A backcountry necessity

by Ravi Fry

Contributing author

Without fail, the thing that people comment on with surprise when they look in my airplane is that I have an axe tied to the rear seat supports. "Oh...you have an axe!" I am flummoxed that this is even noteworthy. I can't imagine a backcountry aircraft not having an axe.

Every backcountry airplane should be equipped with an axe. It should also be equipped with a handsaw, and while the saw does some things better than the axe, it's the axe which is the more versatile tool. It's not an either-or situation, the axe and the saw complement each other. But if you have to choose, choose the axe.

A chainsaw is so much more efficient than an axe at cutting wood that it defies comparison. But chainsaws cannot be used in the wilderness, and where they can be used they are heavy, messy, finicky, expensive things to carry around. They are also overkill for most of what a person not cutting cordwood is likely to need.

You've just extricated yourself from your bent-up aircraft after an unplanned and particularly rough landing in the snowy mountains of Idaho. It's cold. Aren't you thankful your axe is with you?

Nothing about selecting, maintaining, or using an axe is particularly complicated, but neither is playing the harmonica...making music and playing notes aren't the same thing. If I make this sound complicated, that's not my intent. My intent is to show what an extremely versatile and efficient tool an axe can be if given the thought and practice it deserves.

A proper axe...one that's well profiled and hung tight on a quality handle, with good balance, and, most of all, razor sharp, will do an astounding amount of work with very little effort. There isn't a single other tool that comes close to the utility of an axe for wilderness living or survival. That anyone flies over the woods, much less lands in them without a proper axe on board is, to me, fantastically shortsighted and optimistic.

This isn't an either/or proposition – axes and saws complement each other. But if you can choose only one, the axe wins. If you do buy a saw for your airplane, keep in mind the above vintage logging saw may not be ideal for transporting in your baggage area.

So what can an axe do for the backcountry pilot?

Gathering firewood is an obvious chore. You needn't be falling and sectioning trees, or even using wood too large to break with raw force for the axe to pay off. Used properly a sharp axe will whittle a dead tree into firewood, one piece per swing, until you get to arm-thick pieces, at which point it's usually two swings — super efficient. And in conditions of poor weather and diminishing light, an axe will make collecting and preparing the tinder and kindling needed to get a fire going infinitely easier. You can get a few shavings of fatwood out of a stump using a knife, but with an axe you can get an armload.

Nothing is better than an axe for preparing fire starting material.

I routinely cut and drive wooden stakes to secure my airplane with an axe. If a tree falls across the airstrip after you've landed, you can clear it with an axe. No matter how big the tree, given enough time (and drinking water) a sharp axe will get through it. Even if it takes a couple days, clearing the tree yourself is a lot more elegant than hitting the HELP button on your SPOT...and an expensive axe is still awfully cheap compared to a helicopter flight.

In areas of plentiful saplings or wispy spruce, an axe is perfect for making poles.

If you find yourself with a flat tire, an axe will cut poles for a tripod from which to lift your gear leg, providing you're clever enough to rig it. If you find yourself stuck in the sand or mud and are fortunate enough to still be upright, an axe will cut stakes for the anchor and poles for a flip-flop winch to pull you free.

Should you find yourself camping overnight at the end of what was suppose to be a day trip, your axe will cut bows for a bed and poles for a shelter. Spending a night on a pile of pine bows isn't very nice, but it's a whole lot more comfortable than laying on cold rocks.

If some poor unfortunate soul happens to ball his airplane up in front of your camp, an axe is as good a tool as any for cutting open the bent aluminum fuselage to get him out. Afterwards an axe will cut logs to roll the carcass of the airplane off the airstrip so you can fly out for help. And if that pilot doesn't ball his airplane up, but instead camps next to you and plays Lynyrd Skynyrd on a tape deck, the axe is an excellent tool for the dismantling of electronic appliances and the intimidation of their operators.

Essentially, providing there are trees around, an axe will turn those trees into whatever you can imagine. Pretty handy. Looks cool, too.

Types and sizes

First off, here's an anatomy of an axe.

Axe heads of all patterns come in different weights and can be hung on handles of different length to create unique tools for different cutting chores. If you're falling a 80" Douglas Fir you'll probably choose a different axe than you would for carving a canoe paddle or splitting kindling.

Axes are a window into the brilliant simplicity of the bronze age. Pictured is the Hults Bruk Kisa. Links at bottom.

A heavy axe head on a long handle will do more work with less effort, up to the point where the user is unable to swing it effectively. For the vast majority of users, that means about four pounds in the head. A four-pound axe head is really quite a beast, and not the sort of thing most people can swing for more than a few minutes. It's definitely not the sort of tool you'd want for cutting a stack of campfire wood out of the alders. I recommend three pounds or less for head weight unless you anticipate falling or sectioning 24" trees on a regular basis, or just have the physical build to handle a heavier head without tiring.

The longer the handle, the safer the axe. With a long handle the axe blade is much less likely to end up in your anatomy when you miss or strike a glancing blow, as it will end up in the ground before it reaches your feet or shins. 32~36 inches is a common length for falling and bucking axes, and 40" handles are not unheard of. But long handles are also awkward to choke up on for precision work, and they take up more space. 26" is a good compromise for handle length...long enough to get some work done safely, but short enough to be easy to maneuver and store. A very simple guide is to hold the axe by the top of the head with the handle pointing up. The end of the handle should snug up into your armpit.

Handle length comparison among our photo subjects. Matco tailwheel for size reference. See below for more on handle length considerations.

Hatchets, while handy for carpentry work or splitting kindling, are both a very poor substitute for an axe, and much more dangerous to use. I have a dozen hatchets, but I don't carry them in the woods. A small axe does almost every chore better than a hatchet and is much safer to use.

Tomahawks are essentially hatchets without any poll...all the weight is in front of the handle. This makes them terribly inefficient choppers. They can be a lot of fun to play around with, but don't bother using one for real wood cutting.

With the popularity of "bushcraft," some axe manufacturers have started making in-between models with a two-pound head on a 19" handle, or thereabouts. They seem ideal...more capable than a hatchet but smaller than an axe. They do have their uses, but they're also the most fantastically dangerous tool I've ever used, chainsaws and handguns included. They're too short to efficiently use a proper two-handed swing, and they're too long to use one-handed with any sort of control. A glancing or missed blow, either up or down, puts the arc of the blade squarely into your anatomy. I recommend avoiding them unless you have or are willing to attain the expertise to use one safely, and even then I believe there are much better designs to choose from.

On a basic level we can classify axes as single or double bit. Double bit axes are the premium cutters, and once they came on the scene lumberjacks didn't use anything else with any regularity. They have perfect balance, and one edge can be profiled somewhat steeply for rough work while the other edge is profiled very thinly for maximum cutting efficiency in clear wood. They are a bit more dangerous to use, as a person bent over doing precision work can inadvertently chop their own face with the upwards bit, but you'll only do that once and then you learn. A 2.5 pound double bit cruiser axe on a 28" handle is an absolute dream to cut wood with and probably the best wilderness travel axe made for people who don't need to pound a stake.

Thats the problem with double bit axes...they don't give you any pounding ability. Axes are not hammers and were never designed to be used as such, but the back (poll) of a single bit axe will drive wooden wedges and stakes without damage, and that's a very handy thing for a pilot. Dead pine branches are often harvested more efficiently by knocking them off with the poll rather than cutting them with the bit, and logs of virtually any size can be split with a series of wooden wedges pounded in with the axe poll. I think the ability to pound stakes, stobs, and wedges is more important than having two cutting blades, so I recommend against double bit axes for your airplane.

A double bit axe, just for fun, and the author's cherished Enzo Trapper knife; really the only cutlery combo the flying woodsman needs. A double bit axe is photogenic, but the poll of a single bit axe is much more useful for the added pounding feature.

Single bit axes come in dozens of different shapes and weights. I tend to carry a fairly lightweight axe in the summer, and a significantly heavier axe in the winter. But the single best axe design I've used to date is the 2.25 pound Dayton Pattern American Boy's Axe on a 27" handle. I think this design is superior to any of the European axe designs and is the perfect balance between cutting power and portability. It's small enough for easy control while carving or shaving kindling, but it's got enough cutting power to go through even large trees if you need to. It doesn't look sexy and the name doesn't sound very lumberjack-like, but of all the axes I own, that pattern is the most versatile.

Another popular pattern is the Hudson Bay. It looks better than the American Boy's axe, but it's an inferior design, as there is much less contact between the head and the handle.

There's also a specialized type of axe called a Rafting Axe that has a hardened poll and thicker eye which is suitable for pounding on steel stakes. It's no sledge hammer, but you can pound a lot harder with a Rafting Axe than you can with a normal axe without causing damage. They are no longer made – if you want one you'll have to find and restore a vintage head.

Buying an Axe

Once upon a time there were over 400 different axe head patterns registered in the US alone. Not anymore. It's depressingly difficult to find a quality axe today. When I was a child most of the axes were already gone, but you could still go to a hardware store and pick from a dozen patterns, all offered in multiple weights. Good axes...quality steel, solid designs, proper handles. Those days are as bygone as floppy disks and dial-up modems. You can still buy a good axe, but you have to really hunt for them, and the pickings are slim.

Keep in mind that an axe is a precision carpentry tool like a wood plane or a drawknife, not a simple vector of brute force like a sledge hammer or a post driver. A quality axe cuts wood effortlessly and cleanly and as precisely as the operator can aim.

Here's a video of a man using an axe to carve a axe handle from a blank of wood. This is how an axe was meant to cut. Good knife work, too.

There are a lot reasons for the decline of the axe industry. Very few people work wood these days, and fewer still do so without the advantages of electricity or gasoline. Ever since chainsaws got reliable and light enough to be viable for Harvey Homeowner, the only use most people had for an axe was to split firewood rounds. And just about any axe, no matter how clunky or dull or pathetic, will split firewood. In fact the very characteristics that make for an excellent cutting axe...thin, profiled bit; slender, slightly flexible handle; light and perfectly balanced head weigh...make the axe less adept at splitting. So what you find in the hardware store today is, with little exception, a hunk of pig iron wrought in China or, if you're lucky, El Salvador, epoxied onto a piece of wood thick enough to be used as a railroad tie, or worse yet, fiberglass. These instruments of brute force will split wood with aplomb and are built to withstand the abuse that's sure to follow, but they are NOT cutting tools and never will be, with the possible exception of cutting muddy roots out of a trench.

Now the obvious solution for people who are bent that way is to buy a vintage axe head for a few dollars and clean it up and hang it on a handle. If that's your cup of tea, there's no better way to do it. But that process requires a surprising amount of skill and time, and your first attempts are likely to be about as successful as your first attempts at landing an airplane. Just cleaning and profiling and then sharpening a head can take four or five hours, and a couple more if you have to remove a old wood handle to boot. Now, providing you can find a handle worth working with (quality replacement handles are as rare as quality heads these days), you have to hang the head.

Little known fact: putting an axe head on a handle is called "hanging" it, and that's where the expression "get the hang of it" comes from. To do it properly, the eye of the axe has to be prepared to eliminate any bulges or rough spots which will cause stress fractures, then the handle has to be fit to the eye. But it doesn't just fit...it has to both fit the eye and hold the head in the proper alignment of all three axes [axises], while providing adequate strength and support. Then it has to be wedged on so it won't come loose and in such a way that the kerf for the wedge doesn't weaken the connection. Finally the handle has to be of the correct length, shape, and geometry to both power the head efficiently with each stroke, and to lend the proper balance and tactile feedback to the operator.

I restore axes as a hobby, and while I'm no savant, I've done a couple dozen. It takes me anywhere from four to eight hours to go from yardsale axe head to finished product. What I end up with is a tool equivalent to those selling for $150-200, but it's really only worth doing because I enjoy it.

If you want to try your hand at restoring an axe, this is a good primer:

New axes

Upon request, several axe manufacturers came forth to donate models from their lineup to be pictured in this article. Many manufacturers did not even respond, but the three that are commendable for supporting this site with product are Hults Bruk, Hachas Juaregi, and Fiskars.

For those looking to purchase a new axe, there are several decent options, manufactured all around the world.

American Axes

At the lower end of the price point is a standard Council Tool axe. Council Tool is the last company making axes in the USA, and they still make half a dozen axe head patterns. The standard grade Council axes are somewhat hit and miss on handle quality, and they'll need between two hours and half a day of file and stone work before they cut properly. But if you know what to look for and get one with a decent handle and put the work in to profiling the blade, they're good tools. Not excellent, but pretty good.

Scandinavian Axes

There are several premium Scandinavian, well...Swedish axes imported into the US: Gransfors Bruk, Wetterlings, and Hults Bruk. All are excellent tools, though Gransfors Bruk profiles their blades a bit thinner. All cut very well, and the designs have their advantages and disadvantages. Thin blades sink deeper, but thicker blades release easier.

The Scandinavian styles are a bit different than American styles, but they cut just fine. Gransfors Bruk makes the Scandinavian Forest Axe, which at 25" long and 2.6 pounds is the best of the bunch, in my opinion. Gransfors Bruk also makes a very nice American Felling Axe for those looking for a serious wood chopper in the American style.

Hults Bruk, from the town of Norrköping, Sweden, have good availability in the US and can be had at a lower price point generally than the Gransfors. The Kisa model pictured in this article is an ideal airplane weight and length: 2.85 lb head with 26" overall length. Hults Bruk makes several similar models shorter/lighter and longer/heavier. They also have some models branded as Hultafors, which is their parent company.

Wetterlings offers the American Forest Axe. At 31" long and four pounds (including the handle) it's a bit larger than some of the other options, but I think it's the best choice. They also make a version of the Hudson Bay axe which looks better to me than the Council Tool variants, and is smaller than the American Forest Axe. Availability may be an issue at present time, as it appears the company may have been absorbed.

All three brands ship their axes with excellent edges, top quality handles, and good leather sheaths. They are semi-handmade and the quality is almost always excellent. Every once in a great while a poor specimen makes it through quality control but not often. $150 is the medium price point for either brand. It's worth pointing out that both companies make several of the aforementioned "in-between" axes...not quite axes, not quite hatchets. I really want to emphasize that, in my experience, these are extremely dangerous designs only suitable for experienced choppers who are willing to re-learn their safety practices to accommodate the unique characteristics of these axes. Used side by side with a Boy's Axe I think they come up significantly short on all fronts.

There are a lot of other axes out there, but these three makers are where I'd start and stop with a new axe.

Basque Axes

During research for publishing this article, a small artisan axe manufacturer from the town of Urnieta in the Basque region of northern Spain by the name of Hachas Juaregi was discovered. His unique axes are stunning in appearance; polished to a mirror finish with a smoothly rounded poll and a special hafting design where the eye is conically tapered, as is the handle, making losing the head during a strong swing impossible. We opted for the 1.25 kg Felling Axe with curved bit, which converts to 2.75 lbs, comes with a 24 1/4" handle. It's a nice size for flying.

The gorgeous Hachas Juaregi axes from Urnieta, Spain.

Finnish Axes

The recongnizable and traditionally characteristic Finnish axe patterns is the forest axe, like this one by Northmen Guild, though I can't comment on their performance. They appear to have a stout poll that could be great for pounding stuff.

The Fiskars brand, sometimes branded as Gerber in the US, depending on the retailer, make decidedly futuristic/modern axes utilizing a composite material handle molded around the head, which is precision machined and coated.

With hatchets, small forest axes, splitting axes, and more, Fiskars did donate a 28" version, and it does well; nice size and lightweight, though I much prefer the ergonomics of a more traditional handle with curvature.

German Axes

Helko and Ochsenkopf. No experience with either.

Other origins

Axe manufacture predates Mesopotamia, so it's to be expected that decent axes originate from around the world. For Scandinavians, it's sort of part of their identity, but axes originate from most cultures. Prandi axes hail from Italy, and some nice looking axes by Toporsib are forged in Russia, though unfortunately not distributed to the US. Please comment below if you know of other notable axe makers.

L to R: The Ravi Fry Custom (priceless), Hachas Juaregi 1.25kg Felling Axe ($100), Hults Bruk Kisa ($145), Fiskars 28" Chopping Axe ($39)

The axes shown above are not necessarily endorsed by the author (with the exception of the one he made), but they were donated to BCP by their manufacturers for a fun early morning photo shoot on the river bar.

Using an axe

The key to using an axe is accuracy, followed by accuracy, and finally, accuracy! Strength helps, but it's of little value if you can't put the blade exactly where it needs to go. An accurate chopper of slight build does in two strokes what a inaccurate but powerful chopper needs eight strokes to accomplish. Any cut that doesn't go exactly where it's needed is just wasted energy, regardless of how deep it sinks.

For some reason, most people seem to think that they're in the Logger Olympics as soon as they pick up an axe. I guess if watching chopping competitions on TV is all the exposure to woods work they've ever had it makes sense, but it's not proper. Chop at whatever rate will allow you to swing with the greatest accuracy and safety, no faster. As soon as accuracy starts to fail, stop and rest. Simple as that.

Splitting wood is a very good job for an axe, and it's also where the most damage happens. Don't split wood laying on the ground...the axe blade will end up in the dirt and you'll have hours of sharpening ahead of you before you can cut with it again. Injuries can be avoided while chopping kindling by using a "wooden finger"...a small sick that steadies the wood while you split it, instead of using your hand.

Overstrikes are common, especially while splitting, and the major cause of handle failure. Wrapping the handle near the head with parachute cord will help prevent damage, but in the end the only real solution is to become more accurate. You can only hit the handle so many times before it breaks. For this reason, many choppers don't use their cutting axe to split wood. A person who can cut and shape a few wooden wedges will save themselves a lot of effort and grief by using the wedges to split a long log, then chopping the split log into firewood lengths. It's not difficult, though like everything else it gets easier with practice.

As noted earlier, axes are not hammers. Only the edge of the axe is hardened steel, The rest of the axe blade is made from soft steel so it won't fracture with the impact of chopping. Hammering with the poll of the axe can distort the eye, causing the handle to come loose and promoting breakage in the thin steel that surrounds it. By far the most damaging action is to hammer on the back of an axe with another axe or hammer. If for some reason you HAVE to pound on the back of an axe head, use a wooden club.

When pounding wooden stakes or knocking branch stubs off for firewood, remove the mask from the blade. Otherwise the pounding motion will cut through it.

Arm or calf-thick pieces of wood can often be cut most efficiently by giving them one or two good cuts, then breaking the log at the cut marks.

Keep it sharp!

I am fanatical about sharp edges. A tool which operates by cutting needs to be as sharp as possible. Anything less is the equivalent of accepting that you're only getting 80% of the horsepower out of your airplane engine because you're too lazy to fix the carb heat lever..."Good enough, let's go." I won't fly with a pilot that has that attitude, and I won't work next to a woodsman with it, either.

A person who wishes to can muddle away with a dull saw all day long and the only penalty will be the extra effort and smaller wood pile, but axes are different. There is a very particular reason for keeping axes razor sharp, and that is because it's impossible to use an axe safely if it doesn't stick where it hits, and what makes the blade stick is the sharp edge. An axe too dull to stick in wood is still more than sharp enough to remove your foot, so if you want to get some wood cut and keep dominion over your appendages, keep your axe shaving-sharp.

From an efficiency standpoint, anyone who's started out with a sharp chainsaw and then put the tip into the dirt knows what a tremendous difference a little bit of edge makes. It's the same with an axe, except YOU'RE the motor. Time spent sharpening is generally subtracted from the time required to do the job.

Strop

And I'm serious when I say "shaving sharp". An axe blade should effortlessly shave the hair off the back of your arm before you put it to work, and you should keep that edge on it throughout the job. Maintaining the shaving edge is not difficult, and it vastly increases safety. Not only do you get the inherent safety and efficiency of a sharp blade, but routinely stopping to hone the edge is a great excuse to rest during the job. Unless you do this sort of thing day in and day out, figure about ten minutes of chopping before you're no longer efficient. Come the end of the day that'll be down to five minutes, probably less. Continuing past that point is counterproductive and extremely dangerous. Stopping frequently to hone the edge will increase safety and make the job go more quickly.

To properly profile and sharpen the axe you need a good file, various grits of stone, and a leather or synthetic strop. The file is used to profile the edge...to shape the edge to the curve and bevel that you prefer. Not too much curve in the bit...a little curve helps free the bit from the wood, but too much curve destroys efficiency. Once profiled the edge need not see a file again for years unless it's chipped or damaged by hitting something other than wood.

A well-filed edge is very sharp, but it won't last. The next step is to remove the file marks with a rough stone. The marks from the rough stone are removed with a finer stone, and the edge is then polished to mirror-like perfection with a very hard stone called a hone. Once that is done the final edge is stropped with a piece of leather impregnated with aluminum oxide.

It takes time to produce this edge, but once it's on there maintaining it is easy. I use a small piece of wood about the size of a paint stir stick. On one side of the stick I affix 5000 grit wet/dry sandpaper with carpet tape, and on the other side I have a synthetic leather pad impregnated with aluminum oxide. Several times an hour I hone the edge with the strop, using the sandpaper if it's necessary. This keeps the edge shaving sharp for hours and hours of chopping, providing the blade never goes into the dirt or hits a hidden nail or stone.

One winter I spent a month on the Grand Canyon, cutting a large pile of sand-encrusted drift wood every night with my axe. There was so much sand on the wood that in the dark you could actually see sparks when I was chopping. By using the sandpaper and stropping the edge regularly I only had to use a stone on the blade twice during the entire month, and I never had to use a file.

There are round axe stones made from carborundum which are popular. I don't particularly like them, as I think they leave much too rough a surface. If you use one, don't stop with the fine side of the stone...you're still several grits too coarse for a good edge. At home I prefer a 1" belt sander with 150 grit up to 6,000 grit belts to finish the edge, and in the field I use a small medium/fine diamond hone before transitioning to the sandpaper and strop. Using power tools, including sanders, requires great care. The edge of the axe is a very thin piece of steel, and if overheated the temper will be ruined and it won't hold an edge. You can't overheat the edge with a file or handheld stone, but a power tool will scorch it in seconds if misused.

A very effective sharpening system can be bought at an auto-body paint store. Purchase one of the large rubber sandpaper backs and appropriate grits of adhesive sandpaper. This makes an excellent sharpening system.

Axe Safety

Make no mistake, axes are dangerous tools if misused. One slip or moment of inattention and you may well suffer a life-altering or life-ending injury. Toes, fingers, entire feet can come off before you even realize something is wrong. Axe work is serious business...every bit as serious as setting up for a landing in the mountains. Take your time, go at a relaxed pace, and think about every swing before you make it. People who make it look effortless are still thinking about every single swing, just as the experienced pilot thinks about every single landing. Position your body so if the axe misses, glances, or cuts through the target it won't end up lodged in some part of you. If you're tired or cold or the light is poor or you're a little drunk, take even more care. Probably a good idea to have your Israeli compression bandages on hand in any case – there are a few minor axe wounds. Also, do NOT google "axe wounds" if you're at work...the images that come up, while fascinating, have nothing to do with woodcraft...

If you're new to chopping, do your practicing somewhere other than the backcountry, preferably within a few minutes of an Urgent-Care facility. Becoming a good chopper takes hundreds and hundreds of hours of practice, but you can learn the basics...how to do a job safely if not particularly elegantly...in just a few hours. Get professional instruction and practice until you're no longer a danger to yourself before using an axe in the wilderness.

The vast majority of injuries happen when someone decides that the solution is to use more power. When you make that decision, it's likely because you're too fatigued to be accurate or your axe is too dull to be effective, or more likely, both. Adding extra power is about the dumbest thing a person can do in this situation, but it's also the most intuitive. If you ever start to think that swinging harder is a smart thing to do, stop and ponder that one while you hone your axe.

You're unlikely to chop yourself if you position your body properly for each stroke, but to do that you have to understand where the blade can end up. Hold your axe by the end of the handle like you've just finished a cutting stroke. With the axe sticking out in front of you, imagine the axe handle is a rope and the blade is swinging around in a circle. That's the arch of reach you have to contend with. When the blade misses or glances or goes through the target it's going to continue on traveling in an arch from the point of pivot, which is your grip on the handle. Not chopping yourself means positioning yourself and the pivot point in such a manner that the axe head goes into the ground or out into air instead of into you.

You can only position your body in so many ways and still be able to swing the axe, so now you need to move the pivot point (your hands). The easiest way to do this is to make sure your hands are very close to the plane of what's being cut when the blade hits. If you're standing above a log chopping straight down, you don't want your hands to be two feet above the log when the blade hits...you want your hands to be level with the log. By bending your knees and back and moving the pivot point (your hands) lower to the ground, it's impossible for the blade to end up in your leg, as it will hit the dirt first. You don't want your blade in the dirt, but it's a lot better than in your foot. Fastidious axmen position their work so the blade won't end up in either.

If you carry an axe, carry a first aid kit, too. Lots of little injuries tend to happen while sharpening the blade. As I type this a bandaid covers the pad of my left thumb. After profiling several axes I finally slipped, and instead of the tip of the file running along the edge, my thumb did. A glove would have saved me, but I dislike working with gloves, so lacerated I am. Injuries like this can usually be treated with bandaids and tape, though sutures are often helpful if you have the expertise. Injuries resulting from actual chopping are often more severe, requiring large quantities of the aforementioned absorbent dressing and significant pressure to stop the bleeding. I prefer combat battle dressings, as they are easy to carry, well packaged, and made for exactly the sort of wounds an axe can inflict.

It's probably worth noting that a serious injury with an axe in the wilderness is no more acceptable than crashing your airplane in the wilderness. You don't carry a battle dressing because you expect to use it any more than you carry a PLB with the expectation of using it. But you carry it anyway.

Caring for an axe

It's pretty easy...keep the blade sharp and the handle oiled. Wood handles dry out quickly, and as they dry they shrink and become weak. Apply a coating of linseed oil or tongue oil a couple times a year, making sure to coat the top of the handle where it's wedged. A little rust might not seem like a big deal on a large piece of steel, but rust attacks the edge first. An axe that's not being used regularly benefits from a coating of oil, and I like to coat the edge with lithium grease so moisture doesn't collect between the edge and the cover.

Obviously the axe needs a blade cover (mask, or sheath) before it goes in the airplane. Premium axes come with leather covers, but you can make your own cover from any sturdy material and hold it on with a stout rubber strap. Secure the axe inside the airplane so it doesn't go flying around. This is usually not too difficult a job, see the section below.

Axe Etiquette

Don't ask to borrow someone's axe or, god forbid, take it without asking. If they're any sort of an axman they're not going to let you borrow their axe, so don't put them in the position of declining you. It's better to ask them to cut whatever it is you need cut.

For some reason that simply defies logic, people seem to feel that chopping into a live tree is OK, so long as it's in the camp site. Words fail to describe the loathing I have for these people. All I can figure is that they're such poor axmen that, unable to cut a dead piece of wood into something usable, they lash out at whatever is both large and stable enough that they can actually chop it. It's pathetic.

Use discretion in where and how you collect firewood. Whittling away at the majestic bleached pine that fell alongside the campsite and is the perfect backdrop for pictures and ideal for hanging wet waders isn't going to win you any points with fellow travelers. Especially when there's plenty of non-picturesque firewood for the gathering a few more steps away.

By and large it's best to collect firewood in such a manner that other people cannot tell you were there. Cutting an entire small fallen tree into firewood leaves nothing behind but some wood chips, while cutting the tops off of a half dozen large fallen trees leaves six chopped stubs for others to find. Chopped stubs aren't as loathsome as piles of toilet paper or initials carved in tree bark, but most folks prefer not to see the leftovers of your handiwork while in the woods. Nobody wants to see half-chopped logs or scarred trees in the woods.

If you're driving wooden stakes to tie down your airplane, try not to chop into the bottom of your wing on the upswing. It's particularly annoying when the blade punctures the fuel tank. Bad for the environment and the wallet, too. Those who lack good control will benefit by driving the stakes out in front of the wings, then pushing the airplane forward.

Carrying in the aircraft

Since the entire idea of an article about axes for pilots is meant to convey the idea that having one stored in your aircraft is a good idea, it should be acknowledged that we didn't put enough work into giving you ideas on how to transport it.

It's usually a good idea to secure anything of mass that's stored anywhere in the cockpit. Turbulence, crashing, any number of kinetic events could render airborne the contents of your baggage area. Camping gear, toolboxes, coolers, and axes...all should be positively secured so they don't ironically finish you off in a sudden stop. And even barring an accident, some really rough air might cause your 2.5 lb axe head to leave some permanent impressions on your aluminum skin or fabric from within.

It's not a tool to thwart a plane-jacking. Don't bother carrying it up front. Put it in baggage.

BCP user @schwarz posted this photo of his SOG double bit axe mounted to a bulkhead. Hard to tell exactly how from the photo, but a resourceful guy could devise something.

Mounting will likely be a little different depending on the aircraft. In a Cessna it may be necessary to lash it to the back of the rear seat frame. In aircraft equipped with Brownline style cargo rails, like those with Atlee Dodge folding jump seats, a cargo tiedown point might be incorporated. I would avoid putting it in the "hat rack."

Access to uncovered fuselage tubing inside a fabric airplane might make it easy to use one of my favorites: the Voile strap. These stretchy but tough straps are great for tensioning a load, and they have a tacky texture that grips surfaces well. I frequently use them for ski gear in addition to stuff inside the cockpit, and outside to the point of questionable judgement. They come in a few lengths, so grab a bunch.

Do not use zip-ties! They keep you from being able to easily remove the axe and use it for routine chores, which is the only way you'll know it's ready for action. A shoelace and shoelace knot will even do the job and still let you use the axe for driving tent stakes and shaving off kindling and cut poles for the weenie roast.

Be resourceful and creative. Just secure the axe for convenience, but also safety in an upset.

I really phoned this one in the day I took some photos. I just wanted to see how it could be stashed in this Rans S-7, in addition to the actual baggage area. If I had really flown like this I would have secured it with Voile straps.

Inspiration and learning more

For reasons that appear to be mostly related to TV shows, and more recently the explosion of bushcraft Youtube channels, there's been an increase in axe interest over the past decade. While there are some upsides to this, there are also some downsides.

The videos I've included in this article are excellent references, and there are more of them out there. But for every gem there's a couple tones of gravel. Anyone with a cell phone can put up a video on axmanship, and while there is some worthwhile stuff out there, most of it draws from an extremely shallow pool of knowledge. There really hasn't been any improvement in axes for the past 100 years. In fact we've been going backwards at a steady rate.

If you want to follow advice on axes and chopping, get it from people who have the institutional knowledge and the ability to pass it on. Here's a great educational PDF hosted by, fittingly, the US Forest Service: A Brief History of the Axe, which goes with their "An Axe to Grind" series as seen in the video above.

Above all else, avoid being that guy who thinks "I wish I'd never bought that axe..." as you pull into your handicap parking space.

Somewhere beyond the horizon of practicality lies the beauty and tranquility that is this gentleman's Youtube channel: Rune Malte Bertram-Nielsen. No talking, no jibberish, no begging for attention, Rune makes an artful performance of the recreational practice of bushcraft using axes in the backcountry of Denmark. Play it on repeat over the holidays and before you know it you'll be carving wooden spoons for your family members' stockings, unless you're first lulled to sleep by the relaxing sounds of his crackling campfire...

Links to Axes

Hachas Juaregi, Hults Bruk, and Fiskars donated axes for this article. Please consider those brands in your shopping for their support of BCP.