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Post: The CLAX Field test. (Topic#852227)

Sharpshooter
Master Member KnifeNut!

Loc: In da UP not from da UP
Reg: 11-19-02

05-18-09 20:09.07 - Post#1842958

Being a Knife Knut can be very much akin to being a student of history, especially if you are a bit inquisitive and observant.

Unless you're willing to become a minion of the KOTM (Knife Of The Month) school, you realize that as one of man's oldest tools, Knife Design Technology really reached it's pinnacle a long time ago. KTOM is actually a rehash of something done before or perhaps the combination of a few prior designs or you end up falling into the trap Bob Loveless described in his comment about making weird stuff instead of knives.

I've been around Bark River Knives for a long time and remember a when a lot of the, now, most coveted knives first came out. One knife I remember quite well was the Forester. Essentially the root shape was from the Gladius but with one sharp edge. The Forester was “cool” but the reception matched the temperature and it has become a sleeper in the collectible Bark River lineup.

I got into the woods for a bit with the latest incarnation of the blade that was the Forester, the CLAX, this past weekend and now I understand.

To really understand the CLAX we need to visit some history. The Gladius was the Roman Short Sword, what most people don't know is that there were several different versions of the Gladius through the years of the Roman Empire.

Among the many things the Romans were expert at, adopting weapon systems to suit specific needs in combat was one of the most valuable. They also weren't shy about taking technology where they found it and adopting it to their own. In the case of swords, the Romans took technology from the Greeks, Celts and even the Spanish and used to to develop their Gladius Weapon System.

The Cavalry and Chariots needed longer swords while the Infantry used shorted versions, much like modern soldiers carrying M16s and M4s depending on the circumstances.

The Spatha was the longer sword used by the Cavalry while the Maintz Gladius was developed and used by Infantry against heavily armored opponents. The CLAX is rooted more in this sword along with it's Celtic variations,

Another interesting bit of history is that the Romans were also expert “Combat Engineers” and while they carried some specialized tools it was often the Shorter Gladius that was used to chop and split for erecting shelters and such.

The CLAX became the second knife to visit the new Sharpshooter Field Lab.

It's from the “Combat Engineer” perspective that I'm going to evaluate the CLAX. I'll leave it to someone else to dress up in tunic and galea.

I plan to use the CLAX to assist in building a shelter, essentially the basic frame of a lean to type shelter leaving the remaining work to some other knife in the future.

First step was selecting a location, obviously I didn't want anything too far from the rest of the lab since the work area is already clear and I have some of the necessities already handy. that was the point of setting up the test lab and a bit of discipline now will make life much easier later on.

I need a clear space large enough under the shelter to comfortably lay down with room for a fire to generate heat and room to work around the shelter to modify it in later reviews.

I'll need to do a bit of clearing but there's level ground a bit higher than the surroundings and space. I avoided “TREES” as the effort to chop one down was a bit more than I wanted to tackle.

Saplings like this are easy to take down and provide poles for construction.

Saplings are easy to take down. You can play Lumberjack and hum the song as you work if you have a lot of time to burn or you can use this little trick.

Bend the sapling down as far as you can

This puts strain on the wood fibers along the outside of the curve...

A quick swipe with the CLAX and the sapling is now a pole as the edge easily slices right through the wood much like cutting a string with tension against it.

I took down about ten little saplings very quickly clearing out a clear path and my new space.

Something I realized while chopping was the differences between the CLAX and the Forester. There are two very obvious differences; the Clax is truly double edged making it much more true to the Maintz Gladius and second is the change in the handle.

The CLAX handle is shaped much more like what we see to be a common handle on the Gladius which is flat in cross section and still hand filling. It feels strange by “modern” standards because it's not contoured with a palm swell and finger grooves but it is a testament to something I have maintained for a long time that the hand is extremely versatile and will adapt to many shapes and sizes.

When using the CLAX as it's intended the shape and configuration of the handle makes perfect sense. Smooth rather than rough because it's supposed to slip a bit in the hand when chopping and the smooth shape makes that comfortable. A rough or ribbed handle creates pressure in spots which eventually become irritated (hot spots) forcing you to grab on harder which creates more pressure.

The relatively flat cross section appears to be wrong, especially sitting at home evaluating the knife in the recliner. I guess it's a good thing the Romans didn't have recliners because as soon as I swung the CLAX to chop, I realized that it naturally guides the edge to where you want to hit. There is surprisingly no twisting with this chopper and even more amazing it seems dead accurate.

Accurate with a chopping tool is different than accurate with most other things. When chopping, the goal is to have the cutting edge hit the work at a slight angle to clear the chunk of wood you chopped free.

The glancing blow is what makes chopping tools dangerous, axes, kukris, machette or golok, all of them are just fine when they hit the work square and get frightening when they glance off. Several times with the CLAX in mid swing I sensed that I was not “on target” and expected a glancing blow which would send the edge careening off to work to hit whatever else was in it's path. Interestingly NONE of those swings resulted in a glancing blow meaning that the CLAX was a lot more accurate than I thought.

The CLAX is a bit surprising when you first chop with it, the “Sweet Spot” isn't where you would think, instead of being on the “fat” part of the edge, it's slightly behind the swell.

When you chop with it, you get immediate feedback when you hit the spot, you feel a very satisfying solid hit as the blade digs deeply into the target.

Accuracy when chopping is more important with smaller tools than larger ones as the smaller tool requires you to be closer to the work and the arc of the chopping motion is less likely to have an obstruction to catch an errant blade should you glance off or miss.

I did a bit of more traditional chopping as well in the process of constructing the shelter.

Last time in the woods I made a bridle joint which would work here but that's a lot of work someone would have to do when something simpler would be as effective and much faster.

One benefit to having access to lots of poles and such is being able to pick and choose what pieces you want to use. For the front of the lean to, I decided to use a couple of forked branches to support the cross beam.

I found a couple of very nice candidates in the pile of brush I cleared and cleaned up the tops to give me my forks. I also messed up by forgetting a very important part of the job.... measure twice and cut once so laying in the burn pile is a very nice fork that's about a foot shorter than the pair I used.

The nice thing about working with wood is that regardless what happens you're making something, in this case rather than structural members I made firewood.

The Uprights for my lean-to were to be driven into the ground, so the CLAX went to work pointing the ends.

I've come to expect the CLAX to be a superb chopper and it didn't disappoint me on this task, quickly paring away the wood like butter.

The problem with a forked stick is that it doesn't commonly have the square top to drive on unless you're lucky enough to find one. Even then, driving on the top of the stick tends to mushroom it out.

Driving into the fork is a great way to break off or split the fork rendering the stick useless.

Another great trick is to take advantage of the forked end by placing a stiff cross piece into the fork and pushing/twisting with both hands to push it into the ground. To do that, I needed a split log.

Normally we would want to baton our knife through the log to split it. Problem is, the CLAX is double edged so the baton would likely take as much of a beating as the log we're trying to split.

The more you carry in your head, the less you carry on your back AND the easier difficult challenges become. I can't baton on the back of the blade, but remember... the Gladius was a thrusting weapon and I doubt that a Roman Soldier would be without shelter for lack of a split log.

How about this?

Baton the point of the CLAX into the log...

All the way until it's through the log. This starts to split the log as the blade wedges it apart. The sharpened edges and stout point go through the log effortlessly.

Using the wedges left from the last visit to the Field Lab finishing up the split is simple.

Simply driving them on either side of the blade splitting the log in two.

One section of the split log serves perfectly as the cross handle to set the forked upright...

Chopping a couple more poles finished up the day. A seven footer for the cross piece and a pair of five footers for the angle pieces back for the roof.

At this point I'm not certain how I want to proceed. I can either collect more saplings and branches to make a debris shelter, of do a bit more “engineering” and set it up for a tarp roof. Regardless, the CLAX did a fine job in the field.

Like the Roman Soldier who carried it's ancestor, the CLAX doesn't finesse anything, it's a Brute that does whatever job you assign to it. It's not for fine whittling or carving, it's a chopper with great lineage.

The Gladius, the Cled, the Welsh Machinegunner's Knife, the Fairbairn Smatchet make for a pretty impressive blood line. Were they simply fierce weapons I doubt the design would have been so widely copied, add in the dimension of utility as a field tool and you have a classic.

I'm glad I got the chance to look at this knife again, if I didn't, I would have missed working with one of the great knife designs of all time.

Experience life on purpose
Mike89
Sharpshooter Sheaths
Forest&Stream
עור פועל

mongo
Master Member KnifeNut!
mongo

Loc: Illinois
Reg: 08-30-02

05-18-09 20:18.00 - Post#1842966
In response to Sharpshooter

Hmmmm, deja-vu all over again. Hah, I knew it, ya took off all the pics with you wearing the toga while testing.

Anyways... great review, with great pics. I am looking forward to seeing more in the continuation of this series.

WWJMBD?

Who weeps for the Rutabaga?

As long as yer happy it doesn't matter how demented you are. Mack1

PUUKKO49
Master Member KnifeNut!

Loc: sunny south texas
Reg: 11-11-07

05-18-09 20:23.00 - Post#1842970
In response to Sharpshooter

Many thanks for the review. I've not had a chance to play with mine yet, this makes me glad I jumped on one while I could. I always enjoy your reviews and look forward to the next installment-Richard

disduster
Master Member KnifeNut!

Reg: 05-18-08

05-18-09 20:32.31 - Post#1842982
In response to PUUKKO49

excellent review

, i too i'm glad that i picked one of these up. digging how you nailed the clax thourgh the log. did you find that it marred the end of the handle? i have a forester on hand which i have used a good deal, i haven't used the clax yet but the handle feels so much more comfortable. keep up the informative testing and pics i feel like i learn something new all the time from you guys.

have you stroped today?
mike#1491

insector
Master Member KnifeNut!

Loc: Western Montana
Reg: 07-18-07

05-18-09 20:39.52 - Post#1842987
In response to PUUKKO49

Dead on righteous review!.....The Cledds are deceptive in a number of ways and I totally agree with your description of the Clax handle as opposed to the handle of the forrester. Very effective for me also.

I never cared about the forresters' populartity. The proof is in the pudding.

The history of it all kicks butt also. This is one serious chunk of artillery!..........Thanks for that.....

American woman, baby set me free. I don't like the hypnotize that generates so many lies. Throw away that war machine and forget about your ghetto scene. Now woman, baby let me be........

Dale

Sharpshooter
Master Member KnifeNut!

Loc: In da UP not from da UP
Reg: 11-19-02

05-18-09 21:11.28 - Post#1843009
In response to disduster

Quote:

gging how you nailed the clax thourgh the log. did you find that it marred the end of the handle?

No marring at all... Micarta is harder than my baton.

So much of Bushcraft is simply thinking problems through and looking to what you know works for the solution.

Experience life on purpose
Mike89
Sharpshooter Sheaths
Forest&Stream
עור פועל

disduster
Master Member KnifeNut!

Reg: 05-18-08

05-18-09 21:21.08 - Post#1843014
In response to Sharpshooter

nice, i got a blue g-10 clax to play with and i think it will be a problem solver. i find that when you do come to the solution of a problem in the field it can be one of the best feelings you can get. run into that felling trees all the time. if i only had a clax with me in the past

have you stroped today?
mike#1491

Big Mike
Master Member KnifeNut!

Loc: The Litchfield Hills
Reg: 08-01-06

05-19-09 08:07.27 - Post#1843226
In response to disduster

Nicely done Reid,

…the Clax is a very potent chopper.

Click for male enhancement.

I have been using mine quite a bit for trail clearing work,

…and my experience mirrors yours.

Your point about the sweet spot is “spot” on.

Mike

Rule 9: Never go anywhere without a knife.

Mike#666
Dangerous Dr. Derrick is my dealer.

Horn Dog
Master Member KnifeNut!

Loc: Georgia
Reg: 06-27-07

05-19-09 12:16.23 - Post#1843351
In response to Big Mike

Thanks for the review. It has been raining here for three days so I have not used my Clax yet. I was wondering just exactly what this thing is designed to do. It has a definite "weapon" look and feel to it. I like the way you used it to split wood. I knew that it would destroy my baton if I beat on that sharp edge with it. I was thinking that the flat recessed area would make a nice hammer for driving tent stakes, too.

Horned, dangerous, and off my medication.

1Sharpknife2
Master Member KnifeNut!

Loc: North Carolina
Reg: 04-17-08

05-19-09 12:29.51 - Post#1843360
In response to insector

Reid, great review!

I can't wait for some time off so I can get in the woods. I still can't get over how freaking sharp it is!

Steve

Wrinkles should merely indicate where the smiles have been
BRKCA Mike # 919

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