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cbr6fs

Native
Mar 30, 2011
1,620
0
Athens, Greece
I can't think off the top of my head when i've ever had to split something as small as 4in diameter, in the field i'd either baton it down if it was a soft wood or i'd find a smaller piece of wood.

With regard to being popular, i have not found that to be the case in the places i've visited.
If you were gutting a wooden canoe then you certainly wouldn't want a big axe for that job, but then how many canoes are hand made out of tree trunks around the world every year?

An axe to me is a tool for splitting and cutting wood.
A small axe is dangerous in that when you swing down any deflection puts it on course with your legs.
As a bigger axe can do 99% what a smaller axe can do then more, i'm kinda left thinking it's a billy no mates with very little usefulness.

No shouting i just believe that many here see someone using something then jump on the bandwagon.
Often there are very few people that stand up and take another side, so the op only really gets 1 opinion.

Hiking with an axe might make you feel like victor the viking while out, but i offer that it has very little outdoors use and that danger of a shorter swing outweighs any of those uses.

You disagree but the op's mate would no doubt agree.
 

HillBill

Bushcrafter through and through
Oct 1, 2008
8,141
88
W. Yorkshire
As a bigger axe can do 99% what a smaller axe can do then more, i'm kinda left thinking it's a billy no mates with very little usefulness.
.

Bang wrong on that one mate. Its the other way around.

A small axe can fell the largest tree, though with many strokes, a small axe can split the largest logs, you just carve wedges with it. A small axe can carve most things , a big axe will struggle to carve anything. A small axe will fit in your pack, a large axe won't. A small axe can be used for many other tasks, and can be used as a hammer, you can use one as a knife if you choke up, a small axe can be used to shave wood, a small axe can be used to kill large animals in a trap ( lashed to a strong sapling). and then skinning/butchering the carcass. I could go on, but you get the idea. Versatility/transportability are the strengths of the hatchet. Your only limited by your imagination. I'd carry a hatchet over any other tool when out and about. That includes knives.

The reality, and i'm taking opinion out of the equation, is that a small axe can do EVERYTHING a large axe can do( not always easily, but it can). Yet a large axe, due to its size and weight, cant cope with smaller/fine tasks

I notice your location is Athens, are you from there or did you move there from here?
 
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johnboy

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Oct 2, 2003
2,258
5
Hamilton NZ
www.facebook.com
What a lot of Axe talk.

There seems to be a few issues being discussed in an homogenized way.

1. The usefulness of a small axe while out n about
2. Bushcraft 'fashion' and it's influence on the stuff we buy.
3. The point of axes in general

I cannot talk for other folk but here is my story.

Like a lot of folk on here I bought Ray Mears Bushcraft book back in 2003. It's a seminal work similar in magnitude to Lofty wisemans SAS survival Handbook back in the 80's. Ray's book however has far more color photos and a big section on kit and quite a few pages devoted to axes especially Gransfors Bruks.. I read the book and have dipped into it a lot since. My opinion of the book is its sets out a way of undertaking Bushcraft and gives you hints and tips on kit to buy. IIRC the book suggests the GB SFA is the choice for bushcraft type stuff.

After a trip back to the uk in 2006 and my sister buying me the complete DVD series of RM's Bushcraft I really fancied a GB SFA which I ended up with after a bit of a wrangle. It's been fun to use. I had never used an axe in my outdoor stuff very much at all prior to my SFA ownership. Any how I took it along on a few trips and soon came to realize that for me it was a bit of a dead weight I don't do much carving, for a simple overnight camp I can scavenge enough small firewood with out having to split stuff down etc.. So it's been languishing in the shed getting the odd trip out when we go car camping where it gets used to split down bigger bits of wood for the fire pit and knocking in tent pegs etc...

Last July I took my children of a bit of a walking tour of the central plateau as it winter here we had some cold weather and a bit of snow to contend with.

The National Park is well provisioned with backcountry huts which at that elevation all have a wood burner With a supply of sawn timber which DOC provide.

The routine was simple we'd walk from hut to hut getting to our new 'home' in the late afternoon get the fire going make tea etc... I didn't take the SFA as it had been a dead weight on previous trips and DOC provide a splitting maul at each hut and I was probably lugging 25 kg at the start of the trip with food for three for three days and fuel stove etc....

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Anyhow the upshot is a small hand hatchet would have been really useful for splitting kindling and getting some tinder sorted... As most of the twigs and small stuff around the huts was soaked or covered in snow. As it was I made do with a mora and a bit of battening down of some split pieces of wood which while ok would have been easier with a hatchet.

Getting the stove going was a nice to have on this trip rather than an essential but a warm hut and dry kit in the AM made for a really enjoyable time for all of us the kids still talk about the huts and the fire and cooking chicken curry etc...

My view is an axe can be useful some of the time. It an also be a PITA dead weight. A hatchet can be useful also.

Folk buy what they buy for lots of reasons.
 
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bb07

Native
Feb 21, 2010
1,322
1
Rupert's Land
A small axe has absolutely no use what-so-ever in my eyes, apart from insecure blokes going out with a axe strapped to their pack because it makes them feel more manly.

Tools come in different sizes for a reason. Small axes are every bit as useful and needed as big ones. Different sizes for different tasks-different sizes for differently sized people etc. Axes of all sizes are used here, with small ones being very popular. In fact, I see far more small ones than large. Trappers and anyone doing bush work often prefer a smaller axe because it's more portable than it's larger, heavier brother, and more suited for using one handed.
It also depends on your definition of what a small axe is. To me a small(ish) axe is one with a head weight of about two pounds or less, with a medium being maybe in the 2 1/2 to 3 pound range and anything heavier I would call a large.

I use a small axe pretty much all the time when i'm out and about. Indeed, it sees far more use than my knives, why? Because its bloody good at what it does.

I agree:)


I would add that yes, the smaller axes can be dangerous but what isn't if used improperly? When using a hammer, how often do people hit their knees/shins or whatever? Sure the head isn't sharp but I'm willing to bet that would hurt too:)
 

wattsy

Native
Dec 10, 2009
1,111
3
Lincoln
i use my hatchet loads when i'm out its versatility is why most people carry it, i make tent pegs, spoons, use it as a hammer to knock in said tent pegs, make wedges with it, use wedges and hatchet to split bigger logs, batton the hatchet to split smaller logs, use it to skin furries, can use it as a heavy knife if you choke up on it. saves you carrying a lot of stuff if you can make most of it. as far as weight goes mine only wieghs about a pound, so hardly back breaking.

also big, heavy axes are for chopping wood. thats it. they're very useful for building log cabins and big/permanent shelters and the like but i never really find much calling for that. big axes don't have much of a place in UK bushcraft unless you've a lot of firewood to process, small axes are incredibly useful.
 
Sep 27, 2011
22
0
Republic of Yorkshire
So let me get this right;
a small chopper is better than a large chopper as long as you know how to use it, is the consensus (apart from the chap who has a big chopper and wouldn't know what to do with a small one?).
Choppers, in general, can give you a nasty gash unless you handle them carefully.
Lastly some people choose which chopper to use on the grounds of fashion rather than utility?

Is that right?
 

Harvestman

Bushcrafter through and through
May 11, 2007
8,656
26
55
Pontypool, Wales, Uk
So let me get this right;
a small chopper is better than a large chopper as long as you know how to use it, is the consensus (apart from the chap who has a big chopper and wouldn't know what to do with a small one?).
Choppers, in general, can give you a nasty gash unless you handle them carefully.
Lastly some people choose which chopper to use on the grounds of fashion rather than utility?

Is that right?

Basically, yes. :)

Aaaaaand back to the thread...
 

Whittler Kev

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Mar 8, 2009
4,314
12
64
March, UK
bushcraftinfo.blogspot.com
So let me get this right;
a small chopper is better than a large chopper as long as you know how to use it, is the consensus (apart from the chap who has a big chopper and wouldn't know what to do with a small one?).
Choppers, in general, can give you a nasty gash unless you handle them carefully.
Lastly some people choose which chopper to use on the grounds of fashion rather than utility?

Is that right?
Either That Or Ray Mears Uses A Small Forest Axe Because He Dosen't Know Unsafe They Are :rofl: :rofl:
 

awarner

Nomad
Apr 14, 2012
487
4
Southampton, Hampshire
Almost a shame I do not have pictures of my stupid accident from many years back, brute strength and ignorance was in plenty that day.
While preparing some logs for kindling for a scout evening (and the first rule broken, I was by myself) I was chopping seasoned wood and came across a piece like concrete. Needless to say rather than put this piece aside as first cut did not work I gave it a bit more persuasion, so loss of control caused the axe to hit the wood glance off it and into my leg. As my axe is an exceptionally sharp Gransfors forest axe I only felt it hit my leg with no real pain, it was only when I looked down and saw a clean slice in my traousers I knew something was very wrong. Lifting up my trouser leg the cut opened up before me, so scout necker off, on the groud leg up and call for help plus phone emergency services.

Most embassasing thing was the local mobile paramedic turned up with a National Geographic film crew in tow, the police as they heard "axe wound" over the radio and then finally the ambulance to cart me away for a few days of hospital food, then about three weeks in plaster.

Turns out I had severed the tibialis anterior muscle so lots of stiches inside and out. At least I had a month off work during the world cup, shame I don't like football after watching Portsmouth play when I was about eight.

Lesson learnt the very hard way.

And work thought I was bunking off and even phoned me in the hospital to check I was there.
 
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awarner

Nomad
Apr 14, 2012
487
4
Southampton, Hampshire
Forgot to add the one good thing that came out of it is that I can speak with experience to my scouts about axe safety and show them what the outcome may be if they get careless.
Scouts my way rarely use an axe now as everywhere has bloody pallet wood.
 

Colin.W

Nomad
May 3, 2009
294
0
Weston Super Mare Somerset UK
When I did my carpentry aprenticeship many many years ago we were issued with a small hatchet and taught how to sharpen and use it safely, when your hatchet is as sharp as your chisels you dont want to learn the hard way what happens when the edge makes contact with anything other than the intended piece of wood, at best you'll be spending the next hour grinding and sharpening a nasty ding out of the blade at worst you'll be looking for a bag and some ice to take your thumb down to A&E
 

Sheldon

Member
Jan 2, 2012
38
0
Aboyne, Scotland!
I too had a rather unfortunate run in with a Gransfors Bruks SFA. Managed to sever the tendon in my left index finger. Had to have the tendon stitched back up, daresay my mother was not pleased.

My rather dashing splint.
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The cut itself.
Qwsvq.jpg


Still got 3 weeks left in the splint, woohoo!
 

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