Does it bother you to "go plastic" ?

[trade axe]

Good day gentlemen. I am not a tree huger type, nor a total scorched earth Neanderthal, in my views toward nature. I try to follow a reasonable middle ground. I still have to drive a car to work, as opposed to the impracticability of riding a horse around here. I derive aesthetic pleasure from using fine tools such as wooden handled Swedish axes etc. But herein lies the dilemma. I also have fun using those "plastic" ?/polymer handled Fiskars axes. Those things are quite inexpensive around here while giving reasonable performance. I have great fun with the little Fiskars hatchets in particular. I suppose that I have some type of "poisoning the environment" peripheral concern in the back of my mind, a kind of guilt I suppose. Strange as my logic may seem, I feel better using my plasticy Fiskars closer to city environs, and my bio degradable Swede axes in more pristine areas. Twisted as that logic may be in the big picture. I also have a pile of plastic handled Mora's and I'm really not interested in the wooden options. Anyone else get guilt twinges now and then over using tools that will not break down naturally ?

 

[Dave Budd]

i'm easy either way. I prefer the aesthetics and warm, natural feel of wooden handles on things and leather sheathes, but sometimes plastic is more practical. Since I wok in the woods, the only sensible colour for a handle/sheath/etc is bright orange or pink; so most of my working tools (axes, billhooks, slashers, axes, saws, etc) either have some part of them made of hi-vis plastic or are sprayed with fluorescent paint. My favourite splitting maul has a fibreglass handle and my silky saws have plastic scabbards.

But I'm still going to continue to make tools with wooden handles, brown leather sheathes and a nicer rustic aesthetic. It is nicer to the eye, the hand and the sensibilities in every way I think. I'm not into techy gear of any type, so for me plastic tools are chosen for practicality were it is beneficial rather than because I like it

 

[British Red]

What I dislike about the Fiskars is not the use of plastic, but the use in such a way that the axe cannot be re-helved if the current helve sustains damage. That is what makes me think of a company after a quick buck who is not building tools for the long haul.

 

[John Fenna]

I prefer to go natural and avoid plastics these days - but a lot of things - like most of my tarps - are plastic based.
Plastic is unavoidable in modern life... but I prefer naturals for my tools as they just Feel nicer, look nicer... and will biodegrade

 

[ozzy1977]

Do t forget the wood used on most swedish axes is imported from america

 

[Shinken]

I suppose the problem is this, the materials used to make plastics are never drilled primarily to make plastics.

Oil is been drilled for fuel, so the bi product is in existance if we use it or not.

I used to be an natural material person only. Now not so much. Cattle is a massive drain on the planets resourses, and we get leather from that. There are plant based fibers that can be used to packs and sheaths. (of course leather is a bi-product of the meat industry)

My point being is that what ever we use is this modern day has a cost to the enviroment, if we use leather sheaths in rainforest then we might use 10 leather sheaths in a lifetime and you would need only one plastic sheath. Both have a cost in oil and time etc etc. I wonder how they would compare.

 

[sandbender]

"...Anyone else get guilt twinges now and then over using tools that will not break down naturally ?..."

I prefer my tools to have wooden handles, I like leather sheaths but I have no problem with plastic handles ones and nylon sheaths.

Eventually everything will break down naturally, even the universe.

 

[cranmere]

I like natural materials but I have no inhibition about using plastic where it gives me an advantage. For example I can leave cheap and cheerful Mora knives tucked in my car boot, the tool kit, the garden shed or wherever and know that they won't suffer and will be ready for use whenever I need them.

 

[FGYT]

Just think of Plastic as Million year old fossilised trees so just as natural as fossilised mammoth tooth

 

[Wayne]

I love good quality hand made tools with nice wooden handles. However my budget doesnt always extend to the very finest. If its a tool i'm not going to use regularly then I get a half decent version that will do the job.

One of my customers favourite axes amongst my collection of axes they can use on our bow making courses is a cheapo £7.99 job off ebay. Metal helve but chops like a demon.

 

[demographic]

If its well designed and made then I'm not fussed what its made of.

Got various knives with grips that vary from wood to Zytel, for folders I'm quite impressed by the Zytel to be honest.

With axes I do like wood cos the fibreglass ones seem kind of numb to me, plus I like the fact that they can be re-helved if needed.

Hammers, for some reason I like the leather washer grips on those but I suspect thats cos they are different enough that they don't grow legs and walk off site as much as the blue handled Estwings do.

 

[Goatboy]

To be fair "plastics" have been around a while, Bakelite was developed in 1907. So that's over a century ago now. And things like resins have been around since before recorded history began with the likes of Theophrastus documenting them in the 2nd century BC.
I do like natural materials though, I feel more of an affinity and connectedness with them, wooden or done handles, leather, horn or wood drinking vessels and plates. And about 90% of my clothing is natural fibres. Still think it's hard to beat woollen clothes and leather boots.
I do have a synthetic shafted axe in the press at home, but it's never used as the feedback is awful when chopping large blocks of wood.

 

[DocG]

I too like natural materials for aesthetic reasons and because wood can be so comfortable in the hand. Kris' rasp knife with its bog wood handle is the most comfortable knife I've owned. I understand the "ancient wood" argument of oil and won't argue against it. I prefer wooden hafts for axes because they can be replaced and so allow me to maintain my relationship with a head that I've honed to my satisfaction. Leather knife sheaths don't rattle, do fit nicely but can do terrible things to knives if they get wet or contaminated - but I still prefer them. (However, I like the look of some of Rob Evans' kydex and leather combo sheaths ).
So, just like other posters, I'm a mixture and maybe I'm mixed up.
All the best.

 

[Harvestman]

I love the feel of wood, but plastics have their place too. There are not too many fluorescent orange woods around for easy to find tools like my Hultafors knife. Also I love my little Fiskars X5 hatchet - it is my favourite axe, above any of my wooden handled ones. If I was buying a custom knife, then I would want wooden scales.

I don't suppose plastics are any more unnatural than metal allys like O1 tool steel. It just took us longer to work out how to make them.

Oh, and I am a treehugger

 

[Unistat76]

I don't have a problem with "modern" or plastic, my problem is, as you say aesthetics. I can barely stand to mix the new and the traditional! I know that eventually I'm going to end up with two full kits, a modern and a more traditional (call it 1880's to 1920's-ish.)

 

[Tengu]

Horn and cellulose are plastics, arent they?

 

[trade axe]

Thanks guys. I feel more settled with it all now. Many thought provoking and or amusing replies.

 

[Swallow]

Yes, but it's more aroung the food chain than anything else. The Geologist Ian Stewart pointed out "in a million years the planet will have recovered. It's not the planet that needs saving...it's us".

So something that bothere me more than plastic handles or tarps is this...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16709045

 

[Paul_B]

Horn and cellulose are plastics, arent they?

Wood is a composite of cellulose fibres and a binder. Indeed that is kind of what all plants are made of. I remember my materials science lecturer in the materials selection lectures (where we used the Ashby materials selection text book and selection guides) compare the properties of various materials. There are graphs available to compare the main material properties such as tensile strength, strain, etc. It was actually interesting to note that in some highly modern and technical uses we looked at wood was actually better than the high tech material used. Can't remember the details now but when cost was factored in wood was head an shoulders above the other options we had narrowed it down to. He was basically letting us know that as the future materials engineers we had to be open to what we used.

Sorry off topic.

As far as the OP's question I have no guilt about using any material if it is justified whether on design of available finished product or on the properties of the specific material. We live in a modern world for all of it's positives and negatives. We will never be able to negate our impact on it and never have. I think it is relatively a more recent thing that we are moving towards the idea of chooosing less impact alternatives rather than the best option for the job in hand. However if you think about something as humble as a banana. Not grown over here, transported thousands of miles to be eaten here. Then the skin gets tossed. I once read that those skins, if discarded in the UK hills, takes decades or even over 100 years for signs of it's presence to disappear. Something about them not breaking down well in our upland soils. In the same articles plastics were in the thousands apparently (plastic bags and not the "biodegradeable" ones). I think it must have been a Greenpeace or Friends of the Earth press release personally but there you go.

My point is we do not know where the things we use, eat or wear come from these days, how they are made and what happens when they are discarded. There is so much that is a by product of other uses. So I do not have scruples or pangs of guilt over what I use. We are wasteful creatures and the modern world has not changed that just made us realise it more I think. There is no change in our modus operandi so to speak from stone age man to modern day. We have just increased complexity and technology. A stone age man in modern day will likely be posting on here about feeling guilt over using plastic handled axes but he will still use them if there was a benefit. You see where I am coming from?

 

[Tor helge]

I have no problems With plastic.
But I don`t like the Fiskars axes anyway. Claims to be "indestructable".
Well, they are not.