Gear Review
BY SCOTT HADDOW
Wild Northerner staff
I grew up on a farm and my favourite chore was chopping firewood. Over the years, this experience gave me a great appreciation for the axe. It is a valuable tool for many scenarios. This is not different in the bush. If you spend more time outdoors than indoors, you need a quality and reliable axe.
On the farm, I used a lot of good old wood handle and steel axes. These were effective. I used wooden handle axes for a good part of my life. In 2004, I was looking for something different and more practical for my backcountry trips. I found it in the form of a Fiskars 28-inch axe.
Over the past 12 years, this Fiskars axe has been with me from January to December. It goes ice fishing with me. It comes on my spring and summer canoe and camping trips. It is with me on hunting excursions in the fall.
It didn’t take me long to gain a huge deal of respect for this axe. It is light - about the same weight as a hatchet. It handles medium to large-sized logs with ease. It can take a hell of a beating and keep on going.
It has chopped ice, wood and rope, and has served as a hammer to pound in spikes and pegs.
It has seen many days and nights exposed to the elements of every type of weather imaginable. It has been run over by a truck a few times and squeezed between a tree and the back of a truck.
Thanks to a Nyglass handle, it has not even lost its shape. The hold it has on the axe head is as firm as it was the day I bought it.
This axe has chopped some serious wood over the years. I’ve lent it to other friends for their trips. My wife brings it on her adventures with her buddies. My point is, it has been used a lot and it still splits logs for kindling and fires as well as anything I have ever seen or used myself.
It is effortless to chop up a pile of firewood good for a week before breaking a sweat. For such a light-feeling axe, it is sturdy and powerful. If you know how to swing an axe, you will have no troubles slamming through logs.
My good core of friends who go on bigger trips with me know the axe and count it like one of the guys - it is held in that high of regard. This axe has never let us down. What more can you ask?
It is also a snap to maintain. After each trip, I give it a few good strokes with a bastard file to bring back the edge. I scrub it with some steel wool to remove any rust. I then give it a nice wipe down with 3-IN-ONE oil.
This keeps the head of the axe clean and in prime condition for the next trip.
The Fiskars 28-inch axe is priced between $50 to $70, depending on store and any sale.
I think the axe is so good that if I needed another axe right now, I wouldn’t hesitate to pay $70 for a new one. It is hard to beat its combination of price, versatility, build quality, effectiveness and overall feel.
There is no sense spending more on an axe for backcountry use. It doesn’t have to look fancy or pretty or cost more than $100.00. Remember, this is a backcountry axe. It is going to get pounded by rough use and will look like it went through an apocalypse in no time if you put a lot of time in the bush or outdoors in general.
Getting the axe