Handcrews: What is your favorite tool?

[SuperPulaski1]

Hey I have 2 seasons experience on a Type II handcrew. Love the hand crew life I wanna be a hotshot in the future so I can see some real fires in other states. Working 8-16 hour days 14 straight you get to be a family with the other 17 crew members and I love that.

Anyways I was just wondering what tools everyone runs and/or likes the best. Or just what you like about handcrews. Anyone who's worked on a crew knows that it's some of the hardest/most dangerous work out there for little pay so it's not for everyone but there's those crazy few like me

For me I love the pulaski. Most the guys on my crew would choose the P last in their list but something about it I like. I just like grubbin stuff I guess. Close second would be saw/swamping. Just fun cutting through miles of brush. Reason I would prefer P over saw is just the fact that it's alot of work running it and hiking it and I'm not quite in good enough shape right now.

My least favorite is the McCloud. Big, heavy, awkward (top heavy).

So what about you guys?

[BirkenVogt]

I am tall and scrawny but I have been a sawyer from day 1 and I would not give it up. Yes it is much harder work than the hand tools, my glases will be covered with dust, mud and sweat while the guys behind are leaning on their tools telling me to hurry up, up there. But I am always busy and I get done first.

Birken

[NonSurfinCaFF]

Seems like everyone likes the Pulaski best when they first get started, the McLeod is usually the least favorite.

The Saw is hardly a fair comparison I mean who doesn't like playing with a saw.

You left off the best tool, the shovel, thats my choice, carries easy and there is almost nothing you can't use it for. While most tools are better for a single task they also have those things that they are practically useless for, you never have that problem with a shovel. Shovels can scrape, poke, cut limbs off brush or trees, carry hot pockets of material away from the line, and throw dirt to cool the fire edge allowing the rest of the tools to work closer to the line.

[ramseycl]

What about specialty tools? We have a few that we modify,

[Firetacoma1]

Call me insane I guess, I like the McCloud... of course, it depends on the type of dirt I'm diggin in. Nothing makes a cup trench like a McCloud though!

[BirkenVogt]

I forgot to mention how I like the shovel as far as hand tools go. As stated it can do everything. Try chopping a tree down with a McLeod, or throwing dirt with a Pulaski. Also when nature calls a shovel is necessary as well.

Birken