So as I mentioned in
this other thread, I spent most of my day today just chilling in the local forest. It's the first time I've gotten Christmas Eve off work in years, but with the COVID-19 restrictions currently in place in British Columbia, there wasn't really much for me to do from a social standpoint. Anyway, I enjoy trail running and fast hiking (I was something of a competitive runner in my youth, and I've always enjoyed the outdoors), and during the winter months, I will almost always carry a small hand axe and a folding saw in my pack for clearing small obstacles like fallen trees (a somewhat common thing during the winter here, we get a lot of windstorms in my area)—not so much for myself, but more for outdoor enthusiasts with mobility issues, so that they can continue enjoying the trails (it sometimes takes days or even weeks for the city to send out crews to clear the trails).
I decided to leave the hand axe and saw at home today, though. Instead, for no other reason other than “I felt like it”, I brought my Schempp Rock.
As luck would have it, I did come across a couple of fallen trees on the trails. Now, I don't really use my Schempp Rock as a chopper. I use it primarily as a utility outdoors knife: food prep when camping (it is awesome in this role), clearing brush (it's like a super-light mini-machete), gardening, that sort of stuff. But I took a look at the first tree and thought to myself, “why not?”
The first tree was a cedar, maybe 15 to 20 years old if I had to guess, about three and a half inches at the point where I wanted to chop it (the second tree was much older, and would require a proper axe to chop). I warmed up by going through one of its branches (about an inch and a half in diameter), and it took about a minute. No visible damage on the edge afterwards. The thing, too, about the Schempp Rock is that it's relatively light, but the so-called “negative angle” of the handle (I'm not a fan of the term but don't know how else to describe it) allows me to use quick snap cuts using the wrist which lets it chop above its weight, so to speak.
I then proceeded to chop the trunk. It took about ten minutes and a swift stomp once I'd gone about ninety percent of the way through to split it. Again, no visible damage to the edge.
(Pics from my personal Instragram account, pardon the captions and crappy pics :D)
I've been wondering if the task would have been easier with the hand axe I normally carry when fast hiking (a surprisingly functional budget model from a company with a spotty record when it comes to its outdoor products). I think it might be my Spyderco bias showing, but I contend that the Schempp Rock performed at least as well as that budget hand axe would have for this particular task. I think despite its lack of mass, the fact that I was able to impart much more velocity to the blade resulted in an equivalent (or even greater) amount of momentum (because as we all know from basic high school physics, linear momentum is the product of mass multiplied by velocity).
One other thing that surprised me about this experience is that the edge held up surprisingly well. No rolls or chips even though I was really giving it to 'er when I was chopping.
- The Schempp Rock when I got home... still pretty much flawless on the edge
VG-10 isn't a particularly tough steel given its chemistry, but I think Spyderco's heat treat on the Schempp Rock makes it tough enough for practical chopping. I suspect the blade on my Schempp Rock is at about 56 or 57 Rc (based on previous use), which might seem low for folks who want VG-10 optimized for edge retention, but I think at that hardness, VG-10 offers a decent balance of toughness, edge retention, and corrosion resistance. When I got home from the woods, I tested the edge on the Schempp Rock on some Post-It sheets and it was still able to slice through them, with only a hint of raggedness. And after some stropping (about a dozen strokes on both sides on black compound-impregnated leather, and then another dozen strokes again on green compound), it was slicing paper cleanly again.
Anyway, just wanted to share this experience with the community. It's been a weird and sort of lonely Christmas Eve what with everything going on in the province, but I'm glad I have the forum to talk about this stuff at least :)
