Is it worth it buying a cheap hand axe?

[kingkio]

Are the cheap axes on Ebay/Amazon for under £15 worth the time/effort to use or would a handheld saw be better?

 

[Dave Budd]

depends what you want to d with it!

Splitting a piece of wood is much easer with an axe, but cutting a piece of wood in half is easier with a saw

 

[crosslandkelly]

Define cheap, this is every bit as good as a Grundfors bruks.http://www.toolfinder.co.uk/garden-...ng-axe-800g/?gclid=CIrZqcTXkrwCFSTmwgodMG0Apw

 

[ozzy1977]

I have an £11 bacho hatchet, while it isnt as well finished as my gransfors axe's it didnt cost half as much. Generally the really cheap ones are work in progress rather than the finished piece.

 

[Samon]

It is physically impossible to split wood with an axe that isn't hand made, Swedish or refurbished and sold on at an inflated price.

 

[Gray]

Define cheap, this is every bit as good as a Grundfors bruks.http://www.toolfinder.co.uk/garden-...ng-axe-800g/?gclid=CIrZqcTXkrwCFSTmwgodMG0Apw

This is what i use, with a longer shaft

 

[copper_head]

I'd spend an extra fiver (and I did) and get a husqavarna hatchet. As samon says any axe will split wood but it's nice to have better steel, mask etc.

 

[kingkio]

Define cheap, this is every bit as good as a Grundfors bruks.http://www.toolfinder.co.uk/garden-...ng-axe-800g/?gclid=CIrZqcTXkrwCFSTmwgodMG0Apw

Thanks, that looks like what I am after! I'll get it from amazon as it gives free P&P whereas the toolfinder website wants to charge me an additional £8!

 

[Maxwellol]

I've bought myself a clunky "Hercules" brand Hatchet, says 1.5lb on the side but feels a bit heavier.

It was £10 at my local hardware shop, and I bought it purely to learn how to sharpen (and, if successful, use) an axe without screwing up an expensive one. (Isn't going well so far, watch this space for a "sharpening advice please" thread )

But if I wasn't such a rookie I'd definitely consider investing a little more that a tenner.

 

[dancan]

Just as much work to fix a cheap "screwed" axe as a better axe from a bad sharpening , lotsa metal on an axe to be able to fix a bad sharpening with no ill effect .

 

[mrcharly]

Last night I used a bahco cheapy to 'dismantle' a divan base. I'd sharpened the axe roughly on a wet grinder.

Cut the timber frame like it was bread. Sliced through the fabric like a knife. Brilliant.

However, when I'd finished, the edge was considerably blunted. My old GB mini wouldn't have blunted like that. Chipped or rolled if I hit a nail, maybe, but not blunted.

I still think a cheap hatchet is very worth having and I'd suggest buying and modding one long before spending money on something expensive.

 

[leon-1]

I note that the Vaughan Hatchet which used to cost all of £11 a few years back is now £30 or so. This little hatchet once re-profiled will work alongside the best of them. Simply put, what's cheap one day can be expensive another, a lot of that can be down to a simple review that will increase the popularity of the hatchet. This in turn normally has a knock on effect of increasing the price.

The Wetterlings hatchets were pretty good and cheap right up till the point that GB took over Wetterlings and then mysteriously the price elevated rather rapidly.

 

[Big Stu 12]

I ve still got my £4 one from Toolstation, and it works well for me, its my fave one and I using for carving now more then anything... I have others as well but for some reason keep comming back to that one.......

Keep thinking about getting another one to see if they are all the same.

 

[leon-1]

Keep thinking about getting another one to see if they are all the same.

The majority of the time what you pay for in a more expensive axe is steel quality and repeatability, cheaper axes don't always provide that, but having said that I have a Fiskars axe that when it came out cost me £6 or so (bought on offer at B&Q on the outskirts of Exeter in 2001), everyone says the same thing about them, they're bombproof. The equivalent to the axe I have is the X15 and that now costs £45. I also have the X10 variant that cost me £10 from a boot fair. Both are good axes.

The last axes that I bought tended to be just the head off ebay or some such and then re-handle and make a mask for them and that can be a very cheap way of getting a very good axe.

By no means write off cheap axes, as I said before some of the cheaper axes become popular because they are actually very good, that's when the price goes up.

 

[Big Stu 12]

I can agree with you on the consistancy of quilty of metal, and the reason things can be cheap, it just intreges me to see how they are , I am expecting that I had a lucky buy there.

I just have an enquiring mind.. and like to play, and for £4 hey it still a wedge once ive filled the eye with weld and ground it to shape if the steel is no good, and a cheapish handle that I dont have to make