What kinds of axe are there

This type of axe is likened to the felling axe because they have similar features. Both of them have two blades on their heads. One side has a sharp blade while the other is dull. Both blades have dissimilar uses but comes from one tool which is the double bit axe. If you need just an extra axe to use, this one is the best choice.

This type of axe is considered as the best axe for chopping wood and large logs. It is also known as the most useful type of axe as it can be used daily at home or outdoors, especially for campers and the like.

It has a super sharp yet thin blade and a handle of about 2ft. As the name suggests, this is used by firefighters during emergencies. They use them to break down doors and windows in fire incidents. Its features include having a long wooden or fiberglass handle and a red painted double bit axe head where one side is bladed and the other side has a pointed pick.

This one is also known as the all-purpose axe. As the name suggests, you would find it in most homes either as part of their outdoor tools or side by side with the fire extinguisher as emergency tools. Its features include having a chunky handle made from hickory wood and comes with a sharp tip blade.

When planning to buy one, always remember that a well-balanced hatchet means faster and accurate output. This can be used for chopping and splitting logs. This type of axe is best identified for the square pieces it produces. It is specifically designed to make round logs squared and is very useful among furniture makers. It has multi-shaped, flattened blades that are in parallel with the handle.

It also has a slight grip for controlling. It is very useful to them as this tool helps them break through hard topsoil, chop bulky roots and plunge small shrubs. Its features include having a double-sided axe head with pick and a flat blade on each side making it very ideal in gardening activities. This type of axe is similar to a Dayton axe as it has the same axe head pattern and color but has a shorter handle.

As the name suggests, it is used by miners in mining copper ore and other minerals and is also advisable to have one at home as it can be very helpful for projects that need to be finished in small spaces.

It comes with a hatchet-style head with an added notch. It is best for pulling out nails featuring a short handle with a shock absorbent grip suited for hours of work. This is best used to maintain roofs. This type of axe is a heavy one. It has a hefty wedge-shaped head which is sharp on its ends and a blunt edge on the other. It is primarily used in splitting woods along the grain. When using this tool, you have to remember to be sparing when it comes to side swinging as you might not control your balance as it is very heavy in nature.

They are categorized as such because these axes here in this list are specifically designed for rescue and general survival in the outdoors. Aside from these functions, they can also be used for other purposes. This type of axe is primarily used by pilots in a rescue mission. It is designed to cut through walls, windows, and obstacles which hinders them to save victims of a crash. It is in hatched size and comes with a hatchet style axe head which is likened to a hammerhead, short pick, nail claw or pry bar.

It is very lightweight in nature but is long lasting made of a strong steel or titanium. This type of axe is specially used in tree projects. It has a very large and strong head which is made in solid carbon steel, and is heavy so use it sparingly when swinging it. The main function of this axe, as the name implies, is best used for cutting down thick tree branches, fallen trees and all other heavy-duty splitting tasks.

Contrary to its name, this one really originated in Spain and the south of France. However, when the New World program took place, it was one of the main trade products introduced to Native Americans living along the Hudson Bay, hence, the name. In the events that followed, this axe became embedded in the Native American culture, using it primarily in chopping and in light splitting.

Their main features include a heavy, forged head, a steel wedge, and wooden handle. This one is nimbler compared to the axes on this list.

As the name suggests, this one is more lightweight and compact since they are used for basic tactical training. The style of tactical axes takes from the look of traditional tomahawks.

They can come as double-bit with a sharp blade in either sickle, pick or hammerhead form. It also comes with a stable grip. Axes are very important vestiges of war. They were specifically forged for close range combat. They are usually lightweight and compact.

Some are also very unique, with special features to be more efficient in battles. This one is truly a sight to behold not only because of its wartime charm but also because you would not imagine an axe and a pistol in one. To be fair, it is more of a pistol than an axe.

It was invented by the Germans for close combat. The blade and pistol body are made of zinc cast metal and the handle is of European hardwood. This was the most common close combat tool in Europe in the It is identifiable for its curved blade, extending up to the lower ends of the handle.

As the name implies, this one was developed for close combat battles. They can come in various shapes and sizes but they usually come as small ones since they are made to be thrown using one hand. And if you need to swing it with more power, you can easily hold it with two hands too.

Felling axes also usually have wide, slightly curved bits that provide a longer cutting edge and allow the axe to dig deep into the wood and take big bites out of it. Axes meant exclusively for felling also tend to have a more concave shape also referred to as having thinner cheeks so that the bit can penetrate deeper and more easily into the wood. Felling axehead patterns that are also used to split wood — such as the Michigan axe pattern — would have slightly more concave shapes or fatter cheeks.

Finally, felling axes in the New World — the United States and Canada — were and are larger and heavier than axes used for felling in Europe, as hardwoods such as maple, oak, hickory and Douglas fir officially a softwood, but harder than some hardwoods and others were and are more widespread in North America including Mexico than in Europe, where softwood species such as pine and European firs dominated in forestry.

Dayton pattern axeheads are named after Dayton, Ohio. These are full-sized felling axes that were and maybe still are used to fell hardwood trees that you would build your home out of. Unlike Hudson Bay axeheads, with their 2-pound weight, Dayton axeheads usually weigh starting from 3.

The Michigan axe pattern is similar to the Dayton pattern, but with a more rounded poll end and thicker or fatter cheeks that made it suitable to use as a splitting axe in addition to felling.

Michigan axes had wide bits good for biting deeper into wood and the toe and heel or top and bottom tips of the edge were slightly rounded, which helped prevent the cutting edge from chipping when swung into the often frozen and just as often knotty pine wood widespread in Michigan.

This gives more contact between the axehead and the handle and improves stability. The Jersey axe pattern, just like the Michigan pattern, is still popular nowadays in modern axes, which says something about its effectiveness.

Jersey pattern axes also often had bevels forged or grinded into the cheeks to reduce friction and the axe getting stuck in wood when bucking cutting up into sections felled trees or splitting wood. Swampers cleared brush before fellers got to work and made logging roads and trails in the forests. They are often large enough to fell and limb trees, but usually not as large as true felling axes.

This is because portability is important for a woodsman walking for several miles or days, with other survival essentials, supplies, and tools in his pack. He added an adze edge to the poll side of the axehead, so that forest rangers and firefighters battling against forest fires could use the axe to dig up lines of earth to block a fire from spreading, as well as to use as a rescue tool in case anyone was trapped under debris or earth.

It became very popular for fighting forest fires. This is for breaking through doors and walls, as well as for moving debris.

It works better for breaking through obstacles as all the force of the swing is concentrated in the narrow tip of the pick, instead of distributed along the edge of the axe.

Check out my roundup of the best pulaski axes by clicking here. They often have a prominent beard and a finger notch to allow the user to wield choke up their grip and wield it with precise control. They are lighter and smaller than hatchets and are therefore easier to carry around. They are multifunctional, able to be used for a range of bushcraft activities. Tomahawks are also popular for use in knife throwing competitions, where they have their own category.

Traditionally, both sides of the head would be a pick, though in modern pickaxes, one side of the head will be a pointed pick, and the other side is usually a chisel. The pick end will sometimes have a curve to it or may be completely straight.

A pickaxe is a useful garden and landscaping tool, used mostly for breaking up hard soil, rocks, or concrete, while the chisel is commonly used to pry open gaps between rocks or splits in the earth.

The chisel also serves as a weight to balance out the axe, and the added weight increases the momentum of the pick when it is swung. The roofing axe has two heads on either side of the handle.

One head is a sharp blade that is used for cutting roof shingles. The other head is a hammer, which is for pounding in roofing nails when fixing shingles to the roof. Roofing axes also have an additional feature, in the form of a node on the sharp blade side. This node is a shingle gauge, which can be used by hooking it over the front face of the shingle below the one you are setting, with the hammer head pointing upwards.

The next shingle should sit up against the hammer head, giving you evenly placed rows of shingle. An ordinary axe would not work well to skin an animal, as the straight poll with sharp corners is likely to inadvertently damage the animal hide. The original throwing axe was used by foot soldiers in the middle ages as a weapon in battle, which was thrown at an opponent to cause fatal damage.

In recent years, axe throwing has been introduced as a competitive sport that is growing in popularity. The axes used in this sport can vary in type and design, but their main feature is that they need to be incredibly durable and sturdy so that they can cope with the pressure they are put under from numerous throws.

The handle of a throwing axe will need to measure a certain length in order to meet the requirements set by the league or federation, which is hosting the sport.

You can get different axes for throwing depending on your level in the sport, for example, beginner to intermediate axes, or more professional axes for those more experienced in axe throwing.

These axes vary in price range, though typically, the more you spend, the better quality of axe you will receive. A crash axe is an emergency tool that is typically used in the event of an aircraft crash landing. These axes are a handheld tool with a short handle and a very sharp smooth, or serrated blade.

The blade will need to be able to slice through sheet metal in order to gain access to the aircraft from the outside or to cut a hole in the aircraft from the inside to create an exit if other exits are blocked. A crash axe can also pry gaps open and chop interior walls and overhead cabinets.

A crash axe must be carried in the cockpit or every aircraft which has 20 or more passenger seats in case of an emergency. Some types of crash axe have a notch upon the blade, which can be used to hook onto sheet metal, while others may have a separate head with a pick on it. These types of axes are typically made entirely from metal and are not commonly owned by anyone outside of the emergency services.

An adze is technically any hand tool that has a sharp cutting blade, but the original adze dates back to the Stone Age.

These ancient tools are generally used for woodwork, to carve and smooth out wood. The blade of an adze is set at right angles and is very sharp to carry out refined and detailed carpentry. There are many types of adze, but they can be categorized into two different groups, hand adzes and foot adzes.

There are two distinguishing features about this type of axe: the handle of the axe is about two feet long, and the head weighs about two and a half pounds. The blade is thin, flat and sharp.

The felling axe is swung sideways at the tree and is designed to cut through the grain, not with the grain like a maul. The splitting maul is the axe of choice for that job. The head of a splitting maul is thick and heavy.

It can weigh as much as twelve pounds but must are nowhere near this weight. The splitting maul is swung down at the log in the direction of the grain. The weight helps force it through the wood and the thickness of the axe head keeps it from getting stuck.

They can be used to some degree, but the axe head is too light for chopping into the wood. Due to the light weight of the tomahawk, BATL advises against using these for throwing, as they can be more unpredictable than a hatchet. The double bit axe is the quintessential Paul Bunyan Axe. Today, few such axes are used for real work, but they are still commonly used for throwing in things such as Lumberjack Games.