New in the Knowledge Base, courtesy of our resident dry witted KB author Hammer, is a guide to the axe for backcountry pilots.

https://backcountrypilot.org/knowledge-base/products-and-gear/194-axes-for-pilots

Suggestions and feedback are welcome before I share it with the greater (outside our forum) audience.

Thanks.
Z

Awesome write up! Thanks Hammer!

Kurt

Great...another addiction to add to my list.

I almost never post on here but that was an interesting write up thank you for posting

Awesome and very comprehensive writeup! Really good stuff on axe safety and the potential dangers of those mini axe/hatchet hybrids. Awesome job!

Being from Sweden, even though I'm mainly a desk jockey who does outdoor stuff for fun, axes are in my blood so to speak. When I go back home to Sweden I always marvel at the selection of beautiful axes filling the walls at just about any outdoor store or even gas station.

They're not cheap, and they have garnered a bit of a cult following for the last decade or so which makes them hard to find in the States, but you really can't go wrong with the Gränsfors Bruks Forest Axe. I love mine!

Here's a nice video on Gränsfors Bruks:

Only ancestrally Swedish here, so minimal loyalty but in doing some research while editing this article I found a pattern for the Finnish forest axe, which has a very nice "pounding poll.":

http://www.northmen.com/en/products/axes/finnish-forest-axe

Pretty scarce though, unlike the Gransfors Bruk or Hults Bruk.

Zzz wrote:Only ancestrally Swedish here, so minimal loyalty but in doing some research while editing this article I found a pattern for the Finnish forest axe, which has a very nice "pounding poll.":

http://www.northmen.com/en/products/axes/finnish-forest-axe

Pretty scarce though, unlike the Gransfors Bruk or Hults Bruk.

Wow. I need to ban myself from that website.

Very good write up!
I have an old, old Camp Axe

That was a great article!

Great article (just like the others), really enjoyed it! Thank you.

Got a couple of hatchets and axes around the house and truck but nothing special. Always liked the Gransfors, might as well just get one now...

Interesting point about the safety of hatchets vs. axes. Never thought about this and always found hatchets quite handy.

Great article, but as ever Hammer shows what a woefully inadequate pilot, axeman and article writer I am. I do keep a (pretty blunt) four pound axe in the plane, for all the reasons he says. Awesome at HSF for driving in my 32" angle iron stakes. It is well tied in to the Atlee dodge seat rail.

Maybe I should try sharpening it.

And the film from Sweden was awesome, no wonder their manufacturing jobs did not leave to somewhere cheaper.

Great read on axes. We'd carry one of similar size and weight in our floatplanes when flying log buyers - sink it into a log for a handy tie-up while he danced around and scaled the boom. I also recall a Canadian novel that discussed the benefits of an axe in a plane crash survival situation. "Hatchet", by Gary Paulsen.

https://amzn.to/36jGxSi

Have always carried an axe for about 16 years of flying now. Never had to use it as an axe, yet.

Karmutzen wrote:Great read on axes. We'd carry one of similar size and weight in our floatplanes when flying log buyers - sink it into a log for a handy tie-up while he danced around and scaled the boom. I also recall a Canadian novel that discussed the benefits of an axe in a plane crash survival situation. "Hatchet", by Gary Paulsen.

https://amzn.to/36jGxSi

Ha, I was going to post about this. Article is killing me with childhood nostalgia reading that book in 5th grade.

I hope I’m not the only non-Mensa member here who spent waaaaaay too many hours looking at axes since the article was posted. Typical addictive personality running with something that I haven’t needed thus far, but now can’t seem to live without. Big FU to Hammer and Zane for teaming up to make me even crazier than I already was. I can already see my wife’s eyes rolling..yet again.

Okay, I'll just say it: When I attended the US Air Force's Cold Weather Survival School at Eielson AFB, we were not permitted to bring a hatchet, an axe or a machete (favorite of the Army snake eaters) to the field for the actual training. The logic was that, at very cold temperatures, a blade can simply glance off a piece of wood that has near the texture of iron at those temps.

So, what did we use for gathering wood, kindling, etc? Saws.....the Japanese style pruning saws work really well, and cut through even very cold wood. The big advantage, however, is that they're a lot safer.

Okay, so, yes, I realize that not everyone is a total numbnuts who's going to destroy his lower leg via a glancing blow with an axe, but it happens, and not just at very cold temps. Get yourself into an ACTUAL survival situation, and staying well hydrated can be an issue, and the more dehydrated you get, the more of a klutz you become. I've seen that in actual survival situations.....

So, after flying 30 years flying the wilds of Alaska, I have never carried an axe or hatchet in my airplane gear. And, I have spent a few nights in actual survival situations. My record was a night out at -45 F. My pruning saw did everything I needed it to do to build a shelter, cut firewood and kindling, etc.

And, that saw is a tenth the weight and size of an axe.

I have never once needed an axe or hatchet in any of my airplanes, either at work or recreation. Save your money, and buy a good pruning saw.

FWIW

MTV

Great article Hammer. Thanks for writing.

I have a Gransfors Bruks Forest Axe in my truck at all times and their small Forest Axe in the plane. Your article is making me reconsider the small one. It swings nicely but that handle is short and I can appreciate the inherent danger in a short handle.

I am lousy at sharpening. I've tried super-fine grit sandpaper, I have one of the Gransfors Bruks round stones, I have a Ken Onion Work Sharp belt sharpener, I have numerous strops, I've probably spent 30 hours trying various methods but I just suck. I have a Lansky file system that I can use with good results on my bevel-edged knives like my Leatherman and one of my hunting knives but if it has a convex edge like my axes or my Bark River knives I pretty much turn everything I tough into a dull mess. I can get a pretty good edge on my axes with the fine file on my leatherman, just short of hair-popping, but even the fine file is a pretty course grit and the edge doesn't last.

Finally, a guilty secret-- I own 6 axes that I consider heirloom pieces, mostly from GB or Husquvarna. Nice forging, nice wood. I also have a couple cheap but effective splitting mauls. A couple Christmases ago my wife bought me a Fiskars splitting maul and despite my disdain for plastic tools that thing is now my go-to axe for splitting firewood. It is amazing.

Thanks again for the article, like a bunch of other posters you've probably cost me a bunch of dough.

I'm with MTV on this one,

"that saw is a tenth the weight and size of an axe"

and you will work up a good glow using it

As Hammer says "This isn't an either/or situation." At least not in the 206. I've kept a hatchet in my tool bag but, thanks to this article, will likely replace it with an axe. I keep a Sven Saw http://www.svensaw.com/ in the plane in the 4WDs. It's light and travels well. The Silky Big Boy can cut an astonishing amount of firewood. http://www.silkysaws.com/Silky_Saws/Folding-Straight_2/Silkys-BIGBOY-360mm-LG-Teeth-Hand-Saw#sthash.18lI04T5.dpbs

CAVU

Can't argue with the logic of any of the "no axe" posts. That little saw probably makes more sense, except maybe for splitting to make small kindling.

On the other hand, the article and now this thread seems to have stirred both old and new passion about axes. For me, it's brought back warm memories of my boyhood in Maine (I'm 61 now, so 1960's and 1970's), walking in the woods with my Irish/French Canadian lumberman father. He would never think of taking one or more of his boys out for just "a walk in the woods". Everything had to have a purpose, a mission. So we either carried a shotgun in October, or a "deeyah" rifle in November (he didn't pronounce it that way, but the local guys did! ), a timber cruising stick, and/or an axe, The latter often was used to clear a line of sight on the woodlot property line and blaze every other tree on the line. One time, while "checking the lines" we caught a guy who had stolen several nice trees when he cut over from the neighboring lot. That was exciting detective work, tracking it down to the sawmill where he had sold the logs.

While he had a bigger axe or two at home, for those walks Dad favored a little Snow and Nealley. I looked them up and apparently after going out of business, then being made in China, they are now back in the little town of Smyrna, Maine, after having been acquired by an Amish father and son. https://theworkingaxes.com/. I don't know if that's just a cool marketing story, but hey, for only $60.25 plus tax and shipping, I couldn't not order one from Forestry Suppliers.

It's a Hudson Bay 24" with a 1 3/4" pound head. I'm no expert nor connoisseur, and it's not likely in the big leagues of those gorgeous multi-hundred dollar European works of art listed above, but it feels good in my hands and has a nice swing and balance. It arrived dull so I took out my Work Sharp with the blade grinding attachment. I've got it "good enough", although I can't shave with it as suggested by the author!

The other little one in the picture was a gift from one of my sons a few years ago, and while it falls into the category of too short-handled per the article, I'm gonna keep it behind the seat of my truck and sometimes in the extended luggage area of the amphib where I can always use a little weight to tug the CG to where it trims out nice on final. I looked it up online based on the letters "CFL" in the head. It seems to be widely sold for well under $50 as Swiss Army surplus. Hey, my kid was in school when he bought that for me, so I didn't expect it was expensive! The head was getting a little loose here in the dry northern Nevada air, so a few days ago, after this article and thread got me thinking about it, I dropped it into a bucket of used motor oil in the garage. It snugged up nicely.

Ok, I've now cemented for myself a reputation as a long-winded windbag. Sometimes I'm in a hurry, and sometimes I seem to enjoy just writing a bit and sharing thoughts over a second cup.

Pierre