Fiskars X7 14" Hatchet?

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Oct 14, 1998
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Perhaps my search skills are a bit weak but, I didn't see much about the Fiskars X7 Hatchet.

Reading some reviews on Amazon, I see a lot of comments about the steel being very soft with some commenting it is just the coating flaking off. Does anyone in this forum use this hatchet?

I had one Fiskars axe a long time ago and found it to be too thick to be practical. This one or the smaller X5 appear on paper to be a good lightweight option with most of the weight in the head and a very durable handle. Do these cut well? Are they appropriate for light limbing and campfires? What do you like or dislike about it?

TIA,
Sid
 
I too would be interested to hear people's opinions. I've owned a GB mini and small forest, I became skint and had to sell them. A Fiskars X7 would be cheap and cheerful, a bit of rolling I could accept better than chipping.
 
I think you just need to search fiskars but I have found the search function can be a bit of a pain if looking for very specific information.

The fiskars, IMO, do have somewhat soft steel but I've only noticed when trying to chop dry ash which isn't really ideal for an axe but it's what I have a lot of from ash borers killing trees.

I find the factory grinds to be a little bit thick in the bit but not horrible. The factory edges have all been bad and the axes come alive with a good sharpening. They are useable out of the box but not ideal.
 
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If you need more specifics, let me know. I gifted the hatchet away earlier this year after getting a nice hawk with a much larger cutting edge (one of the things liked less about the hatchet) but also have the 28" chopping axe. Not sure if it's still made but it looks like the x15 is a 24".

Another piece of useful information is that a lot of the gerber axes are re-labeled fiskars axes, or at least made by fiskars. I'm fairly certain they are exactly the same except color though.
 
I've looked at the Gerber axes as a Fiskars alternative but, I prefer the Orange color. As noted, they are basically relabeled Fiskars with green instead of orange.

Which Tomahawk did you end up with? I was looking at the Fiskars as a cheap 2 Hawks alternative. Maybe I'm better off spending a bit more and going that route. With so little weight in the head, a Fiskars or Tomahawk seem like they would offer a lot more cutting power for a given weight. The Rinaldi is another one I have looked at off and on and at ~$50 plus shipping, it's pretty close in price to Fiskars. Also, I don't really want a thick edge as I'm not looking at splitting with this axe short of an EOTWAWKI type of event (I have a couple Stihl axes for heavy work). I'm wanting a more 'walk around' hatchet for random saplings and possibly an aggressive 'pet' dog if things really go sidways out here in rural East Texas.
 
One of the knife makers was getting rid of stuff and had a blank available in 52100 that I snagged up for a nice price.

On the right here
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An older picture with a different wrap method that I ditched as it moved around too much and the one I'm currently using a lot better.
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Since you mentioned Rinaldi, I have the milano hand axe and trento felling axe. Completely different tools and feels. All of their designs have the slip-through design which is something i was looking for after breaking my snow & neally hudson bay handle in the woods. and I wanted something easier to fashion a replacement handle with. The milano is a surprising beast for the size but it's heavy. It hits nearly as hard as a boys axe but it's tiring to swing a lot, especially one handed. Feels like swinging a sledge hammer because all of the weight is at the head and it's not a little bit. I have a short review of the trento on here somewhere. I think the smaller trentos would be to my liking as I tend to favor the thin bits with a long cutting surface, as I learned with the hawk from hunter above.
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Thanks again! Your posts have been super helpful.

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Since you mentioned Rinaldi, I have the milano hand axe and trento felling axe. Completely different tools and feels. All of their designs have the slip-through design which is something i was looking for after breaking my snow & neally hudson bay handle in the woods. and I wanted something easier to fashion a replacement handle with. The milano is a surprising beast for the size but it's heavy. It hits nearly as hard as a boys axe but it's tiring to swing a lot, especially one handed. Feels like swinging a sledge hammer because all of the weight is at the head and it's not a little bit. I have a short review of the trento on here somewhere. I think the smaller trentos would be to my liking as I tend to favor the thin bits with a long cutting surface, as I learned with the hawk from hunter above.
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I briefly considered the "Milano" but, decided it was too heavy for me. For a few selected cuts with it, the weight wouldn't be an issue except for my belt or pack during a hike.

The Rinaldi "Calabria" Axe is the main one I'm looking at right now. With a 350gr head and a cut down haft, I think it could be a real winner in the handy 'light' axe category which is what got me to thinking about the Fiskars. The "Trento" is the other one I'm looking at if the weight doesn't get to be too much (500gr head plus haft) with its rounded bit versus the straight one of the Calabria.
 
Remember my conversations with Ben, @FortyTwoBlades , about the Rinaldi options the Calabria is a good all-purpose design while the Trento is a thin bit copper. As I was focusing on making logs from the dead ash I needed something that could penetrate more than what I had. Sticking took some getting used to, mostly at the start, but then it makes quick work of the hardwood. The wider cheeked axes bounced too much. Trento will not split well but that's not the point of that design. I think the American design Rinaldi is another good choice for you but it would favor chopping than splitting I think. The "sicillia" micro axe is more of tomahawk size but with the Calabria triangular head and handle design.

The fiskars are some of the best for the money, IMO, but I do like the 2 Rinaldi's I have, they're more fun to use. I think I'll eventually get a smaller Trento pattern as the felling pattern is a beast to carry around and is a bit unwieldy for smaller work but it is nice for what it's designed for. The Rinaldi's aren't polled (no counter weight to balance out the weight of the bit) but I don't think that's a big deal, especially if chopping more in the vertical plain. The hard metal of the rinaldi has it's down-side. Harder to sharpen (don't think a regular file works well) and I have thrown sparks with it from hitting dry ash which I assume are micro-chops coming off. Since a lot of the trees I work on are dead and sometimes already fallen over it's not unreasonable to think there was some dirt/gravel in the bark and wood that helped cause the sparking. Not a lot but I haven't seen that before with my other axes.
 
If the Rinaldi's had a poll, I would probably already own one or two of them. On the flip side, for a smaller lightweight axe, it does help keep the weight in the cutting edge without excess bulk elsewhere.

My only limited experience with a Fiskars axe was 20~30 years ago. While I liked the lightweight black handle it had, it was worthless as an axe to me as it basically just bounced off any timber/wood/tree I tried it on. Granted, I was an axe newbie back then so, it might not have been as sharp as it should have been. However, it was thick and soft with cutting edge deformations and a thick wide geometry which just didn't work well for me.

That Rinaldi "Sicilia" Micro Axe :) sure is a nice option! I'm glad you pointed it out to me as I seem to have overlooked it.
 
I think you could get some work out of a Fiskars hatchet if you spent an hour with a grinder refining the edge. But given my druthers, I'd much rather have an old American hatchet from the golden age. Something with a high centerline, convex cheeks, and a thin hard edge.
 
Short version -

Cliff had the previous version and found it needed a bit of relief work. He went on to note of the new version: “Note this model was discontinued but there is another model in the same general size. The newer ones also do not have the very heavy secondary edge bevels and now come ground very similar to the regrind I did six years ago

http://www.cliffstamp.com/knives/reviews/fiskars_hatchet.html

http://www.cliffstamp.com/knives/forum/read.php?2,230

Interestingly, because the new one is such a cheap and capable offering it has been proposed as a very easily obtainable benchmark tool for minimal outlay that those into chopping knives can use as a reference device. Seems to take ye olde knifemolester's “cuts like a razor, slices like a laser” strategy and upgrades it for adult usage.

http://www.cliffstamp.com/knives/forum/read.php?3,10391
 
The head on the newer models seems to be the same as the old ones just the handle has changed for the worse. The Fiskars (always cheaper than the identical gerber) are a steal if you are looking for something you don't have to baby. They are a bit soft and thick behind the edge but hold a decent enough edge, I would class them as more of a splitter than chopper but can pretty much handle anything you ask of them. Walmart has the Fiskars most of the year for under $25 with a goofy plastic carrying thing but it works well enough for me to not have made a sheath for it in the 5 years I have owed it.
 
I've been using one to chop firewood during 2-4 summer camping trips a year since 2013, and have never bothered to sharpen it. It still splits wood well, although it could use a sharpening at this point for sure. The coating is mostly worn off, of course.

I find it a bit light, but the handle is comfortable and I've never lost my grip on it. The sheath stays on well and does its job.

For the price, I have no complaints about it -- seems like a pretty solid choice for ~$25. (It's packed away, or I'd share a picture.)
 
For the price, I have no complaints about it -- seems like a pretty solid choice for ~$25.

For a budget of $25, you could hop on ebay right now and buy an older Kelly, Plumb, etc. hatchet in good shape. And it will be ten times the tool compared to the Fiskars.
 
For a budget of $25, you could hop on ebay right now and buy an older Kelly, Plumb, etc. hatchet in good shape. And it will be ten times the tool compared to the Fiskars.

Thanks for the tip! Anything specific you'd recommend I look for beyond the brands/makes you mentioned? (I know nothing about hatchets.)
 
That topic is so broad, I don't think I can do it justice. Back before chainsaws, there were innumerable small shops making axes and hatchets of good quality. Plenty of bigger companies made tools for specific merchants or hardware companies so they can be found stamped with all manner of different names and trademarks. And there's plenty of nice unmarked ones out there, too. It's hard to go wrong with Plumb or one of the various Kelly brands, such as True Temper, Flint Edge, or Woodslasher (only had a sticker so they're usually not marked, but often had ridges in the eye & red paint).

Main thing to look for is the shape/geometry and condition. The edge should be nice and thin. A couple nicks can be sharpened out, but if someone has already ground an inch of steel off the edge, it will be no better than the Fiskars. Look for excess wear on the toe- the tip of the edge where it could hit the dirt. The whole bit should gracefully taper/curve from the eye to the edge, but it should also be convex from top to bottom; this is usually referred to as a high centerline. First thing I googled that has a better description: https://bushcraftusa.com/forum/threads/axe-cheeks-high-centerline-vs-flat.215533/

I always prefer for the wood grain of the handle to be in line with the bit. That is, if you look down on the top of the eye, and draw a line from the cutting edge to back of the poll, the grain of the wood should be parallel (or pretty close) to this line. But, I may make exceptions for old handles in nice shape, since if it hasn't broken in 50 years it will probably still work, and modern replacement handles are just terrible.
 
I have one and use it occasionally and am pretty happy with it. I am not a hatchet expert though. I just needed something light that could split wood while camping. I havent had a problem with it yet. That doesnt mean there arent better options, just that this isnt a bad one. But now I have more to look into...
 
Hey, S Sid Post , I don't know if you are still interested in a Fiskars hatchet, but if you are, I have one to spare! I picked this up a while ago and have other hatchets to use, so if you want it just let me know. I refined the edge a little when I purchased it and it literally has about 10 minutes of light use. The only thing I ask in return, is that if you end up not using it or liking it, to pass it on to someone else...
Bruce

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