A shot of the Camp Axe (top) and the Wildlife Hatchet from Gransfors Bruks :
Description from Japan Wood worker :
Our 28 oz Camping Hatchet comes from the Tosa region of Shikoku Island, long noted for its forestry products and tools related to the lumber industry. This hatchet is hand forged by master blacksmiths using equipment handed down over the years from father to son. Each hatchet blade is a forge welded lamination of soft steel wrapped around a core of high carbon blue steel. After extensive, time consuming charcoal processing, each blade is tempered to Rockwell c64 - c65. Length of blade is 5�?. Length of edge is 3�. Overall length is 16�?. Each hatchet is shipped fully sharpened and attached to a Japanese White Oak handle, with a cover to protect the edge.
This review consists of :
Interestingly enough, this has a fairly heavy grind compared to a similar Bruks Hatchet, this was not expected on a Japanese axe however this may be due to this being a camp axe and thus is made for heavier and rougher use than simple wood craft. This one is
This is a very interesting axe to compare to the
Wildlife Hatchet from Gransfors Bruks :
The initial sharpness was nonexistant, it had no ability to slice paper and
thus could not do any fine cutting, it was finished very similar to a splitting
axe. Checked under 50X magnification the reason for lack of sharpness
was quite obvious, it simply was not sharpened. The bevel was shaped
and left with the large ragged burr. This was surprising
considering the price of the axe. Of course
if it was just going to be used as a very rough
splitting axe then that would be enough however for any actual cutting
or even chopping work the axe should be fully sharpened. This is however a
fine grained, easy to grind steel so sharpening is not difficult - but a little
disappointing to buy a decent high end product which is made as a cutting tool
and not be able to cut with it. It was sharpened before any work was done,
details on the sharpening are noted below.
Comparing the rough carving ability to the
Bruks Wildlife Hatchet
carving some pine casing
the performance was
markedly different.
There was no need to do a careful measurement to
see that the Bruks hatchet was clearly ahead. The heavier edge on the Camp
Axe and the longer bit reduce cutting performance and increased fatigue
and wrist strain significantly.
Compared to a heavy tactical knife/axe the Camp Axe would be a solid
performer, but compared to a dedicated wood working tool
like the Wildlife axe the Camp Axe was easily outperformed.
After a few hundred slices with each making
points on the pine case, the Camp Axe had only 50 (5) percent
of the cutting ability of the Wildelife hatchet so it
was outperformed almost 2:1 in terms of ability to quickly
remove wood stock. There was also a fairly
obvious problem with ergonomics as the Camp Axe has very squarish ends
on the poll and they dig into the palm readily. It should be noted
though again this is the "Camp" version of this line of axes
there are also a fine and rough wood working axe from the same line
and these would be expected to have better ability in such a comparison.
Comparing the chopping ability to the
Bruks Wildlife Hatchet
on some construction lumber woods there were a few things which were obvious
and confirmed the initial expectations :
On some utility work :
The main source of utility that the camp axe was used for was processing some small game, rabbits and such where it could very easily cut throug the small bones without damage, again something which the finer edge on the Bruks axe is not intended to perform.
From the initial comparisons against the Bruks axe it was obvious that
the Camp Axe would start to be the preferred tool when
Clearing off the limbs provided an opportunity for the longer handle of the
Camp Axe to be of benefit as it meant less reaching and stooping than the
Wildlife. The heavier swing also allowed the Camp Axe to easily crack off
the smaller branches which were solid frozen, and the heavier edge gave
full confidence to work on the stubs and shear them off with no concerns
for damage. The tree was also a soft wood and the Camp Axe worked it very
easily and took the top off (stood next to the axe in the picture) trivially.
The pile of boughs to the right would make excellent material for a debris
hit / bough cave or rapid fuel for a fire and of course the to lengths
of wood would provide long lasting fuel.
Similar was noted when the Camp Axe was used alongside a Magnum Kukri Machete from Cold Steel doing similar work, limbing, light brush and bucking : In short :
At first it appeared that the edge just lacked a proper honing but after a few minutes with a 200 grit SiC hone it was obvious this was not the case. The edge did not meet for about an inch toward the toe of the bit. After ten minutes on the very coarse stone this flat spot was reduced to less than half an inch and then the rest of the edge was raised up to a 4000 grit finish. This complete lack of edge is likely to be very frustrating for a lot of people as again this axe did not require a light honing, the entire edge had to be ground as the bevels did not meet.
However with the edge properly reset with a coarse hone until it fully met and no longer reflected light then sharpening was trivial. The steel ground every well, had minimal burr formation and in general could take a very high sharpness easily. The only real concern with sharpening is that as with all axes it will rust fairly readily if left wet and if corrosion hits the very edge then it can take a fair amount of work to grind out all of the damage. As a last note, it is too hard to file efficiently.
There are a number of issues with the grip and the degree to which they matter will depend in part on the skill of the user and how particular they are :
At first this axe was mainly a disappointment as it was being compared to a Bruks Wildlife and it does not fare well in general there for cutting, carving or chopping. However this axe has found a niche at the following where it is more suitable than the Bruks :
Comments can be emailed to Knife Review : Japanese Camp Axe
Most of the pictures in the above are in the Camp Axe
album at PhotoBucket.
| Last updated : | 11:29:2011 |
| Originally written: | 11:29:2011 |