Axes. Why?

[Andy BB]

I think I must be missing something (which wouldn't be anything new ). I know that RM swears by them, and it seems that you can't consider yourself a proper bushie unless you have a GB axe hanging off your rucksack. Because I really can't see why you actually need an axe for most bushcrafting - certainly in the UK, and even in most other places. A decent knife and a saw will do the job in pretty much every instance. And seeing as you'll almost certainly be carrying a knife anyway........

If you really must have a tool for trimming small limbs off your trunk, why not something like a billhook, which will do a much better job of that anyway. I've seen several posters shot down in flames for having the temerity to suggest that axes are actually quite dangerous ("should have learnt to use it properly" etc), but the fact is that even experienced axe users have taken chunks out of feet/shins etc, and they tend to be somewhat more debilitating/serious when compared to most knife or saw cuts.

So - is there really a requirement for an axe in the UK, or are they just affectations?

 

[cbr6fs]

I guess if it's your own land then for sure you'll need a decent sized axe to tidy up.

But for bushcrafting, unless your doing some axe carving or your miles out in Canada etc i really can't see the point.

A small axe especially, they're dangerous (more so than longer handled axes) and pretty much useless, a hand saw would be lighter and more efficient.

But then why some folks seem to be on a mission to burn the country down a bit of a time i have absolutely no idea.
Sure we all love a nice big fire round the camp at night, but we also have a responsibility to sustain that same land through generations.

If it's your land then good on ya.

Having a real fire on public or private land without permission is at best unhelpful to our cause, at worst bloody dangerous.

Especially with modern stoves being so light and small these days.



If your out for a 2 week hike in Alaska and are building a shelter fair enough.
But if your doing 2 days hiking in Derbyshire it just seems pointless to me.

But then if folks want to play Rambo and strap on kg's of kit that they MAKE use for, hey it's not my legs.

 

[santaman2000]

Is there really a requirement for Bushcraft? No but it's fun. The real question is just how far you want to carry your hobby. Getting into the woods for some of us is just an excuse to play with our toys; up to and including felling trees if you're lucky enough to be able to do so legally. For most of us there's no real NEED; Just a desire and hopefully an oportunity. That applies wherever most of us are The real variable isn't need so much as opportunity. At least that's my view in the context of "bushcraft" as a hobby rather than a skillset used in everyday vocation.

For others there might not be a desire to use (or even to learn to use) an axe, and that's OK too.

 

[British Red]

I don't really see the point in a knife or saw either. Why not simply take a nice camping Gaz stove and some Marks and Spencers ready meals?

Bushcraft doesn't have a point - any of it - in the UK. Its really much quicker to take the car so why walk? Its simpler to have Dominos deliver a pizza so what is the point in foraging. There is no "Bush" in which to "craft" do why not settle down in front of the (gas) fire for a nice evening of stamp collecting?

 

[Retired Member southey]

Hahahahah BECAUSE SOME PEOPLE LIKE TO USE WHAT EVER THEY WANT! yes an axe is dangerous, as dangerous as a car? no, as dangerous as a fridge?no, requires training to use properly? yes, is there a need for any one to do any thing? only if they want to!

 

[Jared]

I think I must be missing something (which wouldn't be anything new ). I know that RM swears by them, and it seems that you can't consider yourself a proper bushie unless you have a GB axe hanging off your rucksack. Because I really can't see why you actually need an axe for most bushcrafting - certainly in the UK, and even in most other places. A decent knife and a saw will do the job in pretty much every instance. And seeing as you'll almost certainly be carrying a knife anyway........

I do remember watching one RM show when he was felling a relatively modest tree with a little axe, and just thinking he was having to work way too hard pecking away at it. The whole point of an axe is F = ma. *

If you really must have a tool for trimming small limbs off your trunk, why not something like a billhook, which will do a much better job of that anyway. I've seen several posters shot down in flames for having the temerity to suggest that axes are actually quite dangerous ("should have learnt to use it properly" etc), but the fact is that even experienced axe users have taken chunks out of feet/shins etc, and they tend to be somewhat more debilitating/serious when compared to most knife or saw cuts.

The advantage of an (large) axe over a billhook is that you don't have to bend down, even with my 24" billhook, the extra handle length is welcome. You can just walk up the fallen tree pinging limbs off. One thing that does surprise me is no one ever talks about swedish brush/clearing axes, light, longish handle, replaceable blades, would've thought someone would prefer them.

So - is there really a requirement for an axe in the UK, or are they just affectations?

No, yes.

* PS, that isn't to say you should be swinging an axe as fast and hard as you can into a tree. You definitely shouldn't do that.

 

[Retired Member southey]

Hey look here is another "why are you using this! I demand you do what I say!" thread about axes

 

[cbr6fs]

Is there really a requirement for Bushcraft? No but it's fun.

So swinging wildly away with a little kiddy axe is fun
Guess it takes all sorts.

The real question is just how far you want to carry your hobby. Getting into the woods for some of us is just an excuse to play with our toys; up to and including felling trees if you're lucky enough to be able to do so legally. For most of us there's no real NEED; Just a desire and hopefully an oportunity. That applies wherever most of us are The real variable isn't need so much as opportunity. At least that's my view in the context of "bushcraft" as a hobby rather than a skillset used in everyday vocation.

For others there might not be a desire to use (or even to learn to use) an axe, and that's OK too.

I love speed, i love jumping on my motorbike or in my car and pushing it to the limits.
Problem is 99% of my driving is on public roads, so as a responsible adult i don't tear **** about endangering other people.

When i go camping i love a nice big fire.
I live in Greece though so if i had a nice big fire say 5 months of the year it would set off a forest fire that would destroy kilometres of forest, homes etc.
So i do the responsible thing and don't have a nice big fire.

Even when i'm in the UK, unless i'm on my land or a campsite that allows open fires i still go without.

I don't really see the point in a knife or saw either. Why not simply take a nice camping Gaz stove and some Marks and Spencers ready meals?

Bushcraft doesn't have a point - any of it - in the UK. Its really much quicker to take the car so why walk? Its simpler to have Dominos deliver a pizza so what is the point in foraging. There is no "Bush" in which to "craft" do why not settle down in front of the (gas) fire for a nice evening of stamp collecting?

I use a knife to cut my cheese, bread, sausages, etc.
I use it to cut the dog out when she gets wrapped up in fishing like.
I also do take a Gaz stove and ready meals.

Absolutely no idea what Bushcraft means, personally i just like getting out and enjoying the outdoors.
So to that end it does have a point for me.
I do drive my car as carrying 60kg of tools 25 miles to work and back would be a bit of a heft.
If i'm hungry and fancy a Pizza then i'll order
Don't have a gas fire and i don't stamp collect.

After saying that i have absolutely no idea what any of it has got to do with carrying an axe
Are you trying to put forward a point or just bored?

 

[Retired Member southey]

Heres another one, hmmm wonder if all the points have been covered yet? the salient one being, your time, your choice!

 

[cbr6fs]

Hahahahah BECAUSE SOME PEOPLE LIKE TO USE WHAT EVER THEY WANT! yes an axe is dangerous, as dangerous as a car? no, as dangerous as a fridge?no, requires training to use properly? yes, is there a need for any one to do any thing? only if they want to!

Don't really understand why you point out the obvious, and even then obviously wrong.

Of course people don't do what ever they want, if they did society would collapse.
As adults we should do what we feel is our responsibility to do.


Again though i have absolutely no idea what that's got to do with the op asking WHY.

 

[Retired Member southey]

Don't really understand why you point out the obvious, and even then obviously wrong.

Of course people don't do what ever they want, if they did society would collapse.
As adults we should do what we feel is our responsibility to do.


Again though i have absolutely no idea what that's got to do with the op asking WHY.

Nope, your wrong,

 

[Samon]

I kind of feel the same, the axe isn't essential here but it is an enjoyable tool to use. I did a load of tree removal the other day and I used my neighbours GB sfa to fell the 12" dead and solid standing plumb tree, it worked well and was reasonably quick and easy. I had fun and used my modded cold steel trail hawk to chop down the shoulder high 4 inche thick live elder branches and it was fast and easy. When I decided to clean up the cuts with my folding saw I found it more tiring and less energy efficient due to the height and angle.

I also used an 18" tramontina machete to limb the cut off branches and all their other thinner branches so I could pile it all up neatly. And I can tell you now, my razor sharp machete was the star of the show, I was cutting through 3" elder in one medium swipe! It made the job so easy it was theraputic, at the end the pile was like 12 feet high!

I find billhooks to be a bit.. meh. They perform quite well as 'jack of all trades' tools but don't cut as well as machetes and don't chop/split as well as axes. usually they have small handles so they are even more at a loss when like that.

I'm sure some people will not appreciate your opinion but I do understand where you're coming from.

 

[British Red]

After saying that i have absolutely no idea what any of it has got to do with carrying an axe
Are you trying to put forward a point or just bored?

My point - I'll use little words - is that the whole hobby is pointless - as are all hobbies. They are for amusement not necessity. If it amuses someone to use an axe, then it has fulfilled its purpose. It is no less worthy than the "bushcraft knife" that is unnecessary because there is no need to be out "Bushcrafting" in the first place. There is no need for a fire so a saw is pointless, there is no need to camp out so a tarp is pointless. Its all pointless other than for its amusement value.

Its redundant to pick out one item, in a hobby that meets no real need in this country and describe it as pointless when the whole hobby is pointless.

Bushcraft in the UK is one big game of "lets pretend" no more, no less. We have no uncharted wilderness, we are rarely out of mobile phone signal. So an axe is no more redundant than the hobby itself - unless one person chooses to apply their own narrow definition to the hobby and then single mindedly berate others for refusing to follow the definition of the hobby that they invented.

 

[Retired Member southey]

I would differ in one point, I find a use in learning to use an axe, to be able to pass on what I've learned, but other than that IN THIS COUNTRY its learn through play every day

 

[Retired Member southey]

Just to be clear, this is what we are talking about right?

 

[Samon]

haha! you're on one tonight.

 

[British Red]

Is this a nasty slash with an axe?

 

[santaman2000]

So swinging wildly away with a little kiddy axe is fun
Guess it takes all sorts...

No, not swinging "wildly" nor with a "kiddie" axe. Remember I grew up on a farm where cutting firewood (real firewood for the fireplaces in the house) was a daily chore in the winter as was professional logging (on a family scale) and paperwooding (cutting wood for the paper/pulp mills) all year round. It was all just part of our life, and still is for most rural families in Mississippi. If you mean "Do you enjoy being good at your work (or what WAS your work)?" Then yes, I do enjoy it. I also enjoy wielding a chainsaw, driving log trucks, tractors and bulldozers, etc. from that part of my early life.

 

[bb07]

Needing an axe or not really depends on your location as well as lifestyle. Need should not enter into it anyway, as everyone should use whatever makes them happy. If need were relevant, there's a whole lot we could do without in our daily lives.

Here axes are as common as boots. Practically everyone has at least one axe (and usually more). With our climate, I would never be without an axe in the winter. For firemaking, trail clearing, checking ice thickness before crossing lakes or rivers, shelter building if your skidoo breaks down and a night out is required, the list goes on and on.
Even in the summer I wouldn't want to be without one. Tough to split a tree for dry wood with a saw when you're cold and wet after it's been raining for days and everything is soaked through. Peel logs, sharpen poles, pound stakes, whatever, life is just so much easier with an axe.


I think that the people that question needing an axe have never been in a situation where they truly needed one.
And I'm sure that anyone who works with wood, heats their home or shop with wood, has fires for whatever reason, regardless of where they live in the world, would disagree with having their need of an axe being questioned.

 

[Hoodoo]

Needing an axe or not really depends on your location as well as lifestyle. Need should not enter into it anyway, as everyone should use whatever makes them happy. If need were relevant, there's a whole lot we could do without in our daily lives.

Here axes are as common as boots. Practically everyone has at least one axe (and usually more). With our climate, I would never be without an axe in the winter. For firemaking, trail clearing, checking ice thickness before crossing lakes or rivers, shelter building if your skidoo breaks down and a night out is required, the list goes on and on.
Even in the summer I wouldn't want to be without one. Tough to split a tree for dry wood with a saw when you're cold and wet after it's been raining for days and everything is soaked through. Peel logs, sharpen poles, pound stakes, whatever, life is just so much easier with an axe.


I think that the people that question needing an axe have never been in a situation where they truly needed one.
And I'm sure that anyone who works with wood, heats their home or shop with wood, has fires for whatever reason, regardless of where they live in the world, would disagree with having their need of an axe being questioned.

Well said bb. Anyone who's ever run the back roads of a state or national forest or run down a two-track around here knows the value of an axe, especially after heavy winds. I think the best point you made was the importance of obtaining dry wood. Anyone that's canoed during early spring or late fall knows (or should know) the importance of getting a fire going if you dump your canoe and in wet weather, it can be a lifesaver. I certainly agree that in many situations/places an axe is superfluous and it's all about when and where. By the same token, there's nothing wrong with wanting to educate yourself on how to use an axe no matter where you are. Speaking for myself, I've always enjoyed swinging an axe. Grew up on a farm with a 40 acre woodlot and we heated a big ol' drafty farmhouse with wood.