Hey Ben Im thinking of getting a basque axe (although Im not sure if the quality has been improved) and they tick almost every box for me. Good overall, slip fit. But the lack of a poll is concerning me. Do you think that its ok to bang in wedges (wood or plastic) with that type of poll?
Thin to Win! Bits and handles! Make them things ignorant to wood! Been too long. We need to get that mop on your head sorted out! LOL Just thinned a cheap handle today with scissors and a draw knife. I think a spoke shave is the best tool though. Draw knife can really bite hard and ruin the day. Spoke shave and scissors more controllable. Fine tuning around the head a razor blade will work for that fine work.
The reality of winter in snowy areas gives a spade a lot of merrit. Often a large snow shovel would be better but they are truly annoying to transport. Maintaining my remote property and operating snow machines and such ...the cold steel shovel has stepped up as a pry bar and as a machete as well as a means to scoop snow. Not the best for any of the jobs but it is quite usefull.
Hello Ben. and thanks for another great video ! 🙂 Just a quick practical question, - if i'm to pick up a couple of aluminium wedges for splitting some pretty tough rounds, which size/weight should they be? And should be of the same weight or is it better if one is slightly bigger than the other ? Cheers from Denmark! :)
i love my dayton pattern, ive thinned down the profile and handle quite a bit and its still my favorite (although I dont have many axes), i also recently bought the jersey pattern but even thinned down I think my dayton is a better splitter which is a bit saddening.
i live in california and we have alot of australian eucalyptus trees around here . and its easier to split eucalyptus than it is to split ponderosa pine thats twisted and knotty and full of resin fatwood. its like hitting concrete
Did you chop that piece of wood with that small axe? I imagine it would be hard to chop with a small axe like that (especially dry wood)... which would force you to bring a saw. And if you're bringing a saw then the point about wobbly batoning does not matter AS much. You're right about thicker knives being less useful for finer tasks, and I agree with you about the safety. But from the perspective of hiking and camping I would still say that a somewhat thick knife (e.g. mora robust) combined with a folding saw would weigh less, offer more utility, save time and save energy compared to an axe alone or an axe and a smaller knife. Well... I may be wrong about chopping wood with an axe like that. Maybe it's not as hard as I imagine?
I've cut some surprisingly large wood with this tiny axe. yes of course saw and a splitting tool is better than one tool for all but just wanted to debunk the blanket statement that splitting with a knife is somehow safer ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-m0wMFbfm8_4.html
Why not use a low grit/coarse diamond plate instead of a file? They take off material surprisingly fast and they need less pressure, just got to wipe them with a cloth periodically during use. I've been using those for a couple of years to reprofile my choppers which are hard enough to make file use difficult.
even the coarsest stones or diamond plates aren't as fast as a file and cost a lot more than a good vallorbe file. I have some and dont really like or use them all that much
its supposed to be so sharp you lose it inside the wood and have to look for it. Very nice is that the tuatahi work axe, did you just work the edge or the sides of the head too
Nice Ben! Very informative. BLO can be safe if you boil it yourself from raw linseed oil. The store bought stuff usually has additives in it. Great are handle finish!
My dad also broke his fiskars axe. Now it is a bit shortie hatched. l wonder who designed axes to look like this monstrosity? Surely he took inspiration from stone age binding.
Blisters. No matter how many times I split wood with axes or mauls I get freaking blisters almost immediately between thumb and pointer finger. Gloves or no gloves my skin is thin and just blister’s up.then Im out of comission till I heal up. Ive even resorted to taping my hands for more time on the log pjle. I guess its jist an affliction and I cant seem to build callouses.
Hey Ben, would you have some recommendations for light, medium, heavy axes I can use for specifically pollarding, I've been using around 2lb billhooks with long handles over the years but some of my trees have branches that would be better to take off with an axe I think so...
@@benscottwoodchopper great review for sure. Pretty hard to beat the steel on the German axe. I have Ochsenkopf and Council. Both great axes but the steel is definitely better on the Ochsenkopf.
I think exceptions would be stuff like billhooks where the hook bites in and uses a shearing action, and khukuri where the belly is primarily the contact area if one is accurate. I would take a good billhook or khukuri (and have) over any of those fancy sharpened prybar survival knives, both the times I had to 'survive', once due to flash flooding (had to climb a tree to not get washed off, lost most of my gear) and another time due to horrible fog and rain that sent me miles off course (in the mountains, very little visability coupled with terrible brambles) it was my khukuri in one case and billhook in the other that saw me through. Whilst I like these light axes I feel they're less versatile overall.
the reason you debark most logs is the bark is potentially full of grit after being dragged out of the forest, loaded, unloaded etc. I felled this tree in my garden and hadn't even rolled it, the chances of any grit were so miniscule especially as this was a decent height up the tree. but yes best practice is to debark before chopping with a racing axe
