Sam Cade
Member
I dug through my pile of choppers (I have a bit of an addiction) looking for a suitable candidate for my epoxy wrap tests and came up with a blister packed and carded Chinese built sigh "Corn Saw" sold by TSC under their "Groundworks" line.
I forgot to take a snap, but this is it.
I'd call that a cane knife, a corn saw is a completely different animal around here.
Retail is ten fiat exchange units.*
The blades on these are usually pretty good material wise, properly heat treated and around 2-2.5mm thick.
The handles (at least the wood ones) leave something to be desired in that they stand VERY proud of the tang and are only held on by compression rivets. Crappy compression rivets.
Factory edge is a steep bevel, sharp but too obtuse to cut worth a durn.
Before starting on the handle wrap I reshaped the blade into a humpback shape similar to an HI Bonecutter and ground a very shallow choil to keep the edge away from my index finger.
I flushed the scales to the tang fore and aft but left them long at the butt and removed the thin mystery finish that had been applied to the mystery wood.
For my wrap I used commercial "paracord" of good quality.
I used a cheap marine slow cure epoxy with a 30 min pot time.
After liberally dousing the grip with epoxy I began my wrap, doping the paracord with epoxy by dipping the fingers of the non wrapping hand into the pot and rubbing the paracord as each loop was placed.
The wrap itself is a simple whip with the free end threaded into the gap that the scales left at the butt.
Once the wrap itself was complete and reasonably tight I rubbed the entire assemblage with epoxy, trying to saturate the cord as much as possible.
After a 24 hour curing period I reground the edge, pushing the bevel WAY back and convexing it.
I used it an hour or so on some light trail maintenance today and
it seems to have been a success.
*fred!
I forgot to take a snap, but this is it.
I'd call that a cane knife, a corn saw is a completely different animal around here.
Retail is ten fiat exchange units.*
The blades on these are usually pretty good material wise, properly heat treated and around 2-2.5mm thick.
The handles (at least the wood ones) leave something to be desired in that they stand VERY proud of the tang and are only held on by compression rivets. Crappy compression rivets.
Factory edge is a steep bevel, sharp but too obtuse to cut worth a durn.
Before starting on the handle wrap I reshaped the blade into a humpback shape similar to an HI Bonecutter and ground a very shallow choil to keep the edge away from my index finger.
I flushed the scales to the tang fore and aft but left them long at the butt and removed the thin mystery finish that had been applied to the mystery wood.
For my wrap I used commercial "paracord" of good quality.
I used a cheap marine slow cure epoxy with a 30 min pot time.
After liberally dousing the grip with epoxy I began my wrap, doping the paracord with epoxy by dipping the fingers of the non wrapping hand into the pot and rubbing the paracord as each loop was placed.
The wrap itself is a simple whip with the free end threaded into the gap that the scales left at the butt.
Once the wrap itself was complete and reasonably tight I rubbed the entire assemblage with epoxy, trying to saturate the cord as much as possible.
After a 24 hour curing period I reground the edge, pushing the bevel WAY back and convexing it.
I used it an hour or so on some light trail maintenance today and
it seems to have been a success.
*fred!
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