Small axe

[Fryer]

Looking for a small axe which can fell a small tree. Saw will mainly be used. So splitting with be its main role.

The GB wildlife axe gets great reviews but the head is shaped more for felling than splitting.

That leaves me looking at the GB outdoor axe. The fiskars x7 also tempts me due to the big price difference and I already have a fiskars x25 which has been great.

 

[Nic Le Becheur]

Looking for a small axe which can fell a small tree. Saw will mainly be used. So splitting with be its main role.

The GB wildlife axe gets great reviews but the head is shaped more for felling than splitting.

That leaves me looking at the GB outdoor axe. The fiskars x7 also tempts me due to the big price difference and I already have a fiskars x25 which has been great.

I tend to use a billhook. Have you considered one of those?

 

[Fryer]

I tend to use a billhook. Have you considered one of those?

No never used one

 

[C_Claycomb]

What size is a "small tree"? If its up to about 5" diameter, then the X7 looks like an excellent choice. Sure, the GB is nice if you have the £££.

 

[crosslandkelly]

Where will you be felling tree's? Public, private land?

 

[Fryer]

Where will you be felling tree's? Public, private land?

Little bit of both. I have a large fiskars x25 for log splitting at home. I have an awful hatchet and want to replace it. I also do some voluntary work with a land's trust and mainly use a chainsaw but wanted a small axe as for small clearings it can be easier than keep starting it up. So I want something I can use at home for kindling, something to fell small saplings and removing small branches in clearings, and small enough to put in a rucksack to take away for a few days wild camping.

 

[Kepis]

Little bit of both. I have a large fiskars x25 for log splitting at home. I have an awful hatchet and want to replace it. I also do some voluntary work with a land's trust and mainly use a chainsaw but wanted a small axe as for small clearings it can be easier than keep starting it up. So I want something I can use at home for kindling, something to fell small saplings and removing small branches in clearings, and small enough to put in a rucksack to take away for a few days wild camping.

A Billhook and a small folding saw are your best option for this type of operation. it's what i used on a daily basis when i was involved with woodland management for exactly the things you mention.

 

[C_Claycomb]

I would go further and say that a small axe will do nicely for kindling splitting at home, I would not really want to use a billhook to feed my wood stove, but for felling saplings and limbing, a bill hook or parang is greatly superior to a small axe. I have done voluntary work in a small arboretum, a fair bit of ground bound chainsaw work, felled a few small trees up to 8" diameter, and cleaned up a couple bigger ones. I have used my GB Small Forest, an 18" hand forged parang and a shorter Condor Eco Parang, and would choose one of the parangs over the axe any time I needed to limb. Once limbs get up over 1.5 inches and near the trunk, the axe would do well, but limbs that were out away from the trunk and free to move, club-head-speed and a thin profile won out. Not much good for splitting, and if they were, they would not be so good for cleanly cutting 1" limbs and saplings in one swing.

 

[Kadushu]

I agree, for limbing you can get into a good rhythm with a parang or similar. Just run the blade down the main stem in one sweep. Doing the same with an axe requires much more precision. For felling or cross cutting things over 4"/100mm the "big knife" category starts to feel inefficient and an axe is much better.

 

[scruff]

A Peimonte pattern axe by Prandi would be a fine choice for something packable and highly versatile.

They are available in a range if different head weights and handle lengths.

Calabria or Sicilia pattern axes by Rinaldi or Angelo B. might also be worth a look.

 

[Pattree]

My early days in the FC (just) predate chain saws - at least at Delamere Forest. We felled even the biggest trees by cutting the sink with an axe then falling with 36” bow saws. Once down, we snedded out the trunk with Ellwell seven pound axes. (I suppose that is the same as limbing but on Scot’s or Corsican pine.)

I can’t imagine that you’ll be doing much felling so a small bow saw or a folding saw and any small axe will do the job.

Your choice might rest with whatever additional criteria you attach to your axe be it quality, prestige or style and there’s nothing wrong with that. Consider whatever other camp jobs you require of your tools. You can’t beat a bill hook for splitting long hurdles and cutting small coppice (and Christmas trees). If you are cutting 30 - 40mm saplings a sharp 1kg hatchet is just as good - bend it over, give it a smack then bend it the other way, smack it again and off it comes. Trim the stump off neatly to minimise infection to the roots. You can’t easily use a bill hook as a camp hammer. A hatchet works fine.

Think through your previous camps, your needs for wood of various uses and go for it. Spend money if you want to but your local iron monger/market can sell you something thoroughly effective be it saw, hook, axe or hatchet.

 

[Laurentius]

I think knowlege of how to fell a tree is more important than the tool you use, just think of what beavers can do with their teeth alone. When it comes to making a cut it is essentially about mechanics, the angle of the cut and the momentum you can impart with the tool providing it is sharp. I do have a vintage Elwell, I think it is a Yorkshire pattern but it is rather heavy and clumsy. I bought a Condor Lochnessmuk blade from Heinnie's because I liked the look of it and it has turned out to be very effective for it's weight and now I prefer that to a heavy bill hook.

 

[Laurentius]

I think knowlege of how to fell a tree is more important than the tool you use, just think of what beavers can do with their teeth alone. When it comes to making a cut it is essentially about mechanics, the angle of the cut and the momentum you can impart with the tool providing it is sharp. I do have a vintage Elwell, I think it is a Yorkshire pattern but it is rather heavy and clumsy. I bought a Condor Lochnessmuk blade from Heinnie's because I liked the look of it and it has turned out to be very effective for it's weight and now I prefer that to a heavy bill hook.

There are other reasons why I prefer smaller, lighter tools and that is age and infirmity. I tend to suffer from tennis elbow, or should I call it bushwackers elbow when I chop too much, the Lochnessmuk economises the bulk of the blade where you need it rather like a Kukri so I guess is a bit like an axe in concentrating the force where you need it, and it will split as well though obviously not as well as an axe blade which is optimised for splitting.

 

[grainweevil]

Can I ask as someone who knows nothing at all about this subject, but is aware what a vast array of styles "billhook" covers - what sort of billhook is being advocated here?

 

[Erbswurst]

If you use an Ochsenkopf Hatchet you don't need to concentrate so much onto the target as with a Fiskars X7 if you don't split kindling. The blade is simply longer.

The X7 is idiot proof though and as good as indestructible in intended use. And it's lightweight.

Well, but if I have to cut twigs I use Felco hand scissors, for little bushes or branches telescopic garden scissors and what I can't do with that I either attack with a sword saw or bow saw, but only if I don't want to carry the Stihl chainsaw around for a single branch.

I don't like the noise and not the vibrations and not the protective clothing, so I do a lot with scissors especially in the warmer month. But the Stihl chainsaw is nearly always the fastest option.

My brother looks at such work exclusively from a professional standpoint and uses exclusively his little Stihl saw if he doesn't have to cut apple trees or roses. Time is money.

 

[Erbswurst]

I think they mean that:

Schweizer Gertel mit Kunststoffgriff

www.ochsenkopf.com

 

[Pattree]

Bill hook.

Most don’t have the back blade.

This is the tool we used for gathering small Christmas trees.
We used it for pea stick (First) thinning too.

 

[SoldierPalmer]

Our crops are way behind 20 to 25 on first thinnings at the moment. You’d struggle with a bill hook

 

[Laurentius]

View attachment 84307
Bill hook.

Most don’t have the back blade.

This is the tool we used for gathering small Christmas trees.
We used it for pea stick (First) thinning too.

Pretty much the same pattern as mine but without the hole, and probably twice as thick.

 

[Laurentius]

You really cannot do it unless you are smoking a pipe.