The Cargo Tape King: Reviewing Gorilla Glue Products

Okay guys, this week the unthinkable has happened; I've broken my axe handle. Now I could drop down and use it the way it is, but I am not going to get any work done. The best course of action would be to replace or repair the handle using Gorilla tape, and maybe even a little Gorilla glue. I wanted to test and see if something like this happened, if I could repair it or if I would have to completely rehang it. Would this be the end of my camp, or could I get this tool to hang on just a bit longer until I could properly repair it? Now this isn't going to be like other reviews we have done in the past. This review is not just on one product, but instead on the Gorilla brand itself and how its products work together.

The products I will be using are the Gorilla Crystal Clear Tape, Gorilla Glue (the same glue I used in the fire starting video), and some black Gorilla Tape for grip. What I am going to do is use the glue to bond the handle back to itself. The bottle states that this glue will bond to wood which is what we need it to do so I am going to be careful to follow the instructions on the bottle.After having it set, I am going to bind the handle with the clear tape about to inches above and two inches below the fracture, similar to when I make sewing repairs. Lastly, I will use the black tape and a grip where my hands will hold the axe to prevent it from slipping while I am working.

To apply the glue you first wet the area that you will be applying the glue to and spread it thin. I did this for the axe handle and spread the glue with a stick. After making sure the two pieces of handle adequately fit together I used to crystal clear tape to bind it in three places across the fracture; the top, middle, and bottom. By doing this it helps clamp the two sides together so they can bond together. I also took apart my chair (which will be featured another time) and laid one piece on the ground, sandwiched the axe between it and the top piece, and used a large rock (though you could use any significantly weighted object like your pack, a large branch, etc...) to place on top of it, again to clamp the two broken pieces together. After letting this sit for two hours, I will come back to check on it.

After two hours, I notice that some of the Gorilla glue has come out of the sides of the break. This is a good thing.  What this means is that the handle had enough pressure on it for the glue to spread out inside the fracture. At this point I wrap the Gorilla crystal clear tape in one continuous wrap from two inches above the break to two inches below. Afterward, and this is an optional step, I used my mini cargo tape roll (the black tape) to create a nonslip grip for my hands. After a few good test swings on a very sturdy tree, I'm convinced that the Gorilla products have done their job.

And that does it for this week. I want to thank everyone reading this for going through this with me and I would also like to think Gorilla brand products. They did not sponsor me or ask me to do this review, but without them I don't think this repair would have been possible. Next week we will be starting on our last C: cotton, and you won't want to miss it! As always feel free to comment by clicking the comment link at the end of the blog, hit the follow button in the top right corner, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one on Sunday 10pm (est). If you want to keep up with me and what I’m doing, Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. Lastly if video is more your style check out my YouTube Channel backpack bushcraft where there is a video version of this with the same title. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.

The Daily Grind: Maintaining Your Equipment in the Field

Over the past few weeks we have talked about various cutting tools you would take into the field such as knives, axes, and saws. But let’s be honest here, these tools are going to do absolutely nothing for you if you do not care for and maintain them. With proper maintenance, these tools could last you for years and you will find that they even perform better, but without it, you will be out a considerable amount of energy trying to work with them and money having to replace your tools because they have fallen apart or are now completely worn down. So as you can imagine, this week we will be talking about proper maintenance for your cutting tools while outdoors so you can get the most out of what they have to offer.

The biggest problem with taking maintenance tools into the bush, is the amount of weight and space they can take up in your back. While I’m sure your Japanese water stones are the best when it comes to sharpening your blade, it can be highly impractical to take it with you, along with a belt sander or various other things that you may use to sharpen your knives. However, some items are sold to be taken into the field to help you keep that edge.

The first thing that I want to introduce you to is a two-stage portable knife sharpener. This will resemble a square with two open slices into the top side and the bottom side. One side will contain sharpening stones and be called the “coarse” side. This will be used to take off large amounts of material as you begin to treat your blade.  The other side will have one labeled “fine” which will have ceramic rods in it. Now I am going to be honest with you, I am not the best knife sharpener and when I was young, I always believed that you had to start with coarse side and move to the fine side. However, now, I have been told that you should only use the coarse side for fixed blade knives and that the fine side is for something different. So when you begin to use this product you want to slowly draw the blade across the stones. You will end up having to apply pressure and you will more than likely pull it at an angle than straight across. It make take a few swipes to get it sharp enough. This will be good to sharpen most pocket knives.

Fixed blade knives such as my old hickory butcher knife, to ensure that I get the entire cutting surface, I want to use a different set up. The sharpener that I use for it only has the coarse stones, and, has a guard for your fingers so that you are able to draw the knife across the whole thing without worrying about cutting yourself. It may take you a few swipes to get your blades as sharp as you want. Be patient and check your knives frequently by using the paper test.

 

Now as I said earlier, you can’t take your giant Japanese water stones, however, you can find some smaller versions that can be used to hone your blade while in the field. A good rule of thumb while using them, you want to maintain a good 20 degree angle. To do this, take the corner of a piece of paper, fold it in half making it 45 degrees, then fold it in half again making it 22.5 degrees.

Sometimes you’ll even find tools that do them all. I picked up this device at a gun store on a discount. It has three sides to sharpen your knife on, and a 20 degree guide, along with a fishing hook sharpener. This could be an all in one device that you take just for your maintenance. That’ll just about do it for knives. Now let’s move on to your axe.

When working on my axe in the field, I like to have a bastard file with me. You can pick these up at Walmart in the tool aisle. The reason I always like to pack my file with me is to treat a nick that can be very common when using an axe, or just to touch up the face if I had made a previous mistake. Remember that files only cut one way so once you figure out how that file cuts, you only want to use it in that direction. Unlike with the others that give you a rudimentary guide, you really just have to eyeball this one. What has always helped me has been to look down the edge and you will be able to see the thickness of the metal that is still left.

Once I have removed a good deal of material, I like to follow up with a Lansky Duel Grit Sharpener Puck. It is $7 on Amazon.com. Take my advice, only use water when using stones like this. If you use oil, you’ll have to bring oil in the field. However, if you use water, it’s easier to come by and gives you pretty much the same result in my opinion. I submerge my puck in water until the bubbles stop coming up. Then I find the coarse side and in a circular motion rub it on the edge of my axe blade. The goal is to take off a enough material to bring my edge back.

Lastly I like to follow up all of this with a diamond rod. This really could be the only device that you may need for your maintenance out in the field as it gives you something to hone your blade. The one I have has a flat face, a round face, and a pointed end. This allows me to make sure that I can run the length of my blade no matter what I’m working on.

That will have to do it for this blog. If you are looking to purchase any of these items to take with you I suggest getting, a file, a diamond rod, and a 2 stage knife sharpener. This will give you a great start. If you have an axe I highly recommend getting a puck too. Next week will be the final week in this series of cutting tools. Thank you guys so much for tuning in each week to read my words. However, the next blog will be a little different. Not only will you get the blog, but I am also going to put up the first episode of backpack Bushcraft on YouTube. Both the blog and the video will be a knife review, so you don’t want to miss out.

As always feel free to comment, hit the follow button in the top right corner, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one. Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. Also check out my YouTube Channel: Backpack Bushcraft for video updates and corresponding tutorials. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.

Battle of the Blades: Fixed Blade Knife vs. Hatchet

We’re finally here. This is probably going to be the most anticipated blog of all of the blogs we’ve posted up in the last few months. This series of blogs will encompass the final C, the cutting tool. Bushcraft should almost be synonymous with knife stuff. Whenever you see someone talking about Bushcraft, there’s a knife involved. There’s a knife either on their belt, around their neck, or in their pocket or hand. I won’t even lie, even I am holding a knife in my cover picture for the website. Now why would that be? Because everything that we do requires that piece of metal. Think about something as simple as starting a fire. More than likely you’re going to use your knife to process the fine material and to baton wood for fuel. It can be used for carving feather sticks for your fire lay. You can strike a ferro rod or flint against it to create sparks. You could possibly even use the handle as part of your socket for a primitive bow drill set. That’s 5 uses for your knife in making fire alone.

What are you going to do with that fire? Cook with it? If that’s the case you may need to carve yourself a bowl and a spoon. Maybe a fork. Maybe make a plank of wood to soak and grill fish on. You may even want to carve a stake to roast your fish on. If you’re cooking something bigger, you may even need a spit to roast your meat on. But let’s say you’re making soup in a pot. You’ll probably have to carve a pot hook and lash that together in conjunction with your tripod. You may want to carve notches into the pot holder so you can adjust the level which you are cooking on. A good rule of thumb that I have come up with is whatever you don’t plan to bring with you, have a plan on how to make it. Nine times out of ten, you’ll need your knife to achieve that. 

Now before you go run off and grab a big steak knife or cleaver from your kitchen, not all knives are created equal and trying to talk about all the different knives and their individual uses would take all of this blog as well as the next few. So instead of carrying a bunch of knives, we want to find that great multitasker in the drawer. Now our forefathers found that the best knife to use was a butcher knife. Now they didn’t read Ye Ole Blog to find that out. They did exactly what I’m telling you to do now, which is to think “what is it that I’m going to be doing?” and find a knife that accomplishes all those tasks. For the woodsmen back then, they would mostly go out to hunt and possibly collect materials from the outdoors, so they would need a knife that could perform tasks such as skinning, cutting meat, working well with wood, and maybe even chopping up herbs. These men did not have disposable incomes. In fact most of the time these trips were used to increase the coiffeurs of the household. So often they would just grab a knife from out of the drawer. Most of the time that knife was just a 6” butcher knife. You can find them still today, mostly still the same way for a reasonable price. They have features such as a full tang so you can baton with it, a long blade that is good for skinning with, and because it is good for skinning it is good for fine carving tasks. It has a wooden handle with pins in it, meaning that if you lost the handle you could repair the knife or maybe even craft a handle on the fly.  And as dictated by free market, the success of this knife would have been passed on from friend to friend and throughout their generations.

Now I promised you last week a battle and I couldn’t do that if I have another competitor. There are a lot of cutting tools out there that can be companions to a good belt knife. A saw, an axe, a pocket knife, or a specialty knife. In modern days we could even use a multitool. However, there is one tool that I do believe can replace a knife if you want it to. And that tool would be the hatchet. A small one-handed axe with a 4” cutting edge. Similar to the Native American tomahawk except for the fact that the blade could not be taken off, it could be used to process game, cast sparks if made from the correct metal, could be choked up on to get finer carving tasks that you could get out of a knife, and of course could be used like an axe to process fire wood or chop down saplings. There is even a famous book called Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, in which a young boy is stranded in the Canadian wilderness with only a hatchet to survive with. Side note: this was one of the first books of my childhood that got me into the outdoors.

And with all that, let’s give my childhood a little closure and figure out which is better, the knife, or the hatchet? For this series of tests I will be using a Camillus Drop Point fix blade with a 4 ¾” blade (purchased at Walmart) and a Truper boy’s camping axe (purchased at Tractor Supply). The goal of my test was to see how well they could each chop, carve, split wood, and also cast a spark to make a fire.

For the first one, I had a green branch of a tulip popular tree. I started with the hatchet first and attempted to cut off a 9” section of branch to carve with. After about one minute of work, the hatchet had went through more than half and I was able to snap it off. If I had chosen to, I could have continued working with the hatchet because it wasn’t taxing. Then when we switched to the Camillus to do the same job, I found that it only took out a quarter of the material in one minute, and that it was a taxing process. Also, unlike the hatchet, I had to use a piece of wood to baton strike my blade to get it to cut into the wood, and I had to perform the technique known as “beaver chewing” which is where you would cut the wood in the way a beaver would chew through a branch. For the first round, I am giving it to the hatchet; not surprising seeing that this task is the hatchet’s primary job.

For the second round, I wanted to carve both a spiked end and a blunt end. Starting with the hatchet again, I was able to debark very easily and make a crude spear point. Next, working at my stump and anvil, I had to go about the task of trying to give it the round top, which was not easy and the hatchet was difficult to work with in performing this task. When I test the stake to be put into the ground, the top mushroomed out, and the spear was not good enough to go deep into the ground and therefore wouldn’t make an adequate tent stake. Moving on to the fixed blade, it debarked easier, made a much better spear point, and rounded edge, and it was very easy and controlled while being worked with. When testing the second stake in the same manner as the first, the top did mushroom, however, the stake actually went deeper into the ground and would have made a decent tent stake. The winner of this round goes to the fixed blade for its control and better shaping of the wood.

 Following this test, I wanted to carve feather sticks, something every woodsman needs to know when making a fire (something we’ll probably talk about in a later blog). During this test, the hatchet was not sharp enough to give enough control to round the curve without taking everything off at the top. The few curls I got were not good and deep. However, when using the knife, I did have that sharpness and control. I was able to get very big elaborate curls. Again, the winner is the fixed blade. The hatchet just could not perform the task that it was given.

For the fourth task, I wanted to baton wood. I am prepared to go ahead and give this to the hatchet because I already know that between the two of them, the hatchet could split larger pieces of wood if needed. However, with that being said, while batoning both with the hatchet and the fixed blade, I got very good results, with possibly better out of the hatchet. However, the quality of the product is just as important as the quality of the work. Both knives got the job done and did fairly well at getting the job done, but the each performed in different ways. With the hatchet, if the wood would have stood by itself, I could have split it. However, since it couldn’t, I had to baton the axe the way I would a knife. It still did its job fine, gave me a very clean cut, and I was not worried at any moment that I could possibly break the hatchet. When I split with the knife, it split the wood well, was not any more tasking than using the hatchet, however, with every strike, I had to worry if I could possibly break my blade because of how thin it was compared to the hatchet.

                                    

For the final test, I wanted to throw sparks off of my ferro rod. I knew I was going to be in trouble when starting with the hatchet because I could not find a 90 degree edge. After look it over two or three times, I knew what I was going to have to do. I struck the ferro rod against the cutting edge to produce sparks. It didn’t seem to hurt the hatchet too bad, however I would never, ever, advise that unless you absolutely had to. I did it in this experiment because I was testing a scenario in which I had to do that. The sparks provided were pretty good and I do believe I could have built a fire. Following that performance I switched to the fixed blade where I used my 90 degree spine to cast sparks easily, and consistently. For the final test and the tie breaker, I have to go with the fixed blade.

In closing, I believe that both of these tools are great in their own right, however, when it comes to multitasking, I find that a good fixed blade can often outperform or at least keep pace with a hatchet, but not the other way around. Due to the hatchet’s design, it does not allow for the smooth, even carving that you can get from a fixed blade, which is why it fails in the carving task it was given. However, where the fixed blade is full tang, it provides it with some durability to accomplish those tasks that I would give to the hatchet such as batoning and beaver chewing. It doesn’t accomplish it as well as the hatchet, but it does get the job done. Finally I believe that the fixed blade wins overall because it can be used to strike that ferro rod which is something THIS hatchet couldn’t do, which brings me to my final point. My hatchet could not strike a ferro rod, however if I took some time and put in a 90 degree edge somewhere on my hatchet, worked my profile to accomplish those carving tasks better, this could be a new ballgame.

Overall, I think that I prefer fixed blades over hatchets. Tell me what you prefer down in the comments. I hope you enjoyed this little contest. In the end if you don’t know which one to take, go nuts and take both. Next week I will be going over another cutting tool that in some ways can put both of these to shame. Comment below what you think it is by 11:30 pm EST Sunday July 30^th, 2017. The first commenter that gets it right will get a shoutout in the next blog. As always feel free to comment, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one. Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.