Jungle PArang for UK Forces SERE Training School

[FGYT]

This is the Parang i've been working on over the last year with UK forces SERE Chief Instructor John Hudson Specifically for their Jungle training courses as the issue Golock is not suitable and the local boght Brunei Parangs have a tendency for their handles to let go of the blades.

first prototypes (Based on the traditional shape but with full tang and G10 scales with Kydex sheaths) for test went well on last years Jungle Instructor course with john and his team the students and even the locals who help and was also tested by Sgt Scott R on exchange from the Australian SERE school.

And a review by :

SGT Scott Robbins
SERE Instructor
RAAF Combat Survival Training School

Duncan
First off all, I would like to thank you for the privilege off testing out your blade. So before I go on, I know that John said to you that there was an Aussie Survival Instructor that was keen to play with a blade as well, so sorry for the sort notice and thanks for working so hard to make it all work.
I am posted to the Australian Combat Survival Training School, where we primarily train ADF (Australian Defence Force) Aircrew and other personnel that are prone to isolation or capture in SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Extraction). We operate in Coastal, Arid and Jungle environments off which Jungle is my favorite. I am currently on a 4 month exchange with DSTO (Defence Survival Training Organization)
So, back to the blade, I tested the blade as you are aware on our recent trip to Brunei whilst instructing on the UK DSTO Jungle Survival CSE.

The first thing I noticed was the sheath.... And the general consensus was that it was awesome. Initially the sheath was a little tight, however this did loosen up slightly as time went on. This being said, at no time did I ever feel that the blade was at risk of being lost. The blade did slide forward in out of the handle crimp to a slightly forward position after jumping off a large deadfall, however in the process of doing this, the blade actually locks in place preventing the blade from falling out.... Don't know if this was intentional, but it works well.
The 3 retaining bolts did break after about 3 days, however being alloy this was likely to happen. I am sure that the steel ones will work fine. So, as a short stop, I lashed the belt bracket back on. This actually worked well. I also like the modular design as this allows individuals to swap the blade from left to right and front or back facing depending on the individual preferances.

So onto the blade. I personally found both weight and balance to be excellent. In Australia, our trees are generally harder than those found in both the UK and Brunei (Bit like the people..... Haaa) so I believe that it will work very well. A couple of the other boys had slightly varying opinions as to if the weight and balance suited them. In all, due to both height, weight variations this in to be expected. The blade held an excellent edge and made short work of all tasks. Over the 2 weeks we really did give the blades a flogging and it handle it all extremely well.
I was also pleasantly pleased with the handle. In the Jungle, handles of blades is both a safety and retention issue. I personally do not use a wrist line whilst using machetes. However wet or dry the slightly larger handle and even larger bulbous end, made retention a breeze. As for balance, I found that having the shank of the blade not sharp worked extremely well when doing finer work. Splitting and debarking performance was excellent. We even cut saplings down, and compared the effort required to cut through the same sapling between different blades. The results were impressive and all agreed that it your blade had better penetration. Good balance of thickness for strength v weight and speed.

So overall, I was extremely impressed with the blade, at the end of 2 weeks of hard Jungle flogging it maintained an excellent edge, and the sheath bedded in great.
I like a full size machete and would be more than happy to replace my current blade with this one.

Brilliant job mate.....
Cheers Scott

Sgt Robbins was so pleased he bought the prototype.


we made a few minor changes and a further one of to test this which did well and was approved and i got the order from the Unit for 10 off plus 1 as Johns personal blade)

So last week I finished the first batch of which i delivered just in time for them to fly out this week on this years Instructor Cadre

the blade is now Cerakoted for corrosion resistance

Issue version with Johns (brown sheath grey blade)

they are allowing me to sell this design to any body So Civy sales will partially go towards subsidising sales to military personnel

Hopfylly more in use pics and vid when this lot get back from Brunei in a couple of weeks

ATB

Duncan

 

[rhinoknives]

Duncan,
As a youngster in 1971 I lived in Panang West Malaysia for a year.
I spent a large amount of time with the locals and watched and learn alot about their indigenous multi-tool, the Parang.

They used them for all daily's like splitting wood, clearing brush,a lawn mower, dispatching their chicken for dinner and occasionally settling a argument.

I remember this one lady in her 80's that I would see splitting fire wood every morning and no one ever gave her any problems and a wide berth when she walked through the village.

Your blades look very affective and the handles do look to be a improvement over the ones they have locally, The natives having smaller hands, your's look much more suited to larger hands.

I wish you continued good luck with your Parang blades.

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com

 

[FGYT]

yes it is very much based on the Native blades the have been developed over a long time to work

John sent me his local bought one as the base for the design

here it is in CAD to get the geometry and the first go at changing the handle rejected as to shaped


Best compliment i've had so far is the Locals who helped last year and tried it were so impressed with the Steel and HT they sent John back with their fave Parang shapes traced round on a Cardboard box to see if I can make them some blades

so will do a few in the next run they are much smaller blades than this one as you say they are smaller people generally

 

[rhinoknives]

Some of the Parangs that I saw back then were one piece with a forge rolled handle, they would then wrap them in twine or leather and sometimes Amulets. There size was generally about 2/3rds to 3/4qts of what it looks like you have.

The local men & women always appreciated a good bladed weapon. Im sure they will build a small shrine to you if you are able to make a few blades for them. You could even just send them the finished blades and let them put the handles they prefer on them? It has been over a generation since I was in that part of the world and they are probably getting a little bigger and I am sure you would make converts of some of them to your handles.

I could have purchased some of their Kris blades and Karambits for dirt cheap. I really din't know what I was looking at back them. Now that I know a little more, some of them I am sure were made of Meteorite.
LOL.


Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com

 

[Drew Riley]

Very cool!

 

[Stormcrow]

Those looks good, and have been given a good workout. That's a good endorsement if the locals want some. Cool project!

 

[sicilian767]

Very impressive!! Love the design. I don't have much experience with the parang, but I've heard nothing but good things about it. Your work looks excellent!

 

[Gary Miller]

parangs are fantastic knives. the weight forward design makes them outstanding choppers and having the handle higher than the edge keeps your hands out of the the brush. i lik to have the edge start about 3 or 4 inchs infront of the blade so that i can chouk up on the blade to do more delicet cuting and carving,