Nope!!! Aint got any Bunyons! A hammertoe & a planters wart but nope, no bunyons or bunyans eider! ;D ;D ;
I collect good axes & Knives. Granfors makes about the best I've found in the modern world.Handforged in Sveden.Each axe has the stamp of the Blacksmith on it& each axe comes with a book with a wealth of information & a list of codes & a picture of everyone employed in the plant.The booklet can be purchased separately for $1.00 at Lee Valley Tools & it's an amazingly good buy!
Nowadays, good axes like that are expensive & are sold mostly to the " Got to have it cause my neighbor does" crowd. They look real nice stuck in a stump in front of a $300,000 mtrhome in a campground where they sell firewood precut,presplit & in a 20 lb bundle for $10.00!
The other good axe,not quite so dear,is an Iltis Oxhead,made in west Germany. If you flick it with your finger as if you were flicking the tomcat's ear, for trying to steal your dinner, it rings like good crystal glass. They both take a beautiful edge & will shave both Bubba the cat & Bubba my cousin,(who we DON'T allow sharp objects :Pcause he cut his tongue shaving last time) nice & close too!
I've also got a few antiques made on private forges that I can't I.D. from the signature,but the steel is good & so is the smithing.
I have a number of hatchets too,but I never use them as I believe that what you need a hatchet for,can be done safer & quicker with an axe!
I have also some nice double bit axes, both for falling & for throwing but I never take one out when there are too many strangers around,as it's so easy to injure yourself or worse yet,a bystander with a double bit axe!
People are forever sticking the axes in stumps or trees so someone can either trip over the handle or walk into it face first in the dark
It may look funny, like Larry Curly & Moe, but The hole drilled in the handle is for a lanyard & when the axe is hung on a branch,close to the tree, the first aid kit can stay unopenned!!
Splitting,especially Spruce,is accomplished very efficiently with a twisted wedge & a maul.The twisted wedge is the next best thing to a mechanical splitter.It's about 12" long with a 45 deg.twist in it & it's truly amazing what it will split with a minimum of effort. What used to take 10 min.,two wedges(straight),a hammer, an axe & then another 15 min, trying to get your metal out of the 30"D spruce chunk
, takes about 10 whacks with a 6# hammer & Bob's yer uncle she's in two pieces ;D ;D!!
The other reason I never stick an axe into a stump or a tree is the fact that carbon steel axes don't appreciate the acids in the tree.An axe left as such, will soon need sharpening.I shouldn't have to sharpen my axe until I return from a two week trip,IF I look after it!
Keep them hung up,protected in a good oiled leather sheath & Keep a spare handle & a little bag of axe wedges in reserve(Just in case Bubba gets his sticky fingers on it)!
And for Heavan's sake don't let BUBBA fix it!!He's too lazy to use the brace & bit in the toolbox. He'll try to burn it out again & take the temper out of a $150.00 axehead AGAIN!I asked him once to fetch me the brace &bit. He thought it was the crank to start the Argo!Now that he knows what it is you have to hide it before he drills holes in all the Sprucetrees trying to get"Real Maple Syrop" for his flapjacks.Of course the nearest Sugar Maple is in Ontario,about a 4 day drive!
Bubba's OK, really & he's real useful for hanging the Swamp Donkey quarters in the trees & picking the front of the Argo up to change a flat. He's twice as strong as any Ox I ever saw & possibly half as smart! ;D
Good axes, like the Granfors & the Iltis,are valued ( at least to me!) as is my cast iron cookware,which I would be lost without!
! They both require the same care & both return the maintenance in dividends that can't be reaped with cheaper goods!