Brush Axes

[topwaterlarry]

very interesting thread for a useful tool. Thanks to all for posting.

 

[rjdankert]

You're very welcome!

Back on topic, I love Wranglestar's video on a "proper brush axe" where he then proceeds to demonstrate how little he knows about what that really means. Unfortunately due to his internet fame it's one of the most-viewed videos on YouTube about them.

Thanks OP and contributors to this thread. Interesting and I'd like to know more about this topic. Specifically when and how to use a brush hook. Some years ago I bought some Autumn Olive seedlings from the county nursery. I planted them along a fence line. The idea was that they are a benefit to wildlife. They provide cover and food. However, in time they spread to unwanted places. The best tool I have to cut them are lopping shears. Since Autumn Olive is a bush it's hard to get at the base as you have to bend down and deal with the branches. Sometimes a plant will have thorns.

I looked at several YouTube videos including Wranglerstars. He uses the terms "hook" and "axe" interchangeably for his tool . Isn't that tool actually a bush or brush hook? He also swings it like an axe. Is this an efficient way? I've seen some using them like he does while others "sweep/pull" at ground level.

Any opinions on straight vs curved handles for these?

 

[Bladite]

I'd like to see a version of the Fiskars brushhook brought up to speed in a modern long handled fashion...

Perhaps Rogue Hoe is up to the challenge?

Course for certain jobs, don't overlook the ditch scythe - them be monsters

 

[Agent_H]

Good question. I've used mine to limb maples (1-2" diameter) from waist level to just over head height. That was the "HAN" reinforced one in the first picture. Doing that I just maintained stance and let the weight of the tool do the job for me- that one is heavier.

The Council 12 worked well sort of sweeping and "pulling" to take out some older Himalayan blackberry on rising/falling ground. Sweep, cut, pull them free of the area for processing. I am 6'1" with long arms.

My inclination is to say that it sort of depends on what you are going at, how close to the ground you are working, and maybe even your build. I can physically handle 3 of the 5 styles like a splitting axe - as in a full swing - both hands ending at the end of the handle. I wouldn't use it like that of course. My friend who is 5'4" (and much stronger than me) can't handle it the same way- it's much too ungainly due to weight distribution and length.

Only speaking from limited experience with those two times I've used them.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

I'd like to see a version of the Fiskars brushhook brought up to speed in a modern long handled fashion...

Perhaps Rogue Hoe is up to the challenge?

Course for certain jobs, don't overlook the ditch scythe - them be monsters

 

[Bladite]

lol, thanks for doing the heavy lifting i just found this myself while reviewing felling levers and stuff (which Fiskars also makes)

Fiskars apparently also bought a modular French maul system... which i've never seen outside of some wood splitting videos.

so many tools in europe, so few of them make it here...

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

Apparently some Finns don't like those vesuri, though. From what I could understand from Google Translate reviews scoff at them as being too light and thin compared to the genuine article, which--if they're anything like the billhook machete thingy that's sold in the USA--I'm inclined to believe. Here's a "real" one.

Fiskars does make one in that style with a handle that's still black and orange but I think it's painted wood rather than polymer.

 

[Steve Tall]

Regarding those relatively heavy USA-made brush hooks, here's a description of how to use them, from a USDA booklet titled "Equipment for Clearing Brush from Land" published in 1961:

Brush hooks.-- Brush hooks are useful in cutting the stems of growth. The brush hook is swung like a scythe. It is sharpened by grinding with an abrasive wheel.


Machetes are mentioned for cutting "stems or branches", but the brush hooks are said to be for stems (not branches). This is written in the section on "Small Brush", defined as woody growth having stems no larger than 2" diameter.

Farmer's Bulletin No. 2180, Equipment for Clearing Brush from Land, USDA, 1961

 

[Steve Tall]

From a USFS publication:

Bush hooks are used for clearing work that is too heavy for a
scythe and not suited for an ax. They are available with single-edged,
eye-and-strap blade, or double-edged, ax-eye blade type.
They have hickory handles 12 to 36 inches long and weigh 2 to 4½ pounds.

from Hand Tools for Trail Work, USFS

 

[Bladite]

Apparently some Finns don't like those vesuri, though. From what I could understand from Google Translate reviews scoff at them as being too light and thin compared to the genuine article, which--if they're anything like the billhook machete thingy that's sold in the USA--I'm inclined to believe. Here's a "real" one.

Fiskars does make one in that style with a handle that's still black and orange but I think it's painted wood rather than polymer.

i need me some of those too... http://www.jonsered.com/int/chainsaws/tools/axes-and-knives/short-clearing-knife/

got a whole lot (3-4) of the Fiskars classic brush hooks, as well as Gerber versions. if those are discontinued, i'm hitting the Walmarts for specials

i'd grab a "new model" to have one, but, that new style hook doesn't grab me, so to speak.

these do: http://www.jonsered.com/int/chainsaws/tools/axes-and-knives/short-clearing-knife/

been reading up on esoteric swedish tools - single hooks and pry bars. good stuff. turns out those single hooks are far more useful than i figured. the jonsoreds are super useful! http://www.jonsered.com/int/chainsaws/tools/belts-and-tongs/lifting-hook/

they can be used as emergency wedges, with two, an improvised pry bar, and primarily they are meant to ROLL logs; with two, you can carry (opposite directional), and more. i like the tongs more, but that's perhaps another post

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

Regarding those relatively heavy USA-made brush hooks, here's a description of how to use them, from a USDA booklet titled "Equipment for Clearing Brush from Land" published in 1961:

Brush hooks.-- Brush hooks are useful in cutting the stems of growth. The brush hook is swung like a scythe. It is sharpened by grinding with an abrasive wheel.


Machetes are mentioned for cutting "stems or branches", but the brush hooks are said to be for stems (not branches). This is written in the section on "Small Brush", defined as woody growth having stems no larger than 2" diameter.

Farmer's Bulletin No. 2180, Equipment for Clearing Brush from Land, USDA, 1961

From a USFS publication:

Bush hooks are used for clearing work that is too heavy for a
scythe and not suited for an ax. They are available with single-edged,
eye-and-strap blade, or double-edged, ax-eye blade type.
They have hickory handles 12 to 36 inches long and weigh 2 to 4½ pounds.

from Hand Tools for Trail Work, USFS

Just as I always intuited them as being best used. Good to have that confirmed!

Also, has anyone else have one of these babies? I have this one as well as a head (that needs cleaning up.) A North Wayne Tool Co. combo axe and brush hook.

 

[Bladite]

Just as I always intuited them as being best used. Good to have that confirmed!

Also, has anyone else have one of these babies? I have this one as well as a head (that needs cleaning up.) A North Wayne Tool Co. combo axe and brush hook.

a gibbing tool...

my local hardware store just started stocking scythe stones

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

 

[Bladite]

looks like you can buy all the weird Fiskars stuff from the bay of eee from a lad in germaneeee

sweet

pricey and weird

 

[Steve Tall]

...

...

Patented on Feb. 12, 1929 and called a "Bush Hook".

"The device is used by grasping the end of the handle and drawing the head toward the user to cut off small bushes with the bush-hook. The weight of the ax head increases the weight of the bush-hook to such extent that with short quick movements the bush-hook may be made to cut through all ordinary bushes, and for cutting through very large bushes and small trees the sharp edge of the tool may be used as an ax."

http://www.google.com/patents/US1701493?printsec=drawing#v=onepage&q&f=false
https://drive.google.com/viewerng/viewer?url=patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pdfs/US1701493.pdf

 

[garry3]

They should have named it the Rhino axe. Its all been done before it seems in the way of hand tools.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

Patented on Feb. 12, 1929 and called a "Bush Hook".

"The device is used by grasping the end of the handle and drawing the head toward the user to cut off small bushes with the bush-hook. The weight of the ax head increases the weight of the bush-hook to such extent that with short quick movements the bush-hook may be made to cut through all ordinary bushes, and for cutting through very large bushes and small trees the sharp edge of the tool may be used as an ax."

http://www.google.com/patents/US1701493?printsec=drawing#v=onepage&q&f=false
https://drive.google.com/viewerng/viewer?url=patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pdfs/US1701493.pdf

Yup! I had actually stumbled across the patent before I had ever gotten my hands on the tool itself. Saw it in that catalog of mine and had gone digging to research it. When I bought both the complete tool and the one where it was the head only, neither had any identifying marks. The complete tool has the stamp "R I F S" on it, though that's a stamp of ownership. Sort of like the scythe blades I have stamped "NYC RR". If the catalog image is anything to go by (and it usually is, at least with this company) they were sold with a label on the head.

 

[300Six]

Here is the only brush axe I have. Gifted to me by the original owner 20 years ago. He told me he bought it new in the early 1960s. Haft is stamped "Walters Axe" but there are no ID or marks on the head.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

At 19:25 in this film there's a short segment on brush axes, with one of the NWT Co. combo axe/brush hooks shown.

[video=youtube;ekyJ8pMbTcE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekyJ8pMbTcE[/video]

 

[Square_peg]

That's Dolly Chapman in that video. Crosscut saw guru. Well, everything guru.