Axe for taming the yard

S

Sharp Steel

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Aug 10, 2009
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The place where I am living has a section of the yard that is a mini forest. Many of the trees are in sad shape, and close to the power lines. I am going to see about getting the power company to clear the parts of the trees on the lines, but what is left of them will be up to me. I need a recommendation for an axe to take out saplings to small trees, and break up some old stumps. I could use the exercise, so I am going with the hand tools instead of power tools. Can anyone recommend an appropriate axe?

The local home center carries the Estwing Camper's Axe (long hande), but will that be sufficient for the task? The local 'outdoors' store carries the Fiskars models with the synthetic handles. The home center also has some of the larger axes that look more like what a lumberjack would use, too. I do have a bow saw as well, but I don't think it will be good to use close to the ground.

Thank you for your advice.
 
For grunge work, get a single cut course file and a True Temper True American. Don't worry about nicks in the edge, just keep it cleaned up as best that you can.
 
What jb said. I think the bottom line on your project is, a large enough tool that you can actually swing it, but for use on smaller trees where you'll get a fatigue bonus from a lighter axe. The breaking up old stumps part could mean a number of things. I've seen folks dig around the roots, then start chopping and you don't want to waste your good axe on that kind of work. Might look into a pick mattock or something along those lines. Maybe a little hand saw of some kind. Depends on how big the stumps are I suppose.
 
For grubbing and working anywhere near the ground you can't beat a Pulaski. You can easily ruin a good axe. My local Princess Auto franchise even sells wood or plastic handle Chinese versions of Pulaskis for about $20 which you can basically write-off/give away when you're done. Or you can search out an old domestic FSS forestry version or even invest in a Barco or Council Tools brand new one.
 
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Brush axe. Fiskars makes them among others.

Stumps you either saw off at ground level or dig up. Digging is best done with machines.
 
Sharp Steel said:
I need a recommendation for an axe to take out saplings to small trees, and break up some old stumps. I could use the exercise, so I am going with the hand tools instead of power tools. Can anyone recommend an appropriate axe?
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For saplings try a machete - up to about 2" in diameter with a good sharp machete. The best axe for felling small trees is boys axe. A full size single bit would be good for breaking up old stumps if they're starting to rot. Fresh stumps would require a sledge and many wedges to break up by hand. Better for stumps is a hose for washing off the dirt, a pry bar for prying out the rocks and a chain saw for cutting up the clean stump.
 
Sharp Steel said:
The Pulaski looks like it might be what I am seeking. The home center calls it a Landscaping Axe.
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In this era of 'descriptive correctness' (since the term 'Pulaski' wouldn't raise an eyebrow anymore, anywhere) maybe they are now called Landscaping Axe. Beware though that 'Maddox' is still a widely available tool similar to a 'Pick' (both with slip fit handles) but with a wide blade instead of chisel-pointed one. I swung these often enough 40 years ago in drudge landscaping jobs to know when to appreciate a Pulaski.
 
300Six said:
In this era of 'descriptive correctness' (since the term 'Pulaski' wouldn't raise an eyebrow anymore, anywhere) maybe they are now called Landscaping Axe. Beware though that 'Maddox' is still a widely available tool similar to a 'Pick' (both with slip fit handles) but with a wide blade instead of chisel-pointed one. I swung these often enough 40 years ago in drudge landscaping jobs to know when to appreciate a Pulaski.
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Mattocks come in both pick and cutter varieties. In both cases one side of the tool sports a narrow hoe blade, while on the opposing side a pick mattock features (you guessed it) a pick, and a cutter mattock features a narrow, thin, axe-like bit.

fig058.gif
 
Cutter "mattock" is the only one I'm intimately familiar with, the other long as I can remember, has only ever been referred to as a "pick'. So what you are saying is both are actually 'mattocks'. You learn something new every day!
 
Taming a wild yard requires multiple tools, axes are just a few of the tools needed. I keep a variety of machetes, shovels, picks, rakes, hoes, and axes hanging on the garage wall to help keep my yard under control. All of my tools are much older high quality US made tools either passed down or bought at flea markets, with the exception being my machetes which are new and hail from El-Salvador.
 
smith357 said:
Taming a wild yard requires multiple tools, axes are just a few of the tools needed. I keep a variety of machetes, shovels, picks, rakes, hoes, and axes hanging on the garage wall to help keep my yard under control. All of my tools are much older high quality US made tools either passed down or bought at flea markets, with the exception being my machetes which are new and hail from El-Salvador.
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I think that implement variety is a 'given'. Bobcats, mini excavators, power saws and trimmers have pretty much supplanted hand tools on commercial jobs but shovels, rakes and grub hoe type things are so far still lo-tech, fairly safe, reliable and affordable homeowner options. Getting rid of stumps (if you can actually get a fire permit (thanks to modern bureaucracy that doesn't trust homeowners anymore)) was often a simple matter of digging out one side and getting a good hardwood fire going, for a few days, in the hole. Same with large rocks; hot fire on one side causes the rock to fracture due to differential expansion.
 
300Six said:
Cutter "mattock" is the only one I'm intimately familiar with, the other long as I can remember, has only ever been referred to as a "pick'. So what you are saying is both are actually 'mattocks'. You learn something new every day!
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Yes. A true pick axe has a pick on both sides. Usually one side is a pointed pick, and the other side is either also a pointed pick, or a narrow chisel-pointed pick (in which case its proper name is usually considered to be a "clay pick.")

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Since I am not taking down large timber, I ended up ordering a Council Tool Boy's axe. Thank you again for all of the suggestions.
 
Try copying and pasting this. Swedish brush axes work great for small (<3") material. They're fast and accurate. If you push on the material to be cut a few feet from the intended cut site, 1 swing will cut a 2" sapling. They work best on live/green stems. For dead stems use a old axe to break the stems or a chain to pull the entire shrub and roots out.


http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odk...sh+axe.TRS0&_nkw=husqvarna+brush+axe&_sacat=0
 
bbforstr said:
Try copying and pasting this. Swedish brush axes work great for small (<3") material. They're fast and accurate. If you push on the material to be cut a few feet from the intended cut site, 1 swing will cut a 2" sapling. They work best on live/green stems. For dead stems use a old axe to break the stems or a chain to pull the entire shrub and roots out.


http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odk...sh+axe.TRS0&_nkw=husqvarna+brush+axe&_sacat=0
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OK so now it's 'Husqvarna' that markets these. They've been known solely as 'Sandviks' in Canada for the past 50 years. And yes, as I mentioned in an earlier post, they're safe and efficient and by gosh the nice thin blades are replaceable or remove easy for sharpening.
It's considerably easier to "bark your shins" with conventional versions of brush and bill hooks.
 
300Six said:
It's considerably easier to "bark your shins" with conventional versions of brush and bill hooks.
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...How so exactly? Every circumstance I can think of in which a human limb could be struck by a billhook or brush axe, the same would occur with one of those tools if you were to perform the same motion with the tool swapped out.
 
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