Argos £5 axe

[robin wood]

This is not the full review I was hoping to post as I am pushed for time but I wanted to post a few quick thoughts on this axe whilst it is on special offer at just £4.89 at Argos.

See some previous discussion here.

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=38912&highlight=argos+axe+review

I picked one up last week and it was pretty much as the one discussed in the thread linked above.

A file test on the head shows it to be of a good hardness, not too hard not too soft, just right.

Out of the box it would be good for splitting firewood where you do not want a sharp edge just a wedge on a stick, as a cutting tool it was utterly useless. The edge was very thick and rounded, to take it down properly with hand tools would have taken a while, I personally would have started with heavy cuts with a new coarse file and would have expected to be there for at least 20 minutes before starting on anything finer.

If you have a powerful grinder with a coarse grit then it can be taken down quickly with frequent dips in a bucket of water to avoid heating and loosing the temper. It took me about 5 minutes on a grinder then buffing wheel to put good flat bevels on and a good working edge. I like flat bevels for carving use but it would be equally easy to reprofile to a narrower convex edge for general work if that is what you want.

So £5 and 5 minutes skilled work and what do we have? Well the head is not aligned with the handle, I know a lot of people rate this a serious fault. It really does not bother me, I find in use the hand and eye simple make adjustments for it, this goes for beginners with correct teaching as well as those with a lot of experience.

The head is missing a wedge which is just bizarre. Having said that it is securely fitted and I would not regard it as a hazard, I would be astonished if the head flew off in use without giving lots of warning first. As with all my axes I will keep an eye on it, when hewing it is normally easy to feel as soon as a head develops a tiny wobble when it begins to come loose. If after years use the head comes loose then rehandle it, to be honest it would not be bad value at £5 for the head.

I carved a few spoons with the axe and it worked very well, it is a good shape and weight, good steel with correct temper I was just as happy using this as a £50 Gransfors or an old Kent pattern axe. So if you are in the market for a very cheap axe and have the skills to grind the new bevels then this will work well, buy a new coarse file to do the work when you pick it up which will probably be more than half the price of the axe. If you have those skills you might prefer to pick up an old axe head and rework it like this http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=38842&highlight=axe+handle
An old head will undoubtedly be badly damaged and need exactly the same work and a new handle too but it will also have an aesthetic appeal, the joy of bringing something old and English back to life rather than supporting the huge tide of stuff made under unknown conditions in China.

If you don't have the skills or time to do that work I would not buy one of these axes, it is a long way from just normal sharpening to put it right.

 

[addo]

Great info there. Im still on the lookout for and old axe head to rehandle. I dont need another axe as have several, but just fancy having a go and learning an old skill. It doesnt matter then if my gransfors goes missing or fails in the future.
I cut some ash the other day as part of a ride clearance, and split it in half with wedges, ready for tool handles.

 

[IJ55]

the head is not aligned with the handle...


Then it should be binned. If you gave that to a begginer you are setting them in for some serious harm with glancing off blows and should they ever get a proper axe with a decent head on it, they will be all off in their technique.

As for it being blunt from new........ lol, how many people buying a £5 axe will have pro tools? my guess? none.

 

[robin wood]

the head is not aligned with the handle...


Then it should be binned. If you gave that to a begginer you are setting them in for some serious harm with glancing off blows and should they ever get a proper axe with a decent head on it, they will be all off in their technique.

Well yes I know that is an oft repeated point of view but in my experience glancing off is invariably caused not by misaligned heads but by poor technique or poor sharpening.

As for who buys £5 tools, well I know a lot of talented folk that use Moras and I bought a £5 axe and I have an embarrassingly large number of "pro tools".

I really like the fact that there is a sub £10 knife that works superbly and I think it is a shame folk think that an axe must cost £60 or it's no good.

 

[Tadpole]

the head is not aligned with the handle...


Then it should be binned. If you gave that to a begginer you are setting them in for some serious harm with glancing off blows and should they ever get a proper axe with a decent head on it, they will be all off in their technique.

As for it being blunt from new........ lol, how many people buying a £5 axe will have pro tools? my guess? none.

My first axe the head was not aligned with the handle, nor was the cutting edge, but i sharpened it best I could, it ended up sharp enough to shave with. Still misaligned, and with the head on the skew. I used it for over a year, I got used to it, and it worked really well, doing all that I asked of it, to be honest I didn’t know how far out of align it was until I bought a better axe. I just put it down to being left handed, and instinctively compensated for it when chopping or carving or just making feather sticks for the fire.
I think a greater danger and a bigger problem lies with axe ‘experts’ who sometime refuse to compensated for differences in axes, and insist on the proper way rather than the right way for that axe. I remember watching Ray sharpening an axe for some old wizened aboriginal; the old guy was used to his axe, and after Ray sharpened it, the old guy cut himself.

 

[HillBill]

So mine wasn't an oversight with the wedge. The head on mine is still solid, it has been used a fair bit but the epoxy on top has cracked a little. The edge retention is pretty good. I wouldn't say as good as a gransfors but not too far off.

I prefer the handle on this axe to those on my WH and SFA. More chunky and solid.

 

[Dave Budd]

I carved a few spoons with the axe and it worked very well, it is a good shape and weight, good steel with correct temper I was just as happy using this as a £50 Gransfors or an old Kent pattern axe.

Thankyou Robin. I'm continually trying to tell people that they don't have to have a GB axe!

I've got a growing teaching collection of different types of axe, including approaching 20 hatchets as they are the most useful size for my courses. I have Gransfors axes in there, but I also have an awful lot of sub-£10 hatchets. I've had courses where the Gransfors axes have been sat on the table virtually unused, while the other random varieties are being wielded contently

On a side note, I just bought a little Haltasfors axe at the weekend. It's a hatchet sized head (500g) on a short handle (9"?) and is unlike anything else in my collection, hence me opting for that over a hatchet or larger axe. I've not come across them before, but it turns out that Cegga is one of their smiths They seem to be very good axes (well designed and well made) and I am sure that I would prefer to use these over my GBs (and even my Wetterlings and other randoms), but they ain't cheap. new toy to play with

 

[IJ55]

well, if people are content to use faulty tools, so be it - a misaligned head is a fault, not some thing you should have to get used to.

Dave, sounds like a tasty bit of kit, any chance of a link?

 

[robin wood]

well, if people are content to use faulty tools, so be it - a misaligned head is a fault, not some thing you should have to get used to.

And who determines what is a fault?

I have seen a lot of old axes which have been used for many years by skilled woodworkers with heads that some would say were "misaligned". For a hewing hatchet which most small one handed axes are then having the head at a slight angle to the handle is in my opinion a benefit, so long as it is skewed the right way for you as a left or right hander, as it helps you sight down the line you are hewing to. For a full size axe used for felling I tend to prefer the edge in line with the handle but even here a slight "misalignment" can make it easier to cut the bottom of the gob without having to bend down so much.

I think every tool needs getting used to, after using a tool a while we should no longer be thinking about the handle and our hand but only the cutting edge in the same way as when you hammer a nail you do not think about the hand and handle but the contact between head and nail.

 

[Dave Budd]

And who determines what is a fault?

mostly armchair tool snobs in my experience

I think it's largley a result of the industrial age. People are used to machine-made perfection and are not happy with anything else. I bet if we had the tools produced a hundred or two years ago, then not many would be 'properly' alligned

 

[FGYT]

yes Dave there was a lot of Cegga axes about many in Damascus it was hard not to go home with one even at £400 + but im happy with my Red Hunter £40 jobby

I sorry i missed you when we left now i know where you where
Any luck on an Orc knife yet

silly thing is to get these axes at this price they have to be Machine made etc people cost to much so should be prety much the same and right
the Moras will be wacked out by CNC and precision moulded etc doubt if more than one person touches them in the manufacturing

ATB

Duncan

 

[robin wood]

yes Dave there was a lot of Cegga axes about many in Damascus it was hard not to go home with one even at £400 + but im happy with my Red Hunter £40 jobby

I sorry i missed you when we left now i know where you where
Any luck on an Orc knife yet

silly thing is to get these axes at this price they have to be Machine made etc people cost to much so should be prety much the same and right
the Moras will be wacked out by CNC and precision moulded etc doubt if more than one person touches them in the manufacturing

ATB

Duncan

I certainly think about the working conditions things are made in and I like the gransfors philosophy.

If you want to see how your mora is made have a look here http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=28467&highlight=frosts+factory+visit not CNC but robots grinding on wet belt sanders and yes the only person to touch them is the one on the machine that moulds the handle on.

 

[FGYT]

double post

 

[FGYT]

I certainly think about the working conditions things are made in and I like the gransfors philosophy.

If you want to see how your mora is made have a look here http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=28467&highlight=frosts+factory+visit not CNC but robots grinding on wet belt sanders and yes the only person to touch them is the one on the machine that moulds the handle on.

um yes thats CNC (Computer Numeric Control )

bet the handle moulder has a fun Tea break chatting to the co workers
" 100101001001101100111100001100 "

ATB

Duncan

 

[stanley lake]

Bad workmen always blame there tools! what about the cave men them pore soles worked with flint axes bet they didn't complain about whether the axe head was in line or not

 

[British Red]

" 100101001001101100111100001100 "

There are 10 kinds of people in the world

Those who speak binary

And those who don't

Red

 

[UCBerzerkeley]

well, if people are content to use faulty tools, so be it - a misaligned head is a fault, not some thing you should have to get used to.

Dave, sounds like a tasty bit of kit, any chance of a link?

who else is amused at the newbie instructing the master carver?

 

[Dave Budd]

I've had people contradict my instructions right in front of me on courses! I don't mind people showing me a better way of doing something, far from it (we should all keep on learnin), but there is a time and a place. Also some people just plain talk out of their...

anyway

I'm sure every craftsman gets it if they teach or demonstrate. I notice it alot ot shows when I'm talking to others at their stall and we over hear another 'expert' in the crowd. most of us just ignore it or be as polite as possible

 

[spamel]

well, if people are content to use faulty tools, so be it - a misaligned head is a fault, not some thing you should have to get used to.

I hope you're paying attention Robin, there'll be a test at the end!