Can an axe replace a saw and a knife?

[santaman2000]

If you are just 'logging' (splitting and chopping wood for fires), then an axe is an axe...

"splitting and cutting wood for fires" is not logging; that's cutting firewood. Logging is a bussiness where you cut down tractor trailor loads of timber for a sawmill. I used my axe for a few hours daily for years, as did my parents and grandparents. No the edge won't last long but niether did the edge on the chainsaw blades (or the crosscut blades before them) A professional resharpens often. That's one of the marks of a professional.

Wood carving with an axe is generally considerred a craft rather than a true profession among woodsmen (loggers) Although it is considerred so with a good deal of admiration.

 

[mrcharly]

The point I'm trying to make is that if you are using an axe to do 'carpentry', then an edge that lasts matters.

My first lesson in proper use of chopping tools was from an Australian bushman, a real 'cowboy' from the outback. He'd learned to repair fences using timber to hand rather than something from a sawmill.

The fences he and I built, from small whole cut trees, were still in use as cattle stockyards 15years later. Held together by splining and wedging, so that the strength came from the timber rather than fastenings.
He would have disdained any cheap axe and was obsessive about maintaining the edge on his axe and adze (we didn't use saws much).

 

[santaman2000]

The point I'm trying to make is that if you are using an axe to do 'carpentry', then an edge that lasts matters.

My first lesson in proper use of chopping tools was from an Australian bushman, a real 'cowboy' from the outback. He'd learned to repair fences using timber to hand rather than something from a sawmill.

The fences he and I built, from small whole cut trees, were still in use as cattle stockyards 15years later. Held together by splining and wedging, so that the strength came from the timber rather than fastenings.
He would have disdained any cheap axe and was obsessive about maintaining the edge on his axe and adze (we didn't use saws much).

It's hard to tell here just how long a fence might last (regardless of the quality of the build) since we move them so frequently. That said, there are still fences on my property over that Daddy put up over 80 years ago. The lightard corner posts are still going strong and will probably last another couple of hundred years though the wire is rusted out and the cherry line posts are long gone. However they could never have been cut with an axe, lightard is just too hard. It can be split easily but not cut.

Carpenters over here just don't use axes as anything but a course tool (if at all) but I do take you point of how what I would consider a craftsman would obsess over any and all of his tools. I did with mine as an aviation metalsmith in the Air Force.

Regarding your bushman cowboy, I can also understand his desire for quality tools rather than cheap ones but! He must have been lucky compaired to the generations of loggers I came from as they simply bought whatever tools were available. They picked the best they could find and afford but there just wasn't a lot of selection in early country stores back then.

 

[spiritwalker]

i use one of these http://www.amazon.com/Gerber-31-000912-Back-Paxe-Performance/dp/B004DT1YJA
i find it does all the camp wood i need so much so i dont use a fixed blade knife atm just my SAK. Mainly because im good at keeping the axe sharper than my mora but thats just me
i also think bahco saws are the mutts nuts.

Just get a bigger pack and take the lot

 

[HillBill]

I've kind of become more axe user than knife user, hard as that may be to believe. Only because i use an axe a lot when out and about, love 'em, don't know why. I only own 4 knives, 2 are folders, one a carver and a Mora. I keep making myself knives, but then someone wants to buy it, so i sell it thinking i'll make another. Which i do, which then gets sold etc etc.

I own about 15 axes atm, and sold about 10 in the last 2 years. Recently acquired a couple more, a valley forge double bit and a little nordic four lugged tomahawk. Which if i'm being honest i think is my favourite axe. Its got a lovely thick bit for a small axe, just making another handle for it.

But do i think an axe could replace a knife and saw? It could, but it shouldn't. You see, i would never use an axe on a live tree, unless the intent was felling. I'd only use a saw to prune, out of respect for the tree. Don't want to cause it unnecessary damage nor prolong its recovery/healing. You could butcher game with an axe, but its not as precise or as clean as using a knife. Don't want to waste hard earned protein to the second best tool for the job, when i have the best tool in my pocket.

As said previously, each has a place in the 'shrafters tool kit. But given the choice of one of the 3. Well, its got to be an axe as its the only tool that can do all 3 jobs.

 

[Laurentius]

When is an axe not an axe and only a hatchet? I have the tiniest of hatchets for splitting wood, not because I think it is better than anything else, but because it is very light and convenient, the chopper I used to use has gone back to my brother, who incidentally has lost my old machete, when I want it most (cos when you are dealing with brambles you want something with reach)

I figure on the whole (brambles excepted) if you can't cut it down with a bill hook, you should not be cutting it down at all. (Unless you are a tree surgeon or a forester that is)

 

[Hoodoo]

When is an axe not an axe and only a hatchet? I have the tiniest of hatchets for splitting wood, not because I think it is better than anything else, but because it is very light and convenient, the chopper I used to use has gone back to my brother, who incidentally has lost my old machete, when I want it most (cos when you are dealing with brambles you want something with reach)

I figure on the whole (brambles excepted) if you can't cut it down with a bill hook, you should not be cutting it down at all. (Unless you are a tree surgeon or a forester that is)

According to my dictionary, a hatchet is a small axe with a short handle for use with one hand.

 

[Big Stu 12]

Just as aside, I have often wondered if buying a cheaply made tool often reflects in the users path to learning good technique, if its a beater will it always be beaten, or will the skill required to use it in an efficient and tool sympathetic manner be learnt?

Interesting thought, I waould say that would depend on how the user veiws, as an engineer, my tools are looked after as thats the way I was brought up and taught, comming from a craftsmans family. I like to think that most people try to gain knowlage in some form.... in a way most bushcrafters would come under this banner as most of us are of curious bread... I admit some just like the idea of being a Ray Mears or Bear Grills look a like, and just and to play.... most of them will just buy the expensive stuff and abuse it any way...

Oh by the way I mean no abuse to anyone in here, as most that can be bothered to ask questions learn how things should be done, its just gerally an observation of life.