One of the main tools for fans of winter fishing is, of course, an ice drill. Songs are a thing of the past and replaced by more convenient, lightweight and high-quality devices for preparing the surface of a reservoir for the fishing process. Ice drills differ in characteristics and technical design. It is important to choose the right knives for the drill, which, if necessary, can be quickly changed on the spot.
- Variety of shapes and characteristics
- Toothed and spherical knives
- Universal and step knives
- Reviews of people
Variety of shapes and characteristics
In the winter season, knives for ice drilling. running consumable item. Sometimes for one fishing trip two or even three sets fail, this is due to the fact that, as a rule, on all riverbeds the ice is simply saturated with sand and the instrument becomes completely worthless after a dozen holes. In this case, a fishing secret will help: bend the edge outward with a metal object from the inside, but this will help for a short time.
From frequent replacement of the cutting parts of the ice drill, the following will save:
- The choice of high-quality tools and spare parts for it.
- Spare kits must be of the same brand or equivalent, ideally suited to the ice drill model.
- Proper use, transportation, cleaning and storage of equipment.
When buying, you must consider:
- Features sharpening blades.
- General geometry.
- The level of heat treatment.
- Steel sample.
Toothed and spherical knives
Today in the market of fishing equipment you can see a variety of cutters for the drill. Most often found:
- Toothed.
- Oval.
- Universal.
- Stepped.
All are designed for various types of surfaces and weather conditions. To choose the right ones, you need to know how they differ:
Toothed. indispensable assistant in the fight against highly moistened ice. They will help out when winter is already retreating and the water from the spring sun begins to wash small channels on the surface of the pond cover, abundantly saturating the ice layer. Small contact area reduces resistance. It is worth noting that the blades must undergo a “run-in” (approximately 30-40 holes), at this time the drilling can be a little aggressive. Some manufacturers may have a “snack” when it falls from ice into water.
Oval (spherical). suitable for almost all possible types of ice cover in water bodies. As a rule, spherical ones are included in the basic set with most ice drills of well-known companies that are present on the Russian market. Unfortunately, this form has one, but a critical drawback: the cutters are dull quite quickly, and it is almost impossible to sharpen them at home.
Universal and step knives
Universal. also called flat, they deserve the attention of anglers for ease of maintenance. The blades are easy to grind and straighten yourself, thereby avoiding the additional costs of professional services. But in work, using a flat blade, you will have to make much more effort to drill the hole.
Stepped. This inventory is indispensable when the temperature drops below 15 ° C. Two blades located side by side create a crumbling effect, which is much more effective for a hardened ice than a cutter, without unnecessary loads. Under warmer temperature conditions, these drill knives are ineffective. Sharpening them yourself is not as easy as flat, but possible.
Reviews of people
Last season, the Yaroslavl attracted my attention. All the inconvenience that they delivered to me arose due to the insufficient thickness of the blade (about 3 mm). Because of this, it was not possible to fully screw the cap screw and, as a result: the screws were constantly twisted and I spent all the fishing with a Phillips screwdriver at the ready. They cut well enough, but this running around with the constant tightening of the screws completely blurred the whole picture.
For a long time I was a fan of Barnaul knives. They serve for a long time, they drill quickly and well, I had a complete set. But recently I bought an imported ice drill and these blades can no longer be used for overseas inventory, so I immediately bought a Swedish store. Spare knives were not sharpened as well as a set of equipment itself, so I had to spend money on the services of a master.
I have been using Tikhvin knives for a long time and am very pleased. I also sharpen it myself on an abrasive stone or sandpaper. The main thing is to position the blade at the correct angle, sharpen it only in circular motions and observe the sequence of processing edges, then it turns out no worse than in the workshop. For fishing it is better to take several types of blades, and at night I advise you to use universal knives.
The use of a trimmer in summer cottages and household plots significantly simplifies and speeds up grass mowing. However, it is important to choose the right “consumable” for the electric benzotrimmer. Simply put, what exactly will you mow the grass with: cord (with a special trimmer line) or a knife. Both the fishing line and the knife are equally well suited for mowing grass in hard-to-reach places, but in what cases is the knife more effective?
When is it best to use a trimmer knife?
The fishing line is most often used, since it is safer to use and provides almost the same result when mowing the grass. But if you have to mow a fairly tall grass, you will certainly come across the fact that long stems will be wound on a reel or spindle in the place where the trimmer head is attached. To avoid this, it is recommended to use a knife. a mill for a trimmer.
A milling cutter will also be more effective if you need to mow dry grass, shrubs, burdocks, nettles or cow parsnip. The only thing a knife can fear is collisions with a stone.
The trimmer knife can be made of both plastic and metal. Each trimmer model is initially supplied (or offered by the manufacturer) with its own type of knife. This is due to the shape of the trimmer bar and is made in order to protect the user as much as possible. Therefore, you do not need to take a metal knife if your trimmer model involves the use of a plastic one. Even if you are assured of the versatility of the knife.
The knife for the trimmer can look like a special mowing (trimmer) head with plastic circuit blades, or be a solid structure, for example, a circular knife with a different number of blades (as a rule, such models are made of metal).
A trimmer with a metal knife will help get rid of not only grass, but also thickets of shrubs or young trees. You can also trim raspberries and currants with a trimmer.
Basic safety rules when using metal knives for trimmers
The metal knife for the trimmer is installed only on units with a straight bar. This is due to the design features of the tool. When, when mowing grass (bushes, thin trees), the disk bumps into an obstacle (usually a stone), it most often bounces back. towards the user. For trimmers with a straight bar, the distance from the head to the legs of a person is quite safe.
Video: Which Knives Are Better For A Benzotrimmer
Also, such trimmers are held by the user using the T (U) or J-shaped handles, and if the handle is D (O).shaped, then a special restrictive bar comes to the kit, which rests on the leg and gives it closer to the cutting tool.
If your knife is bent in a collision with an obstacle, do not rush to change it. You can level it yourself with a hammer. The flexibility of the knives is designed to reduce the load on the engine and transmission.
Is the shape of the knife blades important?
The experience of professionals and ordinary users has shown that the shape of the blade matters only if you mow the grass for harvesting for the winter, such as hay to animals, since three and four-knife knives chop the grass too much. But the quality and speed of the bevel with different blades do not differ significantly.
The most popular trimmer knife model is a round shape with eight teeth around the circumference. Also, its variety is often used: with four large teeth and small in between.
And for mowing shrubs (raspberries, currants) and thin young trees, most often they use an ordinary knife in the form of a disk with many teeth. It can be installed on any trimmer, even with low power, and effectively process the site.
Throwing knives are a topic for a separate discussion when it comes to throwing. As a rule, all throwers, except those who immediately started training in the gym with a trainer, start throwing not specialized knives, but those that fell into the arm at the moment when they were visited by inspiration. In this article, we will try to adhere to this chronological construction, which is traditional for most throwers, and we will talk at the beginning about what cannot be thrown and why, and only then what can and even need to be thrown.
Why you can not throw “ordinary knives”
Here it is necessary to decide what we call “ordinary knives” in relation to the context of this section of the article. In this context, “ordinary knives” means all knives that were not specifically designed and made for throwing.
Two main reasons why ordinary knives cannot be thrown are reduced to the general mechanical stability of their structures against shock loads that occur during throwing and the general convenience of using certain knives as throwing knives.
The loads arising during mechanical destruction of the target with the help of throwing are much higher than during conventional strikes. In the classical technique of throwing a knife with a revolution, the muscle arising from the centripetal acceleration is added to the muscular strength of the thrower. When using non-revolving techniques, amplification physics is somewhat more complicated. the forces of several “waves” imposed by different parts of the thrower body are superimposed on the knife during the throw. Nevertheless, the effect is always the same. an experienced thrower can almost never deliver a mechanical blow with a knife with the same force with which the knife hits the target when throwing.
Due to this fact, a specific requirement arises for a throwing knife. the steels that are used on them must have a higher impact strength than the steel of knives that are not specifically intended for throwing. It should be understood that steels with high hardness, which is very important for knives, as cutting tools, extremely rarely have a toughness sufficient to constantly throw knives made of such steel. At the same time, those knives that are made of steels with high hardness and have sufficient toughness to throw them, as a rule, have a very high price precisely because of the price of the steel itself, which is unacceptable for a throwing knife in view of the high probability of its loss in the process of training in the air. Knives for throwing, as a rule, make very “unstable”. For an example we give a photo of a specialized throwing knife from the American company SOG. Fling.
Photo of the SOG Fling throwing knife from the manufacturer’s website
If you look at the description of this knife, you can find that the knife is made of 3CR13 steel, which is characterized mainly by high corrosion resistance and is hardened by only 49-51 units on the Rockwell hardness scale. For comparison, it should be noted that even the softest steel of the knives, which are supposed to be cut, calcify no less than 55 units on the same scale, and for steels such as m390 hardness reaches 62 units.
However, due to the use of special “mild” steels in throwing knives, it is rather difficult to break them during hitting the target, which can happen quite regularly when throwing with “ordinary knives”. In addition to all of the above, ordinary, non-throwing knives, as a rule, have a number of structural elements that are destroyed by shock loads much earlier than the steel of the blade. These are the lining of the handle and the handle itself on knives with a fixed blade and axial units, liners and pads in folding knives.
From the point of view of the convenience of using “conventional knives” as throwing knives, it should be understood that throwing knives have the shape, weight and design features that help the thrower to solve the throwing problem. In ordinary knives, these characteristics are usually designed for convenient cutting. The situation in which the “ordinary knife” “flies well” is quite rare, although not impossible in principle. Here you just need to understand that using the “ordinary knife” as a throwing knife, you, with a high degree of probability, complicate the task of teaching knife throwing quite strongly.
For beginners, I want to separately highlight as a separate criterion the weight of the throwing knife. The throwing knife is always quite heavy. Its weight should usually be around 200 grams or higher. A light knife is quite difficult to throw, at any significant distance. It just needs to be remembered.
What are the signs for a beginner to choose a throwing knife
In general, there are a great many knives for throwing, and this article is not intended to classify them all, primarily because it is addressed to those who are just starting to get acquainted with the fascinating world of knife throwing.
Let us dwell on their distinguishing features, which will allow a novice thrower to identify throwing knives:
- Design “Fultang”. the knife should be made of a single piece of steel. Variants of throwing knives where this attribute is absent exist, but are quite rare and are not indicated for use by beginner throwers.
- The absence of pads on the handle that could be damaged if it fails to hit the target, or if the “knife into the knife” hits.
- The weight of the knife is about 200 grams or more. Light knives fly poorly. Too heavy do not fly at all.
- Uniform balance of the knife along the entire length. It is easy to determine by understanding in which part of the knife there is an equilibrium position in which it does not fall from the finger. For beginners, it is best if this is the very center of the knife.
It will also be good for a novice thrower if his knife is reduced, but not sharpened, because the throwing knife does not need versatility, and the risk of damaging the hand with the cutting edge when the knife leaves the hand when grabbing the blade is quite high, especially during learning.
When choosing, the availability of throwing knives in an amount of more than one is very important. I understand that this point looks a little strange for readers, but believe me, its practical importance is quite difficult to overestimate, especially when teaching throwing using the classical reverse method. Novice throwers are often limited to one throwing knife and spend most of their training time not on throwing, but on transitions from the target to the throwing position and vice versa. Then, when they get tired of such trips, the idea arises of the need to have a couple more knives, but here very many make the second mistake, acquiring knives completely unlike the first one with which they began to train. It is important to understand here that throwing throwing training is largely based on the fact that you are repeating work with the same knife. Therefore, the uniformity and number of your throwing shells largely determines the speed with which you will master the intricacies of throwing knives. In this regard, I highly recommend purchasing knives in sets of three or more.
SOG throwing knife set
Another important fact when choosing is the subjective convenience of the overall dimensions of the knife for you personally. Be sure to hold in your hands what you are going to purchase. The knife should not feel light, but should not be very heavy. Try to hold it with different grips, by the blade and by the handle, at different distances from the center of the knife. If you have the slightest doubt of convenience, it is better to look for something else.
Personally, I’ll add a bit of subjective emotions from my choice. Personally, for throwing a knife by the handle at a distance of about seven steps, the most convenient are throwing knives with a blade in the shape of a petal. such as in the first photo in this article. But for throwing the blade, at a distance of about four steps, I use knives with classic forms of the blade. In my case, this is just such a set from SOG, which you see in the second photo. However, I can’t say that I could not use the same knives for both of these cases, but using different knives leads me to better results.
What except throwing knives can be thrown
For me, as a beginner, this question arose more than once or twice, and I decided to devote to him a small section of this article.
In addition to knives, it is extremely exciting and quite simple to throw small axes. A number of manufacturers from the USA, where the tradition of throwing battle axes has been going on since the days of the American Indians, produces fairly inexpensive and very pleasant specimens of axes for these purposes. Throwing axes you will quickly understand why the Indians had a wide tradition of throwing axes, not knives.
SOG Tomahawk
A separate, difficult, but very exciting experiment is throwing a small infantry shoulder blade, more widely known to the public as a sapper shoulder blade.
Another excellent and, most importantly, very affordable alternative to throwing knives is nails. I have my own experience of throwing them, which suggests that 300 mm nails are the most convenient. Their weight is about 160 grams, which is already enough to effectively throw them even with a full turn.
At the end of the article, I suggest watching an author’s video about my own throwing knives.
My throwing knives
This video contains items that I gradually acquired to study knife throwing. I hope that this article will help you quickly and without mistake get exactly those throwing knives that suit you personally and join this fascinating sport.