Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Gransfors Bruks Small Forest Axe

If you're in the market for one of these axes, L.L Bean is selling them for $155 which is the lowest price that I've seen them advertised for.

Have that and the Hunters. I just stopped by our local small dealer two days ago and noticed their price was $169.00. Not bad for Alaska. That is a good price there on a lifetime tool!

Long as ya remember to always use it from a kneeling position, some of the best advice re: small axes I ever got.

But then I AM clumsy.

During our last camping trip, my 12 year old came back to the campsite after being out with my SFA. Said he whangged his shin with the blunt end accidentally.

Yeah, right....

I let him "get away" with his story until marshmallow roasting/barley pop time that night. "How did you know how it really happened?" he asked. Well, you see I was his age when I learned a valuable lesson too - don't be stabbing logs with a pocket knife, if it doesn't have a locking blade.

Learning experiences.

Scott

Absolutely!

I got the same advice from my father about 50 years ago.

John

Bought a Collins Scout axe in 1970 or so and still have/use it. Third handle. Works fine. I prefer the GB's for clearing trails to hunting areas and maintaining same. I do not kneel, and use both the Hunter's or Small Forest 1 handed for easy limbing. Makes cruising through simple.The GB's just work. If a larger obstacle appears in the 6" or more diameter I fetch the Collins. 95% of what I do the GB's get the nod...

I bought one of these from this site a while back. Am very happy. This is a good place to buy knives BTW.

https://www.knivesshipfree.com/hults-bruk-jonaker-hatchet-forged-axe-head-premium-series/

They have other options

https://www.knivesshipfree.com/axes/

Gransfors Bruks is a quality brand, "maybe" eclipsed by Wetterlings. But.... look at Husqvarna, made by Hultafors Bruks. Similar quality, half the cash.

Whatever the brand, know the model 'ya want & doggone E-Bay is still hard to beat.

By me a beer later.

Had to Google up that marvel that was worth $155 and...



...it's just a small axe. We used to call an axe that size a cruiser axe.

+1 on the Husqvarna recommendation.

I have an old Plumb Cruiser......Husqvarna Carpenters Axe......and an Estwing because everyone should have an Estwing.

I paid $53 for the Carpenters Axe....it's great for camping because you can split firewood or choke up on the handle and use it to carve stakes and such like it was designed for.

I have a hults bruk akka. I had wanted a very nice swedish axe for a long time. but I don't hardly use the thing. for me most of my use is fire prep for a camp fire. I find that one of my machetes, either a les stroud waorani or kbar cutless are more handy for limbs and logs 4" around and below. That to me covers a ton of what I will be cutting, in fact most of it. I can cut larger but larger and the machetes really lose out to the axes there. But in that case the better choice is a saw and not an axle at all. something like a silky saw are any of the bow saws do better in that case.

the axe to me has 2 uses. actually cutting down trees and splitting. I don't out right cut down a tree often. I do split wood a bit. in which case I find my little fiskers hatchet pretty handy for that. So at the end of the day the expensive swedish axes have very limited use for me.

Of course you don’t need to kneel. You’re shorter than Stick.

I'm interested but the Council Tools Wood-craft pack axe is a quality tool and is a great pick-up if you have a 20 to 30% discount card from Duluth Trading. Will probably pick up another one on the next 30% off card I get.

Also made in America. MAGA

That might have been what you called it, but a hatchet is not a cruiser axe... a cruiser is a double bit axe in the 2+ pound range with a handle around 36+ inches or so.

I bought a SFA over 10 years ago and immediately put a longer handle on it. That made it a little longer and less handy, but significantly reduced the probability of hitting my legs on the down swing.

I bought it to replace a 1970/71 vintage Nordland Hudson Bay style axe. I still don't know if I like the SFA any better than the old Nordland axe, but it does take and hold an edge as well as any axe I've ever owned.

One of my friends liked the SFA, but is too frugal to ever spend enough $$ to buy one. He bought a Marble's Camp Axe and put a longer handle on it. He seems happy with it and has less than $40 into it, but I doubt that it take and holds an edge like the Swedish steel does.

EDIT: I have an Eastwing Campers Axe and find it useful to share/loan. It is as rugged as a crow bar, but it doesn't take or hold an edge anywhere nearly as well as the Gransfors Bruks or Wetterlings axes that I have owned or sharpened.

Correct......my Plumb Cruiser pictured above has a 2lb head and a 28" handle (haft for the purists).

It's my favorite and since I found it in an old shed it only cost me the price of a new handle and some Linseed oil.

If I could only have one..............

At 2# and 19" (thought it was a little bigger) it is small for a cruiser, but too big for a hatchet. Cruisers are generally but not necessarily double bitted, refers to the size. Still pretty spendy.

If you can afford to spend it, spend it and enjoy the fruits of your labor 'cause you can't take it with you.

Wise words told to me by "Digger" the undertaker; "Spend money on good shoes, you spend a lot of time on your feet. Spend money on a good mattress, you spend a lot of time on your back. In all my years of burying people I've never seen an armored car in a funeral procession.".

As you like but rubs me the wrong way to pay that much. For my first axe (early grade school) my grandfather, lumberjack, pulled a rusty old axe head in the two pound range out of a box under the workbench in the wood shed. Told me if I cleaned it up he'd make a handle for it. He did and taught me how to always keep it sharp. Wish I still had it.