Has Anybody Cut Manzanita with a Khuk?

M

munk

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Mar 22, 2002
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Sorry if the spelling is off. Manzanita is one of the most troublesome plants to hike in. If you must go through a stretch of chapparel with a lot of this small tree/shrub, you know it as an obstacle course requiring much patience and time and possibly some clothing.

Do any of our California HI Forumites have experience chopping this plant? I would love to hear from you.


Up here in Montana they have Chokecherry and willows and other plants but it is usually possible to go around.


munk
 
Not with a khuk, but with a camp axe, and it's some of the toughest stuff I've chopped.

Often wondered whether it would make a good handle. Don't know what it looks like finished.
 
It's probably prone to cracking.
I've gotten myself stuck in the middle of some huge patches of the stuff. Because it is resilient, and gives with a blow, I imagine chopping it would be hell. When wood is very tough, chewy hard?- and the edge of your blade imbeds itself with the branch twisting in all directions applying leverage to metal as well as your wrist, well, it's just plain tough going all around.


munk
 
One word munk:wild roses!! the damn stuff is rampant out here!! go through a patch of that and see how you fare! :grumpy:
 
I'm thinking all over the planet there are similar shrubs and small trees that give us hell. Deer like them. Birds like them. Snakes may like them. But people can't get through them.



munk
 
Manzanita? No. But I've hacked my way through rhododendron thickets many times. I know we have manzanita around here and I'm having a hard time picturing it for some reason but IIRC, it's pretty similar to the rhodies.
 
I've chopped manazanita with a khuk before. Seemed to work pretty well. I try to walk around it when I can though.
 
Dave Rishar said:
Manzanita? No. But I've hacked my way through rhododendron thickets many times. I know we have manzanita around here and I'm having a hard time picturing it for some reason but IIRC, it's pretty similar to the rhodies.
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Dave, it's got a red, almost glass-smooth bark that peels off like paper. Very pretty.
 
munk said:
...you know it as an obstacle course requiring much patience and time and possibly some clothing.


munk
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Umm, munk, definitely some clothing:D Unless you are built like an armadillo down south!
 
Aardvark said:
Dave, it's got a red, almost glass-smooth bark that peels off like paper. Very pretty.
Click to expand...

Sounds just like madrona, and I've cut some of that. (Hell, I rehandled my siru with the stuff.)

If it's what I'm thinking of, it's springy and soft when it's green. Worse than clearing lowhanging pine branches, better than blackberries, way better than petrified pine. Not too bad. I wouldn't want walk through it.
 
Checked out a wood magazine and it says the hardwood shrub rarely grows more than 30' high. The roots are prized for the burl and can be worked to look like marble. A permit is required in California to collect the plant.

I've been in situations where the sun was setting and we wanted to 'save time' in getting back to the truck. Snaking through a Manzanita engulfed hillside, you get to a half way point where you're darned if you go forwards or backwards. IT's miserable and a Khuk would have helped. (where legal)
Several times the 'shortcut' took longer than the regular trail.

munk
 
They are reluctant to have it cut down since it is holding many a hillside in place. I remember the sound of trying to cut it - CLACK CLACK!
 
I've never had the opportunity to cut mansanita with a kuk, but having dealt with it quite a bit in my mountain excursions, I would imagine that it's tough work to cut. Beautiful plant (I think). As Dave said, it looks a lot like Madrona. (a lot like it) Except madrona grows more like a tree, instead of an impenitrable bush/ shrub. Believe it or not, I actually miss it. I'd trade blackberries for it most any day.


mike
 
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