Jungle Parang

[FGYT]

John From Survival Wisdom (who I make the DSK Wisdom Edge knife for their Survival tin)


With his other hat on as Chief Instructor from the DSTO's (Defence SERE Training Organisation)


Asked if I could make a modern version of the jungle parang with a full tang (the blades fly out of the local made ones)
oh and needs it in about 3 weeks as hes of to run the Next Jungle Survival Instructor Training Cadre. Training the next gen of jungle instructors in Brunei.


No pressure then


Then about a week later ...... Can I have 2 the Australian army instructor on exchange fancies one


so a quick flurry of Design emails and we have profile and some basic ideas and limitations due to time


Blade shape and angle etc is a direct copy of Johns local made Parang this is 500mm long handle is fairly smooth in profile to allow lots of grip options
material is 75Cr1 spring steel in 3/16" for a lightish fast blade


Laser cutting took longer than quoted ( as usual )
Chris Grant did a great fast turn around on the HT edge quench and tempered to 55 Rc


and got them to me Thursday (John flys next Saturday So ive been busy over the Jubilee weekend )

made up one quick for Johns approval













this is std Coyote Brn G10 3/8" thick which is ok but I felt it needed a bit more meat to grip


came in at 752gms and balance point 50mm in front of the handles




For the 2 For John


No 1
Ive used the same CB G10 but packed it up with 2.25mm Olive Drab Kydex liners and put a little more shape in the handle.
it also needed a groove in the front to give the Kydex some thing to grip and stop it rattling about (there is also a Cam grip on the blade tip)
Scales are bolted on with 5 sets 1/4" stainless stand offs and blacked stainless Torx Bolts
This one is in matching CB kydex with a basic webbing loop for now










No 2


This is 3/8" Multi cam G10 glued to 4mm black G10 to make up the thickness bolted on with 4 Bolts as above and has a lanyard hole
Sheath as above but in Olive Drab kydex










the pair
















Luckily I have kydex in big enough sheets for these as they needs 2off 5" x 17" bits
and my large press was actually used
tho I did have to resort to the house oven to fit them into heat up







So hopefully these get posted Wednesday and of to the jungle next weekend for a good thrashing to see if any changes are needed


there are some that will happen any way but i didnt have time to get done

not bad for a Rush job


ATB


Duncan

[Johnnyboy1971]

Impressive. I like them alot. How do they handle the workload.

[FGYT]

Impressive. I like them alot. How do they handle the workload.

hopefully we will find out when they come back

[JonathanD]

Oooooh, if you slightly ground down the last couple of inches were blade meets handle, then I think it would work well for me too. Although, it may well work for me just as it is.

[FGYT]

Oooooh, if you slightly ground down the last couple of inches were blade meets handle, then I think it would work well for me too. Although, it may well work for me just as it is.

?? ground down blade is only from tip to the knee

[JonathanD]

Dunc, see where your hand is from where your index finger starts right to your palm above the first bolt. If you took that areas diameter down by shaving 5mm off top and bottom, then you would have my perfect parang. I like a thinner area for finer choking holds right there.

[HillBill]

Nice work Duncan. The parang looks good.

Not a fan of the outline of the sheath though, but thats just my tastes, other than that though, good work mate.

[joejoe]

would love to se those with a wood handle, ie zeabrawod

[KevStorr]

Look great sheath isn't really to my taste but pictures don't often do things justice.


KevStorr WM06 WA039

[Jimmy Bojangles]

Fantastic work, I'm so envious of your skills!

Cheers

Mat

[forestwalker]

And I'll be the first to ask: are you going to sell these?

[palace]

And I'll be the first to ask: are you going to sell these?

I'm the second

[FGYT]

Dunc, see where your hand is from where your index finger starts right to your palm above the first bolt. If you took that areas diameter down by shaving 5mm off top and bottom, then you would have my perfect parang. I like a thinner area for finer choking holds right there.

Yes no problem

And I'll be the first to ask: are you going to sell these?

Depends on if they work and if John lets me and they definatly need to be made in a batch to get a sensible price

ATB

Duncan

[forestwalker]

Depends on if they work and if John lets me and they definatly need to be made in a batch to get a sensible price

At least in my case it would be blade blank + hardware. And I'll assume JD knows best (after all, he is the person most intimately famiiar with parangs here...) as to the minor mod.

[atross]

I would be interested in one

[FGYT]

these are now in the hands of Royal mail


but I did add a para cord wrap to the sheath 7m which the scallops hold firm
and looks like it might offer a Mollie fixing for small pouches ?????





and if you want a small companion blade for more delicate work a XL Camp nessy piggy backs nicley :O:ninja:

[FGYT]

At least in my case it would be blade blank + hardware. And I'll assume JD knows best (after all, he is the person most intimately famiiar with parangs here...) as to the minor mod.

Im sure if we do get some made the will be available as as blade / kit as well

[ged]

... I'll assume JD knows best (after all, he is the person most intimately famiiar with parangs here...) ...

He, he.

[FGYT]

And I'll assume JD knows best (after all, he is the person most intimately famiiar with parangs here...) as to the minor mod.

no he just has little hands

[forestwalker]

Im sure if we do get some made the will be available as as blade / kit as well

Just having the strange and insane notion of a moose antler jungle parang. Not sure if I have any moose antler big enought for that, I probably do (wanna trade...?).

[FGYT]

Just having the strange and insane notion of a moose antler jungle parang. Not sure if I have any moose antler big enought for that, I probably do (wanna trade...?).

handle is 180mm x 50 mm ( 7" x 2" ) maybe a split crown ??

[forestwalker]

handle is 180mm x 50 mm ( 7" x 2" ) maybe a split crown ??

I'd have to find the right "shovel" type antler piece. Not imposible, but tricky find two such large and *flat* pieces

[nipsip]

Check mine out. Quite beautiful with a burl wood handle. 19" overall length with a 13" blade from 6150 steel. Weight is 1.5lbs. Hardness is 58-60.

[Andy BB]

Ooh - looks just like Bear Gryll's parang

I'll get my coat.............

[BOD]

Dunc, see where your hand is from where your index finger starts right to your palm above the first bolt. If you took that areas diameter down by shaving 5mm off top and bottom, then you would have my perfect parang. I like a thinner area for finer choking holds right there.

I really like the look of your blades and just love the creativity of the sheaths. Haven' t seen anything this interesting for years, its been so Ho Hum.

I agree with Jonathan not just for fine work but also for weight. How does your parang compare weight- wise with the local one used as a template?

[Gill]

I like them a lot Dunc very nice buddy!

[Shambling Shaman]

That is lovely work, well done

[TinkyPete]

Great work Dunc, sweet handle and sheath

[FGYT]

I really like the look of your blades and just love the creativity of the sheaths. Haven' t seen anything this interesting for years, its been so Ho Hum.

I agree with Jonathan not just for fine work but also for weight. How does your parang compare weight- wise with the local one used as a template?

Hi

Not sure on Johns own for weight and balance but this one does have a thicker neck and obviously the full tang which will pull the C of G back however the handle stop does mean you can grip a little further back which should help a little also the G10 is probably heavier than the wood tho doesn't have the usual large lump stop

here vis the Original profile John sent me and with the 1st off handle design i did which got the front smoothed out for more grip options for the prototype run





and the current handle




This is primarily a Army Jungle warfare/ SERE blade so Ive made it a little stronger but am conscious of getting weight down and importantly weight distribution right But it will also need a limit to keep cost down so i cant do lots of tapering etc
John will try it himself and all his instructor team/ students and the have some local jungle experts who have grown up with a parang as a daily tool to test it
then I expect a refining of the design still based on the intended customer.

John is happy for this to be available for me to sell generally ( knife o kit etc) and those sales will help subsidies to a small degree sales to military personnel
the civy jobs can be customized much further if needed as long as it doesn't affect he military version cost wise ie i can grind metal off

[ged]

... How does your parang compare weight- wise with the local one used as a template?

If that's similar to the lightest of the ones from Borneo that I have (well, strictly speaking if it's the wife's one) then it weighs something like 425g-450g. It's made from fairly thin stock, about 3mm. The heaviest ones in this style are probably in the region of 850-950g, broader blades from thicker material. Nothing's set in stone because they're all hand-made one-offs and a lot depends on what materials happen to be available.

Weights are excluding sheath. They all punch above their weight, the smallest ones well above.