34 may 2014 outdoor life

B Y W AY N E V A N Z W O L L P H O T O G R A P H S B Y A D A M L E V E Y

Axes and hatchets are among man’s oldest and most versatile tools. From splitting firewood to breaking down an elk, there isn’t much these venerable icons of the outdoors can’t do

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Hi-Lo Hudson Bay Axe.

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c. 6000 B.C. Ax-like heads are first fitted with hafts (handles) at this point in the Mesolithic Period.

1640–1670 Iron felling axes introduced to Americas by France, England, Spain; steel bit inserts follow.

1670 Hudson’s Bay Company formed in London. Its axes are used to build forts and for trade in North America.

c. 3500 B.C. Beginning of the Copper Age; first metal axes introduced; bronze, iron, and steel would follow.

1775 Continental Congress requires colonies’ militia-men to equip themselves with a tomahawk or sword.

1813 Shawnee chief Tecumseh dies wielding a

tomahawk at Battle of the Thames.

c. 2900 B.C. The start of Corded Ware culture, aka

Battle Axe culture; men are buried with a stone ax.

835–895 Danish Vikings invade England and the Frankish Empire; berserk-ers wield axes in combat.

1825 W.H. Ashley organizes first rendezvous of trappers and mountain men; toma-hawks thrown for sport.

1826 Samuel and David Collins begin making axes in Connecticut; the Collins Co. would close in 1966.

1300–1500 Battle-axes evolve with armor in Euro-

pean conflicts during the Middle Ages, Renaissance.

illustrations by joel kimmel

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Use a single- or double-bit ax with a long handle and a slim head. Determine the direction in which you want the tree to

fall. Make a horizontal cut on that side, then angle your ax down into that cut to chip out a notch. Make sure your first strikes are far enough apart to give your ax room to remove wood as the notch becomes deeper. Depending on the tree and its lean, continue this cut-and-chip action to the center of the tree. A slight twist of the ax head at the end of each stroke will help pop chips free and keep the notch open.

When the notch reaches the midpoint of the tree’s diameter, move to the opposite side of the tree. An inch or so above the notch, chop down at a gentle angle so your ax reaches the middle of the tree just above the original cut. A straight tree should fall obe-diently to the notch side. If you must fell the tree “against the lean,” you might need a wedge or two to encourage it in the right direction.

➜Grip the handle well to the rear, thumb extended alongside.

Point the ’hawk at the target, cutting-edge down. Raise it over your shoulder, arm slightly bent. Swing your arm forward, releasing the ’hawk when it’s almost horizontal. A snap of the wrist helps clean up the release, but power comes from the arm and shoulder. Too much snap imparts excessive spin and can prevent the ’hawk from sticking.

If the flight looks good but the toe of the blade hits too early or too late, back up until you get a consistent bite. A standard throw—11 ½ feet for short ‘hawks, 13 for longer ones— involves one rotation. Back up another 12 feet to achieve two spins.

If the head hits the target on its cheek, or the handle tips to the side on contact, make sure your wrist is not “breaking” horizontally at release. It must stay in line with your forearm and the tomahawk’s arc.

To make a tomahawk target, cut an 18-inch section from a big conifer log. Set it on a stump, growth rings facing you like a series of scoring rings. A pair of supporting poles angled from be-hind and tacked in place will secure the slab. Don’t throw ’hawks at live trees. The cuts cause heavy sap loss and give insects access. Also, provide plenty of “safe space” around the target to allow for errant throws and glancing strikes. Remove any rocks from around and behind the target, too.

➜When sharpening an ax, the most important rule

is to hone without heating. Abrasive belts do a good job of shaping and sharpening new axes. Compact units from Work Sharp (worksharptools .com) are easy to use and run on 110 current. Each comes with three belts of different grit. Avoid electric grinders, though, as they can heat an ax head enough to ruin its temper. Old-fashioned

hand- or pedal-turned wheels, with water to dissipate heat, work better—but they’re scarce.

To touch up an ax by hand, secure it in a vise with the blade horizontal. Stroke a mill file along the blade from toe to heel (for a glossary of terms, see p. 38), maintaining an angle of 15 to 20 degrees to establish a secondary bevel, just blunt enough to protect the edge from chipping. File on one side

of the edge until a burr forms, then flip the head to file the burr off. Repeat. Next, file a primary 10-degree bevel well up the blade. A whetstone is unnecessary but can remove small irregularities at the edge. Oil helps float away particles so they don’t plug the stone.

Protect the blade with a plastic sheath. Don’t store ax heads in leather, where acids and moisture can reside.

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T H R O W A T O M A H AW K

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I N A X H I S T O R Y

B“Beans are in the grocery box. Spuds are in the tent. And if you use my hatchet, don’t let it touch the dirt.” ❡ That was the backwoods tercet that Max Gauthier delivered as he laced on his pac boots in the flickering light of our campfire. It was two hours before daybreak, and my guide was going to find our horses. A pack of wolves had been harassing them all night, so they could be anywhere in about 500,000 acres of British Columbia wilderness. “I should be back in a couple hours,” Max said as he shouldered his rifle and stepped out of the firelight. ❡ That was the first time I had seen Max without his hatchet, a worn Gränsfors Bruk Scandinavian Forest Axe that he lashed to the port side of his saddle and used for limbing trees, clearing deadfall, quartering my moose, pounding tent stakes, and even chopping up a frozen hunk of bacon. I finished my coffee and looked at the shag-barked spruce rounds stacked nearby, Max’s Gränsfors buried in the yellow heartwood of the largest round. It was ready to work. ❡ The hatch-et—like its bigger brother, the ax—is an essential outdoor tool. It shines at blazing trees, sharpening sticks, notching logs, and splitting kindling. A good hatchet will have a pounding head that can drive stakes and crush gravel. ❡ Hatchets don’t excel at splitting big rounds of tight-barked wood, but the task consumed me, and I was down to my shirtsleeves before the sun came up.❡Then it happened. As I was swinging it down, the hatchet slipped and struck the wood a glancing blow. The blade bit hard into the stony soil. I inspected the edge and found a tiny nick. ❡ When Max dragged in with the horses an hour later, I confessed my sin. He studied his tool, scowled, then glanced at the mountain of firewood I had made. If he held a grudge, he kept it quiet. “Let’s saddle up and go after a caribou,” is all he said. But he never loaned me his hatchet again. —Andrew McKean

TIME LINE CONTINUED ON PAGE 39

1850 Pennsylvanian Wil-liam Mann pioneers the double-bit ax. Mann Edge Tool Co. results, prospers.

1851 Kentucky’s William Kelly blasts molten iron with air to create steel; England’s Henry Bessemer is credited.

1876 The Sioux destroy Custer’s 7th Cavalry at Little Bighorn; last use of toma-hawks in battle on U.S. soil.

1880 Sven Wetterling be-gins making axes in Dalsland,

Sweden; later moves Wetterlings to Storvik.

1892 Lizzie Borden accused of killing her parents with an ax in Fall River, Mass.; acquitted a year later.

1902 Anders Pettersson founds Sweden’s Gränsfors Bruk Axe Forge.

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38 may 2014 outdoor life

S Q U A R E A L O G

➜To split firewood, any ax head will do, but one

with a steep bit taper will help cleave your target. The chop-ping block—broad, knee-high, and firmly set—should sup-port the piece of wood to be chopped where the ax handle will be horizontal at contact. The block also will protect the blade if it drives through.

Take a broad stance at a dis-tance where the ax will connect

with the wood when your arms are extended. If right-handed, grip the haft near the head with your right hand and near the knob with your left. Using your shoulders, and swiveling at your hips, swing the ax in a smooth motion up and behind your right shoulder. Rotate your shoulders to bring the ax forward. The right hand should meet the left as your left wrist “breaks” to permit a strike of maximum

force. At the strike, give the handle a little twist. This will prevent the ax from sticking in wet, tough wood, and it will “pop” ripe wood neatly in two.

If you get a piece of wood that won’t yield, use a splitting maul. Never strike an ax head with steel to drive it deeper, lest you chip the poll. If the head comes loose, secure it by driving tightening wedges into the end of the handle at the eye.

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To square up a log to make a beam, first

cut both ends cleanly and remove the bark. Support it at both ends on wood blocks or logs.

Secure the log to be squared with a dog or spike to keep it from rotating during the process.

With chalk or a scribe and a ruler,

make a square on one face, with the four corners drawn to the edge of the log. Repeat on the oppo-site face.

Run a chalk or scribe line from a corner of one square along the length of the log to the corresponding cor-ner at the opposite end.

Using a felling ax, make a series of

gashes across the grain be-low the line that you drew down the length of the log.The depth of each gash should stop just shy of the line of your cross-section square.

Now, use a broadax to “hew to the line,”

with successive, steeply angled cuts taking the roundness out of the log just under the chalk line.

Each cut should slightly overlap with the previous one. Done properly, the surface will be square and even, almost as bump-free as if it had been whipsawed.

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ANATOMY OF A TOOLA VISUAL GLOSSARY OF THE COMPONENTS OF AXES AND HATCHETS

HEAD: Ax heads are made of either low- or high-carbon steel and configured in many different ways to accomplish a wide variety of tasks.

EYE: The slot in the head in which the haft is mounted. To lock it, a wooden wedge is pounded into the haft end, fol-lowed by a smaller steel wedge.

TOE and HEEL: The upper and lower corners of the bit, respectively.

CHEEK: The wide, flat, typi-cally concave area on either side of the head between the bit and the poll.

BIT and CUTTING EDGE: An ax blade is known as the bit. Its cutting edge typically has a primary (10 degree) and sec-ondary (15–20 degree) bevel.

POLL: Also known as the butt. Depending on its design, it can serve different purposes, including hammering, digging, punching, and even skinning.

BEARD: The part of the bit that descends below the head. Broad and carpenter’s axes have more pronounced beards than felling and splitting axes.

SHOULDER: The upper part of the haft that includes the area below the head and the part that fits into the eye.

HAFT: Traditionally made from hickory or ash. Some modern axes have synthetic hafts. The grain of a wooden haft should be straight along its length.

BELLY and BACK: The contoured belly is the longest part of the haft. The top side of the belly is aptly called the back.

GRIP and KNOB: The knob of the haft is designed to prevent the user’s hand from sliding off the grip during the swing.

PICTURED: COUNCIL TOOLS VELVICUT BAD AXE BOYS AXE

THROAT: The part of the haft that curves sharply from the belly to the grip and knob.

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ONE-HAND WONDERS

TEN OF OUR FAVORITE SHORT AXES, HATCHETS, AND TOMAHAWKSBY JOHN TARANTO

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work; and its hammer poll is always looking for something to pound.

Estwing Sportsman’s Axe ($59; estwing.com)As familiar a hatchet as has ever graced a campsite, the American-made Sportsman’s Axe is the perfect length (14 inches) and weight (29 ounces) for any number of tasks. The attractive leather handle complements a utilitarian 3 ¼-inch cutting edge and ample pounding poll.

Ontario Knife Co. SP16 SPAX ($118; ontarioknife.com)Modeled after the WWII-era aviation crash ax, the SPAX’s carbon steel head combines an 8-inch cutting edge, a breaching tool, and the ability to open and close fire hydrants and gas valves. The ribbed Kraton polymer handle ensures a great grip, and the blaze-orange color means it’ll never be misplaced.

Gerber Myth Hatchet ($48; gerbergear.com)Designed for field dress-ing big game, the Myth features a sweeping 3 ½-inch cutting edge on its high-carbon stainless-steel bit. The pronounced finger notches and hole in the head allow for deft manipu-lation. Weighing less than a pound (14.6 ounces) and measuring just 8 ½ inches, it’s a no-brainer addition to any backcountry pack.

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Wetterlings Cruising Axe ($131; lie-nielsen.com)A graceful combination of design and function, the Cruising Axe features a hand-forged carpenter’s head and gently curved hickory handle. At just over 2 pounds and 23 inches, it’s equally suited to carpentry tasks and more woodsy endeavors like limbing logs and chopping wood.

SOG Base Camp Axe ($80; sogknives.com)Given its weight (33 ounces) and length (16 inches), you might imagine that the Camp Axe is quite forward-heavy, and you’d be correct. This offset balance lends substantial chopping power, though, while cheek grooves mini-mize friction. A perfectly flat poll makes quick work of tent stakes.

Gränsfors Bruk Hunter’s Axe ($171; grandforest.com)Equally adept at cutting through wood and animal pelvises, the Hunter’s Axe is short enough (18 ½ inches) to be carried in a hunting pack. The rounded, polished flay poll comes in handy for skinning chores. Chatter marks around the lower 7 inches of the hickory handle provide grip.

Stihl PA20 Splitting Hatchet ($56; stihlusa.com)The 2.9-pound drop-forged splitting head on this beefy hatchet is designed to

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power through pieces of wood. The 17 ½-inch-long ash handle features a thick shoulder and an exaggerated knob for sure handling, whether using one hand or two.

Husqvarna Carpenter’s Axe ($62; husqvarna.com)The Carpenter’s Axe’s long beard allows the user to safely choke up on the shoulder for precise control. It’s designed for carpentry, but it certainly wouldn’t look out of place at a hunting camp, with its hand-forged head and hickory haft.

CRKT Kangee T-Hawk ($185; crkt.com)This menacing-looking tomahawk features a cutting edge that runs from the rear spike all the way to the finger notch where the head meets the handle. The single-piece, full-tang carbon steel won’t rust, and a MOLLE-equipped Kydex sheath completes the package. This is a perfect addition to a bug-out bag.

CRKT Woods Chogan ($70; crkt.com)The Woods Chogan more closely resembles a traditional ’hawk than the Kangee does, but this ver-satile tool is made for more than just throwing. It practi-cally begs to turn split logs into kindling; it’s easily wielded for short-stroke

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42 may 2014 outdoor life

BIT BY BIT

To field dress big game with a hatchet, use it as you would a big

belt knife, opening the paunch with a small incision at the base of the sternum. Then, tip the blade at right angles to the animal, with the handle up and your fingers spreading the skin close to the blade as you run it to the rectum. Do not try to cut the skin down into the animal; hair will collect on and dull the blade. Dump the entrails.

To quarter the carcass, hang it or set it belly-up on the ground. Loosen hams with care-ful strokes tight against the pelvis and through the ball joints. Don’t chop; use the blade like a knife, your fist around the hatchet head (inset). Remove the shoulders the same way, leaving the skin on unless you must remove it to let a big animal, like an elk or moose, cool in warm weather. The hatchet (or, better yet, a slim double-bit ax) excels at splitting the backbone. Hang the animal head down, rear legs spread, to facilitate this task.

F I E L D D R E S S B I G G A M E

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4 AMERICAN FELLING: Originally made of two iron slabs hammer- welded at the poll, the felling ax evolved to include a steel bit insert. The bit is designed to cut across the grain, and the head is relatively thin, to bite deeply. The haft is typically 30 to 36 inches long, and curved for control and to afford a long swing.

2 DOUBLE-BIT: Foresters commonly put a fine edge on one blade of a double bit and leave the other a tad dull for “bumping” knots. This makes it more versatile than a felling ax, and it requires sharpening less frequently. The flat profile and relatively low weight make it a favorite with backcountry guides.

3 BROAD: The cutting edge of the broad or hewing ax head ends in a blocky heel. Most broadaxes have relatively short handles and are designed to shape timbers for construction projects. Broad-axes have shaped bridge trestles, rail ties, and the masts of sailing ships. They’re unmatched for making smooth surfaces quickly.

1 PULASKI: Among the most recognizable axes is the pulaski, with a grubbing tool opposite the cutting edge. It can drop trees and clear ground to establish firebreaks when fighting wildfires, and also excels for trail building in wilderness areas where the use of power equip-ment is prohibited.

1906 First published tales of Paul Bunyan, by James MacGillivray, appear in Michigan’s Oscoda Press.

1911 Forester Ed Pulaski’s ax/adze combo tool ap-pears a year after he saves 45 firefighters in Idaho.

1920 Having adopted Pulaski’s tool in 1913, the U.S. Forest Service issues a contract for its production.

1950 Totin’ Chip merit badge is established by the

Boy Scouts; the Paul Bunyan Woodsman Award follows.

1970s U.S. servicemen carry the short-handled LaGana tomahawk in Vietnam.

1980 Jack Torrance terror-izes family, murders Overlook Hotel chef Dick Hallorann with ax in The Shining.

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SNOW & NEALLEY PULSAKI AXE

SNOW & NEALLEY DOUBLE-BIT AXE

WETTERLINGS BROADAXE

BEST MADE AMERICAN FELLING AXE

FOUR UNIQUE AX HEADS, AND THE JOBS THEY DO

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