Woodsman's Pal Review

I recently picked up this Woodsman's Pal at a local gun show.  These tools have been around since WWII and were carried by our soldiers for clearing dense brush in the jungles.  They are a hefty tool and made in the USA (which i really like).  This particular model is the "Classic" and came with a thick leather sheath.  It weighs in at 25 oz which is considerably more then your average machete or kukri. But with a thicker blade they claim it's "The machete with the power of an axe".  I decided to see if that was true.

I started with some pieces of old cedar fence post and a couple 2x4s splitting them into kindling.  Cut through like butter...not even worth taking pictures.  So then i decided to move on to something a little more robust.  Grabbed a 5 inch round hunk of oak that has been laying in a brush pile for about a year.  This was by no means a sapling.  This oak is old, dry and hard as hell...here are the results...

Woodsman's Pal Classic with leather sheath

With very little effort the weight of the blade cut right into the oak.  You can see the sickle looking hook at the end of the blade intended for clearing vines and brush.

The handle is plenty long enough for large hands and wearing gloves.  The hardwood ash handle seems a little slippery at first.  Once you settle in and let your hand take advantage of the design of the handle its quite comfortable to swing.  I never felt like I was out of control if I wanted to swing with more force.  From the manufacturer it comes with a nylon lanyard which i swapped out for leather.

The photo below is after roughly 60 seconds.   The Pal chewed into this oak with ease. If not for the 98 degree heat out today i wouldn't have even broke a sweat.

 And after another couple minutes here is the final result.  The 1/8" thick carbon steel blade wasn't phased a bit.  Could I have been more efficient with one of my axes of similar size?  Probably.  But as a multi-purpose machete style tool the Woodsman Pal is extremely capable and can handle much more then just brush, vines and small branches.

They make a few different models of the Woodsman's Pal.  All reasonably priced for very well built tool that appears will be serving my family for long time.  For more information Woodsmans Pal's website

Thanks for looking...enjoy your weekend outdoors and God bless..