We’re moving into a house with a logburner soon, and apart from making sure it’s properly checked out and safe etc, the 14yr old in me is looking forwards to owning some sharp shiny “man” tools…

Does anyone have any recommendations as to what it needed axe-wise to split / chop wood, bearing in mind that most of the wood will be delivered pre-cut? Just a small hand axe, or is there a use/justification for a proper man-sized jobbie as well?

Gransfors. End thread. http://www.thebushcraftstore.co.uk/gransfors-bruks-small-forest-axe-74-p.asp
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gransfors-Bruks-Small-Forest-Axe/dp/B000WIROX6
Or, if you want a bit smaller and cheaper, the Wildlife Hatchet is ideal, I’ve got one, and it’s a great little tool, mine will shave my arm quite happily:
http://www.thebushcraftstore.co.uk/gransfors-bruks-wildlife-hatchet-73-p.asp

This is the cheap option…I have used this axe for 4 years. It’s sharp and easy to keep that way with a stone. The advantage of this design is that the head will never loosen and the plastic handle will never break or get damaged. Designed to be abused – yet work.

Count zero has it spot on, nothing else out there is as good

Deliveries pre cut are ok, but you can’t beat foraging for your own, then you can get a man size splitting axe and work up a man sweat!

£60+ for a shaped stick and a sharpened bit of metal? Are you insane?

I like a decent tool but that’s taking the piss

Small axe is only good for chopping sticks (which you could also do with a splitting axe).
I’m on my third big axe now and it’s probably the best I’ve had – plastic handled splitting maull from my local hardware shop for £25.
Plenty on weight in the head and makes light work of most stuff. Although I’d like a fancy axe I know it would be wasted on me for my requirements as I now use as screw spitter on the back of my tractor – much easier and 5 – 10 x faster!

Top tip – looks sideways to make sure this is private – go to your local timber merchant, biscuits, particularly chocolate hobnobs, get you alot of precut timber. (7 rubble sacks bags today)
Aldi have foot operated log splitters, they will be reduced in a couple of weeks – I don’t think my town needs 30 of them….

Aldis foot operated splitters garbage.

Never seen a gransfors in the real world.

Bahco fibreglass handles seemed to be the tool of choice. Good enough to work reliably and cheap enough not to cry.

Gransfors ~ audi ~ orange five~ professional chefs knifes ?

* no denying they look lovely and i bet they hold an edge- but for the home user ( stoner and mcmoonter excepted) there are tools that will do the job just as well fr alot less dosh

Im glad you threw the caveat in there t_r 😉

I lurve my gransfors.

To split logs I have a maul, to cut up kindling I have a small hand axe. Both cheap from Wickes, B&Q or wherever. Why anyone would want anything more I don’t know unless you are a lumberjack and OK.

I have that roughneck maul that stoner has posted and a cheapo hatchet that someone left in a house I used to rent. Do the job perfectly and total cost about £20.

My experiance being labouring on decent sized domestic surgeon fells.

Not big scale forrestry.

I got a Fiskars axe for Christmas, it’s ace.

For kindling I use a bill hook, far quicker and simpler than an Axe.

Mines a French job with a lovely leather handle and is thin and very sharp, I’ve tried the thicker bill hooks and they aren’t as good.

£60+ for a shaped stick and a sharpened bit of metal? Are you insane?

I like a decent tool but that’s taking the piss

I like the difference between a tool that’s hand-made and one that’s bashed out by a bunch of machines.
I’ve got a small bushcraft knife that I’ve made, where the blade alone cost almost as much as my Gransfors. Quality will out, every time, that axe will last 100 years, with a bit of care.

Yep so its afeel good thing.

Like a good tool as much as the ext guy how ever im not into paying over the odds for the name on the side and cause te builder has a name.

Gransfors guaruntee their axes for 20 years. That’s way longer than a lifetime warranty on a posh frame

for splitting logs get a splitting axe or maul. These have a wide wedge shape to give extra weight when driven into the log, also unlike the slimmer version which is used for tree felling they do not get stuck in knotty logs.

You can beat on the back of mauls in stubborn logs with the mell or the sledge also.

If this doesn’t make you buy one of their axes you have a heart of stone:

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paCyA9ypEOE[/video]

its a great film, that, mikey.
It’s such a romantic notion: a product of three materials fashioned into an exquisite tool by one man in one day. Of course it’s probably a lot more prosaic than that in real life.

Those Neeman films make me want to reappraise everything, build a cabin and chop wood then wait for the snow to fall. Oh hang on….. 😀

+agdjillion for a Gransfors of any sort. The last axe you’ll ever need.

Mauls are ok, though I’ve found a decent mel and a log grenade much better on stubborn roundels.

Things I’ve found useful – small sledgehammer and splitting wedges, and a sharp billhook for kindling. And I prefer a wood handle, it seems to absorb some of the shocks. Didn’t get on with a maul, IME it’s not compatible with writing with a real pen on the next day.

Jesus he’s only splitting logs not whittling pencils out of them.

Splitting axe from Aldi or Lidl c £10.

That wee Fiskars hatchet is beautifully weighted piece of kit for kindling tho.