Bow saw vs Hatchet.

[Dannyboy Leather]

Dannyboy- What axe is that? Looks like a compact S&N pen bay.

Yes, HD is correct. I found this old Norlund hatchet head laying around the ranch, cleaned it up, thinned it out, installed a new handle, it lives once again. It seems to be a very close match in performance to my GB Wildlife, though more crudely made.

a saw is really good at one thing. an axe is pretty good at alot of things.

Yep. I guess that is why in my mind it isn't a "either", "or" proposition. There is no "best" axe size, no "best" saw size for all applications either. Of course, the older you get, the less attractive that 6ft. timber saw and 5lb. axe head becomes.

 

[C.S. Graves]

I use a bow saw for the toughest cutting when gathering firewood from either felled trees or trees folk wanted off their property. For limbing branches under 3" I'll use a khukuri or parang. Big choppers and hatchets are liable to be more efficient than saws with wood at these diameters. One or two swings, depending on the blade, and you're through.

I know the bow saw would also be more efficient for felling, but a. I'm not sure the precise technique to prevent the tree binding up the blade, and b. I have fun felling a tree with a blade to see how it well (or poorly) it works.

 

[sicily02]

Hi all,

I am a axe man to. I carry mine pretty much every day and use it pretty much every day. I like small saws to and carry one in my pack but I tend to use it for precise cuts and not so much for real cutting. I like to chop and if you do it right and know how to use your axe, it really can make cutting up wood pretty easy. I like what Hollow dweller said:thumbup: That way really works good to. I also do like horace kepthart says in his book in the chapter on axemanship. he says to cut your way down the log put ( chop way into the log on 1 side and the move on to the next place on the log) on one side and then do the other side I did not even have to chop through the logs all the way and then just broke the peaces off. I just did this yesterday for a little camping trip yesterday. Here is the 3 trees that drug/carried into where I was going to camp for the night.

This is the what they looked like all cut up.

I used to carry and use one of the little handle saws Gerber I think it was.
Sawing a little was ok but chopping to me seems to go faster and is easyer on my arm. I stayed out last night and in this pic this is what I had left from the wood I cut up. in this pic on the left is a few small sticks and then I think I counted 11 small logs from 3" to 4.5" roughly left.

I took a pic of the camping area just before I left to come back home this morning at 6:30am. I have a few logs for the next time I go there.
I just had the cloths on my back my carrhart coat leather gloves and my hat. No sleeping bag or blanket or sleeping pad. I wanted it to be like a, I was lost and had to spend the night out. I used to use a little hand saw to for most of my wood cutting but then I had my sleeping bag to. to chop those 3 trees took a about a hour and 15 minutes or so. I was not in a real hurry either. I do not want to even think about cutting up that much wood with a hand saw LOL. I was warmed by the fire.
Like I said I like saws for small jobs but for really getting in fire wood for a night fire I will use my axe. Plus I like to chop LOL. If it is windy the saw dust seem so get in my eyes to LOL.


Bryan

 

[Fonly]

Hmmm, I have had that in the back of my mind for a while, and while I prefer packing light, there is just something about taking a hatchet or axe with me.

I usually end up switching between a hatchet or axe, fixed blade and a small folder, or a 6" folding saw, stouter fixed blade and a folder.
Though I just bought a wetterlings mini, that with a folder and everything would be covered.

 

[BarberFobic1992]

i dont know why, but it seems like alot of the bushcrafters in the UK prefer a saw, where most americans/canadians prefer an axe. interesting.

 

[Fonly]

i dont know why, but it seems like alot of the bushcrafters in the UK prefer a saw, where most americans/canadians prefer an axe. interesting.

I would say its terrain, but as far as I know the brits have harder woods then I do in my area.
Mabye we just like having the exact tools, I know a saw can be handy, but I would love to see someone making a paddle, or a spoon with a saw, it would be interesting.

 

[sicily02]

Fonly you make a point with the making of items with a saw. a axe would be more versatile for sure. I also think a axe/ hatchet seems better to me when there is snow on the ground and the trees. I do not mean a dusting either I mean several inchs of snow.
It seems easyer to me to get at the wood and get it cut chopped up.

I am starting to think that if you have a sharp edge of some kind across the ocean that you are looked upon as a bad guy or something. like sissors, saws are seen as more positve. and not as deadly looking like the knives or axes are seen. look at the laws they have over there to.
maybe that is me and my thinking. Only with being shown or read how to and then practice will you learn how to use a sharp tool. Just like with every thing we have to learn how to use the tool. knife, saw, axe, sissors, etc. to get good at using that tool. I think saws have more problems and break or the saw blade seems to bend and then gets a kink in it. I had several of the gerber blades to that and one time I had the plastic locking debvise on my break I could still use the saw and did but it was not in the lock potion.
I pretty much now just use my saw for precise cuts when trap making and some other stuff. My axe is for wood getting.

Bryan

Bryan

 

[hollowdweller]

i dont know why, but it seems like alot of the bushcrafters in the UK prefer a saw, where most americans/canadians prefer an axe. interesting.

Maybe we are more violent and frustrated so chopping helps get our ya ya's out

 

[sicily02]

Good one HD LOL.

Bryan

 

[Fonly]

I am starting to think that if you have a sharp edge of some kind across the ocean that you are looked upon as a bad guy or something. like sissors, saws are seen as more positve. and not as deadly looking like the knives or axes are seen. look at the laws they have over there to.
maybe that is me and my thinking. Only with being shown or read how to and then practice will you learn how to use a sharp tool. Just like with every thing we have to learn how to use the tool. knife, saw, axe, sissors, etc. to get good at using that tool. I think saws have more problems and break or the saw blade seems to bend and then gets a kink in it. I had several of the gerber blades to that and one time I had the plastic locking debvise on my break I could still use the saw and did but it was not in the lock potion.
I pretty much now just use my saw for precise cuts when trap making and some other stuff. My axe is for wood getting.

Bryan

Bryan

Thats too true, I had an older gerber saw that is still kicking, but it has a bend in the blade, also the fiskars I had was throwen out due too a wicked bend in the blade. To be fair, I wasen't the one who did it, but a couple kids my girl friend and I used to watch while back east, they were just going too hard with them, its hard to break an axe while using it under normal usages, like wise with the saws, but the certainly are more fragile.
Then again, to be fair I did break my old wetterlings. It was my fault, but I certainly wasen't expecting it.

 

[sicily02]

How did you break it?

Bryan

 

[Giguere]

I carry a handmade Bucksaw (Made it myself) And an Axe when out in the wilderness. IMO The axe is too versitile a tool to leave behind, especially the way I use an axe. I like the saw to cut deadfall into sections for firemaking But definitley love it that I can pretty much make anything I wish to out in the mountains. I've made a canoe paddle before with my axe AND the saw. Would've been much harder with just one of the two. My Cutting tools are as follows, and they're in order of importance: Axe, Knife, Bucksaw, Small Folder.

 

[flip888]

I've seen a few broken saws out camping and I've personally broken a few axes. I would much rather have a small scratch or cut on my hand from a broken saw blade then have an axe head fly up at my face. Which actually happened to me a few years ago. I was lucky I walked away from it.

On the other hand. A broken axe handle is fixable in the woods. A broken saw blade is almost useless.

 

[Brian Andrews]

Good lord, you guys are trying to get me going, aren't you!!!

Here are some points (some have already been made):

1) Fiskars :barf: Enough said.
2) Anyone can pick up a saw and use it good. Not much training there. The same is not true of the axe. Many spend their whole lives dedicated to axemanship, and still don't know it all. There is tons of technique and experience involved. I would be surprised if you could just pick one up and wield it like an expert.
3) Like mentioned, the saw is good for one thing. An axe can chop, limb, split, shave, skin and cut.
4) If you bend or break your saw in the field, you are stuck. Field sharpening is difficult at best. Usually handle issues with an axe come with plenty of warning, if you know your axe and are paying attention. Aside from the handle, it is pretty difficult to damage the head beyond a "useful" state in the woods.
5) I think bushcrafters in the UK prefer saws because they do not have the vast areas of wild places we do, nor the resources left. Plus, they are forced to be a much more PC lot than we are Poor them! I hear they are also talking about taking points off their knives over there. No joke!

As mentioned is Mors' "Bushcraft" a saw is never a replacement for an axe. It is rather to compliment it. If you have to chose just one, the axe wins every time.

Here is the real thing to think about:
Do your outdoor activities really rely on your having a saw or an axe? I would assume the answer for most is "no." That is probably why this debate keeps surfacing. We have all sorts of gadgets and gear, and do not necessarily need to craft the things we need in the woods anymore. Unless, like me, that is what you enjoy and appreciate, and also like developing your axe skills.

B

 

[sicily02]

Taking the points off the knives. What is the world comming to.
that is just plain sick LOL.


Bryan

 

[Brian Andrews]

Taking the points off the knives. What is the world comming to.
that is just plain sick LOL.


Bryan

"Kitchen knives could be redesigned so that they retain their cooking function, but are not lethal. But as it stands, you can go into a supermarket and buy for £10 something that's a murder weapon - no questions asked."

The rest of just one article on the subject.

B

 

[SpookyPistolero]

"Kitchen knives could be redesigned so that they retain their cooking function, but are not lethal. But as it stands, you can go into a supermarket and buy for £10 something that's a murder weapon - no questions asked."

The rest of just one article on the subject.

B

Wow. It's really quite stupefying. There are actually people that ignorant in the world. But hey, only a moron thought they'd quit after they 'got the guns'.

 

[Fonly]

How did you break it?

Bryan

Kinda hard to explain, but Ill try.

I was camping, hit the head into an old pine tree, and was wrenching on the handle left and right pulling small splits of the dead pine tree, I use them as a form of fat wood, they were loaded in resen and were coming off easily enough.
The I came to a somewhat larger piece, and wrenched a little to hard, and the handle broke right off at the bottom of the head, I just looked at my girlfriend and her friends in shock, I wasn't ready for that.

Then, being pissed, I burnt the handle in the fire I started with the all ready harvested fat wood. ugh, what a day.

 

[sicily02]

Fonly, WOW that does sound like quite the day for sure. LOL

Bryan

 

[CarpScot]

i dont know why, but it seems like alot of the bushcrafters in the UK prefer a saw, where most americans/canadians prefer an axe. interesting.

Could it have to do with the type and amount of available fuel?

Edited to add: Oops, looks like Brian beat me to it.