My Top 3 Axes for Bushcraft and Building a Log Cabin

Description

#axe #bushcraft #tools

Save your money and buy only what you need - my top 3 axes for building a log cabin and bushcraft can be pared down to one if you select the right one for your needs. Ignore the fact that I have over one dozen axes. I have collected those over many years and many of them were free or very cheap and some of them are redundant and unnecessary. That being said, collecting tools is fun and most guys like collecting knives and axes, which are at least useful items. While I could reduce my collection to 3 or less, I actually do use the majority of these axes for different purposes.

The axe on the left in my thumbnail is a Chopper 1 splitting maul. Mauls are essential if you have a lot of firewood splitting to do. A regular axe is just too light and thin to be an effective splitting, so a heavy maul will make the job much easier.

The axe on the left beside the maul is a standard felling axe, the best all-round axe. If you can only find or afford one axe, this is the one. Three and a half pound head (3.5lbs) and a 32" handle, this axe is used for felling trees of any size and for general purpose wood processing. It can be used for splitting firewood, albeit less efficiently than a maul, and it can be used for finer woodworking and carving, although it's a little to big and cumbersome to do that effectively.

The two axes on top and just to the right of the maul and felling axe are medium sized axes used for limbing and other light work, like cutting down small softwood trees and finer woodworking.

Hatchets and boy's axes are also useful and I would include one in my top 3 axes. They are much lighter with heads in the 1-2 pound range (0.5-1.0kg) and handles from 9" to 15". They are great for camp axes when small wood processing for fires, shelters and finer carving is needed. They are small enough to fit in a pack or on a belt so it's an axe you can carry with you a lot more often than a full sized axe.

The hewing axes I show are used for squaring timbers for timber frame shelter building. I use them for flattening out section of logs for the log cabin, and I'll be using them a lot more as I build timber framed accessory buildings, like the outdoor kitchen and workshop I'm starting this spring.

The other poorly maintained axe are used for clearing sites in the forest. Cutting roots below ground level is difficult and hard on equipment when working with hand tools, so I cheap axe is required. I frequently hit stones and sandy soils when cutting out stumps, and the axe is badly abused. A fiberglass handle and a heavy cheap axe head does the job.

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L4M 6E9

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Tags: Self Reliance,off grid,log cabin,axe,survival,bushcraft,forest,wood,cabin,woodworking,My Self Reliance,top 3,axes,building a log cabin,my top 3,top 3 axes

Video Transcription

- Hey everybody, Shawn James here from My Self Reliance. Welcome to the cabin. So like I've said many times, I'm not an expert on knives or axes, I don't consider myself one that's for sure, but I do know the basics. And I'm gonna get into my complete axe collection or most of my axe collection in a few minutes here. But I was wanting to go over the basics of an axe first, the components of an axe, or the anatomy of an axe. So this is the bearded camp axe that Toronto Blacksmith made for me. And you saw the big broadaxe in another video. If you haven't you can click on this video up here to watch that. So basically, you have your handle and your head of course, the axe head. So of course, you've got your blade or you bit, which is the front of the axe here, the part that bites into the wood. You have the eye which is the hole here that the axe goes through, or sorry that the handle goes through. You have the pole which is the back of the axe. You have the toe, of course, makes sense right? So if you look at that, there's your toe, and there's your heel... Toe, heel. Also makes sense, this is also called the beard and it's because, of course, when it's sitting like this, it drops down, now this is actually defined or described as a bearded axe because the beard is pronounced, so you can see it drops down where most axes just come straight across, this has a deeper face like longer bit, about four, four and a half inches, four and a quarter, four and a half inches. So for the size of this axe and the weight of the head, which is only, I think it's about a pound and three quarters that's a pretty broad bit here, and it's quite thin as well. This face, sort of the face of the axe, is called the cheek, which again makes sense. So if you look at this thing as a face, you got your beard, you got your face, you got your pole, you got you're eye which is the thing that is the shape of your eye of course. Hi Cali, what were you doing down there? You look excited about something. So that's called the handle or the haft. Typically, they're made out of hickory, which takes impact a little bit better, a little bit more shatter resistant, but ash is quite hard, and makes a pretty good handle as well. You're looking for straight grain all the way through. You don't want it flaring off. You can see that grain follows all the way down, doesn't taper off, a lot of them in the cheap racks especially will taper off the grain, get spliced off so you end up with a lot of end grain all the way down the axe, and that's a weak point, it's a spot that can splinter. Now at the bottom of the handle, you have the knob which flares out to stop your hand from sliding off the end, you have your grip, this is the throat, where you have this dip in the handle, or in the haft. Then you've got the belly, and again if you wanna put the axe handle like that, makes sense. And then, because that's the head, this is the shoulder. So that's the basics of it. Now, typically the back of an axe, the pole, is not hardened, and in this case Toronto Blacksmith has not only hardened it, he's also polished it as well so it looks quite nice. That's now can be used for driving in tent pegs, for example or stakes, because it's not gonna deform. So typically that's left basically this part of the axe head, the bit section, is hardened, but that makes it a little bit more brittle, so the rest of the axe is less hard and therefore it's more malleable, it's not prone to break or like shatter, so that's left soft. But the problem with that is with a typical axe, if this pole's not hardened, and you start hammering on it or using another, an axe or something to hit the back of that to drive it through a piece of wood, it'll deform that eye. That eye will actually kind of squish in or shatter, but typically it'll squish in 'cause it's soft. And that handle will come loose. But this is a hardened pole. I like that because I don't wanna always have to remember not to hit the back of the axe if I wanna use it for something. Especially a camp axe, I won't do that with a felling axe or a carving axe. But if I'm taking a camp axe, I want that to be multipurpose. I like having that hardened pole. So that's the basic anatomy of an axe. Now I'll show you the collection that I have, and why I have them and which ones I prefer to use and which ones I could do without. So I'm gonna start I guess from the biggest and work my way down, or the most specifically tailored, I guess. So you've seen this Chopper1 splitting, maul splitting axe that I've been using for the last six months or nine months. This has become my go-to splitting maul, splitting axe. Been using it for I don't know how many cords I've done this winter, or fall and winter, but an awful lot. I love this ease of use of it, the lack of. The reduced energy that you need to use it. It's quite a heavy axe, but with that little mechanical system, it does a good job with the least amount of energy. So click on this video up her if you want to see a little bit more about it. So I don't have to go into as much detail right now. So that's my splitting, go-to splitting maul. What's missing from here, and I don't know where it is, around here somewhere. It's just an old style splitting maul with a three pound, three or four pound head. It's just a wedge, basically, and it does a good enough job as well. For felling trees, I've used a few axes this year for felling trees, for knocking down, for cutting down the bigger trees on the property here. The maples in particular are hardwoods. Maple, sugar maple, red maple, and yellow birch are the hardest trees I have here on the property. And the odd oak, actually I did cut one oak down with this, that's a kind of a main axe that you pretty well need if you're doing this kind of work or living this kind of lifestyle. You want a good, solid, big felling axe. In fact, you could get away with probably just that, if that's all you could afford or that's all you had access to, just one axe, it would be a big felling axe with a 32 inch handle like I got here. So the same category, I have this big Garant cheap axe, fiberglass handle. And it's something you can just pick up at a regular hardware store, it's quite common here in Canada, I think at the Canadian Tires and Walmarts or something, so that's a 35 inch handle on that, and what I have it for, what I use it for, it's quite dull, but I use it for cutting roots in the ground where I don't want to use a good axe. So I don't mind, especially in this rocky ground up here, quite often I gotta get it off rocks. And there's no dings out of it, or a couple small ones. But, like I said, there's lots of trees I need to take down, right down at the root systems, especially if I'm clearing a site, building site like this, and for the workshop coming up. I need to get those roots out or get those trees out right down from the roots and you really don't wanna be putting in, even if it's just using a chainsaw or something, I'm not gonna run the chainsaw into the ground, I don't mind sacrificing this cheap axe to deal with it. I mean, you could sharpen that up. It's not a great wedge on there, or it's too blunt a wedge to really bite, but if you take that down a little bit, put a little bit sharper, narrower, thinner wedge on there, then it actually could be used just fine for your go-to axe, your standard axe for taking out trees and cutting trees up. So this axe here is one of Council Tool's newer axes. It's made in the US, a lot of people like that. Again, I'm not real happy with the way it's been ground. It's kind of a general purpose utility axe. I think that's a 25 inch handle or 27 inch handle on that. Yeah, 27 inch handle. So similar to that, here's an opposite style. An old two pound head, 25 inch handle. It's been really badly abused over the years. You can see the toe is pretty much rounded right off here, it's been pounded into the ground probably a number of times. I picked this up years and years ago at a garage sale and it was already in that condition. So I just use that for splitting up little branches or something, or I used to use it. I haven't used it in probably two years, three years. Now we get into the smaller axes, the axes that are a little bit more convenient to carry into the bush, so to put it in a backpack or take it on a longer trip or something. Get down to these forest axes. This is a Gransfors Bruk Scandinavian Forest axe. I think this, what is it, a two pound head or a pound and a half, maybe a pound and three quarters. This head, fairly straight ninety degree bit. I like that axe a lot, it's got a very narrow wedge. And that does a great job of biting into softwoods, taking down some hardwoods with it as well, but it's really excels on smaller spruce trees and fir trees and pine trees and stuff like that, so it's great for limbing as well, it's a nice, light axe. I like the handle length, I like the nice big butt on that for stopping your handle, your hand from sliding off the end. And, like I said, it's just a well-balance axe. It does a great job for limbing and for taking down small trees, so, and for taking it into the back country. Okay, what else, I've got my small carving axe though. This is a Hultafors Classic axe. Like a point five kilograms, so just over a pound actually. Nice, small little handle, let's see I'll get a measurement on that. That's nine and a half inches. So really, it's not something I'd recommend carrying it, carrying into the bush to do any real bush craft or survival type stuff, I mean it could be used for that. I actually end up using that more for skinning game, 'cause it has a real round bit here, real curve to it. Yeah, it is quite easy to sharpen. It maintains an edge pretty good. But it's a little bit more blunt than, say, the forest axe or the bearded axe from Toronto Blacksmith. And I'll use that for notching on the logs, or doing some fine woodworking, fine carving stuff. It's a nice, light, balanced thing, but again it's just too short, too light a head to really do much serious work. Good for limbing, mind you, if you need to get in close and limb something like a balsam fir, like these trees that I've got around here with some many branches on it. You can get close, or a spruce or something. Now, when I get into hewing up the logs, squaring timbers, which I did some of that work last year. Especially debarking and then squaring up some taking off, for example on these logs or some of the other logs, taking off the high points on the log, I wanna get it flat basically and smooth and level, harder to do that with a two-sided axe or a double bevel axe because you don't get a flat spot. These hewing axes, and this one's made, custom made for me by Toronto Blacksmith as well. It's only beveled on one side. And you can see, it's actually flat along this whole side. And then, on this side, that's where the eye kind of comes in a little bit more. And then you have the bevel ground onto this side, but this side, like I said, is completely flat. So what that does is allow you to literally, to get right along, like that's sitting flat right on that edge without the bevel kicking it off a fraction of an inch, so that allows you to square that timber up. Nice, big, long face so that you can get a lot of wood coming down, and especially squaring up a log from above when it's lying horizontal, so you can get a nice straight edge all the way along that log. I will be hewing average probably 12 foot logs on the next project, on the workshop project. So that's going to come in very handy. Now, when you get into the smaller hewing stuff, these axes were made in Canada and there's thousands of them around still. It's basically a hewing hatchet. Same thing, this is a right handed model. So it's flat on this side, or essentially flat on this side. And then the bevel is ground only on this side of the axe, flat on this side, so again that's for going along either this way or along this way to flatten out that log or take any high spots off. I've got two or three of these things lying around actually. Comes in quite handy for doing little stuff. Used it quite often on the logs on this cabin to take off branches and take off high spots. Alright, so those are the main axes that I have. Like I said, I've got a few others lying around. I wouldn't go out and buy these now, and I don't recommend that you go out and buy ten axes or whatever I've got here, plus the other four or five or six that I've got lying around. If you're only going to buy one axe, I would make it something like this. And that handle from 32 to 36 inches, whatever you find comfortable, whatever height you are. Course, the taller you are, the probably longer you're gonna like to get a good swing on that, especially if you're gonna use the same axe for splitting. I find that a good all-purpose axe I could use for pretty well anything. Hatchet's always nice, so something a little bit bigger than that, so maybe the Scandinavian small forest axe or this bearded axe from Toronto Blacksmith. He has a number of other kind of cool axes, and nice small axes that are good for general small camping trips and stuff like that, but also for limbing and things like that. There's always, hatchets are great. I like carrying hatchets, something you can, especially with a smaller handle, and a little bit smaller head, something you can put on your belt and carry with you all the time instead of relying on your knife. In fact, if you can do that, I recommend always carrying a small axe and a knife on all of your trips, so if you do get lost or you get into situation, a survival situation, you've got two great tools that can help you build a shelter, get wild game, or cut firewood and things like that. Things that I use for specific purposes, like I said, We got this, any standard, cheap splitting maul, wedge shape just fine as well, they're gonna really make splitting a lot less effort and a lot more efficient rather than trying to use a standard felling axe like the first one that I showed you there. So I would suggest, if you're doing any amount of wood processing that you're gonna have a splitting maul in addition to your felling axe. And then, something for limbing would be ideal as well. So like I said, a hatchet, some sort you know, 18, 16 to a, say, 24 inch handle would be ideal for that. If you're getting into hewing, and that's a very, very uncommon thing these days, if you square timbers, then of course you're going to want to get something awesome looking like this. If, for no other reason than it looks cool. And this other, you can pick up some old, cheap, well you're lucky if you can find cheap ones these days because a lot of dealers are picking them up from old barns and auctions and garage sales and stuff, refurbishing them and selling them for, you know a hundred, two hundred dollars and variable results, And that doesn't mean, just because it's old it's just automatically good steel or well made. I like Toronto Blacksmith personally because he's nearby and I know he does great work, and he's gonna stand by if I have any issues. So that's it, hatchet, felling axe, some kind of mid axe if you don't wanna go with either the felling axe or with the hatchet, and then a splitting maul. That's what I use, that's what I'd recommend. If I'm forced to pare down to one axe, I guess it's going to be the 32 inch or 35 inch felling axe and I'm going to try to make sure I can always get a hatchet in there as well. So that's it, that's what I use. Like I said, I'm no expert on axes. There's lots of great videos out there, lot's of experts to check in with if you wanna learn more about axes, the different styles, the different manufacturers, the different steels and so on. That's not me, I'm not that expert. But stay tuned, maybe in a couple years I will be. If you have any questions, just comment below. I'll try to get back to you, or ask me a question on Facebook or Instagram, I tend to find those messages a little bit quicker and they're easier to sort through if I'm going to answer you, so you might wanna check in with me there. And also don't forget to tune in every Friday for the cabin series videos and randomly throughout the week whenever I get a chance to post a video like this, I do that as well. So thanks for watching, and I will see you next week up here at the cabin, take care. (fire crackling)

(wolf howling)