Beginners Guide To Chopping Tools For Bushcraft, Camping And Wilderness Survival

Hello everyone, we're back with another semi-exciting edition of fun in the woods. A couple of videos ago, I made a video. Five tips for the beginning wild camper. In that video I showed a machete and an axe, but I didn't say much about it now the response was uh, people were interested. I received some messages. uh people saying they were more interested in machetes and axes, especially for

beginners

in the

chopping

aspect, so there's a lot of security. There are a lot of inherent dangers involved with cutting

tools

, so I thought I'd check them out and do it.

Cutting complete

guide

on cutting

tools

for

beginners

and even for those of you who are more experienced maybe you can learn. Some tips here and there, so let's go over some things here in the equipment room before we go out on the field and actually cut a little bit, go out and swing a trick, swing a machete, have a little fun. So before that, a little information that can help you with your backpack, your equipment or knowing what to bring. Whether you are a jungle craftsman, a camper or a

survival

ist, your tools will fall into two different categories.

They are going to be contact tools and impact tools. Well, basically, contact tools are pretty safe. You can hurt her with them, but they are pretty safe. Now a contact tool is a knife. Well, basically there's always a knife. in contact with the work, okay, there are exceptions, a folding saw, a hacksaw or a hacksaw is a contact tool because you are basically in contact with the work, so you have control, more control over these, a An ax or a machete are considered an impact tool. because the way it works is by impact, now the inherent dangers of these axes and machetes and things and efficiency, like I said, leads to inherent dangers, so there are things you need to know, especially if you're a beginner, so let's go .

To go over these things, there's not much reason to talk about saws or knives unless there's a lot of response, but what we're going to do is go over machetes first, a couple different styles. different styles of axes and then some thoughts on both types of tools and then we'll get out into the field, so let's get into it. The typical machete that most people are used to and have seen is simply what is called a bush. machete and this is typically a machete and most of the ones you'll see are usually these Ontario machetes and sometimes they're called a camp machete and sometimes they're called a military machete and these aren't really firewood choppers, but you can use them as firewood choppers. wood or cutters.

A lot of these Ontarios come in 12 inches, 18 inches and 22 inches and are more intended for grass, vines, thorns, vegetation, bushes, things like that, not necessarily wood splitters, but generally what they call in Latin. style machetes or bush machetes, this is an Ontario and it has the typical Ontario handle and it has a saw on the back, you can't really cut much with it but it's good for notches and it's good for making dust if you want powder for shavings, here's another one. ontario has a smooth back but it has what is called a d handle and that is for protection and to prevent you from breaking your fingers on certain things.

Condor makes a stainless steel machete for humid environments or if you are in swamps or wetlands or if you are going to be like breaking coconuts or cutting bananas you have a stainless steel version for grass and vines the bar k makes one called a grass machete no it has the length of the big k bar but this thing has a grinding wheel which is called a duplex grinding wheel where it has a relief and another relief and then the cutting angle, so you don't have to worry about these things, they can stay sharp, look If I can see, yes, you can see well. there you have a relief here and a relief here and then you have the final bevel on the bottom and these things can be kept on a razor sharp edge for cutting grass and vines and things like that those are your general bush machetes like this which now we are going to move on to the next style of machete the next style of machete is called kukri and the kukri originated in Nepal now the cuisine is very um how should I tell you?

The shape is unmistakable because it has this downward curve. to the top and normally there are two different reasons for that and it depends on people's opinion, but one of them, the reason why this is curved this way is because the blade will get to the work before your hand because you see right here. If you're cutting this way, the blade will come before your hand and there's room right here. The other reason is that instead of the blade coming down directly onto the work, if it is angled it will almost give you a scissor action. and allow it to embed better in the wood, but I don't really stick to that as much as I do now because there are other machetes that are white forward but don't have this curvature now the distinction of a machete from a kukri has three distinct parts, the tip and tip here are for cutting, incising and piercing, the curved part is for cutting the arc part down and then the curved part up here is for carving and carving, like this Those are its three distinctive features, this one is from the house uh ex gurkha, uh imported from Nepal, so uh k bar makes a version and this is a more modern version, it looks tactical with the rubber, uh, I think.

It's a craton handle with very, very good grip and it has a distinctive downward drop with a curve like this and there are a lot of kukris out there. This is one I recently got from Honshu Bashing and it is a stainless steel machete. It is hollow ground. and it has the distinctive drop with the belly and the curve and the tip, so those are kitchens right there and that's the distinctiveness of them, is that drop, okay, I talked a lot about the covers, so some of these other ones covers. It doesn't really matter, these are just basic covers like the one that comes with this one.

I put a knife on it with some paracord. The same for the K bar. I put a small knife on it, but different ones. These are things I made, but in general the kukri will come with two smaller knives. Now I feel like this deserves a little bit of information here because a lot of times when you hear reviews about these things, they get the machete and I'll be in a holster like this now, every time you put a machete in a holster like this, sheaves like this that are partially open, you place the blade and slide it just like that and then you let it fall, it's like that. of an inward and downward movement and then you cut it, but on these guys that are solid you want to put your hand up and when you put your machete in or out, you want to apply pressure. it doesn't put pressure on it because it can cut through the sheath so what it does is when it starts, like I said, it puts pressure on it to try to keep the blade from dragging along the bottom and like when I pull it out, I'm pressing it now on these two small knives.

I've seen reviews where people complain that they say one of the knives is dull, well that's on purpose, that's not a mistake, let me, let me walk a little. closer because what this is is this one is sharpened to use as a small knife and then one of them will be dull look how dull it is now the reason is if you want you can sharpen it like a knife but you can dull it to use it to make fire flint and steel, so that's why one of them is boring. I just wanted to clarify that that is one reason and there are some Nepali names for these two and they have separate names. and i forget what they are called you can look them up if you want the following style of machete is a joke now a parang originated in indonesia or malaysia im not too sure so this one i have attached more to the sheath this is a Condor now The parang is a beast that chops wood.

I feel like if someone told me you could pull out a tool to build a shelter and keep warm by the fire, it would be the parang, it's a beast that chops wood. Now the features. This thing is basically white forward and it has this curve on the top and a curve on the bottom and like I said, if you can see here, the blade comes before the hand, all good, it's kind of a safety feature . a condor piranha

bushcraft

condor brine that's a version this is a condor village parang it comes in the leather sheath and I added a condor knife this one has a curve on the back this one is just ground to a point that's right Since most tips are not many, the parangs are curved like this and in some cases, some people, when they have a curve, consider this to be in a lock.

A lock is similar to a prang. I have one that is labeled. like a gold lock, I'll show you in a minute, but most of these, none of these are ground, as far as I know, none of these are ground flat, they're all uh, concave, that way they won't stick to the wood because It's not really a cutting or slicing tool, this is a

chopping

tool, and that's what keeps it from sticking to the wood. In this way, it is a complete kit. I have my contact tool and then I have my impact tool, but this is not ground like the average facing.

This is a hollow ground, so I don't use it for much heavy wood processing. I only use this. because where I'm going to do little wood processing and vines and grass and when I'm in swamps or wetlands, then this has a pretty good advantage and, another honorable mention, let me see if I can. Find it, this is a version of a parang and I have it combined with a small knife, this is called a condor mini dooku. Now with this thing I like to grab the holster and squeeze it as I pull it out. and the same I'm pushing it up, but it's very, very small, it's a dooku machete, but now it's considered main.

This is one of those guys where you don't need a lanyard because you want to pay attention to it. some of these machetes in the shape of the handle that if your hands are wet or muddy or snowing or sweaty you like to have a I don't know what you would call this a knob maybe so you don't have to hold it tight and don't it will necessarily slide out of your hand, so that's the perrings style machete bolo is now, in my opinion, what is considered a traditional bolo. I don't have to look it up online but aa bolo is a machete that is very hard to tell is straight and has a huge curve on the end and goes back up and usually the bolos don't come to a sharp point, this is an ontario sp53 now They sell this.

It is categorized as a bolo knife, but like I said, in my opinion, this is not a traditional bolo. The skittles, I think, came from Indonesia, I think, but I haven't seen them with a sharp point, so they sell them as a skittle. that's a beast of a blade that's a fantastic cutting tool this thing here is an ic cutting machete and some call it bolo and some call it some call it kukri but the thing is that yeah, it's got a little bit droopy, It has a curve here that goes up, but there is no distinctive break, it's all one curved line, so some call it bolo, but the thing is, charade makes a sword that they sell and they call it kukri.

Now the thing about this kukri here is that it's about the same shape, it falls straight down, it doesn't have a distinctive fall, it has the curve with the tip and this part below here and if you can look at that, you'll see that these two are These two are similar and some sell this one at the bottom as kukri, others sell it as bolo. This one above says it's a kitchen and as you can see, this is what they call a kitchen, but they call it bolo. I just want to say, I want to make it clear that manufacturers twist the meaning of some of these, but you know, regardless of what you call it, it's a fantastic blade, so you can look at it more and do a little more. researched bolo a minute ago i was wrong about bolo bolo originated in the philippines not indonesia the golock is a style of machete it originated in indonesia or malaysia or the philippines but the thing is they lock and some padlocks they look like this.

They have a big curved edge like this and some don't have it now. I've been told in the past that people confuse golox and parangs and I'm not really sure and there are a lot of different opinions, especially since all the different knife and machete manufacturers have warped the actual definition of what some of these blades are, but I guess that the go lock is curved like this and curves to the point the parangs often have a flat cut on the end. instead of a curve, okay and this one, the edge is a single stroke upwards, so this is a condor pack, go lock, so a go lock is another style of machete, another style is called a coping machete , now this is an ontario sp8 and I added a small knife to it.

I don't remember what it is, but it's a stainless steel knife that I use to prepare food. This case opens like this and the blade comes out like this. Now it's a machete. it's one that has a flat end now they claim that a coping machete is set up like a search and rescue type machete and what that means is because of the flat end you can break windows and you can cut people, you can cut seat belts and you can cut people and pry things to extract people from wrecked cars or even airplane you can open the plane door with leverage this thing is a quarter of an inch thick it has the Creighton handle it hasa little gap here where you can choke has some kind of what I consider a worthless saw on the back because it just has ribs, but I don't know, that won't cut the wood as well, maybe it's designed to break the belts safety I don't know maybe it has some use but when it has a flat end and Ontario isn't the only one making a coping machete but if you ever see one that has a flat end like this it is considered a coping machete , I guess because you're dealing with a disaster, the next style of machete is called panga p-a-n-g-a panga now, the panga originated in Africa. it's a more modern tactical version of the panga, they make more traditional versions like collins uh marbles uh mikasa there are a lot of different traditional manufacturers, but what makes a panga what it is is that it has the curve to the point and then the rear part curves to a certain extent.

This one is made with a Timberline Tactical and is definitely a more modern version because on the back it has a glass breaker on top and it has the most aggressive serrated back I have ever seen. seen in my life here and then it has some serrations built into the tip here, it has more serrations here and then it has a cord cutter, so that's the panga when it curves like this, it's considered a panga originating in Africa, now this is You know this is the type of machete it was, yes it's for vines, grass and vegetation, but it's also designed to cut light wood, so this is how it differs from the classic bush machete style, it's pronounced two ways different in old English. sea ​​ax uh in Old Norse this is pronounced sax sax but we have the most general acceptance of this is s-e-a-x c-ax this is a little difficult to describe it has a fairly long handle, somewhat flat on the top with a drop with just a slight curve, it's just a distinctive shape, now it's like I said, I think it's made in Finland, it's a terrarava scrama and what makes this a distinctive helicopter compared to the others is, to me, what makes the manufacturers have been deformed.

Because of the length of these blades, what is a machete and what is not a machete, so when you have a machete, the total length of the blade would be about 25 to 30 degrees, while a knife is between 17 to 23 or 24 degrees, which is more of a steeper angle that could turn an edge that you could turn when you're cutting, so they make it a little bit, you know a little bit more, what's it called? I don't know if that's obtuse or sharp, I failed in math, but what makes this distinctive is what they've done to us, so let's see if I can get close to this tarava that has gone from here to here with 34 degrees and then right here there's about an inch and a half section here that has 25 degree terrain now I don't know if you can see that distinction in it, I turn it in the right direction, maybe you can, but the beauty of that thing is that that's which and that's why some people call us sax or cx some call it big knife others call it machete but that's a distinction in this now let's say for example let me take out another knife here uh right here this is the artak of Ontario two, look at its size, this is considered to be sold as a knife, okay, so let's put it in now, let's see, this is also sold as a bolo knife, so let me show you something here real quick, uh, let me find another one , that I am?

I'm looking for, okay, let's go with this, this is a K-bar machete, now the K-bar machete, I don't know what it is, it could be considered a bolo two, so let's say this, let's say that most people accept this like a machete, well, look. the handle length and the blade length say they are almost identical, if not maybe even a little longer, roughly identical in length, but for some reason this is accepted as a machete and it is accepted as a knife if I'm going to bring a knife as a cutter, let's say for example this entire blade has a 22 degree angle.

If you're going to use this as a cutting tool, I would suggest about two or three inches here when you start. sharpening this as it will become dull in the future from here to here you could sharpen it at about 30 degrees to make it a little duller you could cut more leave this at 20 to 25 and then if you want to go crazy with On the tip , do it at 17 degrees because you're not going to be cutting with the tip, you're going to be using it to cut, so of course the further away you are, the more power you can put on it, like when you're cutting right here.

You're not going to have a lot of power, but if you cut it at the end, it all depends on how you grind it and how you use it. Anyway, I think I've covered all the different styles, that was the lifestyle I had. I was going to cover one more thing that I want to say about some of these things here, let me find some of these, if you have a control, let's take a look here if you have a control that has a lot behind it here to save it. so it doesn't slip out of your hand, that's great, you may not need a lanyard if you have one that doesn't have much on it, then you do need a lanyard, some machetes, this is a knife from the columbia river to the crkt, look what an ergonomic shape this handle has. molding that it would be very difficult for that to slip out of your hands if your hands were wet or muddy or if you were sweating, but the thing is, you don't want to have to hold these things tightly if you're going to be cutting all day eh, there's one way to use this cord, try putting a cord on your machetes now, every time you see people putting their hand through this like this, they just hold on to it and hold it like this, that lander does very, very little unless you're in your canoe or kayak or you're on the edge of a cliff, you know, hanging off a cliff or a mountain and you know you don't want to drop it or if you're like you know cut some berries and then you want to drop them and keep going. cutting berries that you want to be able to chop for hours without tiring your grip, so the way you do this is you're going to use each machete handle and everyone's hands are different.

So the way you want to do this is you turn the blade back and put it on your thumb and then just roll the machete like this and see how it's there, that way you don't have to have a death grip you can just drop down when you're cutting. , well, you're not going to fall while you're cutting because if you're going to put a death grip on it you're going to get tired quickly, so that's one way to do it right there, another thing you can do is when you have it on your thumb like this, you can just hit it flip it up, which is cool, put it in your hand upside down, just like that, flip it up now, the other thing you can do is put it on top like this, put the cord on top and then pull the two pieces down and then you can slide your hand like this and see that will also block the machete, it's not as fast, but that will keep it there, like this, okay, and then the other thing you can do, let's see, let's see, that it's over, you can go over the leaf like this to grab it, let's see, or you can go under it. leaf and just run your hand through it that way, either way it will hold, but both require a bit of clumsiness.

This is my favorite way here because you know you just pull the machete, sometimes you can even pull the machete out. from your sheath, you can reach in and grab it, drop it and go, so I think that's all I was going to cover with the machetes, so let's move on to the axes, hatchets, and camp axes. Right axes are basically for us

survival

campers, craftsmen, there's basically three axes, there's the full size and then there's the medium size, which is called a kid's ax or a camp ax and then there's an ax that you can go a little crazy, you can call them. forest axes or cruiser axes or whatever, but I'm going to say that this is the beginner's

guide

to chopping tools, so I'm going to stick with that now that most axes come with a protective leather cover and They're called a mask, okay, that's ax lingo, uh, ax heads come in different kinds of shapes and sizes and generally there's a double tip and a single tip.

Okay, that's considered a single tip. It is considered a double tip. This is a full size axe. It can really take down a tree quickly. It can lift a bunch of wood quickly, but who wants to carry this around when you're backpacking or hiking? So it's not much. I have two other full size ones. I only have three full size ones. axes so I'm not going to go over that too much as far as the boys ax this actually has a belt loop so let's get this out the way it does this is a boys ax or a boys ax camp length and when you have a double head like this, it's good to have a single head for being in a tent with stakes and stuff, but you only have one edge when you have a double head like this, you can have one between 23 and 25 degrees for chopping and then you can have the other side at about 30 degrees for splitting wood you want a little bit of a different angle for splitting wood so if you ever see an ax like this where there's a little short cord there one of the old ones tricks is that whenever you are on a hillside or on uneven ground or when there are trees, this is what will really throw you off if the trees are placed one way or another and there are trees everywhere and once your way of doing I'm sure which direction a tree will land if you're on uneven ground and can't orient yourself.

They'll put a little one in there and what they'll do is they'll hold that ax up like this. and gravity will allow the ax to be straight and what you will do is look at a tree to see which way it is leaning if you are going to cut it down now generally we campers and survivors will cut what is on the ground and that's usually the best thing you can do, for example, if you're building a shelter or especially if you're burning wood, you want dry dead wood, you're not going to look for green wood, so anyway, um, let's see, uh. oh, we have another one here, this is a tip, tools, guys, axe, now, as I said, all the heads, just like there are golox, parangs, bolos, pangas, the heads are different, this is considered a head of the Hudson Bay, okay, there are Hudson Bays, there is Dayton, there is Michigan, there are all different types of styles there are a lot of different styles and a lot of them are named after states that I don't know, so one thing that I want to go over this real quick here's another little one this is a 701 marble for me which is a perfect perfect backpacking ax because of the length of the handle so the flatter a blade is the more it's for soft wood the more curve is a blade, plus is for hardwood, okay, and then I have a couple more things I want To go here, I want to talk about axes for a minute.

Axes are inherently the most dangerous tool in the forest. Now why would I say that? Well I would say it simply because if you have a campax kid ax or a full size ax. Generally, you have both hands on the axe, meaning the wood, the only thing you have to worry about is your feet or legs. Many people when using an ax tend to use it with one hand, which is often the case. A lot of times you're going to be holding the wood which is stupid and I'm going to go over this later because you're always going to have your hand close to where you're cutting so if you have two hands on a toe cutter cutting tool it's a much safer tool now this is an ax and this is also a hudson bay head now this is what I find strange that many of you experience this is a council toll ax this is advice I told the kids Now look at the difference, they have the exact same head, so honestly it's up to you whether or not you want to carry an ax or a kid's ax and like I said, generally this is a one-handed tool. tool with a handle you could say well, I can choke on this and use it, but I'm going to carry this because I can use it with two hands or I can choke on it like this when you have all this hair.

Note that if you start doing stupid things, like holding this while choking on this, as you go down you tend to hit yourself, which could cause the ax to deflect in a way you don't want to happen. I think the way it has these curves is similar to a Michigan axe, but I'm not sure it's a plum axe, but it would be good for doing a lot of wood processing and driving intention stakes and stuff, uh, these mangoes, these mangoes. I don't want any kind of varnish or anything on them. You want boiled linseed oil to prevent rubbing into hot spots.

Some people treat them with wax. This gem here is from Spain. This is a Basque ax from the Basque region of Spain. I'm getting ready to show you what makes this different from other axes. This is called the moon drill. It's okay, it has a lot of curve because in the Basque region there are a lot of hardwoods, this is imported by a company called lamina and there. There is only one Basque ax maker left in the world and with the advent I believe it is an art. He is a maker of artesian axes. These are hand forged and it's a guy in Spain and there's a company called Lamina that imports them.

So these are. Very special tools and nowYou know, with the advent of technology, chainsaws and modern logging, you can't have a ton of people running around with axes in the logging industry. So most of the old artesian ax makers are dead and gone, but There's still one guy left and I can't pronounce this. If you look under the sheet, you'll find these, but it's like I don't know Warren Harahunahun, which I don't. I know and the head of the ax itself says "neta", I don't know what that means but anyway these things are great for hardwood, it's a real pleasure to cut them, let's take this out into the woods and chop it up a bit. a little bit, but the distinction of this is the shape of the head and the way it's mounted.

Well, these are common, a normal axe, let's see, a normal ax like this has a flat part on the back, they call it a stick and you can beat it. On the things with it, this is rounded on the back, you don't want to hit it and this is forged and the way it's mounted is different. This ax the more you cut it, the tighter the handle becomes, so here's a replacement. kid's ax handle, okay the hole in the ax is called the eye, now the way this head is made you slide over the handle and then you insert a wedge, look how it has a split, I don't know if I can see it or not because it's painted black, but there is a wedge there, maybe one of these others has it, yes there is one, this is a round wedge, but most standard axes you'll see in the world are set this way .

The handle is conical, it is positioned this way and then a wedge is inserted to lock it. The way the ax varies is the head goes from this end and slides up like a tomahawk because look how much bigger, that's how tapered it is at the end, so that's what a low ax is. , the more you use it, the more you put it on, the more pressure is pushed and pressed against it, so I think I've covered all the basics about this stuff without going really crazy, there's a lot more to the ax terminology, but you know , I went over the basics of what I think you need to know, so with that being said Let's go into the woods and cut some, let's have some fun.

Remember that after cutting the camera there was a problem. I didn't go over the actual cutting process before I went out into the field, so there are a few things I have to know when it comes to the cutting process, when you grab something, whether it's a machete or an axe, you swing it and you chop it, that's the cutting process, but the way that stroke is used is in two different ways: there is the cutting action and then there is the cutting action. Is the chip removal action very fast, without being too technical? Let's see, he's down here and take a look so you can see what I'm saying now, whether it's an ax or a machete, certain certain diameters that you can go down, you can go down. with one hit and cut, okay, lift this up just a little bit, one hit, come down and cut clean now when you cut clean something that's the cutting action because you're cutting, you're cutting the material right now when you lift up For certain diameters, you're going to get to certain diameters like this, you're going to need a full size ax and if you're cutting with a machete like this, you're going to have to have a lot of length. so you can go down and cut that material, some axes, especially these small, light marbles that you won't be able to share here, but that's the cutting process, now when it comes to the cutting process, what you're going to have to do.

What you have to do is create a v, okay, so if you have a v from the top and then a v from the bottom and then the wood breaks, that's a v process if you're going to cut from the side. how big the v is going to be now, this is what happens with this, okay, if you're going to go down, if you're going to cut, especially with certain logs, now some logs you'll put on top of other logs and you'll see that in the field, but every time you come across a big tree that has already been felled and is dead and dry, if you kneel down with an ax and chop it down, you will end up with a super wide v like this now, if that trunk is small enough to to be able to roll it up, it's best to cut it this way and then roll the log and then cut it this way to have a v, you're going to have a double v, and the idea behind this is that if you do this, whether it's a small ax Life size, when you get to the bottom you may end up cutting into the ground and denting it. your sword, which you don't want, is fine, but with some logs you know a lot of people have the misconception that if you have a big log you're going to cut here, well if you're going to do that because you can't roll the log, you're going to have to do it like this, actually what you're going to do is turn it if you have a really big log that you can't.

Then you're going to do the double v and the process for that is not necessarily cutting at the top, but what you're going to do is stand up. behind the log and you're going to cut a v this way and then You're going to stand behind a log and you're going to cut a v this way. See, that way you're not cutting straight down and into the ground and making the v excessively wide, that's the difference between the cutting action and chip removal and how you're doing chip removal and you want to remove as much of it as possible. possible of shavings, so I think that's all I wanted to say now.

I had everything written down, but I didn't write it down. It was just an idea that occurred to me, but I mean that's the basic mechanics of cutting, okay, the two different processes, so now let's go out into the field so that we finally get to the forest, well, what's left of the forest, is okay so we're going to do some cutting techniques and this is an area that was half cut and as you can see they've left a big mess behind and this is not a good place for a camper but it's an absolutely great place to cut things up and have fun with axes and machetes, so what are we going to do is go out here and learn some good cutting techniques because I have a lot of material to choose from, the first thing is safety when you do these kinds of things to cut, uh, take some safety glasses. protect your old eyes because you don't know where the splinters are going to fly and wear boots, don't wear flip flops, wear some kind of heavy leather boots now for starters there was a technique in another guy's video. that when it comes to cutting with a machete you may have seen this and I don't agree and I'm not going to say who it is because two different people did it and they said they are supposed to know machetes, I mean, you can do it this way if you want, but I'm going to show you something that I don't care about, oh, when they did it, they were concerned about safety, which is a good thing and it was some of the safety techniques that they were talking about and that's why they were talking about lying down. so, they were talking about laying this back here and cutting like this now that's great because you're not going to swing and hit your leg, but my only problem with that and be careful, you know, if you're in good shape, do it if you want, but for me, the unnatural movement of twisting and swinging like that when you're twisted, twisting your spine is terrible, that's not a good thing.

I guess to do that, what you need to do is the trees, I mean the forest, are full of fallen logs, so what I suggest you do is look for a fallen log to cut down now if you have some. small enough, this will be the pure technique because look, it's leaking right in, but now, as you see, you just heard that hitting the tripod that I was talking about, uh, the little pieces flying everywhere when I was cutting them, no you're trying to cover your area with little pieces of wood, you're trying to cut little pieces of wood, you know, probably your twig stove or your camp stove or whatever, so one of the best ways to collect them I'm fixing to show you is to find a tree. so, where you can point the wood down and what you're going to do is you're going to straddle this tree here and what you're going to do is cut them down and as they cut them down, they're going to take them down to the ground, let's take some of these things off. of the way, at least in theory it's supposed to not that much, I made one of them land on the ground, but anyway that's the theory and Another thing also is that you can point which direction, let me find another one of these, yeah , here's another one.

Another thing is that you can point which direction, going down or up or at an angle like that, now they're all pretty much landing in one place. Now I'm going to try to cut them like this. Well, now almost all of them landed in a place like this, depending, you will have to experiment with the angle, but what you can do is cut a whole pile of this type. There's a lot here in a short time to fuel your little twig stove and these will burn longer than actual twigs, so now, let's move on to the next step.

Now let's say you're going to advance to a point like this, so with this. You're not here just haphazardly chopping for no reason, you want to create firewood or make something for a shelter, so if you get to a point where it gets so big here, maybe this is the limit of what you can do. I can share now if I cut it here, I don't have as much bridge layer. Look how I sank it halfway, but if I cut it here there, I did it, but it took a lot of effort. I'll try it one more time.

Once I see that I put in the same amount of effort, but it only came half way. Now with certain sizes, you can cut one size, turn it over and cut the other side and it will come off, so let's do it one more time on one side. undo it, the other side comes loose, now you can see what it does to the wood and with two cuts you can cut it now, sometimes that thing gets stuck the first time, so as the wood gets bigger, what you can do is You can start taking, uh, you can take out a chip and that's where, instead of cutting straight, I'm going to angle the machete and we'll cut and cut and that takes away a V.

Once you have the V, you can turn it. on top and it will come off look there is part of the v I cut a v here and then here is the other half of the v this is a v and a shear look there is a v I cut it v here v here flip it cut it and cut it all Okay, let's see that one more time, cut out the V. I'm going to turn it around and cut it out to see what it looks like. A V and a shear. Now let's go to a slightly larger piece of wood.

A much larger piece of wood. Look at that look. what I just picked up from the ground when they were here cutting, they cut this knot out of this tree and look, it's already getting shiny, look at that, look at that sticky substance there, fat wood is already forming, look at that slimy substance, I'm going to put that on the truck here at home, that would be a nice piece of fat wood, let's get back to what we were talking about, there's a certain point where you're going to reach a limit to what you can cut with a machete now.

This terava scrama is not as heavy as the parang I was using but it has the handle length for leverage so what I'm going to do and this is much bigger there is no way I can cut a v and a v and Ciza this, so what I'm going to do in this case is cut it halfway like this and then turn it over because the piece of wood is small enough that I can handle it well, the end is all crooked, that's great, let's see if I can. Do this, I'm going to have to hold it down here, there you go.

I see that there is a relatively large piece of wood that you can cut with a machete, so let's try it one more time. That's the problem with this thing. I have a piece of wood that wants to be manipulated because it has a big curve on the end. Hey, look, a helicopter is coming this way, see if this was a survival situation, that's what we would want and I normally don't do it. Actually, this is too big, this is, this is getting into mache territory, uh, axe, but let's see how efficiently I can do this with the terava, ah, it's starting to get unwieldy, okay, here's how you work today, that's the case.

I'm exhausted now, that's about the width bigger than my hand. This is the ridiculous point where you really want to go to an axe, so I'm going to take this same piece of wood and we'll move on to the axe. I'm going to show you how much more efficient the ax is. Now the ax itself is actually one of the most dangerous tools out there and the reason I say this is because it is usually a one-handed tool and the fact that it is so short people tend to hold on to it. to work, which puts your hand in the danger zone, so it's usually best to kneel to use an ax or, if you place your foot far enough away, you can just lean over and chop. so that's what I'm going to try to do here I'm going to try I'm going to try to hold let's put this here okay I think you can see there okay I'm going to try to hold them one foot now let's see how much more efficient this is so um, the ax now, if you're going to do this with your hand, make sure your hand is very, very far away so you can cut, but I would rather put my foot in a leather boot and turn it over one more time.

Now that fold required a lot less effort. I'm old as dirt, but it still required less effort, but now it's still a one-handed tool. how to split there is another thing that I amI will show you that splitting is not really a cutting procedure, but I will show you the safe way to do it. Now let's talk a little about dividing. Let's say you have a piece of wood that people always go tohold. a piece of wood and take it like this and try to split it well, the thing is that like your hands there, people tend not to swing very hard and when they barely swing it, many times they hit, it bounces and goes down if you swing with a lot of force and if you miss then you hit your hands that's not the way to do it the best way to split it is to place the ax on the trunk like this and then go down with everything and make this part touch this because it is like that, you're going to go down and crush your thumb, so you want to do this, there it goes now, once I've got the log stuck, turn this way and see how I got this. hand here going with that is to keep the ax from coming down and hitting my hand and then you're going to break it like this and see and after that what you're going to do is you're going to have a nice flat spot on the bottom so you're going to do the same thing or you can just put it like this and split it like that guy that's a bit of gummy wood or do it the same way and hold it like that and then finish it. hanging, now let's move on to the kids axe, let's talk a little bit about the difference between a kids ax and a full size ax when talking about handle length and head weight.

Okay, now what happens with this type of axe. It's comfortable enough that if I wanted to stand here I could cut with it, but the thing is, there's enough length for this to deflect and I'm standing behind the log, so it won't hit my legs if I open them. So this is going to be in the way, so it brings me to the option of staying here like this or staying back and taking advantage because I have more length, but that could put a strain on my back, so let's look at the guys' axe. Now with the boys' ax I can stand here and can barely hold the end if I spread my legs and keep them out of the danger zone.

Now you're talking. Did you just see that? Did you just see what that just did? My leg back behind the log and when it swung my leg was out of the way it was close but it was out of the way well now look how the ax is there the handle is about to hit here I've cut one side i've cut the other side every time I start hitting here, that's when it's time to start cutting from the top down, so now I've got it pretty clean, so instead of cutting all the way through the ground, I'm going to go back to the shallow side.

Now, did you see what I just did with this axe? The Basque ax has a curve, it's so short that I don't do the hand movement, I was just holding and cutting, as you can see, it has a nice smooth cut, effortless, let's talk. a little about the ax technique now, when you use a child's ax or a camp ax, the handle is so short that you can do all your work this way without using your hand and without moving your hand, now the proper technique for a full size ax is sliding your hands now im a machete man so my ax technique is terrible so im going to show you the correct way now it takes a lot of practice but i dont use the ax very often so im out of practice but i do What you're supposed to do is hold the ax like this and in this cut the hand slides and then in this cut you exchange hands and this slides.

That is the proper technique. I have a bad habit of swiping this hand and then switching. I walk up and watch my arms cross and I do it like this and look, that's what happens. See how I just lost it? That's because of the way my arms cross if I was doing it using the proper technique where I changed the hand held. the moving hand that wouldn't happen as much, that said, that said, everyone knows me as a machete man, that's why my ax technique is so sloppy, but I just showed you the correct way now, another thing I want to show you are giving birth a tree once you have failed it and to me I see no reason to cut down a tree unless you own the property and are going to cut some green logs for a cabin as a permanent shelter if only After firewood, there is always firewood lying everywhere, so I'll try to find something to show them how to calve once the trees failed.

This is a very good example of a fallen tree, whether it failed or you found it in the woods. I have had a lime tree and this is how you remove all these branches. Now never ever take an ax and cut this water because if you cut this way you will jam the axe. The only way it's allowed is if you can cut. the limb with a single blow, which would be the steering action, now there's a little one right there, you can cut it off with something like this, you may or may not, you can cut it off with a single motion, so you'll want to remove splinters from it and you should also always stand up. on the opposite side of the tree, so that the technique is cut that way and that way, so what I did was remove a splinter.

I'm going to zoom in so we can do this. This would be the inappropriate technique. Standing on the same side because I can bounce and hit my leg or I can come through and hit here where you want to be. the opposite side of the tree and preferably instead of standing back here, you should stand a little bit forward, maybe even where the branch is okay, so this is a good side to be on. The wrong technique is to cut from this side because you're you're never going to remove any material and you're not going to cut something that size so what you want to do is make the initial cut take out a chip, look how I just removed it, make another cut and then take out a chip and that's it like you remove a branch and then you can clean it up if you want, so do the same process with an axe, but you will bend a lot more like this, very good, I hope you had fun, I hope you learned. something, be safe when cutting, watch your fingers, uh yeah, saws are more efficient, but there's not as much fun, so I hope this is a pretty good idea of ​​how I feel about buying tools and what I think can do for you so until next time I hope you learned something I hope you had fun go out enjoy life I hope you find a wasteland like this that you can mow to your heart's content and I'll see you next time thanks to you