Home Forums Gear Knives and Blades Axes - Swedish vs American - Which One?

Hey fellas. Gonna get me a quality axe. Small forest size. Have been trying to decide between Hultasfor or Gransfors Bruk. However, I am certainly open to a premium axe made in the USA.

Axe will be in my truck on hunting and fishing trips primarily as a fire starter if I’m being brutally honest. I just don’t want anymore disposable stuff. Only buying stuff my son will use after I croak.

Any suggestions? I’m all ears.

There’s a guy that posts on IG.

“Officialcoucildealer” or something similar.

Sells council axes.

Different lines. From everyday hard use axes to the nicer, higher end line.

Buy a vintage used axe on eBay, select a weight and pattern that meets your needs best, watch a couple YouTube vids on installing a handle properly and you will have an axe that you cannot buy from modern production, made with the finest steel from a time when men made their daily bread with an axe. And still come out cheaper but better. You can still get Kelly Works, Keen Kutters and so on pretty cheap...with a quality that will never be equaled. Don't get an axe that is too far ground down from original size...the temper changes as you move in to the eye. Very old axes were quite hard on the business edge...loggers commonly carried a round stone to touch them up...a file would just slide over them.

https://www.bnctools.com/pages/axe-making-in-maine

Don't know anything more than what is on the website but might be of interest to you.

Gransfors gets a lot of work done here.

Hi

I too have grown to prefer fewer, but higher, quality goods over the years - just a bit more satisfying!

I've toured the Gränfors bruks factory here in Sweden, and met nothing but friendly people who seemed very passionate about what they were doing!

The company offers courses (in Swedish and English) in basic forging, forging axes, forging knives, timber framing, log building, etc - if I hadn't been just passing through the area, I would have signed up right then and there!

Every ax/hatchet head is stamped with the initials of the smith who made it and if one ever comes back cracked, they get razzed by all the other smiths. I saw the last returned hatchet still hanging on the "Vägg av skam" (Wall of Shame), with the blacksmith maker being so humiliated until another axe or hatchet was returned and took its place.

Husqvarna and Hultafors hatchets & axes are very good too, but after seeing MANY of both in the local hardware stores here (I'm in Sweden), I've become rather certain that the quality control regarding grain flow is more strict at Granfors Bruks so I imagine that they break less.

I like my Gränsfors Hunters Axe. I have used the rounded flay poll to skin moose and it works. The rings machined in the handle (look closely below) really do improve grip with bloody hands, but they are not hard to clean like checkering is.



When a fellow hunter forgot the SawsAll, I have also used the blade of my Hunters' Axe to chop down the spine lengthwise to split a bull moose carcass. That is several FEET of bone ! However, the axe was still quite sharp at the end. To be honest, it was not shaving sharp any more, but it was still sharper than a north American axe would normally be. The edge on a Gränfors Bruks axe is quite hardened, and I've been assured by friends who have Hultafors and Husqvarna axes that the cutting edges of both brands are also harder than "hackspett läppar" (Woodpecker Lips)

Every time I use my Hunters Axe, I think of the elderly friend who gave it to me. I enjoy killing a moose with one of my handloads more than store bought ammunition. I also find it satisfying that I met the blacksmith who made my axe head (there are only about fifteen of the smiths over the last several decades because the company has nearly zero employee turnover, apparently Gränfors Bruks AB is a nice place to work).

I seem to be getting old and sentimental...

Cheers from Sweden,
John

I have a Gransfors Bruk small forest axe and think that it is the best axe that I've yet to own. Before I got the GB, I used a Norlund Hudson Bay axe and still like it, but it doesn't have the balance of the GB. I also have a Wetterlings hunter's hatchet, but find it to be too small to be of much use.

Buy the GB in the style that works best for you and don't look back.

I have a GB Wildlife Hatchet and Small Forest Axe. I am certainly no expert but I don't know what would make an axe better than one of those. Especially for my casual uses.

I used to think that an axe is an axe, until I borrowed a pard’s (bearhuntr) small forest axe.

The weight, balance, length, blade shape and profile, are unmatched. There are a number of second-place axes, but only one first place.

I have very little experience with axes. What you mentioned on the fit/feel has been something I've thought a lot about. Kinda like rifle stocks....especially if, like me, someone is inexperienced.....I wouldn't know until I'd spent some time using one.

I’ve got hults and granfors, both are great, hults gets the nod for finish and a little cheaper. You won’t be sorry with either. 👊🏻

Gränfors Bruks

I bought my first two in Uppsala in 1999. They're works of art.

I have a Gransfors Bruks and a Wetterlings. The Gransfors is the better of the two in a couple ways. First, the handle is smoother and better fit/finished. It doesn't shrink in the winter causing the head to be loose. The Wetterlings does. Second, the Gransfors head is of thinner profile and out cuts the Wetterlings by a considerable margin. The combination of the thin profile and hardness causes the Gransfors edge to chip pretty easily on bone however. To be perfectly honest, I also have an Estwing that out cuts the Wetterlings and cuts damn close to as well as the Gransfors for a fraction of the price of either. If looks, function and heirloom quality is paramount, get the Gransfors. If cutting/functionality is the main concern, get the Estwing and save a bunch. Hell, get two Estwings and still save.

Different head/shapes for different jobs/wood.

If you're using it mostly for splitting wood etc type chores, I want an axe with cheeks, not a thin Swedish head.

yep.

I have a Gransfor Bruks with all original literature, sheath, and shipping box. I've used it a couple times but it's all but new. Send me a PM if you want it.

Splitting isn’t what we are talking about here. The Swedes make splitters as well.

What are we discussing ace, since you didn't start the thread.

Well Dave, not splitting.

Nothing about splitting, but all about “a small forest axe” .

The Gränsfors splitting maul and splitting ax work fine even with a five feet pole of fresh ash wood with a 12 inches diameter. I don't do that often just once for testing.

Granfors is good enough and readily available. Lesser known brands are often as good and sometimes just a tad cheaper or better suited for less common use but take enough effort to find and buy that counting time there is no saving. Semi and full custom are often a little better for a lot more money but may fall into the carry a lot and use a little category. Reading the old books on using an ax or more recently but not recent such as Game and the Gunner by Albert Pulling, Pierre Pulling who ended his career at Idaho State, I agree that it can be nice to make an ax hang to suit, all the more so in a double bit where one edge may be tad sharper and hung in while the other edge is a little less liable to chip. But folks at that level aren't asking at a forum like this one.

Then you started the thread?

I'm sticking with Swedish hatchets and axes. Wetterlings are my favorites. These two have given perfect service for more than 12 years now

Rough work, even with tag still attached.

Off to ignore with you mister.
LOL

Dave Spn
and looks about the same, after many years of rough work. They are bulletproof, represent a great value, and are as well made as any of the Swedish axes.

I have a GB Scandinavian Forest Axe in my truck. It has enough length to be a reasonable felling axe and still small enough to be easily carried. Safer than swinging a shorter one too. I find lots of reasons to use it.

jpb;
Good morning to you my friend, I actually hope you're not up reading this now since if you are, then you sleep like I do sometimes and that's not entirely optimum. Nonetheless when and if you read this I trust you're well rested and healthy.

Thanks for sharing the Gransfors axe factory details with us, that's very cool.

While I've certainly held a couple of them, I want to say I've never actually used one.

With me and axes, it's akin to .22 rifles but worse sir, so someday I'm going to break down, find them all, get some photos and a bit of background on them. There was a chunk of my life - perhaps about half of it actually if I'm being honest, that if while perusing flea markets I happened upon an axe head was made in Canada, USA or Sweden, it just came home with me.

All the rigs - including the commuter cars - had HB or Husqvarna axes in them. I believe there's 4 axes - including one tomahawk - that live in the pickup.

Some ready to have handles installed.



The top left one has what's know as a "boy's axe head" so a smaller eye. I've made it up with a fairly long handle and it's used for light limbing work, removing bark from firewood and for picking up blocks off the ground so I don't have to bend over.

Its interesting that at one time I absolutely would have shared ironbender's view that "an axe is an axe", but now having gone with both feet down the rabbit hole, I can say the subtle differences make all the difference in the world.

For instance for splitting Doug Fir, I used to use the two mauls exclusively. Then one day I stumbled across Buckin Billy Ray's channel - he's in Cedar, BC on the Island - and watched him splitting big chunks of Doug Fir with a double bit axe. Since I had 3 - am now down to 2 after sending one to a good home - but I fooled with those two, one Walters and one Sager.

Here's the "funny" thing jpb, there's one side of the Walters that splits big wood way, WAY easier than the other three sides. It's in the cheeks like Buckin claimed.... I believe anyways.

Axes that go along firewood cutting.



As far as your contention that a good usable axe should have a cutting edge harder than proverbial woodpecker lips, I'd agree 1000% - but - would add that some folks shouldn't have that because they can wreck a proverbial anvil, you know?

Not meaning to cast aspersions on anyone down here however, since like as not just the fact they're down here is an indicator they're not going to grind the edge into the bedrock.

Based upon your use as well as a few other like Don/huntsman, I'd say if the budget can absorb it, I'd recommend the OP get a GB first.

Then, if he finds he really likes it and uses it, start to hit the flea markets and purveyors of "interesting stuff" and see what's out there that can be re-handled to suit his specific needs.

After all, one always needs another axe.....

Best to you as we head into winter my friend.

Dwayne

Delighted to hear from you as always, Dwayne!

Indeed I was sleeping when your post appeared! As I write this, it is 930am and I'm waiting for my coffee to brew...

If my post is full of typos, it shows that I need caffeine to get my brain working.

You've hit the nail on the head with your observation that some people should NOT have axes with hard cutting edges because they'll chip them by cutting into stones or the like!

Overall, this has been quite an interesting thread - thanks to the original poster for starting it!

/John

I had to go back up and reread what I had typed, and it was that I *used to* think an axe is an axe.

We are in agreement there, sir!

Using pard bearhuntr’s Gransfors has disabused me of that notion.

Cheers, Dwayne!

ironbender;
Good evening my old friend, I hope the eve of Remembrance Day finds you all well up in your northern home.

For sure I do believe we're on the same page even though I've not used a Gransfors Bruks axe yet myself.

Again having gone down the proverbial rabbit hole with both feet and fooling with multiple grind profiles which I can adjust somewhat and cutting edge hardness which I cannot, over time the light went on enough times for me.

It's interesting to me that we're still learning the subtleties and vagaries of life and sometimes even a different axe in the hand will make us pause and go, "Huh"....

All the very best to you all sir.

Dwayne

PS;
I think you'd like that Swede made boys axe head in the one photo- it's that near magic combination of "just right" cheeks and woodpecker lips hard cutting edge. Magnificent tool truly.

I have one likes this that stays in my truck. Well made axe.

Short horn?

Used to have a longhorn cow with horns about like that.

I am convinced that some of the Swedish axes are top of the line. For everyday use packing around, it is hard to beat a fiskars. They are fairly cheap, light, can take a lot of abuse, and cut better than one would expect.