husqvarna hatchet disappointment w/pics. what would you do?

B

bearhunter

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Sep 12, 2009
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i picked up my husqvarna hatchet from the dealer the other day and was very disappointed. what i got was not what i thought i was ordering. it is definitely not the same style that i have seen here or on other places on the net.
as you will see in the pics the head is totally different. it has no sheath just an edge guard. the grind looks like a third grader did it and it is barely sharper than a butter knife:mad:
needless to say i'm a little miffed! the only thing i good about it IMO is the handle.
it is hard to tell in the pics just how bad the grind is. i cannot believe they would let that leave the factory/forge.
being that it was a special order i cannot return it. so i called husq. and they said to deal with the dealer through their warranty service. either way i can't return it and just have to hope i get in return what i thought i was ordering in the first place.
i mainly ordered it for the head because it was suppose to be basically the same style as GB or wetterlings. what a crock of BS...check out the pics..
so, what would you guys do about this?
P1010433.jpg

bladelg.jpg

blade1.jpg

blade2.jpg

handle.jpg
 
Looks like a fine tool to me. Really good grain on the handle and a nice shape to the head (ignoring the poor grind, anyway). I'm willing to bet the steel is of the same high quality as the other Swedish axes, as well.

What would I do? Bust out the sand paper and strop and put a proper grind on it, get it nice and sharp, then take it out into the woods. The sheath / guard looks functional, I'd personally leave it be. But you could always put together your own with some cheap leather. And I can't tell from the pics, but you may want to staple the wooden wedge that holds the head in place down if it isn't already. I've seen a few Husqvarna hatchets that are just attached by friction of the wooden wedge.

But really all you have to do is profile it to you liking and sharpen it up and you'll have a functional hatchet -- and at what I'm assuming was a decent price since you didn't spring for a GB or Wetterlings.

I don't know, man. I think you did well, even if it wasn't exactly what you were expecting. I love the shape of the head. Just put an hour of work into it and I'm sure that thing will work great.
 
It looks fine, just needs to be sharpened properly. I don't think you'd have any trouble selling it if you really dislike it.
 
If you are that disappointed with the hatchet, return it to the dealer. Most really reputable dealers will have a satisfaction guaranteed policy and exchange it for you.
 
Well that is one issue with getting a husk over a wetterlings or GB... while you can get something really amazing for the price, you can also get something not too amazing. Less consistency with them from what I've seen.

That said however, yours doesn't look that bad. Easy enough to fix the edge if you know how to sharpen your tools (which is definitely a skill everyone who owns bladed implements should have). Really though I've seen much worse - at least yours has the basic grinding down from the looks of it, so you don't have to do massive re-profiling.

Only thing I'm not too pleased with from seeing the picture is that the head is rather far away from the shoulder....
 
Yup. Completely different hatchet. I can't tell from your pictures, is the handle the same length as the one advertised? BTW, I'm liking the one on the Husky site too. I have a Wetterlings, so I'm not in the market but if I were, I think I would give that Husky a try....IF I could be sure to get what I ordered, that is!
 
Arakiel said:
Yup. Completely different hatchet. I can't tell from your pictures, is the handle the same length as the one advertised? BTW, I'm liking the one on the Husky site too. I have a Wetterlings, so I'm not in the market but if I were, I think I would give that Husky a try....IF I could be sure to get what I ordered, that is!
Click to expand...
the handle is 13". it weighs 2lb1oz. i should have ordered a wett or a GB...
that is my whole point in the matter; 'IT IS A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT HATCHET'.
 
i can get it razor sharp, with hand tools. without any problem.
it's just not what i ordered so i'm not going to fool with it.
 
killa_concept said:
...the head is rather far away from the shoulder....
Click to expand...

Yep. That's where the missing lugs would go.

Thanks, bearhunter, for showing us this. I suggest that anyone ordering a Husky hatchet ask for one with lugs (now that we know that both kinds are being sold).
 
Steve Tall said:
Yep. That's where the missing lugs would go.

Thanks, bearhunter, for showing us this. I suggest that anyone ordering a Husky hatchet ask for one with lugs (now that we know that both kinds are being sold).
Click to expand...

yep, thank you!
very disappointing.
 
The head might look good on a boy's axe handle. It is different as you have said. The one I picked up a month ago looks great. I would contact the seller and explain the problem.
 
Well, thats what you get with a Husky. (sorry, Im a Stihl guy, so there is a little something there. Evil Husky!)
 
Clearly you need to send it back and be clear to the dealer what style you want. (e-mail photo, talk on the phone, etc) It doesn't matter if you ordered it wrong or they picked it wrong. It is personal to you, it is just an "X" to them. If they won't cheerfully exchange it they are in the lowest 5% of dealers on CS. or to put it another way, 95% chance you will get an cheerful exchange.
 
it looks like either the wrong hatchet was ordered by the dealer or the wrong one sent by the distributor - either way, you should try talking to the dealer about an exchange for what you originally ordered -- and take a printout of the web page you linked to.

good luck!
 
That looks like a Hultafors version. I do agree the grind looks like crap and much worse than the Wetterlings made version like I have. I'd send it back and get one from Baileys where they have a large stock of the Wetterlings' version.

Here's my Husky made by Wetterlings-
IMG_9295.jpg

IMG_9298.jpg
 
Wow, this is what they used to look like a while back, before they switched to the style you expected. I don't know if this is just a really old hatchet that they found in stock somewhere, or if they have gone back to the old design. The one you have is made by Hults Bruk. It is the head of one of their Agdor hatchets. I know Husqvarna contracted with Hults Bruk again, but from what I have seen, they are still making the new model heads (the ones that look like a Gransfors Bruks). This old design was around for a while, but I thought they had burnt through the stock. It would be interesting to see if these are new ones or just something someone found in the back of a storage unit.

http://woodtrekker.blogspot.com/
 
thanks for the info!
we'll see what happens. i'm going into town tomarrow and will be returning it for an exchange. i'm sure they'll take care of it.
 
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