KA-BAR Presents ... Zombie Junkyard
- Thread starter OFFICIAL_KA-BAR
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That was pretty hardcore haha
OFFICIAL_KA-BAR
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Thanks again, all. I have received your messages and you should have some KA-BAR on the way soon. If the rest of you pester them a bit, we might even get them to share pictures. Thanks and enjoy.
-OKB
-OKB
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Pestering for pics here. Seems like you guys had a lot of fun making that vid, I just arrived a bit late to the party lol. Gotta say, KB is hands down my favorite company! Awesome blades + good sense of humor = win.
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Well, ZN, you're gonna have to pester the Pony Express, as whatever the Kabar goodness is that's headed my way 
has not yet arrived.
has not yet arrived. Well big brown showed up last night so I figured I'd better get pictures posted.
First I want to tip my hat to Steve Johnson. His Parangatang machete makes a very positive impression the minute you heft it. My biggest challenge was waiting for daylight to at least get one picture of it before I broke it in. This is a really nice piece of gear.
KA-BAR does it again!!!
Thanks again to the folks at KA-BAR. I'm thinking this Parangatang is going to end up selling you some more as I let my friends use it. Mind you they aren't going to be allowed to borrow it.
First I want to tip my hat to Steve Johnson. His Parangatang machete makes a very positive impression the minute you heft it. My biggest challenge was waiting for daylight to at least get one picture of it before I broke it in. This is a really nice piece of gear.
KA-BAR does it again!!!
Thanks again to the folks at KA-BAR. I'm thinking this Parangatang is going to end up selling you some more as I let my friends use it. Mind you they aren't going to be allowed to borrow it.
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Ditto, rnb. When I got to the PO today, I had a brand spanking new Kabar 5702 Zombie Killer Pestilence Chopper. Thank you, KA-BAR. Pics tomorrow.
OFFICIAL_KA-BAR
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Glad your knives are starting to get in your hands. Thanks for participating and sharing pictures. Looking forward to seeing more of them. Have a great weekend and enjoy!
-OKB
-OKB
That Parangatang is totally on my radar.
I've always been predisposed towards axes growing up in Michigan. Really didn't start using machetes much before the last 20 years. I've never spent more than $30 for one as I thought they had what was necessary to do the job. The Parangatang shows me that there is a difference. While others results may vary, I see myself adjusting my various kits in the future to include this piece of gear.
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Well, finally slowed down enough to post the pics.
First a little review. After I received the Kabar 5702 ZK Pestilence Chopper, I had to get out there and try it out before posting any additional info.
First, the obligatory New Out of the Box debut--
Shaving sharp out of the box (kinda blurry, my camera is still fubarish, re: closeups.
Here's the task I set for it - a waterway full of dead and dieing Giant Ragweed, ranging in size from 12ga wire sized to over an inch in diameter
After just a couple of minutes work, I had cleared an area about 8 ft x 8 ft -
Here's an example of the biggest stuff I whacked out - about an inch in diameter (Sharpie for scale). This one was still a little green and the Chopper handled it, no problem.
Review of performance::
The Pestilence Chopper handled green/dry Johnson Grass, green/greenish Giant Ragweed up to 1 inch in diameter and SMALL diameter dry Giant Ragweed up to about a No.2 pencil sized diameters. The Chopper would bite into larger dry/dead Giant Ragweed, but would take 2 to 4 chops to get through them. Actually, with the medium sized (No.2 pencil up to 1/2 inch), the Chopper would bite in and just drag the ragweed out of the slightly damp ground by the roots. Anything over an inch and the Chopper would just kinda bounce off.
I started to get a hot spot on my pinky finger from the hook hanging down on the knife butt. The rubbing may have been due to my hand being a large palm with short fingers. It may also be due to not being familiar with the handle style. Maybe it was caused by bouncing off the thicker dead ragweed. I'll have to work with it some more in the spring with on greenery. If I still get rubbing, I'll just grind it off.
Conclusions:
I like the Chopper, re: typical machete work, for grass and green Giant Ragweed (and probably green Golden Rod/other woody stemmed as well).
I would not recommend it for thicker dry/dead brush. For some reason, either the knife grind or my technique, the BK-4 or BK-9 work better on this type of dead wood, even though the BK-4 weighs the same as the Chopper and the BK-9 is only an ounce heavier. I suspect that the BK-21 Kukri coming out soon will also work better on dry, woody brush, but that's just a guess based on blade shapes and how well the BK-4 works on dry ragweed. Although for large area work like this, I'll really be breaking out the 3000 rpm, 7 inch diameter spinning blade of death on my gas powered weed whacking machine,.
With it's shorter than a full-sized machete blade (only a little more than 10 inches), I think it will work well in confined space chopping work, like when trying to clear out greenery where a typical, longer machete (16 inch + ) is too long for safely decapitating vegetation.
One last item. Even after whacking it a nearly 200 times against dry Giant Ragweed, the edge would still shave hair off my arm
Again, thank you, Kabar, for sending me this cool chopper. It will get more work in the spring when I have green stuff to work, and I'll drop another review then.
First a little review. After I received the Kabar 5702 ZK Pestilence Chopper, I had to get out there and try it out before posting any additional info.
First, the obligatory New Out of the Box debut--
Shaving sharp out of the box (kinda blurry, my camera is still fubarish, re: closeups.
Here's the task I set for it - a waterway full of dead and dieing Giant Ragweed, ranging in size from 12ga wire sized to over an inch in diameter
After just a couple of minutes work, I had cleared an area about 8 ft x 8 ft -
Here's an example of the biggest stuff I whacked out - about an inch in diameter (Sharpie for scale). This one was still a little green and the Chopper handled it, no problem.
Review of performance::
The Pestilence Chopper handled green/dry Johnson Grass, green/greenish Giant Ragweed up to 1 inch in diameter and SMALL diameter dry Giant Ragweed up to about a No.2 pencil sized diameters. The Chopper would bite into larger dry/dead Giant Ragweed, but would take 2 to 4 chops to get through them. Actually, with the medium sized (No.2 pencil up to 1/2 inch), the Chopper would bite in and just drag the ragweed out of the slightly damp ground by the roots. Anything over an inch and the Chopper would just kinda bounce off.
I started to get a hot spot on my pinky finger from the hook hanging down on the knife butt. The rubbing may have been due to my hand being a large palm with short fingers. It may also be due to not being familiar with the handle style. Maybe it was caused by bouncing off the thicker dead ragweed. I'll have to work with it some more in the spring with on greenery. If I still get rubbing, I'll just grind it off.
Conclusions:
I like the Chopper, re: typical machete work, for grass and green Giant Ragweed (and probably green Golden Rod/other woody stemmed as well).
I would not recommend it for thicker dry/dead brush. For some reason, either the knife grind or my technique, the BK-4 or BK-9 work better on this type of dead wood, even though the BK-4 weighs the same as the Chopper and the BK-9 is only an ounce heavier. I suspect that the BK-21 Kukri coming out soon will also work better on dry, woody brush, but that's just a guess based on blade shapes and how well the BK-4 works on dry ragweed. Although for large area work like this, I'll really be breaking out the 3000 rpm, 7 inch diameter spinning blade of death on my gas powered weed whacking machine,.
With it's shorter than a full-sized machete blade (only a little more than 10 inches), I think it will work well in confined space chopping work, like when trying to clear out greenery where a typical, longer machete (16 inch + ) is too long for safely decapitating vegetation.
One last item. Even after whacking it a nearly 200 times against dry Giant Ragweed, the edge would still shave hair off my arm
Again, thank you, Kabar, for sending me this cool chopper. It will get more work in the spring when I have green stuff to work, and I'll drop another review then.