Favorite Axes

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Oblio13

Settler
Sep 24, 2008
703
2
67
New Hampshire
oblio13.blogspot.com
IMG_1360_zps5bee5a19.jpg



Starting from seven o'clock and proceeding clockwise:


A military axe from a surplus store, made by Hults Bruk and marked with the Swedish three crowns. It's about a 2 1/2 pound head on a twenty-nine-inch handle. Light enough to carry on a camping trip, large enough to do serious work.


A Wetterlings full-size felling axe. I didn't like it at first because the handle was thick enough to paddle a canoe with. After it sat around mostly unused for several years, I slimmed and 'octagoned' the handle. Now it's one of my favorites.


A Granfors Bruks splitting maul. We heat with wood and it's been splitting about three cords per year for a long time. It has a steel collar to protect the handle, and it's still on the original one. It's an indispensable tool on our homestead.


A Stanley double-bit on a 36" handle. Made by the Mann Edged Tool Company, I think, back in the days when quality axes were still forged in the US. I mostly use it to split kindling, by driving one edge into a stump and then batoning small sticks over the other. The head is too slender for anything other than what it's designed for, felling, and I don't like felling trees with an axe. But it's fun to use once in a while. I have a lot of respect for lumberjacks who swung axes like that all day.


Last, at four o'clock, another Granfors Bruks, a limbing axe with a light 2-pound head on a 25" handle. It's a good camp axe, small enough to choke up on one-handed for carving, and large enough to get a powerful two-handed swing with. The grain in the handle runs exactly the wrong way, so I figured I'd use it hard until it broke and replace it with a proper one. I haven't been able to break it. That hickory is very tough stuff.


I usually duct-tape a strip of leather to the leading edges of handles to protect them from overstrikes. My theory is that pink is easy to see in the snow and leaves, and impossible to be mistaken for anyone else's.
 

Jared

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Sep 8, 2005
3,388
640
50
Wales
Nice set of axes, not a fan of the tape though, might hide problems (cracks) with the handle.
 

Ashmarsh860

Member
Mar 30, 2013
15
0
North Dorset
I have my Granfors Bruks Camp Axe, I have used a pyro iron to brand it as mine and I have woven myself a cobra weave leash, which I can take on and off via two larks head knots when I need to use it in the snow, if she gets dropped I can just haul her back in! The leash attaches to a shorter attaching loop on the handle and the opposite end attaches to my belt, when I am done in the snow I swap it for a shorter wrist loop for normal chopping! I have been in the Arctic and seen a chap ignore his wrist loop on his knife when chopping brush and when he let if go from his mitted hands, its burrowed off to the center of the earth faster than Jules Verne! One lost knife, not more choppy, someone else has to do his share of the camp chores and all for the sake of a little length of cord! It would have also saved him from the merciless banter he received and he couldn't even step out to avoid it as the temp had dropped past -50C!
 

Biker

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
A goodly collection!
I am not sure about the pink though.....

Says you with your adorable Spork collection! Next you'll be criticising his curtains... ducky. :lmao:

Nice collection mate. I have a splitting maul that I picked up and restored from a bootfair over here, it's AMAZING! Makes light work of even the biggest logs.
 

Jared

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Sep 8, 2005
3,388
640
50
Wales
Most people tape handles after they're damaged in an attempt to make them last a little longer. I tape mine before there's any damage.

Handles break and you can't see the condition of the handle, unless to remove and reapply the tape each time.

It's just something I personally wouldn't do.
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,709
1,947
Mercia
Helve protection is common on axes used for splitting - heck even Gransfors Bruks do it :)

Favourite axes?

Well my most used are the larger double bits


Kelly Perfect Axe with Gransfors Bruks Working Axe by British Red, on Flickr

For Summer bushcrafting I like my cegga / BR hunter


cegga singteck by British Red, on Flickr

or for best my Lee Reeves


Nessmuk Trio 1 by British Red, on Flickr

For cold work with a pack a Scandinavian Forest gives more power


Good angle by British Red, on Flickr

I suspect they cover most of my needs - with a maul thrown in
 

Jared

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Sep 8, 2005
3,388
640
50
Wales
Helve protection is common on axes used for splitting - heck even Gransfors Bruks do it :)

On their splitters aye.

Not against helve protection, just think a leather collar laced on, that you could at least move/slide to take a look at the handle would be my preference.
 

salad

Full Member
Sep 24, 2008
1,779
133
51
In the Mountains
I have 2 axes .
A small cegga for general camping and hiking as it is quite light and handy and a larger RM wilderness axe for more heavy stuff .
I find the larger axe gets used more at home but does come to bush meets over here where as the small axe comes on most hiking trips

I cant see my self changing this combination or buying any more axes as the two of these cover pretty much every axe Job I am likely to ever do

 
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Oblio13

Settler
Sep 24, 2008
703
2
67
New Hampshire
oblio13.blogspot.com
...Well my most used are the larger double bits...

Kelly used to make 6-pound double bit heads. I'd hate to get in a fight with a guy who could swing one of those all day. And lumberjacks used to consider axe work relatively easy. When a man got tired on a cross-cut saw, they'd put him on axe work for a while so he could "rest". A 3 1/2 pounder has me huffing and puffing within seconds.
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,709
1,947
Mercia
It gets to be hard work alright. Always makes me laugh when people say its fun - they have never split 4 cords a year! I use a pneumatic splitter for the bulk now - but a maul, sledge and wedge to divide the larger rounds and an axe for rendering smaller pieces throughout the Winter
 

John Fenna

Lifetime Member & Maker
Oct 7, 2006
23,106
2,833
66
Pembrokeshire
Not having space for a large collection of axes - nor the dosh to tie up in a large collection - I go with that ultimate compromise - the GB SFA :)
Plus a couple of hatchets - a GB Hand axe in the van, a fiskars that I let the wife split kindling with and some all metal item I keep in the workshop for quick and dirty roughing work.
I have used and enjoyed using the SFA for everything from felling trees to spoon carving - not ideal for anything but adequate for almost everything :)
 

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