Testing The Cheapest Axe On AMAZON

is it possible to get a quality axe for $20 let's find out to answer my own question I would have said absolutely not no this is an axe that I have turned my nose up for like two four for years and years I discounted it as something that was a gimmick something that I mean I just couldn't believe it I couldn't believe that you could actually produce a tool that was going to be something that was usable for twenty twenty-one dollars so as I was doing some searching I was looking for a budget axe on Amazon something that I could recommend to someone who wants a good quality axe but doesn't want to drop one hundred and fifty dollars on a Swedish axe and so I ordered it with very with very low expectations to be quite honest with you a lot of axes come through my hands not only low budget axes but some that are actually quite expensive high-dollar axes I've had hundreds and hundreds of different I have hundreds of different options and most of them are somewhat lackluster you know I'll pull them out of the box and the kind of hem haw and they go kind of in the collection and never to be touched again and I'll tell you what this one this one appealed to me in ways that a lot of most of it most of them don't I took it out of the box now knowing that I had I had a bias towards that I had very very low expectations and I and I was I was you know I was curious I took it out I looked at it normally I would have set it aside and you know maybe we'll get to this maybe we won't but something about it really spoke to me I grabbed it and to me it was very American it was it was a very American axe in that you know it doesn't have maybe the sexiness or the sleek lines that you have on the Swedish axes and the very refined handle and the perfectly ground and hair popping sharp edge with you know with the maker's mark and all of those things that come with those beautiful axes but it had a lot of things going for it first off to me I guess what really spoke to me about it was it it is it's the epitome of I don't know I'm kind of an American design which is ironic because it is not a traditional American design head this to me looks something very European it looks something that is very similar to what we'd see like on a Baco act maybe some of the German things but we have a very heavy sturdy almost I would say over built u.s. American Hickory handle that's very nice lots of things really got right on this you know acts manufacturers are notoriously notorious for skimping on the handle you get some cheesy crummy handle that doesn't fit the hand super thin trying to maximize no no no or no attention paid to orientation of the grain anything like that it's just cut just all about cutting corners this is actually just the opposite of it to be quite honest with you if I were to pay $20 for this handle for just as it came to do a to replace a broken handle on a tool that I already have I would consider that to be a value let alone the whole axle head so you know that was the first thing that really spoke to me was the sturdiness it's just it is I guess I'm having a hard time putting it towards why I think that this is so American it's just heavy purpose-built not a lot of Flair just made to get the job done that that's the impression that I have from it I really like the handle the handle in combination with the weight and the size and the balance of this axe to me I guess one of my first impressions was if I could have only one if I could have only one this would really suit the bill wouldn't it because it's just it's just almost it's the ideal size you could I could cut this tree down behind me this 26 inch Douglas fir with this axe I would be able to get this tree cut down much quicker with this accident say maybe something like a Grand Forks small forest axe it's a great it's a great great size now moving to the head so the head of course is drop-forged and I'm not sure the steel some carbon steel on it and that remains to be seen whether it will take edge we'll find out here it but it is in all all initial impressions it looks really nice it's got a some sort of a varnish on it which is not a not a big deal but I bought a piece of sandpaper I wanted to kind of point out the how it's hung here on the top this is very very nicely done very nicely done as we can see maybe I can get that off there let me bring you up close here cific and focus you can see we have of course which is my favorite way we have those German style round wedges I love those things and they didn't just put one in they put two in beautifully hung I mean very nice everything I can see is just perfect tight I see no gaps or spaces between anything it is very very nicely done I mean that that's I guess that's the word that keeps coming up is nice nice nice I I do like I do like it I like it a lot I like it so well but when Jack and I went down and we were working on our our bridge I took it it wasn't even sharpened yet but I took it so let's talk about some of the things that I don't like well I guess this is hard to say I don't like it of course it did not come sharp it's certainly not sharp but it has a decent ground grind on it it's not going to take a lot of work and so I thought you know today what we would do rather than I mean sometimes I think it's a little off-putting when you have go into a nice shop and you will use all these fancy things to put an edge on the tool when really the reality of it is you simply don't need it all you really need and all the old timers had or two tools you need good file and you need a a good pocket accident or pocket stone X stone like this that will fit in your pocket now the files not going to be necessary but for the initial filing once you get it reasonably sharp and kind of a good edge on it you'll be able to tune it and maintain it with this this is all you need providing you take care of it you don't chip it so let's let's put a Ledge on this thing and see if it's going to live up to all my hype here it's really not going to take much to put an edge on this and you know actually to be honest with you I wouldn't even take the file to it except for that heavy varnish that they put on their you know cold steel if you're watching this video you know what I would rather have you do then you know take that extra step which is environmentally you know a pain to deal with and it's unhealthy and it's just an additional step of chemicals you don't need put put the money that you're putting into this fancy paint job and make it give us a sheath even it's just a basic the basic sheets but I'm going to use a file primarily to remove that varnish you can see it flaking off because the grind of it is actually is very very good and to be completely candid you can put a serviceable edge on a tool like this just fine with with nothing more in a file for so it's done it for years now I'm going to back that up a little bit I tend to make the edges on these tests very thin thinners and maybe the manufacturer would recommend some times and the reason I do that is because it shows to me it shows the vulnerability of the steel and that vulnerability meaning if it's going to have a tendency to be brittle or to chip you know you're going to you're going to find that out when you have a really fine thin edge there now be careful when using your file like this of course you can even go into it the Forest Service what they do is they don't have files with handles like this but they on the tang they put a little piece of leather the leather like a guard on a knife or a sword and that's not a bad idea so you can't get your use your techniques going here not right there what we have I mean that is a serviceable edge that that for most folks would do just fine it's not going to shoot you're not going to shave with it but it's a pretty good edge and all I really attempted to do was to go back and get basically get rid of that varnish and clean that up a little bit because that varnish is really going to clog up our stone if we want to try to sharpen with that if you want to take it to the next level you know very quickly of course these Lansky stones are just a wonderful little addition they're really affordable I think that you can find them on Amazon for I don't know four or five dollars or so and they're wonderful still and they fit well in the hand they have a double grip they have a course on one side and they've got to find on the other and the nice thing that they did is they put a chamfer on the edge there so it's it's a very durable stone it's much less likely to get the corners knocked off and get broken fits in the pocket really well - or in a pack it's a it's a great great little stone of course if they work what well with a little bit of water kerosene is the best we don't always have that so just just use a little saliva spit on it and this is gonna just touch that up real quick take the very pleasing sound and act against the stone to me anyway so after only a couple minutes with the stone we have I consider to be a very very serviceable edge it's a didn't didn't take much trouble at all we can see here I like the grind the initial grind on it I do like a like an axe it's really thin here in the cheeks you know for me it's for getting in cutting deep and biting especially when you're talking about big trees like we have here the big firs an axe that goes in deep bites deep that's an arrow at the the cheek there to me is its superior so let's give it a swing and see how it feels in the hand and how it holds up so this is going to be far from a comprehensive test the only way you can really find out what an axe is made of and how it works with the body and how how it just works in general is to use it under multiple conditions and multiple types of woods and different environments use you essentially you have to live with it for a while my granddad always said you learn a lot about a man if you go elk hunting with him and the reason being is you find out what type of guy he is because it puts him under stress puts him under stress and and he's cold and hungry and tired and that's when the true nature comes out and the same thing goes for tools and axes we can't just have an idea of what's going to be in a perfect environment a perfect day but it would give us an idea if it's going to hit hand hats going to stand up it's durable but more importantly how does it feel with my body how's it feeling my hands what is the balance of it and what are my impressions from that so well we start here this is a little like we're doing a little bit of a thinning it's kind of a sitting operation here and this is one of the trees it's going to come down so let's give it a few few whacks here I'm just going to kind of tuck that's some pretty heavy chopping there this is the time you'll see is the handle working loose it's not it's solid it's up great swinging axe very powerful very powerful axe for a smaller X my favorite part of it initially as I'm swinging and thinking it's a shape of that hand-blown not surprised because it is the essentially it's the same handle that's on the grand force Brooks the small forest axe and the small Scandinavian axe and when you come to that swing it's just perfect that swell is out there there's plenty of wood to hang on to it feels very secure very safe it feels like it really gives me a good a good firm purchase on the axe a swing weight is excellent the blade width is very nice I was a sometimes these fantail styles these big I think five four or four and a half inches or so they can be too wide and there's so much metal trying to go into the wood into the fibers that they oftentimes don't bite very deep as you saw there this bites a very deep and I think it's because it's got a pre thin profile on it very thin like that what a wonderful what a wonderful axe I don't have issue with the axe being made in Taiwan don't confuse Taiwan with China there are totally different things there's actually some really high quality stuff coming out of Taiwan you know for example one of the my favourite knives that I own the Spyderco bushcrafting knife it's date entwine Taiwan and it's just you know gold standard bushcraft knives I don't care what anyone says it's a wonderful knife the finish is just near-perfect but this is an excellent tool and I just don't I don't know how they could possibly get this into my hands for twenty-one dollars it's uh it's a complete mystery to me so I'm having difficulty trying to I'm trying to summarize this I'm trying to find the words I guess that sum up this accident what what is it what what what does it make me feel like just from my limited experience here and I guess I'll just words that come to mind would be thankful trust reliable strong those are the words I kind of keep playing in my mind here I like it I like the fact that it's $20 I like the fact that it's something that if I had to go beat on a railroad spike or a piece of metal or something in a pinch that wouldn't break my heart I like that if my son left it out in the rain and rested a little bit it wouldn't break my heart I like that if I lost it or someone stole it you know all of those things it's just an easy simple acts that is very well balanced it's very strong and very robust and and in all honesty it is going to be what I want to go for a cruise when I going to go for a walk in the forest and I might think that I you know might need to knock it you know trees falling down across a trail it might mean you'd be able to do something might be chopping in the dirt who knows what I might take it I might take it over some of the other ones because I think it just is I just think it just fits so many needs I I don't know house to describe it up but but I like it I just I like it I like owning it I like looking at it I like I like swinging it I like I like everything about it and especially like the price so who's this axe for I'd say it's for everybody I mean it it's it's it's silly you know don't don't try to justify it to your wife do you know I want to buy a hundred and sixty dollar Swedish axe unless you're pretty serious about that sort of thing I mean I get it I understand I mean you don't have to convince me I know I I have the justification machine goes into overdrive when it comes to Swedish axes but really when there's such good options like this twenty-one dollars it makes that argument kind of flimsy to me unless you just really appreciate the craftsmanship and you're you know really into forestry or woodworking you know then I think for most guys something like this would be great I don't know why why I haven't hadn't really seen that before really considered it before but it is a it's an excellent so far an excellent tool but time will tell but I think from what I see my initial impressions are it's very good very good so all right well thanks for watching that's a cold steel trail boss my review and we'll see you guys on the next video

Channel: Wranglerstar

Views: 2,781,682

Keywords: axe, small forest axe, hatchet, fiskars axe, gransfors bruks, splitting firewood, viking, axe throwing, bushcraft, who makes the best axe, ax, wood, autine, how to sharpen an axe, john neeman, how to split wood, john neeman axe, hunters axe, wranglerstar axe, bushcraft hatchet, gerber axe, estwing axe, splitting axe, camping, wranglerstar, wilderness, knives, axes, how to throw an axe, bushcraft axe, bahco axe, stihl axe, best axe, COLD STEEL TRAIL BOSS, cold steel axe

Id: k6nUVKGUo3w

Length: 18min 5sec (1085 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 06 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/DownloadedPixelz]

I hate this guy now. He just does bad clickbait now

[u/what_ok]

It's $38.53 now...

[u/[deleted]]

Ugh, this guy.

[u/LarsPinetree]

The biggest blatherer on yt

[u/insanekid66]

Oh hey its wranglerstar. The guy that went from Powertool shill to youtube garbage

[u/marteney1]

Yeah, fuck this guy. I used to watch some of his videos but now he's Amazon's bitch and just posts clickbait bullshit.

[u/goofzilla]

"don't confuse Taiwan with China."

That's going to make a whole bunch of Chinese people angry.

[u/HardcorePhonography]

This is what I hope doesn't happen to Human.

I know he's talked about politics once or twice and occasionally gives a shout-out to someone that gave him a tool to try out, but eventually Wranglerstar just became a vehicle for weird political diatribes and sponsorships.

[u/Soigne87]

I stopped watching his videos when he started wearing MAGA hats.