Roughneck vintage axe (0.6 Kg, 1 and a quarter pound) Budget hatchet review

Review of the Roughneck vintage hand axe, comparison with the Fiskars x7

[@boristabacsplatt6609]

Thanks for a good review, which lead me to purchasing the vintage axe for £15, delivered. It's a real diamond in the rough. Made by German company Picard/Ruthe to DIN 5131 / 7287, using a high silicon alloy steel. After a slight change to the axe cheek geometry and a good sharpen, the axe is shaving sharp and has a durable edge. It excels for close carving, chopping and light splitting, and for me it is the ideal carry anywhere bush-craft hatchet. I prefer it to my Hultfors carpenters axe, unless I'm undertaking more heavy duty tasks. This axe is a real gem - and one of the best bargains ever.

[@KuukkeliBushcraft]

Glad you liked the review, and very glad that you like the axe. I will maybe look at my cheek geometry. This axe certainly requires work on the edge. But that I would expect also on an axe twice the price. Pinned the comment as there is some useful extra information there. Thanks for watching and commenting. All the best my friend.

[@boristabacsplatt6609]

@@KuukkeliBushcraft I took the heel back just under 1/2" to give a shorter beard and took some curve out of the edge to make it straighter. Next I filed some of the waviness out of the cheeks and made sure both sides met at the edge at the same angle. Then did a narrow 1/2" Scandi grind, with a 1/16" or so steeper final edge. It is now much closer to a carpenters axe and works great.

[@UK_Outdoors.]

Where did you get it from for £15?

[@boristabacsplatt6609]

@@UK_Outdoors. Bought the axe in a Screwfix sale - current price £24. Can be found on Ebay for under £20. Still a bargain at current prices, I think.

[@Bowbro69]

Thanks for a good comment, which lead me to buy a vintage axe for £34 delivered. made by a German company Picard/Ruthe...

[@ErRrO-iy1ee]

Pretty solid review, cheers! Just what I was looking for

[@KuukkeliBushcraft]

Thank you for watching mate. Glad you found it useful.

[@bladesandmore8833]

Great review of the Roughneck ax! Nice looking video with clear video! Thanks for showing it to me!

[@KuukkeliBushcraft]

Thanks for watching Mark. Glad you liked it.

[@bootlegbushcraft9953]

I like old school. Not a bad price. The grain of the handle was perfect and the style of the head looks practical. Great review my brother. All the best. Rod

[@KuukkeliBushcraft]

Thanks Rod, I think it will preform much better once I have done a bit of re profiling on that edge. Really not bad for the price. Thanks for watching buddy.

[@KirkHermary]

That's a very nice little axe, and it's not Chinesium! I think the rubber around the handle at the head is a gusset to protect the wood from miss strikes. It did okie dokie on the ol' chopping test but I agree the edge could use some fixing up. Great review friend.

[@WaltRevenJr]

Fiskars hands down, great honest review on it Tim! This is actually a very popular budget brand here, I see them everywhere. When I was buying a small hatchet this brand and fiskars were the 2 I was looking at. I loved the handle more on the roughneck(my fiskars has a handle I just dont enjoy, the vibrations were bad...we discussed this before and you gave me the idea of using that black tape to use, which I did and it helped a lot!) but they come dull compared to the fiskars. The sheath/belt holder on the roughneck is terrible also. My fiskars has no belt option but the protective plastic covering works extremely well. I agree with everything you stated in this video. Great job mate! I kinda did a boo boo on my fiskars though lol, when I re-sharpened it(first time sharpening a hatchet so user error the first time) I took the pointy ends off and its now rounded...I see that as a plus in a way, less of a pointed ends to stab my clumsy a** lol.

[@KuukkeliBushcraft]

Fiskars axes work great though I prefer a wooden handle, they are making axes now with wood but the same synthetic material beneath the head. Sounds like it might not be too strong to me, apart from being pointless. I think Fiskars are really good value for money. As for Roughneck I looked to see if you have them in America (as I get more viewers from the USA than anywhere else) and there were plenty but I couldn't find this particular model. I would expect the cover to be pretty poor for this kind of price, in fact I would expect to just have the rubber blade guard. Considering how close they are in price I think the Fiskars is far superior. The plastic cover works well, particularly good in a workshop or firewood shed where it can just be screwed to a wall, but the handle just gets in the way if you carry it in a backpack. The smaller x5 has a really nice little nylon cover with a belt loop that works really well but I think it is far too small for a camp axe. Thanks for watching Walt. Hope everything is going good over there.

[@WaltRevenJr]

Yea I have not seen that model but other ones are plenty here. Its like saws, in high end camping stores here in the city I see silky saws everywhere and am not a fan of them. The blades are flimsy and just feel meh to me, thats why I got my bahco laplander saw...hands down the best one I have ever owned and the handle is amazingly grippy and feels good. My buddy has a silky and yea it saw faster but the blades on his dont last no where near as long as the bahco's do plus its a really flimsy blade that likes to get stuck in wood a lot...maybe just the model he has who knows lol. All is ok, could be better could be worst. Hope your week has been well mate! Oh and beasleys newest thing, now when your video pulls up...the first thing the crazy beast does is jump in my lap in the computer chair and starts wagging her tail. She truly knows your voice now no doubt lol

[@GG-im1cb]

This vid was exactly what I was after as I’m looking for a budget hand axe and my choices were largely between the roughneck, the X7 and the Wilkinson sword (X7 look a like). I prefer the aesthetics of the roughneck, however you can clearly see that the X7 is far better balanced which in turn makes it more precise. If i got the Roughneck I’d be the tempted to flatten the curve on the top of the axe head. This would obviously reduce the blade size slightly, however for me the head looks a little too big and top heavy, and by reducing its mass a little would hopefully balance the axe a little better. 👍🏻

[@KuukkeliBushcraft]

The X7 is a great little tool. In general with cheap axes you have to put a bit of work in (wich can be rather satisfying). Reducing the head may make it less cumbersome. I remember doing quite a bit of work on the edge on this axe. Thanks for watching, glad you liked the video.

[@user-vi6wf4gh9x]

Greetings mon from a fellow Lancastrian 🌹. I'm looking at a few hatchets and I really like the look of this one but I know nothing about modifying and customising blades etc so I think I'll go for a more expensive option that requires less work. Cheers for the video.

[@KuukkeliBushcraft]

Good morning. Fiskars axes come pretty sharp and ready to use and can be found quite cheap. Of course if you want to spend a lot of money Gransfors come like a razor. Thanks for watching mate.

[@sam1lee]

Thank you mate, good video

[@KuukkeliBushcraft]

Thank you very much Sam, really pleased that you liked it.

[@drnh4444]

That, my friend, was a really nice video. Made my mind up for the Fiskars. Question. Is the axe considered as an offensive weapon here in the UK? I want to get some branches and twigs from my local woods but not sure what the law is carrying it in public... In a backpack of course, not open and in display

[@KuukkeliBushcraft]

Yes an axe is considered an offence weapon in the UK. Of course if you can prove you have a valid reason to have it its fine. I think the things you need to bear in mind is how likely are you to be searched by the police, how well can you explain yourself and do you have permission to be in the woods. If it is private property that counts as armed Trespass which is a very serious offence. Fiskars is an excellent choice by the way and if you are also carrying half finished carving projects, maybe a firebox or other bushcraft related items the police are probably likely to believe you. Of course it is a risk. Glad you liked the video mate. All the best Tim

[@drnh4444]

@@KuukkeliBushcraft thanks Tim. It's a public access woods, very local to my house. The likelihood is very slim to be fair. If I did get stopped it would be coming out of the woods with a bundle of branches lol not just swinging an axe for the sake of it. Thanks buddy. Just managed to buy one from ebay. Brand new for £23.50 Inc p+p which is a bargain to be honest. They're all about £35 on there so snapped this one up. Thanks again buddy.... 👍👍

[@KuukkeliBushcraft]

@@drnh4444 your very welcome mate.

[@TRPufnStuf]

Fiskars outperformed for sure but for the price... Definitely need a better sheath. Hey. What kind of pants are you wearing in this video?

[@KuukkeliBushcraft]

The pants are Fjellraven Barents, as worn by pretty much everyone in Scandinavia. Pretty comfortable and hard-wearing. Yes the Fiskars won by a mile. Thanks for watching mate.

[@daveogle3614]

£20 Amazon, got one and very pleased.

[@KuukkeliBushcraft]

Glad you are pleased with your purchase. Really a nice axe for the price in my opinion. Thanks for watching mate.

[@markjust86]

Hey dude, i know this is 2 years old so you might not remember but did you sharpen the roughneck before this review?

[@KuukkeliBushcraft]

I don't think I did but can't remember for sure. These kind of cheap axes do generally come pretty dull but I think this one wasn't too bad. I did reprofile the edge later. I also filmed it as part of a follow up video that never got finished. It is a nice little axe for the price. Thanks for watching buddy.

[@markjust86]

@@KuukkeliBushcraft I just went to screwfix to buy one, they didn't have any in stock so I bought their £14.99 forge steel one (900g 50cm). It is dull as hell but still gets through a 4 inch bit of ash in about 6/7 swings. I'm gonna sharpen it and reprofile it because it is a weird shape and then see how it does.

[@JohnnyJuke]

Lizzy Borden would have been proud to have either of these axe's!

[@KuukkeliBushcraft]

One in each hand, chopping people up with maximum efficiency. Unless you mean the band, they have more hands. Thanks for watching mate.

[@Cliff_Burton1986]

The rubber thing is to help with over striking but I don’t think it would do anything

[@KuukkeliBushcraft]

I think you would have to have a very strange axe technique for that thing to be useful against overstrike 😂. I really can't think what else it would be there for though. Thanks for watching my freind. Hope you have a very happy new year.

[@-_-2429]

What did you use to sharpen it

[@KuukkeliBushcraft]

I used a flap disk on an angle grinder. Thanks for watching, have a fantastic day.

[@magicswift9713]

Did he say for chopping dog meat?

[@KuukkeliBushcraft]

🤣Probably, I can't remember what exactly I said in this video. I work in the dog sledding industry. I do often use an axe for chopping frozen blocks of meat into portions for dogs. It's meat for dogs rather than dog meat.

[@magicswift9713]

@@KuukkeliBushcraft thank the fucken lord mate you don’t kill dogs that’s made my day thanks for the review I’m purchasing this hatchet 🪓

[@KuukkeliBushcraft]

@@magicswift9713 thanks for watching mate.

[@АлекСАШКА-ь9б]

Хороший обзор , хороший топор, брат!