I do not bring either unless I bring a wood stove to heat a tent with as well. Then typically only a hatchet as i prefer to use smaller/ cedar wood for my wood stove.
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Everyone takes an axe/hatchet with them, right ?
- Thread starter Big Al
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Well if you and Robin have made it that far, then I'm on the right track with my gear choice and tripping style!!
For years I'd taken a hand forged throwing ax that was easy to keep sharp. The last few years I have been taking my GB small forest ax which I love. The smaller throwing ax did fine but I like the ability to be able to swing the GB ax with two hands when needed. The wood I cut with my Scmitt saw is small enough to split with one hand so I could see stepping down to a good hatchet someday to save weight.
You can get buy without an ax, but they come in handy when you get to a blowdown on the trail where there is no easy way around and by removing a few branches you can make a hole to get through. Or you get to your favorite campsite and find that a tree had fallen across it. I've also had to use mine to split wood to get to the dry stuff and they make collecting spruce poles a lot easier. You can shape up a pole or carve a paddle if you needed or wanted to, and if need be it could be used as a weapon.
I keep mine sharp. I'd rather use a small sharp ax than a big dull one that may be more suited for the job.
You can get buy without an ax, but they come in handy when you get to a blowdown on the trail where there is no easy way around and by removing a few branches you can make a hole to get through. Or you get to your favorite campsite and find that a tree had fallen across it. I've also had to use mine to split wood to get to the dry stuff and they make collecting spruce poles a lot easier. You can shape up a pole or carve a paddle if you needed or wanted to, and if need be it could be used as a weapon.
I keep mine sharp. I'd rather use a small sharp ax than a big dull one that may be more suited for the job.
Canoe camping - splitting axe and Sven saw. Backpacking - Bahco saw.
Hey Al just wondering, my Esty gives a nice little "ring" off a good strike ... does yours?
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I like how compact and safely stored the Sven saw is with the blade folded in, but the sharply angled shape makes the front of the blade unusable for anything thick. Getting little winky-winky-winky half throws in with a 20” long blade when I could be going whoompfa-whoompfa-whoompha with a real bow saw, in less time and effort, never appealed to me.
Not to diss the Sven saw; I have cut a fair amount of wood with one, or Tom Sawyered folks into whitewashing that fence. Mine is on the second blade, and due for the third.
I relegated the trusty old Sven saw to the tools that that live in the tripping truck, along with a Fiskars hatchet. They take up little space, and are stored out of the way.
Many moons ago I put my 2WD truck in a bentonite muddy ditch way the heck up a dirt track in the Wind Rivers. Not for the first or last time I should note. The only way it was coming out was to lay down a corduroy road from the drive wheels back up into the road.
We did not have an axe or saw in the truck, and were reduced to denuding a hillside of sagebrush and twigs by hand, a much more laborious process than it needed be. Ever since I have kept a saw and hatchet in my vehicles.
I haven’t been in a ditch in 35 years, and having those cutters always available has come in handy when truck camping. On long exploratory trips I add an axe, not for camp, just for truck use.
"Ever since I have kept a saw and hatchet in my vehicles." M. McCrea
Uncle Mike.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MskPriIm7UE
Uncle Mike.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MskPriIm7UE
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I have for years taken my old Hultafors forest axe and used it but sparingly. Mostly for cleaning up portage trails...ie.. limbing. I have substituted a machete for that because it is lighter and perfect for clearing brush.
For any serious wood cutting my chainsaw is my best friend.
For any serious wood cutting my chainsaw is my best friend.
Lol that's a great scene!
In that same vein, there's a Disney movie with Dick Van Dyke and Edward G. Robinson, Eddy G plays a mob boss ( go figure ) ... his son makes a play for Susan Plachette, Eddy says " keep your hands to yourself or I'll take them away from you "
One of my daughters suitors came to pic her up one evening. While she was getting ready I got my knife and sharpener and waited for them on the front porch, sharpening the skinner. They came out as I was going scchhhoook, sccchhhoook, sccchhhoook on the stone. I smile and say, " have a good time sweetie", and then turned to him and said ...
" remember keep your hands to yourself or I'll take 'em away from you "...
sccchhhoook, sccchhhoook, sccchhhoook
G
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Guest
As usual in a cutting tool discussion I forgot my most often used and favorite, a pair of compact (retractable) bypass pruners.
P9180029 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr
P9180031 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr
Stainless steel blades, 2oz weight but amazingly sturdy. I have tried and failed to find a similar pair of retractable mini pruners. Sadly there is no name or manufacturer on them; I’d love to have a couple more as stocking stuffers and for paddling friends.
For sites with greenbriar or other thorny brush nothing else works as easily or as well. In camp, to rid a tent site of puncturing thorns, clear the trail into camp of nasties grabbing at my legs or nip off a small overhanging branch, gimme a mini-bypass pruner. An axe or hatchet won’t do it, and a saw is actually dangerous.
Only useful on green stuff, but dry twiggy starter wood I can snap by hand.
P9180029 by Mike McCrea, on FlickrP9180031 by Mike McCrea, on FlickrStainless steel blades, 2oz weight but amazingly sturdy. I have tried and failed to find a similar pair of retractable mini pruners. Sadly there is no name or manufacturer on them; I’d love to have a couple more as stocking stuffers and for paddling friends.
For sites with greenbriar or other thorny brush nothing else works as easily or as well. In camp, to rid a tent site of puncturing thorns, clear the trail into camp of nasties grabbing at my legs or nip off a small overhanging branch, gimme a mini-bypass pruner. An axe or hatchet won’t do it, and a saw is actually dangerous.
Only useful on green stuff, but dry twiggy starter wood I can snap by hand.
I don't always bring one... depends mostly on the trip, and whether I'm out to see sights or base camp and fish.
For most trips, and it's mostly in the Adirondacks, I like either:
GB Small Forest Ax (19", head kinda tuned to Boreal forest pine/birch). Thin geometry, cuts soft woods deep, splits them well enough. Not made for splitting hardwood logs.
Norlund hatchet (hudson bay head, I've upped mine to a 14" handle). Typical geometry, made to split, cuts well enough, not good on twisty/gnarly stuff (for which a full sized ax is better).
I also have a 4.5# Craftsman on a 32" handle, a 3?lb Norlund Ax on a 24" handle, and several smaller hatchets, none of which get much use. GB and Norlund hatchet are usually the ones that go anywhere.
For most trips, and it's mostly in the Adirondacks, I like either:
GB Small Forest Ax (19", head kinda tuned to Boreal forest pine/birch). Thin geometry, cuts soft woods deep, splits them well enough. Not made for splitting hardwood logs.
Norlund hatchet (hudson bay head, I've upped mine to a 14" handle). Typical geometry, made to split, cuts well enough, not good on twisty/gnarly stuff (for which a full sized ax is better).
I also have a 4.5# Craftsman on a 32" handle, a 3?lb Norlund Ax on a 24" handle, and several smaller hatchets, none of which get much use. GB and Norlund hatchet are usually the ones that go anywhere.
Mike, that is a nice little pruner, and I just spent some time looking for it and found several companies that claim to sell it but they are all out of stock or the page can’t be found. I’m going to keep looking but in the meantime how about this one.
https://www.gardenista.com/posts/object-desire-pocket-pruner-multi-tool/
Jim
https://www.gardenista.com/posts/object-desire-pocket-pruner-multi-tool/
Jim
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Guest
Guest
Boatman, I like that little multi-tool pruner, but I’d rather have the Leatherman I carry (actually an early stainless steel Gerber multi-tool with retractable pliers). And $21 a pop is a little more than I care to spend buying a handful for friends who do trips amidst the greenbriar and other smilax.
Maybe for a friend who owns a large, overgrown woody spread. He has walking trails cut around his property and habitually carries a small bypass pruner in his pocket to clip off intruding branches and twiggy overhang.
If that Gardenista pruner had a pair of nail clippers I would absolutely buy him one; he is the only person I have ever met who always (and I mean always) has a pair of nail clippers in his pocket.
Maybe for a friend who owns a large, overgrown woody spread. He has walking trails cut around his property and habitually carries a small bypass pruner in his pocket to clip off intruding branches and twiggy overhang.
If that Gardenista pruner had a pair of nail clippers I would absolutely buy him one; he is the only person I have ever met who always (and I mean always) has a pair of nail clippers in his pocket.
As a general rule, I don't take a hatchet, and I've never taken an ax. On a recent trip, I did pack a hatchet, which got used to flatten cans, was an upgrade to my usual method of pounding tent stakes with a rock, and was used once to pound a stick deep into a sand bar so I could use the stick to tie of my canoe. I didn't use the blade end of the hatchet at all.
Routinely, I pack garden pruners. It is mostly used for customizing camp sites or pathways and is occasionally used to cut sticks for fire starters. I routinely pack a saw (currently, the Corona, 14", razor-toothed pruning saw).
For specific trips where I think it useful, I have packed long-handled, Fiskars, by-pass loppers. I routinely take those on my local river, which is routinely clogged with strainers and sweepers. It makes quick work of anything branch/stick/sapling less than 1.5" (4cm).
On cold-weather trips where I know we will be burning fires, I occasionally pack a chain saw. We still laugh about one winter-time trip into Assateague on which most paddlers were in kayaks. A buddy and I were in a tandem canoe. All of the kayakers pulled out at the normal access point to the Green Run site, but we paddled the canoe up a gut adjacent to the campsite for a shorter carry. We used pruners to improve a path through the briars from canoe to site. We gathered and cut wood, and had a good fire and excellent happy hour going when a ranger arrived at the site. The group all gathered around the table, I guess hoping to screen from the ranger's view the copious containers of alcoholic beverages. The ranger approached, glanced, unconcerned, at the booze, and demanded to know: who brought the chainsaw? I confessed. The follow-up question was, How'd you get it here?
It is forbidden to pack anything into the camp sites at Assateague aided by motor-powered crafts or vehicles. The ranger had only seen kayaks at the landing, and seemed pretty convinced the chainsaw had not been packed in a kayak and had been dropped off via motorized conveyance of some sort. We had to take him over to where the canoe was pulled up to convince him otherwise. Once he saw the canoe, the ranger was satisfied and left us to our booze and fire, about which he was totally unconcerned.
Routinely, I pack garden pruners. It is mostly used for customizing camp sites or pathways and is occasionally used to cut sticks for fire starters. I routinely pack a saw (currently, the Corona, 14", razor-toothed pruning saw).
For specific trips where I think it useful, I have packed long-handled, Fiskars, by-pass loppers. I routinely take those on my local river, which is routinely clogged with strainers and sweepers. It makes quick work of anything branch/stick/sapling less than 1.5" (4cm).
On cold-weather trips where I know we will be burning fires, I occasionally pack a chain saw. We still laugh about one winter-time trip into Assateague on which most paddlers were in kayaks. A buddy and I were in a tandem canoe. All of the kayakers pulled out at the normal access point to the Green Run site, but we paddled the canoe up a gut adjacent to the campsite for a shorter carry. We used pruners to improve a path through the briars from canoe to site. We gathered and cut wood, and had a good fire and excellent happy hour going when a ranger arrived at the site. The group all gathered around the table, I guess hoping to screen from the ranger's view the copious containers of alcoholic beverages. The ranger approached, glanced, unconcerned, at the booze, and demanded to know: who brought the chainsaw? I confessed. The follow-up question was, How'd you get it here?
It is forbidden to pack anything into the camp sites at Assateague aided by motor-powered crafts or vehicles. The ranger had only seen kayaks at the landing, and seemed pretty convinced the chainsaw had not been packed in a kayak and had been dropped off via motorized conveyance of some sort. We had to take him over to where the canoe was pulled up to convince him otherwise. Once he saw the canoe, the ranger was satisfied and left us to our booze and fire, about which he was totally unconcerned.
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Guest
Guest
On sandy coastal trips or places where I know I may be sandbar camped without many stout trees I bring a spiral dog tie out stake. Like this one, but mine has a longer screw-in section. It screws in easily enough, but it ain’t pulling out without unscrewing.
https://www.chewy.com/hartz-dog-tie-...CABEgIZvPD_BwE
I’ve used it a bunch, especially where the only thing to tie off to is some frail bayberry or tammie sapling; easier than burying a deadman stake. I usually tie off my boat at both ends, preferably with the painters pulling in opposition.
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Jinx! I should be more cautious with my “always” predictions regarding other people’s gear.
I may bring an axe next group trip. And will go out on an unchopped limb by predicting that, next time, we’ll have three or four axes.
Apologies to OP--we do drift off topic.
Fall trips on the Green seem to be all about sandbar camping, and we ran into numerous parties with their boats tied off to sand stakes created for the purpose, which seem to be industry-standard out there. The $50 price tag didn't seem to deter the canoeists that were using them. They looked effective.
On the way to Moab, I bought a doggie water bowl to serve as the NPS-required fire pan (never used it). There, in the pet section, I briefly paused over cork-screw, dog-tie stakes. I think they were less than $10. I passed them up, thinking no need for a couple pounds more stuff that I might not even use, but that would be carried and in the way the whole trip. It turns out I would have used them, but it wasn't difficult to get by without them.
I always bring and an ax and saw. If we are going lite and fast I bring the GB outdoor ax and Silky Bigboy. For anything else I love my GB wilderness ax for felling and splitting combined with the Silky Katana. Cooking and sitting around the campfire is one of my favorite things about canoe tripping.The GB small forest ax with jute wrap is a great ax for kids to learn with.
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