I can't remember where I seen this video. I believe it was posted on the OBC forums before but couldn't locate it. I'm posting it again to show how one individual in the show uses an ax to handle most tasks. This is a great video hope you all enjoy it. Survival in the Bush by Bernard Devlin - NFB
As a survival tool a axe would be much more useful than any super-duper survival knife. JMO, great link Sarge! Coz
Oldsarge, Good find. Thanks. I would pay a lot of money for the canoe they came in on or the one they left in. The old ways are the best ways. We always used to carry an axe or machete on backpacking trips. Angus Baptiste- First Nations Algonquin with a British and French name. Now you know why I like canoes over kayaks and lean-tos with a fire in front.
oldsarge; I can't remember where I seen this video. I believe it was posted on the OBC forums before but couldn't locate it. I'm posting it again to show how one individual in the show uses an ax to handle most tasks. This is a great video hope you all enjoy it. Hi... Super interesting, Oldsarge...as were the "add-on" film clips. Thanks.
Whoa, thanks for reminding me of the nfb.ca website! I watched the Bill Mason films years ago but forgot they were now online... Playlist : Bill Mason: Beyond the wild, beyond the paddle - NFB
Too much weight if you ask me. But I know how they can be versatile. I would rather use a longer knife that can finish most of the work and I won't have to carry all that weight.
I'm also a fan of knives but axe will chop those trees quicker and thus leave you with much less spent calories to replenish. Nice TV show by the way. Reality show in its beginnings.
A Hudson's Bay bit like the one in the film commonly weighs 1 1/2 or 2 pounds. When you consider that all the materials necesarry to build a canoe are avialable in the North Woods it is not that much. The tradition in Ontario and Quebec to this day is to cook on a fire, so you trade your stove and fuel for an axe.
Yes, I can definitely see how an ax is more useful than a knife. It's more weight, sure, but its versatility makes it worth it.
Hi... A short, double-bitted axe was one of Nessmuk's (Google him if unfamiliar) favorite camping tools. I think he had only three tools if I recollect right...his axe...his specially designed knife...and his pocket knife. He sure knew how to live off of the land...!!
Gerber axe is what you consider a standard, as for the price. Fiskars makes those and they are by no means bad, but there are better axes and a lot more expensive.
Sometimes I like using tomahawks. They have lot less chopping power but are usually lighter than axes so they are easier to use for finer tasks. Still beat any knife for chopping though.
The idea of having both seems a bit too much but I would end up with an axe (never know what you might face) over a knife any day. Now if they could just make something in between those two, that might do the trick better.
I've said this before but i aint an axe guy. When camping i aint planning to build a cabin or split a cord of fire wood. They are heavy and not being an expert I find them hard and dangerous to use. my family always did their woodsman stuff with a cane knife. its kinda like a short fat machette. The blade is thin and that makes it lighter than an axe and can go through a tree almost as fast. Good for brush and plenty good for camp fire fuel. In a pinch it can be used to clean fish and game. If i hadda choose it would be a cane knife to be stuck with. I guess das why I got one in my jeep, another in the camper, and one in my shed for around the house stuff.
Remember, this is a survival tool and not a backpack tool though it might come to that depending on what has happened.
Hi... I've carried both axes and hatchets...the hatchet on my belt and the axe in the vehicle. I don't carry a hatchet any more, but having an axe handy sure helped me out a couple of times when a tree or tree branch blocked the road. When afield, a machette is my choice. You just have to be careful in the cold. Trying to cut frozen wood with a machette can easily chip out nicks in the blade.
The rougher the country and the more wooded it is, the more you can still make a case for an axe even in a backpack. It can be used for heat and cooking, and can build shelters in the bush. Or even a canoe. For people that backpack in places with permits, quotas, signs, and rules against making a fire there is no point in having one.
Seems to me, people from different parts of the country have preferences to tools best utilized where they are. With some variations based on the education of using certain tools. Axes in the heavier forests, heavy machete type knives in the heavy growth of the Southeast, knives in the desert, plains and heavier populated areas. More people tend to be trained with knives so that is their preference. Those of us that grew up chopping sage out of fencelines, splitting firewood, and cutting posts prefer the axe. For me, a knife is used for dressing out the game animals. I only carry one the rest of the time out of habit, and a machette is only good if it has a hook on the end for the sugar beet harvest. (nobody else here remembers those days of walking the fields, lopping of the tops and chucking the beets into the trucks, all by hand) But I can see where one would sure be handy down in the La swamps of Cappy's.
