What do you use your Everest Katana for? Pics, or it didn't happen.

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kookery

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What do you use your Everest Katana for? Pics, or it didn't happen.

This post was inspired by this video, where Dan Keffeler uses his $3000 CPM3V katana for some yard maintenance, and I thought "I bet a Himalayan Imports Everest Katana can do that for $200 to $300".


This video was entertaining too, because it's basically machete grunt-work with a machete-length CPM3V wakizashi, also made by Dan Keffeler.


I'm a big fan of machetes because they are very capable tools, but most of them are basically disposable cheap stuff, at the bottom end of cost. That is a good thing for the machetes. You get a lot of value for your money. The CPM3V katanas in the videos above are at the other extreme, the high end of cost. Even if I could afford one, I wouldn't feel comfortable USING it, which is a shame, because it appears they're very capable tools for outdoors work.

I was wondering if the Himalayan Imports Everest Katanas in 5160 leaf spring steel might be the happy medium, where they have most of the capability of the expensive blades, with an affordable increase in cost above the cheapest blades. Am I correct in thinking a $200 to $300 Everest Katana could be the ultimate machete?

My concerns are mostly that the Everest Katana is too thick and heavy, at least the ones I have been able to find so far, especially if it taken backpacking or camping. I'm posting this because I'm hoping someone out there can tell me if the Everest Katana is thin and light enough (or could be made so) to match most of the performance shown in the videos, with a much more affordable price - literally about 1/10th of the price.

Does anyone use their Everest Katanas for machete duties like chopping wood, vegetation, and Trogdor? How well do they perform in that role? I'm hoping the $200 to $300 Everest Katana is a good alternative in between the $20 to $30 machetes, and the $2000 to $3000 katanas.

Thoughts?
 
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I'm curious so I hope you don't mind me asking for a little more background on the blade. What is the thickness in mm of the blade?
 
My HI shortie will handle 2" limbs, but I believe that is pushing it as far as keeping it looking nice. The three cuts it took were clean and not jagged, so I truly suspect the Katana size will perform at least as well. Note there is some noticeable shock to your wrist when giving it a work out like this. Still, when doing that kind of work, my KLVUK and M43 are the blades of choice as they were designed for that kind of abuse.
 
I cut a cupcake with mine. The inside was to indicate what my first grandchild was.
I had a video of it, thought I posted it here but been looking and can't find it.
 
Bookie said:
My HI shortie will handle 2" limbs, but I believe that is pushing it as far as keeping it looking nice. The three cuts it took were clean and not jagged, so I truly suspect the Katana size will perform at least as well. Note there is some noticeable shock to your wrist when giving it a work out like this. Still, when doing that kind of work, my KLVUK and M43 are the blades of choice as they were designed for that kind of abuse.
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Is your "shortie" a wakizashi? If you get the chance to compare it to an ordinary machete, I would be very curious how it performs. I'm guessing the heavier blades will be better at wood chopping, and the lighter ones will be better for grasses and thin stuff. The feature that the sword-length blades have that the others don't is speed, but I'm not sure how much difference that makes for cutting wood. It might be a disadvantage - you mentioned the shock of striking a light blade on something hard. A heavier blade would dissipate its energy in the cut, while the light blade will reflect more of it back into your hand, like a vibrating baseball bat.
 
kookery said:
Is your "shortie" a wakizashi? If you get the chance to compare it to an ordinary machete, I would be very curious how it performs. I'm guessing the heavier blades will be better at wood chopping, and the lighter ones will be better for grasses and thin stuff. The feature that the sword-length blades have that the others don't is speed, but I'm not sure how much difference that makes for cutting wood. It might be a disadvantage - you mentioned the shock of striking a light blade on something hard. A heavier blade would dissipate its energy in the cut, while the light blade will reflect more of it back into your hand, like a vibrating baseball bat.
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A longer blade also requires more care in wood cutting. A bad cut could bend the blade, depending of course on construction and heat treat. But a longer blade just requires more care because of the length.
 
while any blade CAN cut a tree limb obviously from above videos. Katana aren't made for cutting wood. There are several HI Khuks that are meant for wood processing and they have the proper edge profile for such. Katanas edge profile is not made for chopping wood. Cutting bamboo, especially when wrapped in wet newspaper is used to simulate cutting through an arm or leg. Since it is difficult to find humans to practice cutting on these days. Basically there are 2 different types of testing. One, tameshigiri, which is used as a test of the cutter’s skill and technique and for "practice" And one called Aratameshi, This is a sever test of the blade to demonstrate the quality of the smith's work. This type of testing included cutting bamboo, deer antlers, hardwood branches and sometimes slapping the blade flat against the surface of water or against a flat piece of wood, Poorly made blades would bend, break or shatter. In further extreme cases they would continue to strike over and over against sand filled helmets, forged pieces of iron, ect until causing destruction of the sword. Here is an interesting example. "

The testing commenced with Tsuge Kahee, a naginata teacher, wielding an ara nie deki katana by Taikei Naotane made in 1835. Two bamboo sticks were wrapped together and used as the testing object. The circumference of each bamboo stick was about 15 cm each. When the blade struck the target, it penetrated about 80%. This was not a complete cut. Then, a retainer named Saitomasuki tested this katana on a piece of metal that was 0.24 cm thick and 9.0 cm wide. The blade broke in two at the area close to the hamachi. The broken edges looked similar to that of an icicle, very brittle. This katana had been considered well made.

The second blade tested was also a katana by Naotane. This blade had a nioi-deki hamon. It should not break as easily as the first one. After several cuts by Tsuge Kahee on straw wrapped bamboo sticks, a ha-giri developed and the blade was bent. Five other people also tested the katana but none of them could make a complete cut on the straw wrapped bamboo targets. Takano Kurumanosuke then took over the testing and used the katana to cut a helmet filled with iron sand. Another bend developed upon the first cut. Two more cuts introduced another ha-giri. Deer antlers were used as the next target and three cuts were performed. A piece of forged iron was also used for two cuts. This cutting of hard objects produced many ha-giri. After that, Kanekochubee cut a kabuto with it and a severe bend was introduced. He then used the blade to hit an anvil on the mune and on the sides several times and the blade broke."

So if you want to break a Katana, there are so many more entertaining ways than pretending it is a machete...
 
Shavru, that reminds me of something I heard somewhere about someone noticing that katana with very broad hamons seemed to break more easily in use, even though for a long time a broad hamon was considered a sign of quality.
 
Yes Scara, Prior to the Shinto period Hamons were basically a natural formation that just happened as the clay was used to differential harden. Smiths didn't really try for a specific look of the hamon. It wasn't until the 13th Century that some smiths started to create a specific look for hamons. This continued to become more prevalent through the Shinto period as this was a long peaceful period the "Art" of the sword making became more important than the function. So wider and wider hamons became fashionable. However, you are correct this negatively impacted the usage of the sword. I think I would say in your last sentence that broad hamons were prized as a sign of the Art (and therefore during this timeframe the expense) of the sword. But the quality was lower IF your intent was to be functional rather than to be fashionable.
 
Being a native borned Iowegian, I do know what a corn knife/machete can do and it does have a definite place of honor in this world. Even though a katana is made to be used against people, many people buy the less expensive ones to chop mats, as Shavru has mentioned, pool noodles, water and milk jugs, ice, oranges, punkins (for you lesser educated folks that last word is how you PROPERLY pronounce "pumpkins") or what have you as a form of entertainment. There is a pretty funny video of a Joe Cool taking his minus $300 katana to slice and dice a water melon. The blade bent a whole 90 degrees, but all that being said, even an expensive blade gets distorted and sometimes ruined. A machete would have flat out shined in this instance.

My little HI Wak has a good blade and I abused it just to see what it was capable of. The HI smith made a more than adequate blade and it held up to the abuse it received. I have not used it like this since, nor will do so again. That kind of weapon is intended for use against the human body, not sugar cane or tree limbs. You will note that most machete blades are just filed or ground sharp. The sharpness does not really last that long. You take a HI khuk that was made for working on heavy stuff, like the machete, and see how long the edge lasts--much longer! Different type blade-different edge. Then take the O-Wak I made, which has been sharpened down to .5 micron (60,000) grit, and cut that 2" limb and see what happens to the edge. Probably not good. Use it against a human torso and it would probably cut 3/4s way (vertically) through the rib cage with ease. On another note, I personally know that a HI "villager" can be used for actual self defense, the edge held up, and I can still type meandering narratives such as this. All in all, I feel that the HI sword blades are an honest bargain, could probably chop up some old boards, but what is the point of using a sword to do a machete's work? Think $$$$.

Dai Uy, I take the kinks out of saw blades by slapping them flat against a puddle of water.......
 
Bookie said:
take the O-Wak I made, which has been sharpened down to .5 micron (60,000) grit, and cut that 2" limb and see what happens to the edge.
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I am guessing we would be talking major Ha-giri (damage along the edge of the blade) as that thin a profile will fold over VERY easily when struck against hard objects like dry bone ect.

Bac si, I get quite a giggle from the mental image of you de-kinking saw blades at the nearest mud puddle... ;)
 
Slapping a puddle will work wonders on a saw blade. Don't ask me how it physically works, but it sure do.
 
You talking about like a carpenters hand saw? Never heard of this one.
 
This is a very interesting post and cool video. I didn't take the time to read it all, but i can honestly say HI Everst Katana will do the same work for less. I don't own one, but i purchased a mini one a while back. that thing cut through anything like butter. by far the best blade for cutting, and it was a mini version! I have a YCS that cut completely through a fir tree log. about two feet in diameter. I took the log from a local place that said i could have it. It was a pain to carry, i had to have my step dad carry it with me to lift it into the truck. big guy, 6 foot something and big build. says he's the descendent of angels and giants, haha, i don't doubt it. he liked to brag about it i think because i used to enjoy mentioning i am a descendent of Atilla the Hun and Beowulf, on my father's side. Anyway! i digress. this fir tree is hard wood, fresh, just felled. the YCS chopped that thing in two no problem! so to answer your question honestly, as i do not yet own a evert katana. It will fell trees. i know it will. only a matter of time before i purchase one!
 
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Thanks for the great replies everyone! I would love to hear more about the shorter blades, and especially photos and videos if you have them. I'm leaning more toward the shorter blades anyway. They're lighter, cheaper, tougher (closer to machete length), and it seems like the forum has more collective experience with them to share here.
 
Here's the album with all the pictures of mine. It's about 18 inches overall length, so in the traditional Japanese nomenclature I believe it would be called an O-Tanto. I've not used it for anything except some general blade practice, and I've cut water bottles and milk jugs with it. It does pretty well, though I did find that cutting eight ounce water bottles were the most difficult target. They tended to get launched instead of cut, unless the cut was quite good.

http://s723.photobucket.com/user/Scott_Slack/library/Mini Wajaski

And a while back someone was putting together a spreadsheet of specs, so I took them of mine. So here they are for your interest.

Kumar-made Mini Wajaski with an oak hilt
Overall length: 18 and 1/8"
Weight: 14 and 1/8 oz
Blade length measured from bolster to tip (along spine in a straight line): 11.75"
Handle length (not including peened buttcap): 4 and 5/8"
Bolster length: 1 and 3/8"
Tsuba length: 2.75"
Blade width at bolster: 1.25"
Blade width at midway point: 1.25"
Blade width at the corner before tip: 1 and 1/8"
Primary edge length: 10 and 13/16"
Secondary edge length: 1 and 5/8"
Bolster thickness: 7/32"
Spine thickness at bolster 3/16"
Spine thickness at 2/3 point of blade: 1/8"
Point of Balance: 3" from tsuba
 
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