Axcellent Day!

[Syph007]

Well I've been using Estwing axes since I was about 10, building forts in the woods and all kinds of axe related mischief.  My old ones have been retired now and gone to another family member, so today I treated myself to a brand new set of all 3.  The hatchet, small and large campers axes.  I have no doubt these will outlive me. 

I always liked the robustness of these workhorse tools, and they are getting really hard to find locally anymore, all replaced by half the cost china axes... I went to three different stores each to buy these.  Lee Valley had the hatchet, Home Depot the medium, and the home hardware here had the full size.  Shame on Canadian tire for only stocking the low cost garbage ones!

Anyways here are some pics of the set.  I heard people like pics of things stuck in logs around here.... 







I have two others, a CS trail hawk for throwing, and a GB small forest for shaving. 



The whole axe family.

[enki_ck]

I love those. I've been after a Sportsman hatchet for some time now but with shipping, customs and VAT I'd pay more for it than for a Wetterlings axe. So thanks for those lovely pics. I like them very much.    

[nuphoria]

Gorgeousness!

I have an Estwing hammer and love it.

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

Hubba hubba 

Lovely tools

[Sparky415]

Hubba hubba 

Lovely tools

+1 What he said 

[Grathr]

I would love to have one of those. Haven't seen eastwing around here though. There are some chineese lookalikes available but I doubt that they are worth the money. 

[David]

Great axes!          Really like the log shots.         

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

What's the large Estwing Like mate?

[Syph007]

What's the large Estwing Like mate?

I love it, it was my go to axe most of my northern living life.  It was always with my on the ATV or snowmobile.  One thing about the all metal that was nice, is that say you are ice fishing and want to chop a hole in the ice, if you miss with a wood handle it can get chewed up alot by the ice edges of the hole, but the metal one just does its job and lives forever.  I always thought of them as hard use tools meant for abuse and they have never disappointed.

If I compare it to a GB, it will be heavier of course, and probably take more work energy for the same amount of chopping, but its also half the price.  I find it best to own them both though, as sometimes I want to pack a light wood handled axe.

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

Trouble is the price is very close for a GB

[Syph007]

Trouble is the price is very close for a GB

Here in Canada that Estwing full size is $59.  The GB large forest axe is $129.  

The other reason why I wanted an abuse axe was the GB felt like a speSmurfpillst chopping tool and it excels at cutting wood.  I tool down a 40 ft pine tree and turned the entire tree into kindling very quickly with that axe.  But even the instructions that came with it tell you not to use that back of the head as a hammer as it can deform the eye of the axe head. No problem with using the back of an all steel ax as a hammer. I'm pretty sure it would make a decent rescue tool too.

But each axe is better at certain things, so really you need a good variety to have on hand!  Better too many than too few. 

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

Oh I still plan on getting one for winter use

My SFA lives a far too pampered life really

[sjdep97]

Nice collection and good score on the Estwings!