Ok folks, help me chose a new small camp axe/large hatchet.

[cornstalker]

Now that we are page 5, let’s shift this thread to the important part, first aid kits. Aren’t axes and hatchets responsible for a high percentage of wounds in the great outdoors? I say get a saw!

I would assert that incompetence with a hatchet or an axe may be responsible for a high percentage of wounds in the great outdoors.

[Maple Syrup Actual]

I had a small axe skip out of a cut once - I'd been limbing trees all day and was pretty exhausted, so I got lazy. Usually if I have to fell a tree with a small axe I'll bend over at the waist and make the notches pretty low, because that takes the path of the swing away from me if something goes wrong. But my back was just burnt and so I was standing and felling the tree with an axe that was too small for the job, and starting to dull a bit because I'd been limbing with it for six or seven hours.

Anyway, my fault, but the axe skipped out of the cut on a downstroke and buried itself in my left leg a bit. <-legit axe pun

I had just come back to Canada and wasn't signed up for Glorious People's Healthcare yet but I could hardly just leave it as it was, so I drove the 40 miles down to the hospital to see what could be done. A couple of guys helped me in the door and the triage nurse looked up from her desk, unable to see my lower body, and said, "chainsaw?"

"Axe."

She nodded.

"You look like the type."

I asked what they figured it was going to cost, and what could we eliminate since I'd be paying cash, like could we palpate the kneecap instead of X-ray to check if it was intact, for example.

The nurse thought for a bit and said "well you know, one of our ER doctors just retired...do you want his number?"

So I called the guy and explained the situation.

"I'll give you address," he said, "You'll just be coming to my house. I'm not running a walk-in clinic."

"Just as well," I said, "I can't walk."

So I drove to his house and got myself inside and onto his dining room table. He had all kinds of supplies on hand and did a good job and gave me pretty detailed instructions on what to watch for as far as infection etc etc. It did take a little longer than normal to heal, I thought anyway, but it gives me no trouble at all. Cost $400 which was a bargain IMO. He was about 70 and had been patching up bush mistakes for probably forty years so I figured he'd be as good at it as anyone.



Anyway bottom line...axes can and will hurt you but you usually have to make a series of bad decisions first.




And people say there are no lessons to be learned from Wounded Knee.

[GJM]

I had a small axe skip out of a cut once - I'd been limbing trees all day and was pretty exhausted, so I got lazy. Usually if I have to fell a tree with a small axe I'll bend over at the waist and make the notches pretty low, because that takes the path of the swing away from me if something goes wrong. But my back was just burnt and so I was standing and felling the tree with an axe that was too small for the job, and starting to dull a bit because I'd been limbing with it for six or seven hours.

Anyway, my fault, but the axe skipped out of the cut on a downstroke and buried itself in my left leg a bit. <-legit axe pun

I had just come back to Canada and wasn't signed up for Glorious People's Healthcare yet but I could hardly just leave it as it was, so I drove the 40 miles down to the hospital to see what could be done. A couple of guys helped me in the door and the triage nurse looked up from her desk, unable to see my lower body, and said, "chainsaw?"

"Axe."

She nodded.

"You look like the type."

I asked what they figured it was going to cost, and what could we eliminate since I'd be paying cash, like could we palpate the kneecap instead of X-ray to check if it was intact, for example.

The nurse thought for a bit and said "well you know, one of our ER doctors just retired...do you want his number?"

So I called the guy and explained the situation.

"I'll give you address," he said, "You'll just be coming to my house. I'm not running a walk-in clinic."

"Just as well," I said, "I can't walk."

So I drove to his house and got myself inside and onto his dining room table. He had all kinds of supplies on hand and did a good job and gave me pretty detailed instructions on what to watch for as far as infection etc etc. It did take a little longer than normal to heal, I thought anyway, but it gives me no trouble at all. Cost $400 which was a bargain IMO. He was about 70 and had been patching up bush mistakes for probably forty years so I figured he'd be as good at it as anyone.



Anyway bottom line...axes can and will hurt you but you usually have to make a series of bad decisions first.




And people say there are no lessons to be learned from Wounded Knee.

This should be a chapter in your book!

[Totem Polar]

This should be a chapter in your book!

[fly out]

I have a handful of Swedish (h)axes, but, at the risk of banning, let me humbly submit a Silky two-fer:

The Ono, with which one can hatchet, shave, and, choked up on the head, santoku-ing at the camp kitchen:



and the Curve saw:



which folds up into a completely snagless case:



As a person of Swedish descent, I can't help but seek out and accumulate a handful of their examples, but the Japanese have done some nice things with the Silky lineup.

[OlongJohnson]

Also a fan of the Silky.

[TOTS]

Now that we are page 5, let’s shift this thread to the important part, first aid kits. Aren’t axes and hatchets responsible for a high percentage of wounds in the great outdoors? I say get a saw!

1000% Agree. I have a Silky folding saw from ‘06 that I’m still using. I’m needing to split kindling, feather stick for fires, etc.

IFAK gets hung by the firepit before camp gets set up. Marked with a green Chemlight at night.

[rd62]

I have a curve I keep in my hunting pack for impromptu branch trimming or blind building. It works quite nicely.