.5 : Axe
Figure 5.2.5.1 : Modified Bahco Axe and guard
An axe is a very useful tool for, cutting / splitting fire wood, shelter building / felling trees, roughing out carvings etc. However, its weight and speed of use again makes it a dangerous tool to use. When carving a key role for the axe is roughing out, removing the bulk of the wood quickly and easily. Note, it can be difficult to make tapering or curving cuts with an axe, therefore be careful not to remove too much material before switching to a knife. Tip, instead of trying to curve the axe through the cut, chop straight down onto a block, rocking the wood being cut forwards or backwards to achieve the desired curve. When using an axe for the first time its surprising how quickly your arm tires, requiring a whole new set of muscles to control the cutting action. Be very aware of this and careful to avoid accidents.
When cutting a piece of wood to shape rest the working end on a wooden block, holding the top steady with the spare hand. When performing a cut ensure that your spare hand’s thumb and fingers are safely placed on the back of (behind) the piece of wood. Note, to allow greater control of the axe use a throttled grip i.e. move your hand up the handle below the head. I have two axes a Gransfors small forest axe and a Bahco hatchet. The Gransfors is a better axe, however I tend to use the Bahco most often. This is partly due to the type of work e.g. roughing out, where you don’t need a long handle or a heavy head. Also as it’s a cheaper axe I’m not so worried about damaging the edge. The original Bahco axe has a varnished handle. Have come to the conclusion that varnished handles are not always the best thing to have, as when your hand get hot and sweaty they become very slippery and difficult to hold. One other negative comment on the Bahco was that the head wasn’t properly aligned to the handle. Therefore, I decided to cut off the head, sanded the handle and polished the head before realigning the handle, also replaced the plastic wedge with a proper hardwood one. An advantage of the reduced handle length allowed the axe to fit into my smaller rucksack. Also replaced the thin rubber guard with a wooden one carved from a block of Beech, as shown in figure 5.2.5.1. The slit was carved using the tip of the knife, lifting out the fibers with an awl. This is attached to the axe using a length of two ply rope, untwisted and then re-twisted around the wooden block and then the back of the axe head. Below are some useful documents on axes ive found on the web (due to possible copyright conflicts these are only accessible from the local machine) :