Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Which Gransfors Bruks Ax?

So that not only will I become addicted to them, so will my buddy whom I am buying one for. Thanks for the input guys I appreciate it. I think I will go with the small forest axe. Is there any difference between that and the hunters axe?

Pretty much the same axe, but the hunters axe has a polished poll. The forest axe is cheaper and it drives stakes and hammers better.

Thanks

Any of them.

Small forest axe is the cat's everlovin' ass...

Carry mine on all hunting camping trips and sometimes just for S&G's on walkabouts...

I have a KoA hatchet but I never carry backpacking. Too heavy and I cant figure out what I would do with it if I did carry it.
I do have a nice splitting maul that I leave at the wall tent for making firewood.

I really fail to understand how I'm turning it into a pissing match, Brad?

From my understanding of your posts, you've been a backpacker since the 70's, and have bought and used, and sold more gear than most. Your outdoor roots are in backpacking.

I grew up packing horses for my overnighters... I didn't get into backpacking until the early 2000's, and there was a time that I tried to invent Bikepacking.

We grew up different in our early years. I'm a hillbilly... I take my axe.

But I am younger... I probably could piss farther.

Crap...why do I feel I have a little guy on my shoulder whispering in my ear, "You NEED a GB small forest axe."

You presume you know how I grew up... you don't.

My first horsepack was in 1969. I grew up with "woodcraft" that always included and axe. I just got away from it when I took up backpacking, but I still would/do pack an axe going horseback or by canoe.

I hear ya snubbie. I have a Forest Axe, gifted by my dad. It is always in my snow machine toboggan and gets a work out to feed the wall tent stove. It is also along on every moose hunt by canoe. It isn't backpack material.

After this thread, dang if I don't think a small forest axe will fill this niche better and save some weight...and it's "only" $120!

On another note, I've been debating the hatchet while backpacking decision. We are trying to do a 3-4 night ski trip with packs this spring using a roll up stove and tarp shelter. It sure would be nice to have the hatchet along, but it sure looks heavy sitting there on my floor. The sawvivor is a given.

I have a buddy who has every GB axe that is available, but he never uses any of them.

There is a retailer a short drive from here that carries the full line of GB axes. In the same aisle are the axes made here in the U.S. by Estwing.
For my money the smaller Estwing sportsmans axe is the smallest and lightest useable axe I have ever held.

If I were buying a full sized axe today, I'd be tempted by the GB stuff.

I've done a LOT with one of the Estwing axe's. Love it,I only wish the handle wasn't hollow, and the shaft right below the head was a little beefier.

I had a guy in AK tell me that Estwings are popular there because wood handles get brittle in extreme cold. I know that's true (as it is for metal also) to some degree, but is it a real issue?

No. That's BS.

I hang an Estwing on my saddle to balance a rifle and if a horse lays on it, it won't snap and I can bend it back to useable.

I've always heard that really hard steel, like the face of a claw hammer or a file, could shatter in something like "Delta Junction/ -50F cold" but that estwing isn't made of anything that brittle.

That's his point...


Travis

I guess it depends on what one is hitting with hardened tool steel.

even frozen green birch won't be a problem.

Just don't file your hammer face at -50.

I'll try to heed that advice. I'd like to live in the interior, even Delta Junction, but the little woman ain't too keen on it. I guess I'll have to settle for Montana.

lived there for 18 years. I've had enough of that cold [bleep].

I could be a snow bird.

a have both the "hunter" ax and the belt hatchet. I don't use the hatchet much and the hunter has a rounded poll for skinning, but it's super sharp!