That YouTuber's videos on hatchets and axes are made from a very narrow perspective. Not everyone camps next to the RVs at state and federal camp grounds. He also provides some bad information IMO and I wouldn't want the OP to think his hatchet is junk just because of a YT video.
I've yet to see a Voyager with a high centerline. Also in my experience high centerlines are beneficial when splitting wood, once you've gained some experience. The issues he described with splitting in the video are ones I'd run into when first learning to use an axe or hatchet. They are novice mistakes, not the fault of the axe. He certainly doesn't speak for me, or many others when he States the preference of modern campers. He also blames the weight for lack of penetration when splitting. More likely it's a combination of a dull bit, steep bevel, and flat cheeks causing increased friction.
I also have to laugh at the idea that an American company would travel to Sweden to learn how to make axes. At that point and till this day Swedish axes were made on American Machinery using American techniques, producing American patterns. If the trip did occur, it likely wasn't to learn how to do what MET had been doing for decades at that point. Here's a blub from Hults Bruk's website on their company history "In the late 1870s the owner and ironmonger Gunnar Ekelund took the initiative to make axes according state-of-the-art American production methods. In 1887 he traveled to America to study those industrial methods and to buy modern machinery. An additional purpose of his trip was to open up a new market for Hults Bruk axes in the United States where the first axes were sold in the late 1880s."
It's a neat hatchet, and $20 was a good price to pay. Enjoy it and don't worry about what the internet has to say.
Also @the possum you should pick up one of the current Vaughan's. If it turns out half as good as your Craftsman did, I'm sure you will enjoy it. Amazon had a pretty good deal on them recently. About as cheap as I've seen them
I've yet to see a Voyager with a high centerline. Also in my experience high centerlines are beneficial when splitting wood, once you've gained some experience. The issues he described with splitting in the video are ones I'd run into when first learning to use an axe or hatchet. They are novice mistakes, not the fault of the axe. He certainly doesn't speak for me, or many others when he States the preference of modern campers. He also blames the weight for lack of penetration when splitting. More likely it's a combination of a dull bit, steep bevel, and flat cheeks causing increased friction.
I also have to laugh at the idea that an American company would travel to Sweden to learn how to make axes. At that point and till this day Swedish axes were made on American Machinery using American techniques, producing American patterns. If the trip did occur, it likely wasn't to learn how to do what MET had been doing for decades at that point. Here's a blub from Hults Bruk's website on their company history "In the late 1870s the owner and ironmonger Gunnar Ekelund took the initiative to make axes according state-of-the-art American production methods. In 1887 he traveled to America to study those industrial methods and to buy modern machinery. An additional purpose of his trip was to open up a new market for Hults Bruk axes in the United States where the first axes were sold in the late 1880s."
It's a neat hatchet, and $20 was a good price to pay. Enjoy it and don't worry about what the internet has to say.
Also @the possum you should pick up one of the current Vaughan's. If it turns out half as good as your Craftsman did, I'm sure you will enjoy it. Amazon had a pretty good deal on them recently. About as cheap as I've seen them
