AXE - Must Have
Having a good axe at the campsite is about much more than just chopping wood. An axe is a versatile, essential tool that impacts your warmth, safety, cooking, and overall campcraft. Don’t go to camp without being prepared.
Here are 3 primary benefits of having a good axe at your campsite:
1. Efficient Firewood Processing:
Splitting larger logs: While a saw is great for cutting logs to length, an axe (specifically a splitting axe or maul) is necessary to split those logs into manageable pieces that burn efficiently. Creating kindling: A smaller camp axe or hatchet allows you to safely “baton” or split small pieces of dry wood to get a fire started quickly, even in damp conditions.
2. Survival and Emergency Preparedness:
Reliability: Unlike folding saws or collapsible tools with moving parts, a solid axe is a one piece tool with no mechanical parts to fail.
Getting to dry wood: In wet weather, the outside of fallen wood is soaked. An axe allows you to chop away the wet outer layers to reach the dry wood in the center, ensuring you can still build a fire in an emergency.
3. Outdoor Cooking:
Preparing cooking wood: Certain woods are better for cooking over coals. An axe allows you to break down logs into uniform coals that provide consistent heat for dutch oven cooking or grilling over an open fire.