Having 7+ acres of wooded land that has been fallow for 30+ years means there will be a lot of wood cutting in my future. It will take my years to just clean up all of the downed trees, plus clearing brush to be able to walk through. I do have a chainsaw (more than one actually) but I don’t always want to carry it with me into the woods. To date I’ve never been able to get an axe or hatchet to “work” for me.
After reading about others describing the joy of using a good ax, I decided to invest a little in something other than dull garage sale finds or dull big box store specials. Keeping in mind that at least some of the time I will be working in the woods with limited space to swing I decided to try the Husqvarna Forest Axe (1.9 Lbs) With 26″ Handle which is about $60 from Amazon.
When I first took it out of the box I realized how short a 26″ handle really is and how light/small a 1.9 lb head is. I’ll admit that I was a bit skeptical, however I was able to chop down a standing dead tree that was about 8″ in diameter, split firewood into kindling and cut small branches that were in my way.
I think I would still like a larger axe with a longer handle, but since I have so much work to do in areas without a lot of room to swing the axe, I think this one will work out well. This will also work well for limbing trees that are down.