In preparation for my 3 day backcountry trip to Killarney Provincial Park Ontario Parks, I sought out the perfect tool to chop wood with. I had recently bought a Sven Saw and loved it but that was for sawing wood and sometimes you needed a chopping tool when in the woods. As I have been following the #woodsexplorer since day one, not being one of the successful candidates, but still very interested in the adventure of it all, I had seen a viable option for a backcountry axe in a video I saw posted on the Woods Canada Facebook page.
Basically, Melba and Adam had a mishap with their paddles and missing one, had to create it from scratch out of wood. Adam used a small axe and upon asking what it was, I was told it was this .
So, I figured I should give it a try? If it’s good enough for making a kayak paddle from wood, then it should be good enough for me to use to chop wood, right?
Upon arrival in Killarney to our backcountry site, my friend Steph and I were delighted to discover the previous tenants of our site had left us a pile of wood to use. Unfortunately, but to my advantage in this case, many of the pieces were far too large to use in the small fire pit we had. I pulled out my mini pick axe and gave it a go! The axe is very small but very mighty. It chopped through the wood incredibly easily and quickly and I was very impressed with it! I used it several times throughout the following days in the backcountry for similar jobs and was very satisfied with the axe’s performance. The axe is very compact, has a nice grip on the handle, it comes with a cover to store it in your pack without slicing through other things in your bag and was very economically priced! I would definitely recommend this axe if you are in need of a product such as this for your next outdoor adventure!
Photo Credit: Stephanie Mercier
If you have any questions or comments, I’d love to hear from you!
Hope you enjoyed my post!
Happy Hiking!
Camper Christina
I want to see you using that axe Ms Independent. No bears are coming near you 😉
Hahaha! I do not want to see that! 😉 lol Thanks for reading my post! you’re awesome!
I would love to see that paddle. I made the mistake in buying one of these and just noticed your ‘review’ on the Cdn Tire site. I promptly reviewed it myself. It should be up soon. I beg to differ on the efficacy of this product. Honestly…this thing is seriously useless. Recommending this to anyone is a mistake.
Hi John!
The paddlle is actually shown on the video that is embedded in my post. You should be able to see it.
I’m sorry to hear that you didn’t have a good experience with the axe. Not every product is for everyone, so it is good to have feedback from others to compare.
I have been using the axe all summer and have had no issues with it. It works great for me, especially with my small hands and it has been used to chop lots of wood in the backcountry without fail!
I did have a problem with the logo on my rain pants from Woods. I contacted them and they replaced the pants and gave me a free jacket as an apology. Possibly you can contact them to let them know of your issues and they can attempt to rectify the situation for you as well?
Best of luck to you and thanks for reading and commenting on my post!
Have a great day!
Christina
Hi John!
I’d love to send you a photo of both those paddles! They’re in my bedroom. There’s definitely some upgrades that need to be done with that axe in terms of a longer shank extending to the full length of the handle as well as probably using a a flat head screw instead of those allan key things. However for the price point, I looked around and there’s nothing in that price range that was able to perform as well as this Pack Axe. We used it across Canada for the past 5 months splitting numerous bundles of wood. I’ve had axes for sure that we’re in the $60 – $120 range that lasted years and worked wonders but for a portable axe for people just figuring out the whole camping thing this works well in that situation! I think for someone unsure of what they are looking for in an axe or looking for something small to pack for trips I would recommend this. If you’re looking to chop logs of wood for you cabin I definitely would not recommend this axe, so I think like most things it’s very scenario dependent. What happened to your axe? Would like to hear what didn’t work for you.
Melba
http://www.MelbasToast.com