Entrenching Tools

we're going to be talking about entrenching tools also called eTools for just one tool these are really really useful they perform a lot of different tasks I've got three here this is the cold steel spetsnaz shovel I think I believe they call it a super ko it doesn't look the way it comes from the factory I've modified it I've painted it and sharpened it and done a few things we've done a customized shoes with it here we have the haensi tool which has been around in the United States military for quite a time a lot of people are familiar with it and then the current issue is the the Gerber so I want to compare a few things about them and show you my thoughts and it's strictly my humble opinion ultimately it's whatever serves you best as an individual because we all utilize our tools in different ways I'll store it with the cold steel it has a fixed wooden handle that's secured by these screws these handles can break I have a scar here on my forearm I was chopping down a tree with this exact shovel and the handle broke and rotated back and stuck in my forearm was i over taxing the tool yeah I was but at least I know where the breaking point is that so but for chopping this this shovel is really nice if you something this is awesome I really like it for that it's balanced if you if you need to slice chop use it in a self defense type capacity this would be an awesome weapon to use you could shower out a log and use it as a hands to scrape down if you need hollow out of container if he uses a boat paddle I know people who throw these pretty accurately a small game I think it's best as a weapon and I think it's best as a chopper as a shovel I kind of favor the other two but you can modify the wood handle in long-term situations to fit your needs so there's some thoughts about that the Gerber which is the current issue I'm pretty new to this but I like it it has only two positions it has the fixed position but you would expect it has a forward position which differs somewhat from the aims and I'm going to go ahead and pull it up and show you this is the aims and they usually are marked us on one side and then aims with the year that one's the 81 model on the other so as you break these over into the four position you notice a difference with the aims you have a 90 degree angle nearly a 90 degree angle with the new Gerber it's a more forward angle and what I ran into while using this is almost too much of an angle here on the Gerber because it would glance off the things that I wasn't quite getting the purchase that I wanted the handles comfortable enough but it only has the two positions with the aims which I'm kind of thinking might be my personal favorite here there's a lot of positions so let's go over this one we start off you have what is a conventional shovel notice the point is a little more pronounced than the head on either the Gerber or the Superga so it works more in inviting deep it actually works against rock I've chipped on granite and other stones with this and it hasn't really damaged the edge I have sharpened it all the way around I used a chainsaw file and that's one advantage to this so you have this serait ssin so even if it's dull you have something that's gonna bite it's going to shear through if you need to chop through something like say rope if you have it in this fashion and needed to solve it could be used that way and it chops pretty well also will go after a few limbs here [Music] no issues there it's a chopper you can put it into this particular angle which I found useful as a lever to put under a stone or a large log if you needed to lift and just place your foot here up it goes and you can pull your saw through the wood without getting into the ground so that might have some application maybe in a breach in time capacity and it'll go to the ford angle that you saw before almost a 90 degree angle and in that position I really like the handle here it's smooth let's assume that I had one hand out of play for whatever reason if I'm injured I'm still able to dig using that that one-handed operation that would be hard to do with the cold steel model also this could be used as a seat after a long day of shoveling and I've sat on this for a long time sitting around camp and then all of a sudden if you need to you can just stand up fold it up and go so it works is that way also you can go here to this angle attach your rope here and now you have a grappling hook with which you could pull down limbs like those in that pine up there if I wanted some of those dry dead limbs or if you needed to get over an obstacle so as far as utility I have to give a slight edge to the aims out of all of them though I do I do like both the cold still in the Gerber but if I could only carry one I think I'm leaning toward this one also this angle enables you to grab it with two hands squat down and you're able to dig a trench pretty balanced without fatiguing your muscles so all things considered some of the aluminum in this the parts that are aluminum actually are better than aircraft-grade aluminum what I was told about these is they're on par with NASA what they put on the Space Shuttle these are very well made tools by the Ames corporation so we'll do a little bit of digging so we've got this hole that I've started working on it's gonna be a fire pit maybe a underground oven at some point so obviously with the cold steel model having this forward angle is not an option I have to use it in this configuration or I have to take the screws out go carve a stick that has a 90 degree or wet one and bend it so let's see how that performs get down in our hole here usually the technique that I have to do is I'll get on the end of that the handle in here and use a stabbing motion you can kind of see how that's going stab and pull okay and then obviously to remove the material like so or if I had one hand you can choke up on it come here and get your material so it does perform well and it's good as a as a chopper as well and if the handle did break I know I've got this one painted but the handle the metal tang stops and interfaces with the handle right about here so if you had no handle at all you still do have enough meat on there that you can hold it you could use it as a knife you could use it to chop you can still get by with some digging you lose some leverage but I think that's a good design feature so that went out of the way we'll go with the gerber [Music] that's really moving some material and you're hearing these stones that I'm hitting there's a lot of rocks in this Grimm I'm gonna change it over to the Spade configuration and we'll remove some of this material it works well if it works well one-handed there's no hotspots on this shovel this doesn't blister me anywhere and it could also be used one-handed if you had to that's a nice tool and after the Eames kind of performs on par with the Gerber but it has the added benefit of the other positions that I talked about it seems to move the most dirt and in the one-handed position it works well there is one hot spot these corners do tend to get to the hand if you hold it down in this area but that's really the only critique I have about it so between those three make your choice

Channel: Alan KaySurvival

Views: 46,218

Rating: 4.9271951 out of 5

Keywords: E-tool, Entrenching Tool, Guardian556, Alan Kay

Id: 5abolhTb7qQ

Length: 9min 53sec (593 seconds)

Published: Mon May 26 2014