Condor greenland pattern axe (26" OAL) performance

[badasslibrarian]

How would you rate the performance of this axe vs other brands?

Condor greenland pattern axe (26" OAL)

[video=youtube;0MLV9GuQAYQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MLV9GuQAYQ[/video]

 

[300Six]

I guess the sturdy well designed sheath is the best feature in this review. Any small axe, sharp or dull, will cleave straight grain pieces of wood that have been sawed into Mickey Mouse lengths. What I'd have liked to see is the tester trying to retrieve a 'buried' flat-cheeked axe out of a real piece of firewood (16" long soft or hardwood with a few knots). Even the claw end of my old Estwing framing hammer is pretty good at busting up small stove rounds.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

It's true that it's not a very helpful demonstration of the tool, but high centerlines get given more emphasis than they really deserve in my opinion. In a thin bit there's really very VERY little capacity for one and even in those that still exhibit one the high centerline is really only present more than an inch back from the edge bevel. As a general rule, if your axe is getting stuck then you're getting over-penetration and shouldn't be swinging it that hard. Thin bitted axes should usually also have a fairly broad bit so that energy from the swing is mitigated by the width of the cut. Overall I consider the Greenland something of an "all-purpose pruning axe" in that it can be used well enough for most tasks but it's functionally biased towards chopping branches and saplings. If performing splitting tasks with it you'd be best served by using twist-splitting or you'd get a fair amount of binding from it on any difficult splits due to the thin geometry.