Axe Vs Machete: Which is Better for Northern Woodlands?

[@JuaneDosesII-wj6dd]

I love the machete for limbing and felling smaller trees and for the kinds of trees YOU have up north. For my specialized wood processing needs and purposes where the Machete is vastly superior to the axe☺️

[@coltscustoms]

Good comparison! Yeah it definitely depends on location. I'm in Indiana and always use machetes, mostly to clear trails and invasive bush honeysuckle. But have been playing with chopping bigger stuff with axes besides just splitting firewood.

[@outdoorsonthecheap]

Right on

[@deanfuller1702]

Agree with you about northern climes using the axe verses machete. In MN I rarely ever use my machete. Even on undergrowth. When I lived in FL the machete was used much more, the axe only used on bigger stuff.

[@outdoorsonthecheap]

Right on

[@denisestarr2314]

I love my machete . I can cop , Dig , firepoke , weapon. The machete is much more versatile .

[@outdoorsonthecheap]

With all that digging and fire-poking it won't be sharp for long. With my axe I can sharpen a stick for digging... and any old stick can be used to poke a fire.

[@benchase7537]

As much as I love axes, I've always found them to be unnecessary. Even in cold camping. They're great if you're splitting wood for a stove, carpentry, or harvesting timber but really become deadweight for the majority of camping and hiking activities. People tend to complicate firewood duties so they can use their tools. Any wild forest in the world is going to have dead and dry fuel everywhere that can be processed with your hands and feet. There's no need to fell, buck, and split a tree just to get breakfast going. If I really need to process hardwoods for whatever reason, a saw would be way more useful.

[@outdoorsonthecheap]

That wasn't the point of the video - it was simply to compare the overall usefulness of the two tools. Regarding your point - right there with ya brother - that was the point of this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iWG6n4WqnJKbaZY and this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/a2rTh2qwg5iKn5I

[@CommonCentsOutdoorsman]

Usually I prefer a larger knife like the Condor Hudson Bay. It gives me more versatility over an axe as I rarely tackle larger trees. Just small stuff for quick shelters and such. I use machetes less often as I'm not in the machete type environments much. Like you my hardware store cheap hatchet has been fine for me. Nice work once again!

[@JuaneDosesII-wj6dd]

Different horses for different courses

[@grantraynard]

Machete in the garden. Axe in the woods. That said when I couldn't find my axe I have taken down 4 inch trees with a machete. It dulls faster on softwood... which seems counterintuitive. Good subject for a video

[@outdoorsonthecheap]

I think with softwood its the combination of twisted grain and hard dried resin that's hard on blades

[@grantraynard]

@@outdoorsonthecheap I am glad you showed turning the machete around to limb the tree. Before I learned that I dulled alot of blades.

[@ColinNew-pf5ix]

I never use a machete for chopping significant width branches, i always use a saw. The machete you have to be fair is more of a brush machete, not a chunky wood machete. Although it depends on one's experience in how one uses their preferred tools. An experienced machete user would favour a machete for specific tasks. And would be very proficient in using their energy. Using a wood machete for batoning can be a lot safer as your converting the tool from an impact tool (like an axe) into a contact tool. As the the baton becomes the moving impact. But agree, an axe is far more productive for continual usage. Hope that makes sense. Your videos are always stimulating. Thank you. Good presentation.

[@maxfaubus3116HiddenChurch]

I agree. Good review

[@outdoorsonthecheap]

Thanks man!

[@drewsenthused6079]

Off topic but I just found a bunch of eucalyptus logs someone had trimmed off their tree. What a terrible wood, very difficult to split and smokes more than burns. Looks like they will be a raised bed border...

[@theressomelovelyfilthdownh4329]

And you didn't even go into the fact an axe is also a pretty good hammer. I know nothing about ice fishing, it doesn't get that cold here. But if you really needed to get some protein, and you're stuck out in the cold with your little camp set up. It's going to be a lot easier making a hole in thick ice with an axe, over a machete. As well as any stakes for traps, your camp, or a host of other little jobs like that. Sometimes you really do just need to hit something really hard with a hammer. I think the machete and the like come into their own when you have to clear lots of vine like growth, or brambles/blackberry out of your way. Anything sturdy enough to actually stay in place, and take the hit. Then an axe, or even a billhook, is better. Not that I haven't recently had to clear out lots of brambles with a billhook. Cleaned up lots of trees and making a fifty - sixty foot dead hedge using just a billhook to do 95% of the work. I used a club hammer to drive in the staves, and a pair of garden loopers to cut the staves semi level once they were in. I'm no outdoors man, and would never claim to be. But I have cleared out a lot of large overgrown areas on farms, sections of river bank, or for people with a few acres of land. You can clear a lot of stuff with a small digger, and a guy with a chainsaw. But a lot of stuff still needs to be cleared by hand with an axe, mattock, billhook, or hedge knife, which is basically a billhook on a four-foot shaft. Plus, whoever is on the chainsaw isn't going to be messing about with the top section of a tree, which could still be a good fifteen/twenty foot or more. So you have somebody knock that, and any awkward branches, into manageable chunks with a billhook. Before it goes into a small trailer, wood chipper. Big chippers are great, if it's easy to get the wood to the chipper. You can use a billhook to help you lift, carry, and drag decently sized logs. You can tie a rope to them, sink the billhook into a log and drag it up a steep bank. Easier to drop them in a stack as well. You just hold the billhook in an underhand/reverse grip, and let go with your offhand. The log will take itself off the billhook as it falls. No throwing logs about the place, let gravity do it for you. And I know axes can be used for the same things. I feel better having that hooked tip in there to hold it. Plus, you don't want to be subjecting your axes to ole grunt work if you can avoid it. Billhooks are cheap, and cheerful. The hook is just there for extra mass for the straight cutting blade, and to punch into wood. It also stops it from glancing off when you're stripping branches. You can tell by now I'm a fan of billhooks. But that's for the type of work I have done over the years, like clearing ground, laying hedges, and making dead hedges. If you ever think of clearing more ground around your garden, I'd suggest you pick one up. They are pretty cheap for a good one that will last you for as long as anybody can still do that type of work. Get one with a chunky hickory handle, not any with a round garden hand tool style grip. I took a rasp, and sandpaper to mine so it sits better in my hand. You really need to know where the edge is, and a firm grip on the billhook. Otherwise, it could catch you with that hook. Exactly like you talked about at the start of the video.

[@outdoorsonthecheap]

I think farm-work teaches one a lot of useful stuff that translates well to being in the woods. You learn to work with tool and plants, how to use your hands, how to tie basic knots, how to use your body - and so on - and you get a lot of experience working the land, as opposed to what can be learned a few weeks of the year camping. This is probably why I have such a different take than a lot of bushcrafters - I use all the basic tools all the time on my property and in the garden. The machete is very important in the tropics - so it is probably a good general tool there - but in the northern woods it only has a few goods applications - like clearing bramble - but in the bush you just walk around bramble :)

[@CoastalGardening]

😎👍