Axes and Hatchets

Recent Axe/Hatchet Reviews

Gransfors Bruk Outdoor Axe

Lightweight, a fantastic chopper and splitter...much better and lighter than a large Bowie-style knife for bushcrafting and camping chores. A joy to use. This is a beautifully designed and balanced lightweight hand axe for the hiker, back country camper, and bushcrafter. You can certainly build an expedient shelter, you can fell, limb, buck, split, and carve trees that are 5-inches in diameter or less fairly readily. You can use it to skin, clean, and butcher small game. Carrying this and a small… Full review

Estwing Camper's Axe

A decent light axe for minor felling, chopping, and splitting...but doesn't compare to a good HB or GB. I bought one of these a few years ago, and have used it mostly around the house. I've found it's best for light limbing and felling, but the design of the blade is such that it really is a chopper, not a splitter. I'm surprised at how much better a smaller, lighter Granfors Bruk axe is at both felling and splitting.  Buy it if you want a fairly inexpensive and durable decent axe for occasional… Full review

Estwing Camper's Axe

Lifesaver on a long hike. A while back when I was with a Scout Troop hiking the JMT in the High Sierras we were caught in a severe summer storm near Gem Lake. Lightning, hail, low temps and high winds. We found ourselves in an old hunting camp that had been dismantled and discovered our tube tents were no match for the storm, so with a little ingenuity and freezing desperation we set about building a storm haven. With the hatchet we pulled dozens of six inch nails from timbers and with just the… Full review

Gransfors Bruk Small Forest Axe

Great size for day hikes and fits nicely in your pack! Coming in as a cross between a piece of art and a piece of gear, this artisanal heirloom will surely be passed down to my children and their children’s children. It is a beautiful tool that has been an essential part of our loadout as of late. Sized between a hatchet and a “real” axe, the SFA provides a packable happy medium for anyone looking to do some work while afield. Bushcraft has become more and more of a buzzword in the past few… Full review

Council Tool 2# Wood-Craft Pack Axe

I wanted a short-handled axe for car and canoe camping. The two main Swedish axe makers had very nice camp axes, but I liked the Council Tool Wood Craft axe head shape better and the fact that it was a high quality US-made axe. I like the Wood Craft small camp axe because it is larger than a hatchet and able to do small felling tasks and splitting of firewood yet is easily carried on a pack when on canoe portages. It is very similar to Hults Bruk and Gransfors Swedish axes and at the same price,… Full review

Hults Bruk Akka

I have had this axe for going on three years now and it hasn’t let me down! The curve of the handle and the length are perfection! The carpenter style axe head make carving a breeze and this thing chops like none other! Great axe and would recommend to anyone. Full review

Gransfors Bruk Splitting Hatchet

A specialised axe for splitting wood. The axe head is designed for splitting down the grain rather than across, meaning a more efficient split. Charles Rolls or Henry Royce said quality is long remembered but the price is soon forgotten. That is true of this axe. Whilst is it quite expensive, it is well made and does an excellent job of splitting wood for my wood burner. The axe head has more of a wedge shape so that when it enters the wood along the grain it splits the grain more efficiently than… Full review

Gransfors Bruk Wildlife Hatchet

An excellent general purpose hatchet capable of felling a small tree. I thought long and hard about which axe to purchase but eventually settled on the Wildlife Hatchet, by Gransfors Bruk. I wanted an axe large enough to handle a range of jobs reasonably well but small enough to fit easily in my Savotta Saddle Sack. Weight was also a consideration, but as far as I can tell the axe heads do not vary as much as the length of the handles do. So far, I have been really impressed with it. Not all axes… Full review

Fiskars Chopping Axe 28"

The Fiskars Chopping Axe (WALMART $34.47) is basically just a longer handled version of the Fiskars X15 axe (Amazon $33.98) with a new paint job. Here is a side-by-side comparison of the two axes. (New black longer Fiskars Chopping Axe on the left, and the Fiskars X15 on the right) If you like winter camping using either a hot tent with a wood stove or bush craft with tarps and a long fire, you shall process a lot of wood. In the winter, you need to find standing dead trees because the downed or… Full review