questions about Gransfors Bruks.....

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Bushman5

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Oct 31, 2007
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dont get me wrong, the GF are beautiful tools, if i had the dough i'd buy the whole collection and use it.

but why are the felling axes so short (handle wise)?

likewise, why are the heads so small? maybe i'm just used to Canadian style felling axes with long handles and large curved ax heads.......

is it a difference in cutting style between countries?
 
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Bushman5, you raise an interesting question.

For some reason, the contemporary felling axes made in continental Europe are most frequently made with 30-32" handles. See for example the Oxhead or Wetterlings axes.

http://www.traditionalwoodworker.com/product_info.php/cPath/36_106_303_484/products_id/1681

http://www.888knivesrus.com/product/WETSAW32H/WETTERLINGS_SAW32H_FELLING_AXE.html

Or see the Hultafors Huggyxa HY 10 axe (Model HY 10-1,5 SV) with 32" handle:

http://www.hultafors.se/
then choose Produkter, click Hugg & Slag: choose Yxor, then Hultafors Yxor


36" handles are rare, but they exist: the GB American Felling Axe is offered with with a longer, 36" handle version too and Helko makes 36" Felling axes:

http://www.helko.de/produkt/k4e.htm

I don't know anything about differences in cutting style, but it is quite possible they exist. On the other hand the handle length differences of German and Swedish made modern axes could easily be due to industry or military standard regulations from the time when axes were still widely used and axes were already mass produced on industrial scale (19th Century - early 20th Century).

Does anyone have some data to support or refute these guesses?
 
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I may be way off base but I thought that the GF and ilk axes are aimed at backpackers and campers so shorter handles/smaller heads mean less encumbrance? You can see this in play in the Gerber camp axes.
 
Interesting......(about the target market being backpackers....)

i consider their largest ax (the larger foresters) as a hatchet. (thats the size of hatchet i grew up using)
 
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The American Felling Axe was designed based on 19th Century American felling axe patterns. It is definitely not a backpacking axe.
Most of the prospective GB customers are unlikely to be professional lumbermen or foresters, so it is possible some of them will use these felling axes for limbing and/or bucking and splitting too. Maybe a shorter handle is considered to be better for an all around tool. It is definitely more portable.
 
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