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Axes are a pee poor way of cutting wood and yes I can use one but don't want to waste my time and energy using one.
 
Offgrid hero said:
Survival hatchet? Any recommendations Ganzo do a nice looking axe with a saw in the handle and a firesteel £40
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Forget about the tricky gadgets, they rarely do any one job properly. Get yourself a decent round poll or oval poll tomahawk. They can be thrown for defence & hunting & are the best for long term wilderness living or any trekking/camping scenario. The handle/helve is easy to make out bush & easy to fit. You can easily remove the head & use the head for scraping hides. Far more versatile than a modern axe design.
Keith.
Tomahawks_in_tree_REDUCED.jpg


https://hunters-knives.co.uk/axes-for-hunting-and-survival.html

https://www.coldsteel-uk.com/store/Tomahawks-Throwing-Axes.html

http://woodsmithexperience.co.uk/shop/category/throwing-axes/
 
I've always used a small hand axe, what I would call a hatchet, for cutting firewood and it suits me fine, although I did buy a very nice Viking/saxon style axe last summer.
 
I've got a couple of axes I use at the moment a splitting maul and a hatchet that I keep blunt to use as a small splitting maul so neither suitable for camping, I'm going to buy another light compact one and leave it in my go bag type arrangement, I don't want to have to think about what I've removed from the bag and needs to be replaced before an emergency departure, that's the goal anyway.
 
If you want a cheap splitting axe check out Aldi occasionally. I bought one for £17, good quality too ;)
 
Harry Palmer said:
Axes are a pee poor way of cutting wood and yes I can use one but don't want to waste my time and energy using one.
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If you can manufacture and maintain a saw blade then I accept that a saw is better then an axe for speed but even the old two man pit saws wear out eventually, chip just a couple of teeth and you have to file it right back re-set it and re temper it before sharpening it...there is a reason so many of them crop up at car boot fairs. Once you own a decent axe you have an axe forever.
Axes are like any other tool, you can get away with owning just one but if you want to specialise there is an axe for every job, this is my excuse for owning so many. As far as using an axe for splitting wood, I have two mauls specially made for splitting. They're every bit as effective as a PTO mounted log splitter. Even though I own a PTO splitter I use the axes for preference.
 
lonewolf said:
I pick up good second hand and new ones in car boot sales for a few pounds.
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Lonewolf makes a good point here - it's worth mentioning that car boot sales are a fine source of (quite often new and unused) kit. Pick up saws axes knives and torches for pennies that would have cost a packet if new.

Maybe we should have a "car boot sale finds" thread like a couple of the other forums? :)
 
maybe start a new thread with that title under equipment.
very few car boot sales in my area before about Easter ,most are on grass and they aren't dry enough until about April.
 
there are 3 car boot sales that I know of that are all year and that's mainly because they are on concrete not grass.
they are Cheddar(Winchester Farm on the Wells side of cheddar), Frome( the old cattle market site) and Exeter(Marsh Barton- the old cattle market site), all the rest are on grass and aren't held in the winter due to inclement weather and the football season(many of these sites are amateur football pitches).
 
lonewolf said:
maybe start a new thread with that title under equipment.
very few car boot sales in my area before about Easter ,most are on grass and they aren't dry enough until about April.
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Done my friend, made it a sticky.
Keith.
 
One or two things I will mention about axes.
Before buying one (even from new) look at it from the top to check its been ground symmetrically and won't want to twist as it is used. This can cause an axe to need a lot of extra effort and transmit shock back up to your wrist through the helve or handle.
Plastic handled axes transmit more vibration to your wrist and are extremely difficult to fit new handles to safely because the socket for the helve isn't the right shape to accept a wooden handle and wedge, I tend to avoid using them and would never buy one.
While hickory is thought of as top quality, ash is only second best for replacing axe handles. However it is more plentiful in the UK so you'll easily be able to make a new handle at need.
 
in a lot of places in the past people only carried an axe head because it cut down on the weight they had to carry, they could always make a new handle from natural materials when they got to where they were going.
 
Read that in a few old woodsman reports lone also ray mears demonstrates this on a video on YouTube
 
yeah, tipi's were another thing where this was done, people only carried the skins to make the covering, the poles were dispensed with as you could always cut new ones once you reached your destination.
same with wigwams.
 
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