Quite possibly the best backpacking saw!!!

for what's up everybody for those tuning in for the first time thanks for clicking on that video um for those who are subscribed and watched a few of my videos welcome back I guess first off I'm going to talk about what we're doing here taking a hike from Canyon Falls to hopefully Sugarloaf mountain in Marquette for those who are familiar we're on the North Country Trail we're actually on a a piece of it as a road for quite a ways here so I thought I'd do a little bit of filming what we're trying to do here is uh keep ourselves honest through the winter here and this is a spring hike like I said 82 mil is just a a way to challenge yourself keep oursel in shape we enjoy Western hunting and it sucks getting in shape to go out there so the I guess the idea behind this is to just not get out of shape and if you schedule something like this in the spring it keeps you honest through the winter and it keeps you off the couch like a lot of the content that I put together the idea is to focus on do-it-yourself projects that are functional you know things that you'll use in everyday life or on adventures like this what I do is I go to YouTube and I dig around through a bunch of different videos that have something to do with what I'm trying to do or things that maybe are similar to what I'm wanting to do but or maybe maybe have a different purpose all together but I can grab ideas from all of them and put them together in what I think is the best possible product you know that it caters to what I'm I'm doing or my specific needs now with that said the premise of this particular project was to build a highly functional lightweight indestructible Backcountry saw that cuts better um than any other Backcountry saw on the market but also feels good in the hand and uses a blade that can be sourced anywhere in the country I believe this this build or this saw does check all those boxes but in the end the expans V is really the deal breaker I guess if you stumbled onto this video looking for lightweight saws or backpacking saws or it's likely that you ran across the video that inspired me to make my saw um there's a YouTube channel called knife point he put together a very similar saw basically the changes I made from his was increasing the diameter of the handle which allowed my blade to be stowed within the handle so that when I throw it in my pack it keeps everything in my pack as well as my pack from being damaged from a loose blade um that's really all I changed in changing that in bumping up that diameter like I said it did increase the weight of the saw but it did what it did do is improve the ergonomics I guess or the weight the saw is just so comfortable in the hand with that bigger diameter handle I love it it's to me it's it's worth a few extra ounces for that comfort and the peace of mind that stuff in my pack isn't going to get damaged oh so Johnny finally caught back up to me poor guy is struggling can't keep up with can't keep up with me oh I had to freaking wait and wait wait and wait and wait hour you're easy to catch no he had uh he had some Foot Repair to do back there and I figured it'd be a good time to get ahead of him so he doesn't have to listen to me he doesn't have to listening to me talk yeah I had a had a flat tire I guess but anyway if you guys are interested um in some of the products that I use to make it you could head on over to Rock West I guess I'll put some information on this screen here um I'll show the tubing that I that I did use and then the tubing that I should have used like I said I went with too thick of tubing but to speed things up go with that thinner wall and it'll save you a lot of sanding time on a lathe but yeah you can see both of them are pretty pricey but the one I ended up getting was more pricey I should have I should have went with the other one that was too chicken I thought I thought I would buy it and it would be too thin and then I'd have to go buy the thicker one in the end so that's the route I took so next we'll talk about the machine work that was involved um I guess if you have your own lathe metal lathe you could cut this cost way down but I don't unfortunately maybe someday I will that'd be great um I had to go to a machine shop I drew up some plans gave them to them and they they turned three different pieces um um one end cap for the butt end out of a block of aluminum that was machined to match the The Identical inside diameter of that carbon tubing which then would accept the the reciprocating saw blade when stowing it and throw it in your pack uh that that end piece also acts as a a place where the tea handle rubs on and it doesn't wear down that carbon fiber when you're tensioning the tensioning the blade climbing a hill here getting a little winded so next the other there's three parts the next part would be the aluminum end cap for the the top which basically will accept a stainless steel basic uh like a bushing shape part that bushing the stainless steel bushing would be inserted into that aluminum endcap and placed over the top of the handle the inside diameter of the stainless steel end cap matches the exact size of the end of the reciprocating saw and it holds it super tight in that position when tensioned all this was very expensive unfortunately given I had to farm it out but in the end this saw cost way too much no one's probably going to want to ever do it but if you have the machiner to do it and you buy the the right size tubing you can do it pretty inexpensively actually and I wouldn't recommend that we're about 14 and 1/4 miles in to our hike on day one got I think about another 9 miles to go to our destination hopefully we get there um before dark but we might have a little time spent in dark but I guess the the next thing I wanted to talk about is the the blade these things are you can find them anywhere like I said before any any hardware store in North America probably even further you can find these saw blades and they're very inexpensive and they're nearly indestructible as so long as you're not running them through rock or onto metal or anything they should last for nearly ever but it's yeah it's just a simple saaw blade and if you have a a manufactured back back country saw or backpacking saw those usually have a um a product or a blade that fits specifically for that you can't you can't just find them anywhere you got to order them and they're expensive and honestly they don't hold up or cut as good these saww blades will cut through hardwood and softwood alike they don't care so that really is the bread and butter of this saw the other stuff is just there to try to make it lighter and stronger and cooler next up is the tensioning Line This is made from a 2.2 mm uh zingit line which is a dyema fiber um I believe the dyema fiber that it's made from is the same fiber that's used in synthetic winch cables it's it's one of the strongest man-made materials there is but the the best part of it is it has virtually zero stretch and that is what we're after for this product um using a boot lace or a some paracord or some other kind of string will work in a pinch but it really those products stretch and it it just doesn't work out basically The Zing it line you Loop it around a bent cotter pin that's connected to that saw saww blade pass that that line through the through the handle to the other side find a stick any from anywhere that's about the size of your thumb nice hardwood stick or a Hardy stick stick it in there twist it and twist it twist it until it tensions that thing Rock Solid that blade does not budge and will not move it's great the the reason behind the the tensioning stick te- handle is to give you a better grip that you uh this these blades do bite really hard it takes a little bit of getting used to but having that tea handle really gives you some good leverage and also we use a stick because it saves weight you're not carrying it you can just find it anywhere you don't have to have a dedicated stick or tea handle in your pack lastly we got the rubber end cap that I put on there that um that's simply just a hydraulic line fitting end cap that I caught a pie off of and um happens to fit exactly the outside diameter of that end cap and basically I just use that to hold that sawale blade from coming out of the handle and it also it keeps it from rattling around like I said it uh the the intent of this saw initially was just to be used for Western hunting and without that cap on there or something to retain that blade from rattling around it makes some noise so I put that on there it adds a little weight but gives me a little piece of mind for stalking in on prey or just simply annoyance and also makes me feel warm and fuzzy that isn't the blade isn't going to come out in my pack though that that 12-in blade that we had talked about that reciprocating saw blade for wood that is the the blade of choice um my buddy here John a little closer up view of him maybe can recognize him from being the the Epic chuckler from the Montana hunt he uh he had said or he had thought that maybe you could fit another blade in there which given the given those saw blades that I use are basically indestructible it really wouldn't be necessary I thought but he had made a made a point about maybe putting a metal saw blade in there and like I said we do spend some time out west and there can be a real concern with Wildfire out there and it's big land right and you may find yourself at some point on the wrong side of a gate you never know and uh he might be glad you had that extra blade in there and you could maybe cut a lock off a gate a bone saw or a bone saw or a bone saw yeah any any different blade exactly I mean I like the idea having that saw for the metal too um the probably will never ever need it just like you'll probably never ever need that bear gun on your hip but it sure would be nice to have it if you did need it so I thought that was a good thought and uh something I might consider when we're out there next year in the end the cost of this saw is a deal breaker unfortunately but given that I got to this point I'm happy I went through with it it's an amazing saw that cuts quickly it's lightweight super durable rides in the pack R free feels comfortable in the hand and is insanely strong it wasn't for that price tag it would be a slam dunk like I said there are ways that you can cut that cost you probably get it under $100 if you if you're able to do some machine work but I hope you enjoyed this um I think my hiking partner will be happy to hear that I'm done with making this video and we can get on with our journey probably we're probably approaching 18 miles Maybe by this point um we're trying to hit Camp about 24 miles for the day that should be should be dark by then probably the next day we got a super aggressive um attempt do 44 miles uh sleep one more night and the following morning get up finish it out roughly 16 miles to Sugarloaf Mountain for those who are familiar in Marquette Michigan so Canyon Falls to Sugarloaf Mountain from what I can see on mapping it's 82 miles I have a hunch that it's going to be something greater than that based off of how crazy WI 0 these trails are but we've locked out we're gaining some time here with uh with this PVE or this Gravel Road um probably a good 10 miles of this gravel road before we're back on a trail so wish us luck and thanks for watching [Music] h

Channel: Ryan Erkkila

Views: 1,830

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Id: KB2Unw8pPGc

Length: 15min 32sec (932 seconds)

Published: Sun May 26 2024