Axe Review
It was a sign from $deity. About 2 weeks after starting this thread, I smashed my cheap axe with a mis-hit. I was tired after a lot of splitting, and missed a piece of wood by about 4 inches, taking the head clean over the log – a shattered shaft was inevitable.
RIP cheap axe, I’ll keep an eye out for a new handle.
What an opportunity! Time go go beserk with the credit card, and get some decent axes in. I had in mind a proper splitting maul, and I was intrigued by the lever axe I found upthread. I also wanted a small firewood axe – the eldest demands to “have a go” with the big axe, and even with me holding, the whole affair is pretty dangerous. If there was something a bit smaller, I’d have a small splitting axe, and he could have something for supervised practice.
So what arrived:
From back to front:
Heikki Vipurkives, lever axe. Fibreglass handle, with a big protective ring around the shaft at the blade end. As per the video upthread, this axe is designed to twist as it hits the wood, thus shattering a piece outwards. It isn’t that heavy – in fact, not a lot heavier than the small axe at the front.
Gransfors Bruks, Hammer-Poll. A big splitting maul, with a hardened poll for hammering wedges. Hickory handle with a linseed/beeswax coating, and a rough section at the hand hold for extra grip. There is a steel collar at the tip, which protects the shaft from the worst of the miss-hits. The blade was hand-forged by a chap called Rune Andersson (his initials are stamped in it), and it is a good weight.
Gransfors Bruks, Small Splitting Axe. For an adult, this is a one handed splitting axe, for a child this is a full size implement. I’m using it for splitting chunks that are a bit too big to go in the stove…as well as training the next generation of splitters who will keep me warm when I am old and crumbly. This one was made by Ulrik Nilsson.
It was fortuitous that an acquaintance was taking down a large redwood. If anyone needs confirmation of why Land-Rovers are cool, this picture sums it up for me. Try getting that lot into the back of an estate car.
Right, so how did they perform?
First up, the lever axe. This is a highly tuned tool, for one purpose only – demolishing a round of reasonably straight grained wood in as little time as possible. As per the video on their site, you walk round the wood, taking bites off it as you go, and it works, brilliantly. The main difference is that you are not constantly picking up wood – with a normal axe, you split the round into two, pick one bit up, split that again, pick the bits up, split them again…repeat until done. With the lever axe, you just take chunks off. No picking up until all of the firewood is split. It takes a bit of getting used to – just belting the wood in the normal way doesn’t really work, allowing the axe to twist is step one, step two is giving the axe a little twist as it hits. The latter technique is amazingly powerful as the fragments fly off at immense speed. This axe won’t bust big rounds clean in half, it won’t deal with gnarly rounds, it just makes firewood, and quickly. Now, 190 euros is a shed load of money for an axe, but it is probably worth it. After some epic splitting yesterday, my back doesn’t hurt – I’ve probably saved bending over about 300 times….
You start with something like this:
This is about 2/3 of the way though the process:
Secondly, the Hammer-Poll. In use, this is a common or garden splitting axe. Line up the round, and belt it, round splits. I know that Redwood is easy splitting, but this axe was pretty much unstoppable though branches and knots. Most manufacturers load up the weight – Gransfors don’t do that, preferring to rely on velocity, and I think they are right. During the course of a lot of splitting, I didn’t get a single “sore hand” incident when the handle rings in your hand after hitting something hard. I have no idea if this is head or shaft design, or fluke, but it is welcome. Now, at £70, is this three times as good as a screwfix special? Impossible to say. I think there is something in the design – lighter, more tuned for the job, but the screwfix special is also an effective tool. It’s a bit like expensive spanners – a snap-on 13 mm spanner at £35 is just as effective as a teng-tools one at £1.50 – but I know which one I prefer to use.
Finally, the small splitting axe. This is a pretty unique tool. You can buy splitting axes, you can buy hatchets, but you can’t usually buy a hatchet sized splitter. For one handed splitting of something that is “large firewood”, it is perfect. For teaching a 6 year old to use an axe, it is also perfect. Again, a nice bit of kit, and worth the money.
If I had to choose one, it would be the Hammer-Poll – only because this is the universal tool. You can split anything with this, the others are rather more specialized. It would appear that like chainsaws and bikes, the correct number of axes is n+1.
