Loved these Sandvik cutters in Alaska.?ÿ ?ÿI bought one in Florida but it's not a good fit here.?ÿ ?ÿA machete works better in the jungle.?ÿ?ÿ
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One summer the PNW USFS outfit I worked for decided machetes were too dangerous and replaced them with Sandviks.?ÿ It was good for medium sized stuff, the heft and handle length made for an easy swing and the replaceable blade meant it was always sharp.?ÿ But it was slow in thick brush and useless?ÿ above a certain tree diameter.?ÿ So we recovered our machetes from the scrap yard and hid them at the worksite trailhead, switched to them when they were appropriate (most of the time).
BTW I looked it up and those blades are $13 each!?ÿ We probably went through a couple hundred bucks worth that summer.?ÿ Funny how if you're not paying for it cost doesn't matter.
@mike-marks?ÿ exactly!?ÿ ?ÿthat's why they aren't great here in SW Florida.?ÿ ?ÿAnd i recall the blades popping out if you hit it wrong, so that was always an issue.
@murphy?ÿ I have the Dewalt version of the electric pole saw...?ÿ I love it.?ÿ I just use it around the house but would take it in the field if I needed it for sure.?ÿ ?ÿit does drink a lot of oil, though.?ÿ?ÿ
Can't they [Sandvik} be sharpened as easily as a machete?
Nope.?ÿ They're some sort of "Swedish Steel" (carbon steel?) that a file just bounces off of.
Edit:?ÿ My info is 45 years out of date.?ÿ The blades are now double edged, and the USFS (2005) says: "The blade can be removed for sharpening. Avoid overheating the blade and losing the temper.?ÿ Replace badly damaged blades."?ÿ There's YouTube demos of using a belt sander.?ÿ Apparently there's now cheap knockoff blades that don't hold an edge as well but are more easily field sharpened.
For more than you ever wanted to know about brushing hand tools consult this tome:
I'm slowly moving away from gasoline powered things, except for vehicles, so far.?ÿ I'm sick of cans hanging about with old gas.
Love my battery lawn mower, just needed to get an second battery for it.?ÿ Will probably go to a battery chainsaw when my Stihl kicks off, but they seem to last forever, with limited use, and no real maintenance.
I also bought a generator that runs on propane so I don't have to worry about filling and draining every season.
