Howdy folks!
I've got a bit of a fascination with big blades from around the world, and the parang is a cool one. For the woods I make heavy use of an axe with relatively little consideration for big blades, but I thought a big blade might be useful for the desert - lots of tough, spiny plants and not a great deal of wood. What wood you do chop here is likely to not be huge in diameter, but would really require a baton to split which rules out a South American style machete in my book.
So, I bought a Condor mini duku parang. It's got a 10.5" blade (from memory?) and quite a nice leather sheath, but I decided to build a new one. I haven't had it long, but it's impressed me. It chops, but its thinness lets it sink pretty deep. The grind is very high and convexed - it seems plenty tough without being too bulky. The blade shape and handle is superb IMO - a nice compromise of slashy, choppy and slicey. I don't know how else to put it! It doesn't slash like a machete and it doesn't chop like an axe, but so far it seems like a nice compromise for my environment (despite its origins in a very, very different environment).
The sheath I made is from some laminated bamboo boards I had. The laminations aren't perfect, but it's OK. I used a router to remove the bulk of material for the blade from one side and did the rest by hand with a gouge. I wanted to maintain some of the practicality of a traditional parang sheath while adding some modern convenience and security. The sheath is not glued together, allowing it to be taken apart for cleaning (great for a sandy, gritty environment like mine). It is held together with a chicago screw at the tip (easily removed, but the halves can still be swung open without removing it) which also offers the possibility of screwing down a d-ring as a lashing point. At the other end, there's initially a wrap of gorilla tape to hold everything in place. Then goes on some inner tube (the inner tube also holds on the belt loop, which is from an army duffel bag). The inner tube helps to hold the halves together, but also provides a non-slip surface for the 550 cord to grip. The 550 cord turks head knots provide the final level, and an additional wrap of 550 cord is for emergency use. All of the inner tube is cut into 1/2" or so rings, so they can be pulled off individually for firelighting or to attach something else to the sheath, and nothing will suffer for it. There's also a quick link on the belt loop, so it can be easily attached to whatever it needs to be on!
I'm pretty pleased with my purchase and mods!
Pete
I've got a bit of a fascination with big blades from around the world, and the parang is a cool one. For the woods I make heavy use of an axe with relatively little consideration for big blades, but I thought a big blade might be useful for the desert - lots of tough, spiny plants and not a great deal of wood. What wood you do chop here is likely to not be huge in diameter, but would really require a baton to split which rules out a South American style machete in my book.
So, I bought a Condor mini duku parang. It's got a 10.5" blade (from memory?) and quite a nice leather sheath, but I decided to build a new one. I haven't had it long, but it's impressed me. It chops, but its thinness lets it sink pretty deep. The grind is very high and convexed - it seems plenty tough without being too bulky. The blade shape and handle is superb IMO - a nice compromise of slashy, choppy and slicey. I don't know how else to put it! It doesn't slash like a machete and it doesn't chop like an axe, but so far it seems like a nice compromise for my environment (despite its origins in a very, very different environment).
The sheath I made is from some laminated bamboo boards I had. The laminations aren't perfect, but it's OK. I used a router to remove the bulk of material for the blade from one side and did the rest by hand with a gouge. I wanted to maintain some of the practicality of a traditional parang sheath while adding some modern convenience and security. The sheath is not glued together, allowing it to be taken apart for cleaning (great for a sandy, gritty environment like mine). It is held together with a chicago screw at the tip (easily removed, but the halves can still be swung open without removing it) which also offers the possibility of screwing down a d-ring as a lashing point. At the other end, there's initially a wrap of gorilla tape to hold everything in place. Then goes on some inner tube (the inner tube also holds on the belt loop, which is from an army duffel bag). The inner tube helps to hold the halves together, but also provides a non-slip surface for the 550 cord to grip. The 550 cord turks head knots provide the final level, and an additional wrap of 550 cord is for emergency use. All of the inner tube is cut into 1/2" or so rings, so they can be pulled off individually for firelighting or to attach something else to the sheath, and nothing will suffer for it. There's also a quick link on the belt loop, so it can be easily attached to whatever it needs to be on!
I'm pretty pleased with my purchase and mods!
Pete
Where there's enough water we do get willow though, and I imagine a machete would do alright for that!
