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A tiny hatchet or tomahawk is not a lot of use. I have found that even a fairly light axe head benefits from a 16" handle, with few downsides. For cutting off branches from a bough, though, a billhook or parang/machete makes much more sense.

Kitchen knives and tools will presumably be included. It seems quite ridiculous.

I would be interested to try a Fiskars X27(?) A friend has a sharp Fiskars style axe. We were splitting large sections of beech tree wood recently. I was using a friend's 6lb Roughneck maul that I had improved a bit, re-profiling, better bevel and sharpening from its original bludgeon like...

What is odd is just *how* absolutely useless this maul was with the original handle. A thin rod of fibreglass coated in plastic may have been resilient, but, with a 7lb head, hopeless for the task so would have lasted almost forever. People apparently rented them in the past. They can't have...

I found this fairly terrible 7lb maul at our scout hut. It apparently originally came from HSS. The head had potential, but the handle was extremely flexible. Striking a log resulted in the handle bending, with terrible transfer of energy and a lot of vibration. It was unusable! The handle...

Endorsed by Don Whillans no less. Edit. I knew he had died a long time ago, but he was only 52 when he died.

I'd not considered that, but comfortable boots shouldn't be a problem. I have travelled in plastic mountaineering boots in the past. The laces can be loosened off whilst sitting.

That was almost 40 years ago! You won't see many other 1980s cars around.

I wouldn't worry too much about the weight. Practice/train in them, or similar boots, for a few weeks if you are only conditioned to wearing lighter footwear.

It was only -1°C and dry near Manchester as I cycled to work.

It was quite cold on the bike ride home across the Moss this evening. The sky was clear and the stars were visible as the last of the sunlight disappeared in the west. I do like it at this time of year.

It has been a long, but mild, autumn. This, morning was a bit frosty on the cycle to work, as it should be.

These axes have had some good use for lopping small branches, clearing etc. They work well The Explorer Scouts made good use of these axes for making kindling and tinder with these axes recently. They thought that they looked good too.

I bought this S&J Neverblunt billhook on Ebay. Does anybody have any idea when it is likely to have been made? It was in reasonably good condition. There was a bit of pitting, but it is solid. There was still a bit of an edge on it. I gave it an initial rubbing down of the surface rust...

A little rubbing down, grinding off the lumps along the top, rust convertor, cold blueing, a few coats of Danish oil on the handle and sharpening the edge have improved the old billhook. The steel appears to be quite good quality. It is a Spear & Jackson Neverblunt. Unknown era.

Indeed. I have begun doing this.

This is how it was when I received it:

I bought an old one on Ebay to try. It has been delivered. I look forward to restoring it and trying it out.

At lunchtime yesterday I went for a walk that included a bit of woodland. It was raining so I took an umbrella. Walking under trees, even in the rain (I quite like it when dressed for it), was vastly more pleasant then just walking around an industrial area, as my colleagues do every lunchtime...

Starting work at 7am, in a windowless room, with a short lunch break (I make sure that I get outside) and finishing after 5pm means that I don't see a lot of daylight in winter. It's not great.