I love your videos and I’m not trying to be rude but there are two types of axes chopping and splitting and the Estwing is more chopping for chopping trees and the Dewalt is for splitting wood not chopping so you really can’t compare them so in the splitting side yes Dewalt won but in the chopping side Estwing won.

I really like the Sportsman. It's evident immediately in its' profile that it's a knife like slicer rather than a splitter. They're very useful in game processing, carving/shaping/hewing , & limbing type tasks. They're also great companions when splitting hydraulically. Likewise for their 26" camp axe. It's an excellent hard use "shit detail" tool. For cutting hunting trails, limbing, saplings, roots. Adjusting a campfire, various hammering tasks e.t.c... it's my preferred tool. Great for landscaping and I've even used her to great effect on occasion at various construction jobsites. They're admittedly somewhat niche tools, but within their medium duty "slicing" niche, they're quite excellent. Like a machete/bolo/parang for northeastern woods. I personally almost never split kindling & if I was tasked to do a significant amount of it, I strongly prefer batonning with a large knife. Nice video showcasing how some common hatchets differ. Glad to see Dewalt stand behind their products as well too.

You recommend the one that needed to be warrantied😮😮

Estwing's dont die, they multiply. I've got one from 30 years ago. I've got my father's estwing hammers and they're still good.

The Estwing is "cool" in a sense. I always wanted one as a kid and finally got one when I was older. And of course as you say the Estwing really sucks as a tool! Way to thin to split and bad geometry. But if you could time-travel back to the Bronze Age with a wheelbarrow load of them you'd be like a god!😂 It would be a superb fighting ax. 💪 To me the Fiskars is easily the best of them from performance/value standpoint. Obviously the GB is a great one but I don't feel they're worth the money (at least for me) as I don't find axes in generally be as useful as a saw.

@lastbesttool

2 жыл бұрын

I like to give this leather handled Estwing hatchets as gifts to those who will likely not use them much. For those friends who will use the tools, I prefer to refurbish old axes and hatchets by polishing, painting and sharpening the heads and hanging a new quality handle. I can pick up a $5 axe head and a $20 handle and an hour or two later have a beautiful vintage tool that will last another generation.

@robbabcock_

2 жыл бұрын

@@lastbesttool True. If you can find a nice vintage American one they're very good. Just a bit of work and TLC.

Hello again Doc Thank you for another Great Video. Don't usually need an axe. But thank you for a Refresher training. Lol, it's been a long time since I was a Boy Scout. Again thank you

Grip tape makes a nice handle wrap. I'd use that to re-cover the DeWalt.

I have a ball pein made by the Maverick Hammer Co in Chicago, I'm guessing shortly after WWII, with an Estwing like leather handle. It aged beautifully. I'm not a big Estwing fan, but I do like the leather.

Where are the Hart and DeWalt hatchets made?

Seems more "splitter" minded like the fiskars and hart stuff than a "cutter" like the estwing. Thick boy.

That seems like a fairly nice budget hatchet. The profile looks just right the only thing I would worry about is the quality of steel. However, their is no finer axe made for use on wood than the Gransfors.

@lastbesttool

2 жыл бұрын

I've found the steel is easy to sharpen and thus does not hold an edge as long. The Estwing does better at holding the edge, but that doesn't make up for the geometry. I consider a hatchet like the Dewalt as truly a campers hatchet that just gets used for everything by everyone. No soft treatment here, and nothing that cannot be fixed with tape and a file. High quality like the GB should remain in more talented hands simply because the better performance will be lost on most, and the features of the GB require attention and care to operate both safely and continuously. Like many tools, they are miracle workers in the right hands, and boat anchors in others. So starting out closer to the boat anchor side releases stress and provides a great learning platform for those just learning the skills.

What a load of BS . Estwing is the king of American hatchets and tools across the globe .

Estwing fireside friend, last you for life. Looks at a piece of wood and it splits in 2 😂

@lastbesttool

Жыл бұрын

kzread.info/dash/bejne/iIaEptmtoZi1l7g.html

I think Id still spend the money and get the gransfors bruks myself. Really leaning that way.

Where is it made?

@lastbesttool

2 жыл бұрын

I’ll check. I believe it is either Vietnam or China.

@lastbesttool

2 жыл бұрын

Double checked. Taiwan.

@jimmyf1312

2 жыл бұрын

@@lastbesttool thanks for checking

Why do you need so many of them?

Estwing has been around 100 years this year and that hatchet will probably out last every hatchet you have on the table. No disrespect everyone is entitled to an opinion but it looks like you've used them tools very little except for the cheap dewalt

Milwaukee is waiting to release in 24VOLTS!

...USA made, comes sharp and doesn't fall apart....sorry...but no contest for the price.

Definitely not an est wing killer. Est wing is way better steel!

apart from the dewalt, i have all of those except the fiskars went missing.

$20 now at HD.

@ianjay4596

2 жыл бұрын

Saw it and bought 1. I like it and now doing research on it. Wish milwaukee made 1

Yet the dewalt is the only one in tatters.

@lastbesttool

Жыл бұрын

I’ve given away so many Estwings over the years that mine is usually new.

I don't think it's very hard at all to " kill" an Estwing or a fiskars, but this thing looks like hot garbage and I would not have any faith in it at all. I would never want to use that handle and blister the hell out of my hands in no time at all.

@lastbesttool

2 жыл бұрын

It's the same handle as many of their hammers including their larger heavier framing hammers of which I have hours of barehanded use. Certainly not a custom fit, but I've had much worse like the Hart. As I mentioned to another commenter, high quality like the GB should remain in more talented hands simply because the better performance will be lost on most, and the features of the GB require attention and care to operate both safely and continuously. Like many tools, they are miracle workers in the right hands, and boat anchors in others. So starting out closer to the boat anchor side releases stress and provides a great learning platform for those just learning the skills.

@TylerSnyder305

2 жыл бұрын

@@lastbesttool I don't think an overly heavy poorly balanced hatchet that doesn't perform as efficiently as a proper traditional option is a safe tool. A hatchet is one of the most dangerous tools there is, if you miss you're likely to swing it right into your thigh. You want all the weight in the head and you want the right bit profile, these things go a long way in reducing the extra effort required which goes a long way towards safety. I'm not saying you need an expensive boutique tool like the GB ( I don't think they are as good in design as vintage American hatchets anyways ), but you don't need some overly heavy poorly designed crappy Chinese thing just because it's durable either. As far as I'm concerned that dewalt and the Hart were designed by people who don't really know anything about hatchets or using them.

@lastbesttool

2 жыл бұрын

@@TylerSnyder305 I completely agree with you. However, I think the goal posts have moved and the inexpensive aka junk hatchets have gotten much worse than even a few decades ago. Back then there were mostly wood and plastic handled Collins types that had cheap steel heads on sloppy handles. And of course there was the Coghlans camp axe with it's pipe-like handle. But today, there are stamped steel nearly flat tools sold as hatchets. They slip and skip off workpieces, and stab wood like a bayonet. Even worse are those with finger grooves that insist the hand ignore a proper grip. So in the big picture, or at least my big picture, this Dewalt is a solid choice unless one moves to a serious hatchet which will be more in the $50-80 range such as the Stihl or budget Swedish models. The Fiskars is also a good one but I have broken them. And lastly, it depends on where you live and the type and size of wood you are processing. Hardwoods are a completely different world than that soft pine I live around. The right tool for the job is important, but if carrying only one tool, it is essential to know the limits as well as the capabilities of the tool. In this case, the Dewalt is, in my opinion, much better than average for its price.

@TylerSnyder305

2 жыл бұрын

@@lastbesttool There have been inexpensive hatchet shaped knives for a very long time. Going back to at least the 40's with the imperial Husky combos, and Utica sportsman combos among many others, even buck had a combo which commands a very high collectors premium today. They were / are just game processing tools being marketed in such a non specific way that allowed many kids getting these sets to think of them as actual hatchets when they're not. Somehow it was purposely hidden or just not well communicated that they're just a cleaver of sorts and not a hatchet. I still say the dewalt is a poor choice compared to a more traditional option , and I feel that you do not have to move up to a much more expensive swedish or European make to get a much better tool than the dewalt. There is a definite middle ground between stuff like the dewalt and the expensive stuff. The $20 Vaughan half hatchet is an excellent unbeatable value with lots of utility in it , the Vaughan camp hatchet is not very pretty but very hard to beat , and the Council tool camp hatchet is another great option that's also a little better in fit and finish.

@TylerSnyder305

Жыл бұрын

@@mattyb5345 I'm not an axe snob, I just know that 150 years of logging and forestry tool innovation in north America havr brought upon us the epitome of axe design / technology. The best there has ever been that will never be bested, we have better metallurgy today but axes aren't needed enough for anyone to properly implement the design with any superior tool steel options. It's very easy to not know what you're missing, but the fiskars axes while functional just do not compare. You need to have experienced a good pre 1970's north American axe to see what you're missing though. Slim curved hickory haft with a large fawns foot, a substantial poll to balance the head out, an adequately thin bit to bite deeply, convex cheeks and a high centerline to pop chips and reduce sticking while splitting, a properly filed convex banana grind to give the bit an even thickness throughout. Btw in the us, most USFS agencies are using Council tool axes and pulaskis. I know of none using plastic handled axes because they need replaceable handles they need varying lengths of handles, and they need handles that aren't going to melt inna wild fire.

1ST.SNAP-ON TOOLS SINCE 1920 👍

@lastbesttool

2 жыл бұрын

DEWALT SINCE 1922! 👍