Well, I got a litte tipsy last night, and decided that I was going to sleep off my beers and get up bright and early to take the Dogfather back to the woods. That makes 3 days in a row. 06:30 and Diceman is out of bed, out the door at 06:38.



"Goodmorning, beautiful Montana woods, I am here to eat your trees" said the Dogfather.



A quick warmup...



Rained last night, so some of this stuff was pretty wet. Dogfather took a huge bite in to this log. Never had a problem w/ the DF "hanging up," but due to the wetness of this chunk of wood, the DF burried itself so deep in one chop, that I was able to lift it up off the ground.



Which is much more impressive once you see how big of a piece of wood we're talking about:



Then I found a pretty freshly fallen Pine, and took off a workable sized piece.



OK, maybe a little too thick for my first try at big batoning...



Lets take another piece a few feet up the trunk.



OK, much better.



Getting started...



Cutting it down a little shorter...

[img]http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t311/dzrice/P1030812.jpg[/img]

OK - Lets do this!!

[img]http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t311/dzrice/P1030813.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t311/dzrice/P1030814.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t311/dzrice/P1030815.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t311/dzrice/P1030817.jpg[/img]

Another good day of chopping and batoning...
[img]http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t311/dzrice/P1030819.jpg[/img]

And I'm even getting through the finish on the edge now!
[img]http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t311/dzrice/P1030820.jpg[/img]

All before most of the world is even awake...
[img]http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t311/dzrice/P1030821.jpg[/img]

Wow, nice pics Diceman! Impressive batoning!
Man... this is torture for me! Give me my DF!!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

Thanks bro. I hope you get your DF soon.

I'm off to see a man about some Damascus! Be back later!

Diceman - with all this DF chopping going on, I'd be interested to hear how the edge is holding up. Have you been sharpening it? Has the edge rolled or flattened at all?

Thanks!

Dice.. Those are great pics!!! I wish I was there. Very good work!!!

Awesome shots Dice! Cutting and batoning those bad boy logs! NOW THAT LADIES AND GENTLEMEN IS WHAT THE DOGFATHER IS ALL ABOUT! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Thats a serious log to cut through with a knife! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" />

Nice work!

Way to teach the trees not to intrude on our civilization.

J/k it looks like beautiful country.

Thanks guys, I'm having an absolute blast!

The Dogfather is just a pleasure to chop with. I'm going to get another one from the next run - just because!!

Edgewise - I do run it over a sharpmaker a couple times when I get home - just for good measure - but I am proud to report that I have seen no (zero) dulling with use - the only thing that is noteworthy is that 3 days ago when I was chopping (the series that has the elk pictures in the beginning) I think I caught a pebble or something while chopping and had 2 little knicks in the edge. One came out real easily, one is still visible when you look close (but I can't even get it on camera) - but most of that one came out when I ran it over the sharpmaker a couple times. Nothing serious, and edge maintenance should be expected when abusing knives!! I think that the thread you want to see for that is something like "I BEAT me Dogfather today" - something like that - 3 days ago.

Any other questions, fire away.

And I'll make another plug for my Leatherface custom leather sheath - not pictured in this thread, but its serving me very well. Dave does great work.

cool. nothin like havin the city/state/country to yourself.

Yeah, it was all me - too early for any hikers to be out. I think I'm going to make it a ritual of sorts.

I could only chop 'til sun up then I'd have to fish <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />