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Lightweight Cutting Tools
Submitted by An Outdoor Idiots Team Member.
Fiskars / Wilkinson Sword Handy Axe Review
Note
This axe seems to be available in many different flavours, sizes and brand names. It is made by "Fiskars" in Finland. We've seen it branded "Fiskars", "Wilkinson Sword" and "Gerber". It is sometimes called a hatchet rather than an axe. It comes with various lengths of handle, and various shapes and weights of head. If ordering over the Internet, it's a good idea to double-check exactly what you are getting. For example, the axe we are reviewing was purchased (the old fashioned, real-time, first-person way) from Homebase (for non-UK readers, that's a common DIY store in the UK). It cost £18 and comes with a rather bulky and annoying "sheath" as pictured on the first page of this article. By contrast, you can get the same axe, branded "Gerber", and in that case, the handle is all-black, it comes with a fabric sheath, and seems to typically cost twice as much.Anatomy and Usage
The axe comes with a large solid plastic "sheath" as pictured at the bottom of the first page of this article. This sheath is too cumbersome for backpacking and so you will probably want to either make your own, or find a version that comes with a fabric sheath (and might well cost twice the price). The Outdoor Idiots.com Handy Axe currently sports a leather sheath made out of the tongue of an old leather boot, and a shoelace. It works, but we are too embarrassed to show it.The total length of the axe is 36 centimetres (or 14 inches). The handle is made from a material the manufacturer calls "Nyglass", which is some kind of clever fibreglass. This is supposedly more durable than the seasoned Hickory handles used in most traditional axes. The handle is permanently bonded to the head. We can confirm that in spite of giving this axe a most stupendous drubbing, the head has yet to fly off and decapitate any of us in an embarrassing way. We put Flossy in the line of fire, just in case. She's still with us.
[Flossy speaks: "Baa-aaa-aaah!"]
[The Editor speaks: "Yes, so that means you can still make tea! For example, NOW!"]
[Flossy speaks: "Baa-aaa-aaah!"]
The handle is hollow all along its length:
That means all the weight is at the head, which might be annoying if you are some kind of axe purist. If you stop crying and get over it though, you will find that it still works. The handle is so light that it's worth getting a long handled version just for the extra leverage and drubbing power - it won't add much to the weight. For example, this axe weighs just 35 grams more than a version with a much shorter handle.
The head weighs about 450 grams (or 1 pound), i.e. it is about two-thirds the weight of the head of the Gransfors Bruks Small Forest Axe. The blade is much less curved than the Small Forest Axe - it is not far from straight, similar to a carpenter's axe. The head is coated with Teflon in order to ease its passage through wood. The profile of the head is the best thing about this axe, and makes it very versatile. Here are the profiles of the Gransfors Bruks Small Forest Axe and the Fiskars / Wilkinson Sword Handy Axe, for comparison:
The Small Forest Axe, due to its extra weight and long, thin profile, is tremendous at penetrating wood. However, that long, thin profile also means that it should not be hammered into wood with a baton - Gransfors Bruks warn that this will likely lead to the head becoming deformed. This, however, is where the Handy Axe comes into its own. The wedge-like profile means that it can withstand a most terrible pounding with a heavy wooden baton without becoming deformed. This is not something the axe lists as a feature, but we've put it to the test and the results were very impressive. This feature helps overcome the disadvantage of the light head.
Another advantage of the profile is that the cutting edge is a completely flat grind, meaning that if you are carrying a typical sharpening stone for your knife, then that will likely be fine for sharpening the axe too. By contrast, the Gransfors Bruks Small Forest Axe has a convex grind, and it's really worth using the Axe Stone with it in order to keep it in good shape.
It can be difficult to split a large log with this light axe, however there are ways to overcome this. The head can be hammered precisely into the centre of the log with a baton in order to start things off. Sometimes that's all that is required, and the log will split. If not, then, leaving the axe head wedged into the log, turn the axe upside-down so that the log is on top, and bring the back of the axe crashing onto a hard wooden surface. The log often then splits under its own weight. This technique is awkward and you can't lift the axe high (in case the log drops off and lands on your head), but it works surprisingly well a lot of the time. If the log is much heavier than the axe head (which it often will be with this axe) then it's a good idea to take advantage of the weight of the log in this way.
Comparison with Heavier Counterpart
Compared to the more substantial Gransfors Bruks Small Forest Axe, here are some pros and cons:Pros
- It is about half the weight. The axe (without sheath) weighs about 520 grams (or 18 ounces). With our embarrassing home-made sheath it weighs 540 grams (or 19 ounces). The Gransfors Bruks Small Forest Axe in its sheath weighs 1070 grams.
- It seems to give cleaner, straighter results when pointing a stake.
- It can be pounded into the workpiece with a heavy bit of wood. This helps overcome its light weight, and also makes it easy cut exactly where you want to, rather than having to swing the axe onto the workpiece, which makes it difficult to be accurate.
- It is much more pleasant to shave wood with than the Gransfors Bruks Small Forest Axe. For example, it makes stripping bark from a log a much more pleasant experience. This is presumably partly due to the flat grind of the cutting edge, and also the fact that the blade is nearly a straight line, similar to a carpenter's axe.
- The relatively small head makes it very easy to grasp the axe around the head and guide it accurately for finer cutting.
- It is easier and more idiot-proof to sharpen than the Gransfors Bruks Small Forest Axe, due to its simple flat grind. It can be sharpened in a very similar way to a knife. This also means you only need to carry a knife sharpener - no need for a special Axe Stone weighing another 200 grams (or 7 ounces).
- We had a look at all the Handy Axes at the DIY shop. The alignment between the head and the handle was perfect in all cases, as one might expect from a largely machine-made tool. By contrast, it is quite possible to have a slightly out-of-alignment head on a handmade Gransfors Bruks axe. This "problem", if you are fussy about such things, is made worse by the fact that very few shops in the UK stock the Gransfors Bruks axes, so usually one has to purchase them online, without being able to view them first.
Cons
- It lacks the heft of the Small Forest Axe, and so it is a bit of a chore if you are splitting a lot of logs for a crowd-pleasing fire, for example.
- After an afternoon splitting wood, it seemed to cause more tender arms than the Gransfors Bruks Small Forest Axe. This is probably partly because it requires more effort to get the most out of a swing, and possibly also because the Nyglass handle does not absorb shocks as well as a Hickory handle.
- We had the opportunity to try felling a tree, or at least what was left of the trunk of a dead tree, with the Handy Axe. Unsurprisingly, we gave up shortly after starting. By contrast, the Small Forest Axe made very short work of it. So there you have it, a 14 inch long axe with a one-pound head is not suitable for felling trees. You heard it here first. But since it is rarely legal or ethical to fell trees, we'll let it off.
- The cutting edge seems far more susceptible to dings and rolling than that of the Gransfors Bruks Small Forest Axe. Perhaps the Handy Axe is made of a softer metal. Certainly the flat grind, while an advantage for shaving wood, is going to be a weakness if the edge hits a hard knot in otherwise soft wood. We used the Handy Axe only on Birch and Pine to our knowledge, yet the edge required maintaining at regular intervals. It currently has what look like some very small chips in the edge (though they are really areas that have rolled and subsequently been sharpened), though the performance is not noticeably affected yet. Performance in hard wood probably won't be great.
Page 4 of 5 Previous Next [Top of Page]
Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: Frosts Clipper Knife
Page 3: Wilkinson Sword Retractable Saw
Page 4: Fiskars / Wilkinson Sword Handy Axe
Page 5: Lightweight Cutting Tools: Bench Test
Page 2: Frosts Clipper Knife
Page 3: Wilkinson Sword Retractable Saw
Page 4: Fiskars / Wilkinson Sword Handy Axe
Page 5: Lightweight Cutting Tools: Bench Test
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