Gerber/Fiskars Axes question.

A

Angus McGunnigl

Joined
May 22, 2002
Messages
1,485
Well I took the plunge and bought myself a Gerber Axe yesterday. I have read so much praise for them here.

I noticed that both on the packaging it says "Product of Finland" and molded into the handle it says "Made in Finland."

Is it the handle or the whole thing actually made in Finland ?
 
Not sure but I've had mine for almost 10 yrs. and LOVE it. Very good balance and easy to sharpen:) My fine grit diamond stone gets it shaving sharp:)
 
dipbait, it is best to have a very sharp edge, you just don't want it too thin. there are plenty of people that will tell you that it is best to have a course edge so that they can survive chopping chores.

i believe that because chopping is push cutting, and push cutting is best done with a very fine polish on the edge, with micro teeth as small as possible, i polish my axes and other choppers to a very high grit that will shave. just don't thin out the edge too much or it might roll or chip. i have decided that edge stability is all about the angles.

but on this topic, congrats on the new axe. i still don't have one, but i have come dangerously close a couple of times. i don't know about where the axe heads are made...
 
I think we are confusing two different subjects here. They are:

- Thick edge versus thin edge.
- Rough finish versus very high polish finish.

With that in mind, and ax should be ground (thickness-wise) for its intended purpose.

IMO, every ax should have a high polish on the edge, regardless of if the profile is a thick one, or a thin one. The reason is because of the impact it receives. If you leave it with a coarse edge, the "micro" teeth are rather large. When the edge receives impact, very few teeth take the brunt of the impact, increasing the chance of damage to any one of these larger teeth.

If you have a high polish on the edge, these teeth are much, much smaller, and the impact is spread over many more of them, minimizing the impact to any single ONE.

This is a concept that took me a long time to learn. I always figured "it's an ax" and a file and coarse stone was just good enough. Not anymore. My ax edges are like a mirror.
 
I hear so much bad about Gerber from folks that I figured the head was Chinese and the rest was Finnish.

Anyone know ?
 
As far as I know the Gerber hatchet that says "made in Finland" is made entirely in Finland but I don't have anything concrete to back that up. . . I've just never heard otherwise and I've always assumed that they were manufactured in the same place. It would be really odd for the Gerber to be partially made in China yet still be generally more expensive than the Fiskars. I suppose stranger things have happened though. I'm pretty sure that the Gerber "Gator" line of hatchets are the ones made in China.
 
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