Ultimate camp/survivor tool?

[Timelord]

Lots more photo's later today. Tool is finished, just needs a careful sharpening. Got to sort the sheath & fastener and carry securings next.
I have managed to increase the multi use of the tool. It now includes a wood & a metal saw with 2 quality Bahco bimetal shatterproof hacksaw blades & 4 junior hacksaw blades carried in the handle. Gerber folding wood saw blades, fine & coarse are to be carried in the sheath. The handle also incorporates 7.5 metres of 3mm paracord, a 1ft square piece of tinfoil & about 1 metre of self amalgamating tape which is used for binding & waterproofing electrical connections & can be used for sealing leaks on pipes or kit. It is a rubberised self clinging & moldable stretching tape.

more later on my next shift.

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The weight of the finished tool + the unfinished entrenching pouch comes in at 1.52 kilos, whereas the reference axe inc sheath was 1.4kilos.
So that is only 120 grams heavier & it includes the hacksaw blades & paracord & amalgamating tape + it performs many more functions than the axe alone.

[Skean Dhude]

You could have a business going here. Sounds like a tool we would all like.

[Timelord]

Yesterday night I finished the tool itself. The Scabbard with quick release I modified & finished this evening. Here are some photo's from last nights endevours :-

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& some more...

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More from Thursday nights session

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More photo's

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same again.

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Ditto....

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Thats it until I post Fridays nights Scabbard mod photo's up tmrw.
:-)

[Familyguy]

your very skilled .... good work there.

[Timelord]

Forgot to add these last night. More later.

[Scythe13]

That looks scarey mate.

[Timelord]

Indeed!! lol

[Timelord]

Friday nights Scabbard mods.

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last photo's.

I find the tool sits nicely in it's scabbard, flat against my side. It is much more stable & comfortable than when wearing a camp utility axe which are head heavy & tend to swing around more. This sits very stable with no real lateral movement. Even though the complete unit weight is now 1.8kilo's with all the extra blades included, it seems to weigh less on the hip, possibly due to its stability and being flat is closer to my centre of gravity. Sitting & driving is no problem as the unit can be swung forward or back up out of the way.
My rucksack sits higher above the scabbard - as intended, so no clearance issues there.

The tool in its scabbard is worn inverted. It is designed for quick release. The webbing tab that fastens the tool in is secured by its original military robust press button/stud. this holds the weight no problem even with excessive movement. All it takes to release is to pull the ready to hand tab and with the same hand held against the side of the tool, guiding it downwards briefly until the hand finds the shaft. The downward movement continues and the hand then sweeps the blade out of the scabbard and round overhand into the first cut. This can be achieved rapidly in one continuous movement. This was an important design necessity and luckily the entrenching tool scabbard facilitated this with little design modification needed. I may fit a second press tab to the webbing strap as a safety backup & to spread the load from one point. It will have to be right next to the first one so as to be easily pulled free at the same time.

I ran out of room on the tool to make a wirecutter or any other tool use nocks, but I feel these type of tools can be best incorporated as part of another small multitool. Also I did not want to weaken the structural integrity of the tool due to the fact it may be exposed to considerable forces on different parts of the tool at different times.

Next I have to give it a differential grind to the edge. the axe part will be different to the knife edge part.
I have also built in the ancient battleaxe type of edge profile to the part just beyond the axe. whilst this is nominally the part that extends the edge to that of a big knife, it also has a considerable mass and width. To capitalise on this and to avoid the blade becoming stuck in any cleaving action, I have ground broad flat fullers into the area about an inch behind the blade cutting edge. This fuller also was important to remove weight from the frontal part of the tool and to give it better balance & usability. The battle axe profile is such that the main body of steel behind the cutting edge is thinner than that of the cutting edge. This results in negligible friction or surface area pressure behind the blade, once the cutting main cutting edge has passed through the material. the main body does not widen out until the back edge of the blade to retain strength.
This profile is no good for wood work, so the axe part at the lower part of the blade is thicker and retains its cleaver wedge shape to the back edge. this will split wood far more efficiently. It does not in itself have quite the same total mass as a proper camp wood axe, butwhen you add the total mass of the whole tool to the swung weight impact, then the sum of the parts is greater.

the whole blade length is 10 inches and has the original slight curve. This is a very efficient design and hence why it was employed for a heavy cleaver. Same as leaf blades, sabres, scimiters and the front underedge of a Bowie + others.

the circular shape at the fore end of the back edge serves a few purposes.
1) the inner holds the Gerber woodsaw blades & allows an expedient hacksaw to be made up.
2) Careful profiling of its back edge inner curve allows a hook type surface to be incorporated. this useful for hooking items including limbs and also for pulling objects towards you.
3) The Circular shape acts as a thin mace. this will not work like a true fatter mace, but it will crush/penetrate to some degree depending on the material. useful for when you don't want to use a blade edge.

With the spade, the front cutting edghe is wider than that for most of the length of the tool, but towards the back it widens out again. Once the front edge has cut through the earth and then the whole spade slides in to follow, the spadeful of earth is then tilted out and lifted from the ground. The whole piece of earth should come out relatively intact - unless very loose dry/sandy and then it will be easy enough to dig anyway.
The profile of the underhandle rear edge was changed to bring parallel with the spade edge to allow correct foot pressure. This edge was grooved for grip.

Complete list of tool uses :-

1) Wood Axe
2) 10inch Knife
3) Small spade 10 x 5.5 inches
4) Battle Axe
5) Hook
6) V.thin mace/knocker
7) Thin expedient hammer head on back edge just above handle.
8) Prybar
9) Woodsaw
10) Expedient Hacksaw
11) 2 Hacksaw & 4 Junior Hacksaw blade carrier in handle
12) 2 Gerber fine & coarse wood saw blades stored on scabbard
13) 7.5m Paracord available as part of the handle
14) Approx 1 foot Square Tinfoil sheet incorporated into handle
15) Self Amalgamating Tape available approx 2 as part of handle
16) expedient Paddle
17) basha expedient foot end pole.

Phew, now to sharpen & try out.... Any volunteers? :-)

[Timelord]

I was thinking that now maybe I should get a colour dyed mohican and invest in studded leather biker wear with sleeves ripped off, Oh and lots of dodgy tatoo's & facial jewellery & super rock boots. That should complement the new toy nicely! :-)

[Scythe13]

From tool to toy! Haha

Have you tested out those capabilities yet? You don't want to find something bad out in the field.