Axemanship RSS

Most people who get hurt with an axe do not get hurt because they did something reckless. They get hurt because they were tired, because the hang was slightly loose and they ignored it, because they were in a hurry, because the ground was uneven and they did not think about it, or because they put a dull axe to hard wood and it glanced sideways instead of biting in. None of those are dramatic failures. They are small errors that compound into a bad outcome. The good news is that every one of them is preventable with habits that...

Before the chainsaw existed, every tree that came down came down by hand. Men felled timber for a living with nothing but an axe and the technique to use it well. That technique was learned carefully because the consequences of getting it wrong are serious and immediate. Felling a tree with an axe is not complicated, but it is also not something you improvise. There is a specific process with specific steps in a specific order, and each one exists for a reason. This guide covers that process for small trees, which for the purpose of this article means trees...

There is a version of American manhood that drives forty-five minutes into the backcountry on a logging road, hits a blowdown across the trail, and sits there until someone comes along or turns around and drives home. That version does not keep an axe in the truck. Then there is the other version. The one that gets out, handles the problem, and keeps moving. An axe in the truck is not tactical cosplay. It is not a prepper fantasy. It is a practical tool for a man who spends real time outdoors, drives roads that are not always maintained, and...

Nobody's born knowing how to swing an axe well. The guys who make it look easy put in time, not because it's complicated, but because good habits take a few sessions to lock in and bad habits are the kind of thing that ends a day early with a trip to urgent care. This is not a safety lecture. It's practical information from people who heat their homes with wood and take pride in doing it right. If you just got your first real axe and want to use it like you know what you're doing, read this first. Before...