Well, I hope you're proud of yourselves, I just had to order one for myself.
I hear ya, this whole confounded forum has cost me an arm and a leg in the last month, and I haven't even started buying Christmas presents yet....lawdy...
The ZOMSTRO
- Thread starter Xr6x
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I hear ya, this whole confounded forum has cost me an arm and a leg in the last month, and I haven't even started buying Christmas presents yet....lawdy...
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- Feb 25, 2014
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If you ordered one, they are discontinued and super cheap--it might be a good idea to pick up a second one. You couldn't even buy a blank of that size for what KaBar is charging, I think my second is going to become a sax.Well, I hope you're proud of yourselves, I just had to order one for myself.
That's a great idea, i've had a similar project on the backburner for a long time with a cheap monster chopper I got a few years ago.
Any tips for cutting a chunk out of some hardened steel like that without messing up heat-treat? Not even sure what to use as i've never done it before.
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What 1066vik said is about what I do. I keep a spray bottle right there, blast liberally, and go slow. I keep one hand bare so I can check the heat, if it's too hot to touch then back off and cool some more. That's far below the temperature at which the the heat treat would be affected, but I go with minimum risk to keep my sanity. A 4" grinder makes the job pretty quick with less precision, while a fiberglass reinforced cutoff wheel leaves a really nice cut that takes (what feels like) forever. I use a thin Sharpie to mark my line, and I have learned to tape up the metal I don't want to scratch. A couple of layers of blue tape give you the reaction time to pull back on a serious skip. Don't dive in at the edge or it could chip, come at it from the spine side. I learned that the hard way.
I like the way you think. My new Zomstro is bigger and heavier in the hand than the numbers led me to believe. I'm concerned that it might launch from my old hand with a vigorous swing. By my figures, saxifying the blade would reduce it, in very rough terms, by about 300 grams, reducing it from gargantuan to huge. If I need more cutting capability than that, I'll use the chain saw.
Just had to say, Beth at Ka-Bar customer service is awesome, there was an issue with our new address, so rather than just ship it and hope for the best she put a hold on it and e-mailed us, the wife called her and they got it all straightened out and it arrived a few days later. Thanks Beth!
She was just too heavy for me, so I put her on a diet. I regret that I had to grind away half of the etching.
That looks amazing, good call and great mod! Just something wicked and scary-looking about a big seax, I can't stop messing with mine, put a real nice edge on 'er last night in fact.
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- Mar 15, 2010
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- 126
I sanded the blade coating down a little to give the blade a nice silky feel; I am toying with reshaping the handle a little later this spring.
I unboxed the Zomstro and found the sheath has a huge pocket in the front, big enough to stick my hand in. Anybody know what this pocket is for?
Hand sanitizer and wet wipes for cleaning off the zombie blood and gore.
It's my understanding that it used to come with a bonus skeleton blade and that's the sheath area for it, but for sure it's huge.
The sheath has a separate pocket for the skeleton knife also. Still a great deal on a short machete.
Yeah I saw that, one of the first things I looked for, was kinda hoping to find one in there, but no, just a buncha space.
I guess if you were legit taking this camping/hunting/backpacking, you could easily slip a smaller blade in there, plus sharpening steel, firestarter, can opener and such, might be handy and save some space in your pack.
ETA: Just realized I have the perfect blade for it on hand if y'all will forgive the non-Kabar pic, it's a little Buck 135, mostly use it for a paring knife in the kitchen:
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- Mar 15, 2010
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A paring knife --- huh. And probably better quality than most paring knives!
It definitely is, most of our kitchen knives i'm ashamed to say are just crap including the paring knife we used to have, my wife was always asking me to use the Ka-bar Mule I carried a lot as it stays razor sharp. The Buck is a skinner by intention, but I bought it for a tacklebox knife, re-profiled the back from the drop to the tip to be a little more stabby. But later on I found a blade I liked better for the tacklebox, tried this one out in the kitchen and it works great and stays sharp a lot longer than the cheap stuff.