Should have put these up a while ago
Johns back ( quicker than i thought)
and seems happy with the blades He gave them a good work out and passed them round the experienced Jungle guys and the Local Jungle Ninjas they also use the Aussie Guy kept his close and is happy as is
only failure was as i predicted some of the Teklock aluminium hardware failed which was easily repaired by sewing the belt attachment back on with Paracord ( as can be seen in the photo) I already had some Steel and Stainless steel on the way but they didnt arrive in time to fit.
Like Johnathan D they would like to thin the neck down a little and a few minor tweeks to move the balance fwds a bit more would be desirable
The Local guys said they were good but also were very impressed with the Steel / Heat treat so much so they have given John the patterns of their fav Parangs drawn round on Ration boxes to see if they can have those in this steel which im sure we can fit in
here is a short Vid By John in use ( looks to me like hard going but John says its working fine its very hard wood )
and a couple of pics
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Dunc, some clips of your new blades in action last week. The tree used to attach the rattan hammock spreader bar was a jungle (mega)hardwood, as you can see from the amount of work it takes our Iban friend to notch it. The bamboo chopped was totally seasoned. The blades did really well no matter how hard the chopping. John.
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heres the Aussie wearing eh Multi cam one with Pouch fitted
And a review by :
SGT Scott Robbins
SERE Instructor
RAAF Combat Survival Training School
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Duncan
First off all, I would like to thank you for the privilege off testing out your blade. So before I go on, I know that John said to you that there was an Aussie Survival Instructor that was keen to play with a blade as well, so sorry for the sort notice and thanks for working so hard to make it all work.
I am posted to the Australian Combat Survival Training School, where we primarily train ADF (Australian Defence Force) Aircrew and other personnel that are prone to isolation or capture in SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Extraction). We operate in Coastal, Arid and Jungle environments off which Jungle is my favorite. I am currently on a 4 month exchange with DSTO (Defence Survival Training Organization)
So, back to the blade, I tested the blade as you are aware on our recent trip to Brunei whilst instructing on the UK DSTO Jungle Survival CSE.
The first thing I noticed was the sheath.... And the general consensus was that it was awesome. Initially the sheath was a little tight, however this did loosen up slightly as time went on. This being said, at no time did I ever feel that the blade was at risk of being lost. The blade did slide forward in out of the handle crimp to a slightly forward position after jumping off a large deadfall, however in the process of doing this, the blade actually locks in place preventing the blade from falling out.... Don't know if this was intentional, but it works well.
The 3 retaining bolts did break after about 3 days, however being alloy this was likely to happen. I am sure that the steel ones will work fine. So, as a short stop, I lashed the belt bracket back on. This actually worked well. I also like the modular design as this allows individuals to swap the blade from left to right and front or back facing depending on the individual preferances.
So onto the blade. I personally found both weight and balance to be excellent. In Australia, our trees are generally harder than those found in both the UK and Brunei (Bit like the people..... Haaa) so I believe that it will work very well. A couple of the other boys had slightly varying opinions as to if the weight and balance suited them. In all, due to both height, weight variations this in to be expected. The blade held an excellent edge and made short work of all tasks. Over the 2 weeks we really did give the blades a flogging and it handle it all extremely well.
I was also pleasantly pleased with the handle. In the Jungle, handles of blades is both a safety and retention issue. I personally do not use a wrist line whilst using machetes. However wet or dry the slightly larger handle and even larger bulbous end, made retention a breeze. As for balance, I found that having the shank of the blade not sharp worked extremely well when doing finer work. Splitting and debarking performance was excellent. We even cut saplings down, and compared the effort required to cut through the same sapling between different blades. The results were impressive and all agreed that it your blade had better penetration. Good balance of thickness for strength v weight and speed.
So overall, I was extremely impressed with the blade, at the end of 2 weeks of hard Jungle flogging it maintained an excellent edge, and the sheath bedded in great.
I like a full size machete and would be more than happy to replace my current blade with this one.
Brilliant job mate.....
Cheers Scott
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