Woodman's Pal

Description

http://www.selfrelianceoutfitters.com

http://astore.amazon.com/davecante-20

The Pathfinder School,Bush Craft ,Survival skills, Historical Lore, Primitive Skills, Archery, Hunting, Trapping, Fishing, Navigation, Knives, Axes, Fire, Water, Shelter, Search and Rescue

Tags: Bushcraft,Survival,David Canterbury,Dave Canterbury,Pathfinder,The Pathfinder School,Archery,Hunting,Fishing,Camping,Primitive Skills,Fire,Water,Shelter,Navigation,First Aid,Search and Rescue,Signaling,Prepper,Preparedness,Self Reliance,Survivability,The 10 C's,Knives,Axes,Saws,Bow Drill,Ferrocerium Rod,Ferro Rod,Tarp,Hammock,Canteen,Cooking,Longhunter,Trapping

Video Transcription

okay so this is my ATV now they use quite a bit out here on the property and it's a Polaris sportsman's 400h oh and it's got a really nice tool box here where I keep the tools that I use on the trail Lodge there's enough stuff in here that I could easily make camp I've got another storage box in the back with a tarp and a hammock in it and then I've got basically all the tools containers things like that fire-starting implements that I would need up here in the front and one of the things I've added to this toolkit just in the last few days it's something I want to talk to you about today it's called the woodsman's pile and this is an original woodsman's count and this tool was designed back in 1941 we're going to talk a little bit about this tool today and demonstrate some of the uses for this tool as far as its design intent stay with me okay so let's talk about this woodsman's pal it was designed by Frederick aresome from Victor Tool Company and he designed this by studying edge tools that were created for processing different types of material all over the world and he wanted to create one tool that was kind of a multifunctional tool for the woodsman back in the 1940s and this tool at that time came with a metal sheath and this is an original like I said with the metal sheath and the leather wrap around the handle and it just sat into that sheath and then it had a metal belt loop on the backside of it that you could clip over the top of your belt run your belt through here that was kind of like a spring clip and that's the way you would carry that tool into the woods and this tool was adopted by the United States military used from World War one all the way through the Vietnam War and its use in jungle environments probably far exceeds even its usefulness in a woodland environment but the way this tool was designed it's designed to do lots and lots of things it has a little bit of a recurve type cutting edge here at the bottom and it's got a double bevel on it it's made out of a high carbon spring steel that is 1/8 of an inch it's got an indent indention here at the base and that's really an indexing point to catch your finger so that you can use this tool without slipping up onto this blade with a pair of gloves on as a drawing type tool or shaving type tool and then it can also be used as a baton enctype tool obviously it can be used for cutting and it said in advertising that this tool is made to cut branches of up to one and a half inch in diameter one and a half inch diameter with a single swing it also had a brush hook on here that was only sharpened on one side and it was basically made for brushing in front of you pulling out low vines brambles and brush and things like that in dense areas it's got a guard on it here with a leather-wrapped grip and it says Elsie 14b on the guard and on the blade itself it says woodsman's pal Victor Tool Company it's now owned by a different company the kekulé company doesn't only this anymore manufacture this anymore it's made by a proline or pro tool company now I believe it's called it also has an edge on the front of this blade that you could use for downward shaving and things like that debarking and things of that nature so it's a multifunctional woods tool that was designed again probably before its time being made back in 1941 Multi tools like this for woodsmen and that's what it was designed for is adopted later by the military obviously but it was designed intent for use by the woodsman the Forest Service woodland firefighters and things of that nature and for the sportsman in general but it does a lot of good tasks it's not a real heavy tool and it can take the place of a machete and do lots more than just a normal machete will do so let's take this thing in the woods and use it for some brushing and see how that works out and also use it for some living and chopping and see how that works out as well

so that you two can take a look at this tool and decide for yourself because it is currently manufacture as well whether you'd like to try it [Music]

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I have repro filed it and sharpened a little bit I'll show you on that I'll show you that process in this video as well but there's no different really than sharpening a machete but one thing I did do different was I used a rounded mill file in this brush hook area to sharpen that radius and again it's only sharpened on one side and I just knocked a burr off the other side so let's take this bad boy over here into the woods and see what it will do all right I've got some low brush and things right here beside me that we can use to test the brush up part of this blade now I would say that this tool is designed to be right-handed so it would be used with this cutting edge up I'm left-handed that may put it a little bit of a disadvantage but we're going to find out because I've got some low we're pretty good on that sticker bush right there for sure I'm cutting that brush yeah not a problem at all on those stickers just cut that right in half and that's probably a good half inch Bush right there and they just cleaned it straight off at the bottom here really really nice even though I had this thing upside down it pulled three of those off of there really in almost a single sling that cut three of those straight off so I'd say that portion of it works pretty good

I'm not even swinging this thing really hard and then there's cleaning out its honeysuckle and things like that like it's nothing right here so I'd say the brush hooking ability of this thing to clear trail is absolute [Music]

so we got a couple will have your sticks hear something about a half inch sup at about an inch and a half cut them right off cleared to brush around it you know that's a nice multifunctional tool in my opinion for sure guys I don't think there's any question if that is a heck of a working tool a fantastic add to my ATV kit as far as the toolkit goes when I've already got a saw an axe and a folding shovel in there as well for making camp things like that but even if I were carrying this on my side as a tool with maybe a smaller bushcraft style knife this thing's a heck of a tool it is definitely lives up to its name the woodsman spouse so I would urge you to check one of these things out like I said you can buy these new manufactured I don't think you can bind with this metal sheet but you can buy them with a leather or Cordura sheath as far as what I saw one with a house website you can also buy them on amazon.com but I think it's worthwhile for any woodsman to check this tool out just to decide for themselves whether it's worthwhile carrying or not even if you are carrying it because you have conveyance like I am today