Picked up the axe from the post office depot first thing this morning, this did mean I had to take it into work so I thought I'd better not open it till I was alone.
However as the first person I ran into was the works resident wood and metalwork technician I thought it was a good chance to get an opinion of a non bushcrafter on materials that he knows better then me. After a minute or 2 of looking it over, with me pointing out how parallel the woodgrain was in the correct direction, he only had one word to say. "Quality"
To which I can only add, he's very fussy about the tools he uses.
Sometimes the least amount of words says the most, so that takes care of the materials and manufacturing really
I'll presume that anyone reading this thread has already seen the previous picture and read the dimensions and etc so will jump to how does it feel in the hand.
The wood feels smooth and grips firmly, clasping it lightly in my right, at various points along the handle, I tried to push it out of my grip with my left hand, no slippage, so I tried tapping the butt, then eye, it stayed firmly in my right hand grip. Changing tact a little I held it just with my right thumb and index finger wrapped lightly around, tis time tapping either end produced just a few mm of slippage, ( doing the same with a piece of wooden broom handle and it moves about 3-6 inches ) when actually gripping with just my finger and thumb it produced none. This give me great confidence that it's not going to fly out of my hand in use and will deliver any cut as good as my aim and technique is. I guess I'm going to have to work on that now I've lost an excuse
In my ( I think size 8-9 squeeze into medium gloves fit easily into large) hands gripping the handle near the bottom, for a power stoke, my middle fingers
fit snuggle into the flesh of my thumb. Going up the handle it feels the same for a few inches then starts to slightly widen to the top where they wrap round and just touch, great for fine work and delicate chipping, all the way along it has a nice progression and balance.
At this point I wish I was more experienced with axes and could comment on the bit and grind but other they to say, out of the box I've managed to rough shave to part of my arm and cut a piece of paper, and to check out the previous picture, I don't really think I can say very much of value.
So I gave it a quick test on a piece of battonning I had lying around. I managed to easily create some passable feather sticks ( which I'm not even too good at with my Frosts Mora ) and chopped a nice point onto the end with little effort. The surface of the remaining wood feels very smooth, almost planed, considerable smoother than the surfaces that the wood originally had.
As for portability, well you've already read the sizes. In practise it fits neatly into a Snugpak side pouch, which means it's far more likely to be carried just in case than if it was even a few inches longer, and just long enough that it could be pressed into use 2 handed. To me that's the perfect size for a single axe.
I like this axe, I like it a lot, I like it so much I'm going to buy a cheap axe to practise my techniques with so I don't ruin it doing anything stupid.
Which only leaves me with one problem. I like to suggest things that might help someone improve something, I even like suggesting something that they came back and explain why they didn't do it that way, I'm at a rare loss to actually come up with anything to do with the axe itself.
So the only thing I think I might be able to contribute is an idea about shipping.
Having read Cegga's advice slip that came the box, he suggests not using the shelter on it if it's not to be used for a long time. I can only presume that why it's shipped without the mask on, I'm guessing maybe it will retain moisture against the metal or something. Having read of others where the egde covering had arrived slightly split ( mine arrived in tact ) I'd suggest maybe wrapping the head in a little tissue then covering with a piece of plastic bag, which can be sealed to the top of the handle with a small elastic band, then putting the mask on.
That just goes to show how hard pressed I was to come up with some critical feedback
Tack Cegga and thanks Red, you have one very satisfied ( and lucky ) customer here.
