A Comprehensive Guide to Choosing a Survival Axe

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Stay in the Woods,

Dan

[oldcountryman]

I keep my "survival" axe in the survival toolbox in the bed of my survival truck parked in my survival garage.

[martinwalker]

Years ago I read the novel “Danger West” and a company was hiring to create a trail through a stream bottom. The interview was to tell the candidates to choose an axe in a hardware store. Those that got hired were the ones that asked if they could bring their personal axes.

[fishbone]

He's wearing a flannel shirt. Instant credibility

[Sanxioned]

I recently went canoe camping for the first time with friends in Algonquin and everyone chuckled when they saw me bring my full length axe (Cold Steel Trail Boss) because we already had a folding saw and hatchets. lo and behold, the bulk of viable wood we found were relatively wide diameter trees. With the rain, we needed a hot, slow burning fire and plenty of fuel.

Fortunately, my axe did what their hatchets could not do easily: blast through thick logs like nothing. The long handle makes it a bit awkward for fine detailed work, but it did just fine making shavings. It holds an edge really well and is easy to sharpen with a simple sharpening stone (brought that too just in case). Used it to hammer our new tent stakes too and made a few wedges with it to split a particularly resistant log.

The full axe is relatively light and honestly it straps on pretty easily. The most important thing I think regarding axes is learning how to actually use them and being confident about the swing. I cringe when I see someone about to take a huge swing and I see, just inches away, a large stone in the ground. Like bro, just cut it AWAY from the rock! Little things like that make a difference between a good axe-user and a dangerous one. While the full length axe is more cumbersome than a hatchet or shorter handle axe, I find one simple truth: the large axe can do pretty much everything a small axe can, but a small axe cannot do everything a large axe can.

Great videos! Subbed :)

[u.s.militia]

I use an old roofers hatchet from the 1950’s. It’s never failed me.

[exodus_gs]

The Alton Brown of bushcraft. So glad I have found this channel. This is helping get my 8 year old son involved

[runninblue]

Axe safety, axe-orientated ifak, injuries through tiredness from a too-heavy axe, stance, footwear, axe- maintenance, technique. Almost a whole channel bin itself right there. Thanks 👍

[TheScoundrel]

Just looking at all the different patterns of axes (past and present) should be a clue that no single axe is going to excel at every task. Most, if not all can be used beyond the specific intent of their design, but at some cost of efficiency, ergonomics, control, precision, etc. Great info Dan, thanks!

[packrat]

Great class! I'm 66 years old and have 7 various axes and I still fumble through the finding the right ax for the job. Not any more. Thanks Dan!

[ironskillet]

I really like watching this guy. Humorous while giving valuable information. So enjoyable! 🙂

[ederan]

What great timing for this video! I was just gonna axe you about this subject.

[anthonytwidale]

Love my Estwing 26” axe. Comfortable and indestructible.

[pmchamlee]

Articulate, experienced, genuine - - - you're doing a fine job, Dan! 🤠

[funkmonkeyfun]

I custom hung my own axe, 2lb head on a 25" handle, my primary use is fire making and shelter building with a secondary use of harvesting material for other primitive tool making, works perfectly for me, never step into the woods without it, long enough to chop, light enough to carry.

[CornerTalker]

When I was first shopping for a camping axe, someone told me either get a hatchet or go full length - if you miss, those full-length handles will be more likely to put the bit into the dirt than your shins.

[cheswick]

Dan, I'm a recent subscriber, and I have to tell you...I like your video's more and more all the time...informative, humorous, all without being condescending or egotistic. Thank you. You covered handle length, bit or head weight, and bit thickness, One thing you did not cover is axe head style. tomahawk, hatchet, felling, splitting, double bit, tactical, as what is best or more practical overall for "bushcraft" . thanks again.

[abcxyz]

Great summary on axes. Touched on everything I thought about when getting my first "bushcraft" (utility) axe.

One thing I did as a newbie was to get a bit longer of a handle to make some of the camp chores a bit safer. I believe its a 23 inch. I want to downsize to about a 19-21 inch but just have not got there yet. You are making me think about going smaller now but I might just "need" to get a secondary trappers hatchet or something haha.

As a personal choice I had to make sure it was a Hudson Bay style axehead as well. I like the aesthetics more and if you don't like your axe you will use it less. Also I like how the shape lets me choke up for finer tasks. Not sure if that curvature is made specifically to enable choking up but it sure seems like it is.

[susanfromthemountains]

I'm a 58 year old homemaker, grandma, and love your instructional videos. I just learned about axes here for the first time in my life. Although I've split plenty of wood in my 20's and 30's, bearing and raising 6 children in a 1700 year old homestead, I never really had anyone critique my tools. They were already very old tools we would pick up at auctions during the 80's. They worked then, and now still, super well. Dependable, quality work horse tools. But to watch you detail - talk about tools is a new thing for me. And if I bought new tools, would definitely be details that I'd keep in mind. I'm in the mountains now, no longer on the homestead. I'm also far north in PA now also where winters are snowy and cold which I love. State forest surrounds my property. Black bears are my neighbors. We enjoy a slower pace life now, but really enjoy learning survival skills from your channel. Chopping wood is 9 months of the year's work here. We have a splitting maul for big stove firewood, and hatchet and hammer for small stove firewood, and sledge hammer and wedges for big snarly chunks and we bring dying and dead trees down with a chainsaw. My husband and I grew up in the outdoors and the woods and the streams every day of our lives, as kids growing up in the '60s and seventies you weren't allowed to be in the house your mother kicked you out so we literally spent all the seasons outside, even winter and in blizzards, and we had a great time! Truth! Life was good then. Life outdoors back then was safer for kids. So we could be over mile away from home as long as we were home for supper didn't matter where we were. It was like Little House on the Prairie days, I even walked a mile to school back then and back home all by myself, from age 5 years old and up. Now parents can't even let their kid out in the front yard by themselves without watching like a hawk cuz somebody could take them. So yes we agree with you get outside, play in the woods, walk in the woods explore the woods.. take it all in.. breathe the woods air and listen to the sounds everybody! 👍 Take care everyone.

[ra]

This has got to be the best simplified "explanation" video on axes. It goes into the what, why and when of axes. I learned more here than at a survival class where they were trying to tell us that we all needed the same axe, theirs!
Thank You! And I just subscribed!

[thombrasch]

You just answered a lot of questions I've recently had - brilliant vid, sir.