Recommendation? Suburban garden ninja blade

Emre

Emre

Joined
Nov 15, 2006
Messages
420
Hi, folks

Bought an old house from 1903 last year. Finally getting around to cleaning up the yard and garden. I’ve got typical suburban dad tools: saws, shears, axes, etc.

When I’m kicking around the the yard, I’m finding that for some jobs a knife would be handier than a hatchet or saw. Things like cutting down ivy, trimming dead branches off small trees/brambles, and that kind of thing. Basically, a light-duty chopped that would be on-hand instead of buried under Triumph TR4 parts in the garage.

Anyway, it’s a good excuse for a new type of knife, right? My only fixed blades are kitchen knives and small woodcrafty stuff, like Moras.

I’d like to keep the cost reasonable, as this will be kind of a beater. Let’s say $250 at the top end; preferably half that. I’ve got huge hands, so I’d like something with a generous handle.

I was looking at the Becker BK7 and Lionsteel M7 just because I happened across them and they seem like a good fit. The Hogue EX-F01 looks interesting. I’ve heard people discuss brands like Kizlyar and Bark River as well. No experience with any of these.

thoughts?
 
Cold Steel katana and/or Chinese War Sword machete.

For your half budget (or maybe half of half your budget) you could get both and a draw through sharpener to get rid if the burrs, etc. that seem to be a standard feature on a Cold Steel machete.
(At least the 5 of different styles I've bought all came complete with an unusable edge. A cheap Smith's (or was it a Lansky?) draw through cleaned up the edge enough they could be used, or further sharpened with a stone. Once sharpened, they seem to hold a good edge.)

The War Sword machete has a "hand an a half" or "two band" grip, so "huge hands" should not be a problem. I think the katana machete does too. The katana and war sword machetes are both a "ninja blade", to boot. :)
 
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Wouldn't a small Machette or Kukri be the thing you're looking for? Hung up in the shed and ready for use, no need to spend out a lot on a garden chopper either ;)
 
Newer Schrades are probably good as cheap beaters.

Personally I would buy something from the makers on these forums. Check out the for sale section.
 
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$250 should get you a decent Kukri and few knives are more fun to swing. There's a few fellas on here far more knowledgeable than I on here, hopefully one comes by with a recommendation.
 
Wow, for $250 you can get a dream chopper/beater on the forums. The name Bill Siegle comes to mind. Blow that wad. With all this plague stuff, the economy needs all the support it can get.
 
I agree with the idea of a really nice Kukri style. I don't own one, but I've watched videos of folks using them to chop wood, and they work at least as good as, or even better than a small axe... all that weight forward should take a lot of the effort out of the swing for you...

edit: and I bet there are some makers on this forum that make that style of knife, so, win-win!
 
Sounds like a billhook or manaresso (an Italian tool much like a cleaver, but for wood) would be a good match. They're made for cutting just that sort of stuff in those kinds of circumstances. I've only got a couple of models available at the moment but should be getting a fresh shipment around the middle of the upcoming month. Really hard to beat 'em for this kind of work.
 
My local salvage yard had a couple cases of just the thing, Japanese made cutter with a 11" - 12" blade; kind of a cross between a machete and a sickle. They were $5.
 
eisman said:
My local salvage yard had a couple cases of just the thing, Japanese made cutter with a 11" - 12" blade; kind of a cross between a machete and a sickle. They were $5.
Click to expand...

Regarding the OP... That sounds like the Ninja option, yes! :cool:
 
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For maximum fun, your top choices are Skrama and smatchet. The smatchet is a tongue-in-cheek suggestion. The Skrama sounds like a tongue-in-cheek suggestion, but isn’t. Under a hundred bucks with a very nice sheath, but for yard work I get by with the plastic sheath liner, so the cost comes to about $70 shipped from Finland. It is going to be overkill for a lot of your uses, but it is compact and portable, and you will like it. You will like the extra long handle, too. It will outperform just about any big knife in the 10” blade range.

You don’t have to spend even that much money. Something like a Tramontina 12” bush machete or a Cold Steel Bushman would do all the work you want for around twenty bucks.

There are a lot of Condor blades that could work fr you, too. Your $250 budget could buy you just about everything mentioned here, plus a billhook, because Benjamin knows what he is talking about.

Here’s the Skrama.
711599B7-E67F-48EE-8381-995A8A14F5DD.jpeg
 
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I would buy a Woodsman Pal and a Silky Gomboy 240. Then I'd use the leftover cash to pick up some pocket bling ...
 
Pinemoon said:
Condor makes many models that'd work and the prices are good.

https://www.knifecenter.com/brand/33/condor-tool-knife
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Im gonna go with this recommendation too. Condor has a great line of nice bushcraft choppers at a good price. Ka bar has a bunch that fall into here too bit the condors have a less tactical look imo. The Condor Primitive Bush would be a yard slayer and double as a camp/bushcraft knife.
 
The practical choice would be a Tramontina machete. The cool choice would be a Cold Steel machete or sword. Yard work with a sword would be a lot of fun, just saying.
 
I would also look to get a Japanese Hori Hori. I use mine all the time in and around the garden. Not a chopper but great for digging and quick cutting tasks. Look for one with serrations on one side.
 
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