TL;DR: It's a good hatchet for general use, but it needs some work right out of the box. 3/5.
I've been carrying around a Hult's Bruk Akka for a while and wanted something smaller for kayaking/lighter hiking/not backpacking/yardwork. I've always had a soft spot for Scandinavian stuff, so I went with this one a little over teo years ago. The axe and sheath (sold separately) ran me $78. It's 1055 steel (I have another axe that's 1075 that I like).
I'm partial to the tomahawk style of haft because it's way easier to replace/deal with damaged handles of this style than the typical wedged style. The downside is that these handles will almost always be less ergonomic than their top-wedged counterparts because you have to have less mass at the bottom than the top. The orginal handle on this axe is a particularly bad example, as it tapers at an unnecessary rate and is pretty thin at the bottom. Easy fix though, especially with some ash/hickory and a draw knife.
The sheath is surprisingly well designed and I'm happy with it. I did put some blackrock leather-n-rich on it to help keep it supple.
The head (the main part I care about) is great. It seems to be based on a Petersen Type G/H, for my fellow history nerds. Sadly, it's got "CRKT" and "Freya" etched into the finish. The head came with a weird angle on it and was laughably dull when I got it, so I had to go at it pretty aggressively with a file to reprofile the edge, but now it's pretty sharp and cuts well. Which leads to its' uses.
It's great for cutting down trees that are up to the rough size of a foster's beer can, maybe a bit bigger. It splits wood really well for an axe of its' size. It's great at chopping at an angle. However, it's chunky, and swells around the eye, so trying to use it for finer woodworking like hewing is clunky and doesn't work great.
Overall, I like it and I'll keep it. It's plenty fine for a beater axe and I expect it to last for a good, long while. I've been taking it with me on day trips and it's served well for making temporary warming/cooking fires.
Note: I'm having a hard time getting the images to embed so I'm just going to post links to Imgur until I can figure it out.
I've been carrying around a Hult's Bruk Akka for a while and wanted something smaller for kayaking/lighter hiking/not backpacking/yardwork. I've always had a soft spot for Scandinavian stuff, so I went with this one a little over teo years ago. The axe and sheath (sold separately) ran me $78. It's 1055 steel (I have another axe that's 1075 that I like).
I'm partial to the tomahawk style of haft because it's way easier to replace/deal with damaged handles of this style than the typical wedged style. The downside is that these handles will almost always be less ergonomic than their top-wedged counterparts because you have to have less mass at the bottom than the top. The orginal handle on this axe is a particularly bad example, as it tapers at an unnecessary rate and is pretty thin at the bottom. Easy fix though, especially with some ash/hickory and a draw knife.
The sheath is surprisingly well designed and I'm happy with it. I did put some blackrock leather-n-rich on it to help keep it supple.
The head (the main part I care about) is great. It seems to be based on a Petersen Type G/H, for my fellow history nerds. Sadly, it's got "CRKT" and "Freya" etched into the finish. The head came with a weird angle on it and was laughably dull when I got it, so I had to go at it pretty aggressively with a file to reprofile the edge, but now it's pretty sharp and cuts well. Which leads to its' uses.
It's great for cutting down trees that are up to the rough size of a foster's beer can, maybe a bit bigger. It splits wood really well for an axe of its' size. It's great at chopping at an angle. However, it's chunky, and swells around the eye, so trying to use it for finer woodworking like hewing is clunky and doesn't work great.
Overall, I like it and I'll keep it. It's plenty fine for a beater axe and I expect it to last for a good, long while. I've been taking it with me on day trips and it's served well for making temporary warming/cooking fires.
Note: I'm having a hard time getting the images to embed so I'm just going to post links to Imgur until I can figure it out.
Last edited:
