Today, the family spent most of the morning and afternoon in the garden enjoying lunch by the rocket stove and BBQ. The more we do it the more we enjoy it. As we were running out of wood, I went in the shed to pick up some old logs I've picked up from the neighbourhood couple of years ago. They were between 25 and 35 cm in diameter and needed to be split into smaller pieces in order to fit in the rocket stove. So went and fetch my Fiskars X7 hatchet. It's about 38 cm long and weights around 700 grams. The steel blade is protected by just black paint and would wear out pretty quickly. I've never owned a hatchet or axe before this one, it was recommended to me by a guy in the hardware store and before buying it few months ago, I quickly checked reviews online and they were good and then my friend told me he loves Fiskars gardening tools and reckon they are an amazing brand.
The Fiskars X7 is very lightweight, the handle is made of composite material that does feel as great as a wooden handle but is still OK and fits well. The whole hatchet is well balanced. I managed to split three good size logs with it by starting on the edge and slow work it into the centre. However, the combo Fiskars X7 and myself (I'm not the kind of strong person lol) met our limits when I got to those logs that have three nodes. I spent ages trying all angles, turning the log upside down but nothing, I could not split the log at all. My wife said it needed a larger axe, so I took that as a permission to go buy a new toy 🤣🤣🤣.
After our lunch, my wife and I did a bit of gardening, she went weeding an area of the garden and transplanted her mustard green seedlings while my son and I transpotted the Valerian from the tiny pot into a root pouch.
At around 5pm, I took my son to Bunnings and bought some charcoal for the BBQ and we spent a while testing splitting axes and I settled for the Fiskars X21. I tried almost all the axes the hardware store had in stock but the Fiskars X21 was the only one that felt well in my hands. Traditional axes were way too heavy for my little body, especially the head piece. I felt like I could fall backwards by just lifting it above my head lol. The X21, again, felt very well balanced when held one hand at the end of the handle and one hand about mid-way, and when swinging the axe to cut, I would slide the upper hand down towards the end of the handle to generate more energy. I tested the X27 which is the largest model and although it still felt good and balanced, I decided that it was overkill for what I needed and the extra weight would just be an inconvenience for my type of use.
The Fiskars X21 is about 77 cm long and 2.50 kg. That's about double the length of the X7 and 3 and a half times more heavy but it is well balanced and does feel that heavy.
Back home, I went in the backyard to try out the new toy and the three-node logs were no match for the X21, in just a few chops I now have more fire wood for next week!
The X7 is good at chopping due to the slim profile of its blade while the X21 is better at splitting because it has a wider bevel as you can see in the two shots below. The X21 still has a slim entry point allowing it to penetrate the wood quicker, the blade then widens much more than the X7. This and the extra weight and handle length makes it a breeze to split logs. I can't test taking down trees with it but there are videos out there that show that.
The Fiskars X7 costs A$65 and the X21 costs A$99, they are not cheap but not that expensive either. So far so good, I'm very please with their quality and effectiveness and the 25 years warranty is a bonus (that is if I can find where I put that purchase receipt for the X7!!!).
Previously on my Ulog:
- ULOG 014 - IMPORTANT: Only few hours left to get STEEM listed on Netcoins!
- ULOG 013 - TGIF
- ULOG 112 - Restaurant Review: de Pho in Lemon Grove food court in Chatswood
- ULOG 111 - ELAmental's Earth Deed of the Day - Growing your own food organically
- ULOG 110 - Short garden update
- A little video tour of some of my compost worm bins
- ULOG 108 - Thyme Macro Photography
- ULOG 106 - Homemade Mulberry Jam from homegrown trees
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