First batch of Goloks from myparang

19/05/2014 admin 13 Comments

Here is a sneak preview of the first batch of Goloks from myparang.

Completed goloks waiting to dry on the hangar

We have finally started assembling the parangs after much delay. The delays are not much due to components or manpower, but mostly due to some fine tuning of the process. The colour for the parang handles needed to be consistent – so we had to make up some colour samples, the copper rings needed polishing , and not to mention the creation of many jigs that is very much needed. Sometimes we need to think, make and rethink again a few of the jigs so they work better and give better consistent results. These all take time, but it is very well spent. We’d rather spend time now to make things right rather than keep spending time reworking as we go.

The polished copper rings. as bright as gold!

This post will be pretty short, but there will be lots of pictures. It takes quite a few steps to make one complete parang, but the final results are much what we were expecting, actually even better. As you can see from the pictures, here is the first batch of goloks from myparang .
The blanks get a ride on the belt sander to smoothen the spine and clean up the side surfaces.

The Beech wood handles fitted with the blanks, ready for the copper collar and first round of epoxy
Copper collar inserted waiting for the “drill”

I know some of you will be asking – ” but they are stick tang , the blades will fly out when I use them” Actually no, as we do not take shortcuts. We grind the tangs to bare metal, clean it up with solvents and use industrial strength epoxy. We do not use commercial bought epoxy as we do not have the necessary technical data to make us decide which is the best. We narrowed down two types of epoxy and finally chose one with very high specifications. To add to that, we also have added a 3.0 mm brass pin under the copper collar to add further security and a peace of mind. So IF the tang does come loose, no way will it “fly” out. The brass pin will never fall out as well, as it is held in between the copper collar . Good luck trying to loosen the tang anyway.

The collar installed and the hole for the brass pin being drilled.

This is how it looks after the first round of epoxy. We do not skimp on the epoxy in terms of quality or quantity

And this is how it looks once we’re done.

Here they are fresh off the second round of epoxy , and waiting the QC check.

The picture below are some of the coming models which we have fixed up and will be going for a field test very soon. For the time being, we have the golok 125 and 135 done, but there will be many new ones coming soon. If you are interested to purchase a Golok 125 or a golok 135, you can click on Outdoor Dynamics and it will take you straight to the myparang page.

We’re really happy that we have finally completed the first batch of goloks from myparang. We have sent some samples out to our international dealers, so if you want to be a potential dealer, drop us an email soon!

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FAKE Bidor Parangs

29/04/2014 admin 20 Comments

Fake Bidor parangs

Yes, they are out there , beware. Some say imitation is another form of flattery , but unless you know it is a fake, you can be easily be cheated when buying a parang. Fake Bidor parangs should be avoidedas they may be made of inferior quality steel, I’ve even heard of some using rebar ( construction steel ) and their heat treatment may be of suspect as well. If you buy a fake Bidor Parang, you may end up with a piece of useless metal.

The genuine Bidor Blacksmith workshop

When I first went to the Bidor Blacksmith many years back, Ah Pin mentioned to me that there are many fake Bidor parangs out there. Initially I thought not much out of it, until recently when I went around looking for various types of Parangs sold here in Malaysia. Whenever I had the time, I would drop by a hardware shop and get whatever parang brands I could find. And much to my surprise , many have the word or name “BIDOR” stamped or stuck on them , despite not being made in Bidor.

Mr. Chin Pin Yon ( Left ) and His Son in law – Foo Yong Ming ( right ) with the magazine article

As far as I know, there are two parang blacksmiths in Bidor, and they are just about 100 meters from each other. One is Chop Kwong Yuan Loong and the other newer one is Mak Heng Seng . There may be a few other small traditional makers around, but I have not seen them. Chop Kwong Yuan Loong is the authentic Bidor parang maker and they have been featured in the Tactical Knifes Magazine ( July 2012 issue ) , as you can see in the picture above. Outdoor Dynamics Sdn Bhd gets their parangs from Chop Kwong Yuan Loong . Outdoor Dynamics also supplies parangs to Machetespecialist.com , so yes, they do sell authentic parangs from Bidor. As for the other Blacksmith in Bidor, we did attempt to meet them some time back, but they were cold and uncooperative. Authentic Bidor Parang Stamps – The Crossed swords and BIDOR are their trademark. The Crossed Swords and BIDOR MALAYSIA are these made specially for Outdoor Dynamics.

Bidor is a town in Perak, Malaysia , so if the parangs are not made there , it would be wrong to put the name “Bidor” on it. Imagine a knife with the word “Seki City” but made in Iwata Japan. That would be misleading and not right. Some red flags that these are fake Bidor Parangs are: Stamped BIDOR , but the factory address is in another state , has the Bidor Stamp, but use a different Logo , ie instead of the crossed swords, they have the picture of a Bear or 3 stars. One even copied the sticker but had a different address ( in another state of course ) and another just stamped “BIDOR” without the crossed swords.

Below are some pictures of the fake Bidor parangs. I am not sure of the quality , but if they need to copy someone else, then that from the start is not good.

So if you are looking for authentic Bidor Parangs, keep and eye for the red flags. In my opinion, a brandless parang is better then a fake Bidor parang. To be sure, buy your parangs from a reputable dealer.

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myparang workshop setup

05/03/2014 admin Leave a comment

Myparang workshop setup

Finally after months of planning and searching for a suitable place, the myparang workshop is finally on its way and near completion. The hardest part was looking for a suitable spot to house the myparang workshop and this is one true case of what you can get when you are patient . We secured a shoplot nearby which is very accessible and central.

The previous owner was a Spa, but it did not get completed and we took whatever was left , over. There was lots to be done, lots of cleaning up since the previous owners left quite a mess. No to mention they left a pile of sand right in the front entrance. After clearing up the mess, the next thing to be done was painting the walls and floor as well as installing the electrical fittings. This shop lot had such a high ceiling, that we decided to have the lights about 8 feet above the lower floor instead of having it up where the ceiling was. By having it much lower, you save on lighting and it would be much easier to change a bulb should one go off. Below is a picture of how it looks after the paint job. I must say it looks much better after cleaning up and some bright colors. By coincidence, the colors we chose resembles the local power company colors and many people thought we were a branch office.

After the main lights and fan were installed we did a lighting check and it looks all good! It was bright as day when we tested the lights at night, no no matter what , our staff will have a bright and safe environment to work in .

After the electrical fittings, we re supposed to take delivery of the metalwork, but there was a slight delay and we received our tools first. Can’t complain much as it helped to receive them first so we could place them around the workshop to see which location suits best. After much moving around, we decided to place most on the power tools together on one table and leave one worktable clear for finishing purposes.

Finally after a few days of delay, we received our work tables and lockers. The work tables came without the table tops, which we will install ourselves using 1″ ply. The lockers are meant to keep tools and parts which are not needed immediately. You just can’t be too safe , sometimes small items tend to grow their own feet and “walk off” . By now we were having some delay already in the myparang workshop setup.

In the following days we also received our order of carton boxes for packaging the parangs. They consisted of two carton sizes, one inner carton and a bigger outer carton which can fit 20 inner cartons. This will be easier to send overseas to our international dealers. All the cartons were piled upstairs for storage. Finally we had all the tables fixed and positioned , plus had all the machines bolted on. We figured out it would be best to bolt all the machines in the myparang workshop so they cant be moved around , you know sometimes staff think they know better….. Plus bolted means they are more sturdy and will not topple or fall off. The main worktable looks pretty cluttered with the Bench Vise, Belt Sander and Drill Press , but there is enough space around each tool to work comfortable and safely . We left one table completely free for options later on. We might move some tools over, but that will come later. Even if we need to, we might add in another worktable.

Also at the far back, under the stairs is our Kydex workshop. That section is pretty much complete , with everything set up. Since then, we’ve already made a few sheaths in the new workshop and I must say it is much better working there as the space is bigger the the previous workshop. We also looooveeee the air compressor, it helps so much in getting the sheath inner clean from dust and whatnot

So thats it folks. The parang workshop is currently 90% complete and we’re already working on the parts for the parang. I have not taken any new photos since the ones above, but it has started to look much busier. Keeping a workshop clean and neat will be a daunting task, but it will be done. A messy and dirty workshop will invite accidents. Today we just added a vacuum cleaner or if you prefer the more technical name ” a dust collection system” and it’s going to help a lot keeping the place clean.

All right folks! That’s the myparang workshop setup so far, once we’re in operation, we’ll update on more exciting stuff!

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Buy Malaysian Parang

15/01/2014 admin 18 Comments

Buy Malaysian parang.

Most local people in Malaysia will know roughly where to get parangs. At the moment, we do not have any dedicated knife or gun shops like those in western countries. Back when I used to follow my father overseas, I remember going into specialist shops selling knives, scissors and guns. It was like a candy store and I remember that I was particularly interested in a small gun capable of shooting small pallets. As you might have expected, my dad did not buy it for me for obvious reasons.

Buying parangs in Malaysia is not such a difficult task, especially if you are in the kampungs or villages. If you are right smack in the middle of big cities, then yes, you may have to go to Ace hardware or similar to look for parangs. Generally parangs can be found in sundry shops , hardware shops ( selling construction material ) as well as some specialty parang shops ( very seldom ) as the below pictures .

The following pictures shows some parang , knives and agricultural tools which I saw in some specialty shops . These shops are more or less near each other and you can’t find them elsewhere in Malaysia. I’ve never seen so many parangs in one place ever. They come in all shapes and sizes, from small game cleaning knives to meat cleavers to fancy swords. One thing to note is that they are all made in Malaysia.

The Royal Malaysian Customs requires a special permit to import knives which have a blade more than 6 inches and weapons like katanas , daggers ( including the keris ) , automatic knives, knuckle dusters are all illegal and are prohibited for import.

As you can see from the pictures above, the array and choice can be mind boggling. There are cheap ones as well as better made ones like those below , with the wooden sheaths and handles. The cheaper ones are usually used for rough work such as clearing brush and weeds, while the better parangs are kept for more specific task like slaughtering and game cleaning. In east Malaysia for example there are parang competitions where craftsmen will show off their beautifully carved parangs sheaths .I have yet to see them personally , but will do when I get wind of the next competition.

Keep your eyes open, as myparang.com will soon be producing their own range of parangs. Keep visiting this blog to find out where to buy Malaysian parang

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Parang Panjang

15/12/2013 admin Leave a comment

Parang Panjang

Panjang basically means long, so a parang panjang means a long parang. This particular parang is a sample sent by one of my supplier from Sarawak. It is very well made. The parang panjang blade itself is not polished or shiny, but has a very sharp working edge. Long parangs are suitable for slashing weeds and cutting small limbs. They are not the best for chopping large pieces of wood, or for batoning as they are generally lighter in weight.

As you can see from the picture above, the parang panjang handle is very comfortable without any lumps , angular or rough spots. The bolster also has a simple weaving using mono filament line , which matches the bands on the sheath. The sheath and handle is sanded smooth and finished with some layers of lacquer. Currently this parang sits in my office, but I intend to give it a good workout soon. The first thing i would do it to roughen up the handle a bit, as i don’t like using shinny handles which become slippery once my hands perspire.

Here is a picture of the parang panjang spine, and as you can see, the blade tapers , form about 4mm near the handle to about 2 mm at the tip. This makes the parang amazingly light to hold and quick, but while it is light, it’s chopping power comes from it’s length.

This parang is quite a long piece at 2 feet or about 60 cm. You can’t really hang it from your waist like a conventional parang as if you kneel, the bottom of the parang will hit the ground. So to carry this parang panjang you will need to carry it horizontally, like this post I made previously – http://www.myparang.com/how-to-carry-a-long-parang/

Parangs , Goloks and more

First batch of Goloks from myparang

FAKE Bidor Parangs

myparang workshop setup

Buy Malaysian Parang

Parang Panjang

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