Helko - Hunter Axes

S

soulogun

Joined
Jul 27, 2009
Messages
20
Made a nice find at Harbor Freight today. Looking at their axe selection I found 2 axes from a company I never heard of, Helko Tools International, labeled as made in Germany. I picked up their fire hatchet, but they also had a full size firemans axe. I only paid 20 for the hatchet. It's a pleasant surprise as it seems most of Harbor Freights stuff is out of China. Anyone have any experience with this axe/company? I found the companies website, http://www.helko.de/

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my friend's dad recently bought him that very hatchet. he took it out to the sticks last time we went camping. i had my cs trailhawk. lets just say the trailhawk got a lot more use that weekend. the head is quite heavy, and the handle is too long to use one handed, while being to short to facilitate two handed blows. the edge is very obtuse. it would take a lot of grinding to reshape it, lots of extra metal there. now, that being said. for a long term outing, it would probably be a decent enough splitting/felling axe. with a new handle that is. it would be a very cool platform for some mods though. hint hint... for a harbor freight special, it seemed to be of pretty high quality, just not correctly executed.
 
savageknives said:
my friend's dad recently bought him that very hatchet. he took it out to the sticks last time we went camping. i had my cs trailhawk. lets just say the trailhawk got a lot more use that weekend. the head is quite heavy, and the handle is too long to use one handed, while being to short to facilitate two handed blows. the edge is very obtuse. it would take a lot of grinding to reshape it, lots of extra metal there. now, that being said. for a long term outing, it would probably be a decent enough splitting/felling axe. with a new handle that is. it would be a very cool platform for some mods though. hint hint... for a harbor freight special, it seemed to be of pretty high quality, just not correctly executed.
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I was thinking it would make a great mod host.
 
I had a Harbor Freight down the street from my old apt. They carried full sized fire fighting axes that had HUGE handles. The things were like 20 lbs. They needed serious work before they would ever chop anything.

Breaking and bashing, yes. But not refined enough for anything else.

I never thought about all the mods that would be possible with all that steel.
Perhaps I should visit them again sometime. :confused:
 
Bushman5 said:
I would thin the face down a bit and make one hell of a breaching tool with it!
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Thin down the face, narrow the spike a bit and give it a dark finish and dark finish on the handle and it would make a great breaching tool.
If you could get it lite enough it might even make a good CQB tool.
 
The overall length of the hatchet is approx 19.5 inches, the length of the head is approx 10.25" with about 4.5" bit edge. It's definitely not light as noted, according to Harbor Freight it's a 2lb head. It does need a better edge, but I don't think the head needs thinned out much, except maybe closer to the eye.

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I plan on stripping the head and giving it a vinegar patina, and give the haft a darker finish, probably torch part of it.
 
Thin down the head wasn't what I should have said, what I meant was reshape the cutting head, reduce some of its mass (weight) and reshape the spike. soulogun can you show us a picture of the spike end profile like you did for the head?
Your picture before this post.
 
soulogun said:
Made a nice find at Harbor Freight today. Looking at their axe selection I found 2 axes from a company I never heard of, Helko Tools International, labeled as made in Germany. I picked up their fire hatchet, but they also had a full size firemans axe. I only paid 20 for the hatchet. It's a pleasant surprise as it seems most of Harbor Freights stuff is out of China. Anyone have any experience with this axe/company? I found the companies website, http://www.helko.de/

0228ll.jpg


0226l.jpg


0225k.jpg
Click to expand...


Hi Soulogun. Harbor Freight no longer carries the helko hunter. The did for a short period a few years ago. The fireman hatchet they carry now is a cheap "Made in India" knock-off. As far as helko axes go, there is a new distributor in the U.S. called helko North America that carries the entire helko product line. They are steel-forged German made.
 
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