Need a little hatchet help

[mr_magicfingers]

Hi all, I'm about to move to a small farm we've bought which has 7 acres of old woodland. One of my jobs is going to be managing the woodland (it needs a lot of clearing and sorting) and also prepping firewood for our woodstove.

I'll be taking a chainsaw course and getting a chainsaw in due course. I've just taken delivery of a Fiskars X27 splitting axe for splitting the bigger logs (bargain from Amazon US) and I'm now looking to select a small axe or hatchet. This would be used for smaller work in the woodland and splitting small logs to kindling etc. I'd also like to potentially use it for some bushcraft skills as I learn them.

What size would you suggest given that I've got a big splitting axe. I was thinking either something like the husky/hiltafors axes or the fiskars x7, would they be the right sort of size or should I be going smaller or larger?

Thanks.

 

[Man of Tanith]

All the axe working I do is done with small forest axe or my favourite of all granfor bruk outdoor axe.
Them and a sitting axe should cover almost everything bushcrafty yo might want.
But they are on expensive side.....

 

[ged]

If you've just, er, bought the farm, the cost of the few tools you're going to need for managing a few acres of woodland will be comparatively insignificant. You can probably afford to experiment to see what suits you, but you don't need to spend as much as you have been doing so far.

I wouldn't go larger than the Fiskars, I'd suggest that a felling axe of about 4.5 lb might be worth a try. Not so tiring as the X27 if you plan to swing it for extended periods.

In addition to small axes, consider billhooks, machetes, parangs and similar. Personally I prefer a heavy parang for doing the things I think you're planning to do with a small axe.

I'd only split logs if they're too big to go on the stove. With seven acres of woodland you should never need to split logs for kindling -- just walk around picking up bits of e.g. dead ash that have caught up in the lower living branches. I keep a separate (small) store for kindling, and in any case there's a decent knife by the side of the stove. A bit of board in a shallow cardboard box catches shavings and splinters if I feel the urge to split a bit of wood with the knife.

Oh, and welcome to BCUK!

 

[dwardo]

Take a look at a billhook for clearing, limbing, tidying up etc. Never found much use for a hatchet my self even when carving i use my GB Scandi axe over a hatchet and its brilliant for limbing with the thinner blade. Suffers when splitting mind due to the thinner blade but you have that covered.

 

[swright81076]

Another vote for a billhook. I'm using mine more and more nowadays. Rarely take a hatchet anymore.

touched by nature

 

[dwardo]

Another vote for a billhook. I'm using mine more and more nowadays. Rarely take a hatchet anymore.

touched by nature

Always torn between the two myself axe or hook. If I am going to process wood for something besides burning I take both and a good sharp bow-saw. Starts getting heavy then though

 

[demographic]

Bizarre though it may seem, my wife (who isn't very big at all, hell she's about five foot two tall) splits kindling with a maul.

She holds it in her right hand, up as close to the head as possible and just chops away no problems.

I've been doing it that way for quite some time but after showing her she manages just fine.
One of my mates said he (about six foot tall and a decent sized lad) couldn't do it with a maul, when I mentioned my wife did fine he suddenly discovered the ability to manage fine himself.

Obviously carrying a maul miles in a rucksack might be a pain compared to a hatchet but for actually using to split wood close to home a maul takes some beating.

How far do you plan on carrying it?

 

[mr_magicfingers]

Thanks for the great replies. I think I might go for a fiskars x7 and a billhook too, that should cover most things and give me a chance to experiment with the two for different things. Any suggestions on what to buy in the billhook line?

 

[swright81076]

Always torn between the two myself axe or hook. If I am going to process wood for something besides burning I take both and a good sharp bow-saw. Starts getting heavy then though

I've replaced my bow saw with this.

As for the fiskars hatchet, the x10 is very good.

touched by nature

 

[swright81076]

Thanks for the great replies. I think I might go for a fiskars x7 and a billhook too, that should cover most things and give me a chance to experiment with the two for different things. Any suggestions on what to buy in the billhook line?

Again I have a fiskars x3 billhook, once it's stropped to a razor edge it's a fantastic tool.

touched by nature

 

[ged]

.. Any suggestions on what to buy in the billhook line?

There are too many patterns to recommend just one off the top. Try a few to see what you like. My grandma used to use one that I really loved, but when she died, many years ago, my mum wouldn't let me have it. Then when my mum died, twelve years ago, my sister wouldn't let me have it.

I liked it because it was a bit heavier and it had a longer handle than most that you see and it was great for splitting wood.

There are quite a few tool sellers on the 'net who specialize in this sort of thing, and you might want to keep an eye out here on BCUK for the odd classified add although things like that tend to get snapped up fairly quickly.

Aaron ('Biker' of this parish) sometimes finds things like this in car boot sales in France, renovates them and sells here too.

I saw a couple at a flea market last week, but they were in poor condition -- one didn't even have a handle -- and the seller was asking silly money for them so I let him keep them. Don't rush into it, you'll find something you like eventually.