During the high winds a few weeks ago, I had the top break out of a large laurel oak in the back yard. The main trunk was 14-16" in diameter and with the branches, probably 20' long. Before breaking out the Stihl 028 (same color scheme, orange and silver), I decided to put the 3V 4.7 to use. In reality, I beat the heck out of it with a baton while wishing the rest of my 4.7s had met their target ship dates (different thread).
The pics:
The verdict:
Survive's 3V with a Peters heat treat is a pleasure to put to hard use. After going through four cuts roughly the same size as these with a good bit of twisting and prying, I looked at the blade and couldn't find any evidence of gross damage. I was wearing thin gloves and put it through about an hour of continuous use. The 4.7's handle felt solid in hand with no hot spots but a wrist lanyard would have been handy when using it for smaller limbing cuts. I also found myself wondering if more length would have suited the work better, but didn't bother to do a side-by-side with my first-gen 5.1 as I wanted to test the 4.7's handle shape. After the work was done, the edge wouldn't shave but still sliced paper cleanly. I still wish the old stonewashed finish would have stuck around, as the peened finish seemed to bind more in the deep cuts and the blade flats collected a lot more dirt. This looked great but made the cleanup process take a little more time and effort. Since I couldn't damage the edge during this abuse, that means it's still a little thick and cutting performance could be improved with a thinner edge. I'm considering dropping the bevels some and trying again.
That oak was pretty tough stuff, and I'm pleased with the way the knife held up. Still couldn't out-cut the 20" bar on the Wood Boss though.
The pics:
The verdict:
Survive's 3V with a Peters heat treat is a pleasure to put to hard use. After going through four cuts roughly the same size as these with a good bit of twisting and prying, I looked at the blade and couldn't find any evidence of gross damage. I was wearing thin gloves and put it through about an hour of continuous use. The 4.7's handle felt solid in hand with no hot spots but a wrist lanyard would have been handy when using it for smaller limbing cuts. I also found myself wondering if more length would have suited the work better, but didn't bother to do a side-by-side with my first-gen 5.1 as I wanted to test the 4.7's handle shape. After the work was done, the edge wouldn't shave but still sliced paper cleanly. I still wish the old stonewashed finish would have stuck around, as the peened finish seemed to bind more in the deep cuts and the blade flats collected a lot more dirt. This looked great but made the cleanup process take a little more time and effort. Since I couldn't damage the edge during this abuse, that means it's still a little thick and cutting performance could be improved with a thinner edge. I'm considering dropping the bevels some and trying again.
That oak was pretty tough stuff, and I'm pleased with the way the knife held up. Still couldn't out-cut the 20" bar on the Wood Boss though.
After several backpacking trips with just a GSO I decided to bring a Silky or Corona saw. Makes life much easier for wood prcoessing, but it's always good to know if I had to "survive", and the only tool I had was a GSO that it'll hold up to most tasks. Maybe not the quickest or most efficient way to do things, but again I'd rather have a knife that didn't break during hard use, than one that did. Awesome way to do a knife test and thanks again for sharing.
