A2400 27" Composite Multi-Purpose Axe

I bought this primarily for making leather sheaths, but I found this to be a very solidly made hatchet. I have a few examples from the other high-end Swedish forges, and there is no question that this Husqvarna doesn't quite have the same refinements as the options that are 2-3 times the price. That said, I think this is perhaps the best buy for the money without a doubt. I have done some research and it appears that this hatchet is made by the same forge that produces Wetterlings axes. It is unclear if the Swedish steel used in the Husqvarna is of the same quality, but my impression is that the steel is of very good quality. The hatchet does not arrive razor sharp like you might see on a higher priced brand, but it did come with a good working edge that can easily be cleaned up with minimal effort if you so desire. Without touching up the edge I easily split some oak firewood that had a knot in it. The hatchet made easy work of it and cut through the knot and curved grain with no problem. The edge also remained sharp. There is also enough weight to the head to make chopping easier, although some may find that the shape of the bit isn't the best for finer work. This hatchet is fitted with a nicely profiled hickory handle that is attached to the head using a wooden wedge and round metal wedge. The addition of the metal wedge is probably overkill, but I think it's a great detail, especially at this price point. The handle on my specimen came with a tight and straight grain and the orientation was only slightly on an angle to the head of the hatchet. The only gripe I have is that the handle is a bit thick where it meets the head, so holding the hatchet close to the blade for finer work is a little less comfortable than on some other hatchets I own. Based on the blade profile, the grind, the weight of the head, and the shape of the handle, you definitely get a hatchet that will handle chopping and splitting like a champ, which frankly is the primary function for a camp hatchet. The hatchet came with a simple leather blade cover that cannot be used as a belt sheath, but at least there is something to protect the edge from being damaged should it inadvertently strike your exposed flesh and bone. Summarizing all of this, I think it's easy for me to say that this Husqvarna may very well be the best buy out there for a hatchet at this price point. If you aren't keen to spend 2-3 times the price for one of the high end brands, I really think you will find this one to be an amazing value for a very well made hatchet.

First impressions of this axe are very impressive. This is the first high quality axe I have ever purchased. My previous experience was with cheep easily chipped and damaged camp axes. I read many reviews and decided this axe was the best value, for the price, to fulfill a well rounded assortment of bushcraft and survival needs. My order was delivered on time, was packaged completely wrapped in bubble wrap and totally immersed in air pocket plastic cushioning. It arrived in perfect condition. The finish of this axe totally exceeded my expectations, many have commented on deep grind marks that needed re-filing etc. Not sure if Husqvarna has stepped up their quality control in response to this or if I was just one of the lucky few, but mine is seemingly flawless. Very smooth even grind on both sides, not polished to a mirror sheen, more like a brushed stainless look. I checked the dimensions to see how accurate the description was. Mine is as follows: Head length 6 3/4'', Blade length 4 1/8'', Poll length 2 1/4'', Thickest part of the head 1'', Overall length 20 1/2'', Handle length 17 1/2''. I don't have a scale sensitive enough to give me a reading for the weight but I find the weight to be comfortable when gripped regularly with two hands, as well as when choked up on the grip with one hand behind the blade. I wasn't sure exactly what to expect the blade profile to be. Some pictures show a very strait blade, some show one with a slight convex. Mine is almost completely strait, with just the slightest amount of even curving towards the toe and heel. I plan on using it for light chopping/ splitting as well as a wide variety of carving and bushcraft uses. Right out of the box I tried the paper cutting test to see how sharp it is and it went through very easily. I would say its not razor sharp, but probably not far off. Its definitely way sharper than your average hardware store axe. I ordered a Lansky stone with Lansky honing oil just in case it needed further sharpening. The handle is hung very secure and the grain is in proper alignment with the blade. I am a leather worker and assumed I would be making my own sheath. It is very rare to see decent leather these days in mass produced products. The oil tanned leather used to make this sheath is exactly what I would have used had I made it myself! Its thick, durable, stayed easily on the blade, and even the rivets used to hold it together are better quality than any I would normally be able to find for my own projects. I read one review that described the warning diagrams on the handle as saying "it was not supposed to be used as a hammer". This concerned me because the use of the poll/hammer end of the axe was one of the reasons I ordered this particular one. I'm relieved to see the warning diagrams up close. They appear to be specifically discouraging using a maul to pound on the poll, as well as discouraging using the axe to pound on splitting wedges. As far as I know the vast majority of these types of axes, regardless of brand are not to be used in this way. The eye is not forged to take that kind of abuse and can be deformed under extreme stress. For lighter camp type hammering like tie down stakes etc, this axe should work as well as any other. Overall I would highly recommend this axe. I haven't seen any expensive Gransfors Bruks axes in person, but I've watched many videos and seen many photos. I seriously can't imagine they would be much, if at all, better than the condition this axe came in. Props to Husqvarna for putting out such a great product at such a reasonable price. If I buy another axe like a hatchet or forest axe, I'm going strait to Husqvarna again!!! And props to Amazon for they're excellent packaging and free shipping, as well as easy payment!

Last update; Finished.last three photos. 7 days ..sand hadle then added light boiled linseed oil daily. 1-2 day. Sanded blade down , finished From 600 to 2000 grit 3-4 day. Re sharpened blade with lanski axe sharpening puck 5-6 day. Arkansas stone edge to 2000 grain stone Last day - strop blade to Finnish and razor edge. It's razor sharp now with proper edge and nicely finished handle. Will make new sheath with my touch later. Will continue linseed oil monthly for year. Strop as needed. Wasn't hard to do just about 20 minutes or less daily to Finnish. It's as good as I will ever want it. Could be better but not by much. Second Update; added two photos after 3 days linseed oil and some work on blade. It's razor sharp now...I get a better shave with this axe than my razor. I will do 7 days of light coats of boil linseed oil and a bit of tweaking on the blade daily. Sanding, axe puck stone, then my 800 to 2000 Arkansas stone. First impression; As with everything we buy, some people are happy some .. not so. I did expect an axe I would have to tweak. I know a 170 to 250 buck axe would be better finnished. I just don't have 200 plus bucks for a gransfors bruks carving axe. So I got this guy for about 55 bucks. A good 4th or 5th of the price. I am working on the head now and have spent about 20 minutes sanding it down today and putting the first coat of boiled linseed oil on it. After some of the reviews, I expected a lot worse. The handle was nice, it's on the head nice;y. I may change it to a fancy 12 inch one later but it nice as is. Here are a few pics. I will add the head pics after I work on it. Take a look at how the handle is in the head. No breaks, looks tight and fit. Also the grain looks great to me. Again, I will sow the edge after I am done with it. It's going to be razor sharp and should look and preform very good. I plan on working on it for about a week, a little every evening after work. But... I am impressed so far.sore, if I had 250 bucks to blow away on an axe I may have gotten the gransfors but then probably not. Oh, this axe will be for carving and going out for a day of bushcraft..stuff mainly. Not for backpacking, I know it's a bit large for me to trek with. I say if you're like me and don't have money to toss around, give this a loook.

This is a quality axe overall, and I would probably give it 5 stars for value if the head were finished just a little better or if it were about $20 cheaper. Mine was unevenly ground, and had a very sloppy sharpening job which wouldn't be a big deal for me as I expect some touch up on any new axes save Gransfors. My concern is that the edge - which should be completely bright, was not in some places, indicating that the heat treat may have been affected by the excessive heat of the sloppy sharpening job. I fixed the edge with just a little effort, but I'm concerned that those particular spots on the blade have been ruined. We'll see. If it holds up, then this is a very good value axe. I would also note that the head on the axe I received is not finished quite as well as the axe pictured. Again, not a big deal as the pictured axe is finished as one would expect directly from Hulks Bruk and this one is in a slightly more raw state, i.e. only ground bright right at the cutting edge. Expected since it's a bit cheaper than the Hulks branded one. I would give it 5 stars for the handle and the hang. It's a great hickory handle and the head is hung expertly. As far as functional usage for this 26" axe, it's in the same general category as the Gransfors Scandinavian Forest axe on the expensive end and the 24 or 25" Council Tool Hudson Bay 2-pounder with the sport utility finish. It's probably a better value than the Gransfors (granted, not as well finished) and not as good of a value as the Council, but you would probably be happy with any 3 of those listed and for slightly different reasons. This axe is just a tad beefier than the Gransfors in the handle and the cheeks, but this is still a slim-cheeked axe. It's "multipurpose" but really is a "forest axe" in that it's a great size for packing in the woods. It's a fantastic limbing axe but as a splitter, shouldn't be expected to take on big rounds, only as a camp splitter. It's great at felling smaller trees, particularly softwoods or softer hardwoods like poplar. Overall, a great bushcrafting, camp, or limbing axe, provided the heat treat on my blade holds up.

Short version: if you want to go backpacking with a small group of people, or on your own and don't mind a bit of weight, get this. It will be everything you want it to be, and it'll outlast you if you treat it right. I bought this at $58. Every other axe of comparable size and quality costs several times more. Long version: I grew up on a small farm and I have used many different axes and hatchets. I'm not a lumberjack but I have done my share of cutting and splitting, and I know my tools pretty well. This axe is slightly on the large side for limbing and one-handed use, but big enough for two-handed use to split wood. You can split dry, hard, very knotty wood up to about 6" diameter. Soft, nice wood probably up to about 10". In a pinch you can go a bit larger, but that's really pushing it. This is sold as a "carpenter's axe". What that means is that it has an extra wide and straight (less curved) blae, and it has a "notch" on the back side of the blade. The notch allows you to grip the handle very close to the blade, and use it to do quite precise work (like with a big cleaver or chisel). If all you want to do is limbing/splitting/cutting down small trees, then this won't be very useful, but it doesn't hurt either. What it also means is that it's actually a pretty good tool for whittling/making pointy sticks/cutting notches and stuff like that, which can come in handy when backpacking. I use this for backpacking in the California wilderness. Most backpackers that carry an axe choose a smaller tool, usually some sort of hatchet. Personally I don't think that small hatchets are very useful in the wilderness - while they're very good for limbing they are almost useless for splitting or cutting down a tree. This is the smallest axe that I would bring, because it is the smallest size that will allow you to do some actual "axe work" which you couldn't also do with a big knife. If I am very concerned about weight, I will go with a large knife instead and baton it to split wood. This is a good size for a small group of people - it allows you to split enough wood to have a good sized fire pretty quickly. It's probably a bit overkill for just one. This is a very high quality item. The head is made of forged steel and is easy to sharpen. The handle is of high quality and has a good shape. What am I saying, the handle has one of the best shapes I have ever seen on a tool. As far as maintenance goes, as long as you don't hack into rocks or hit the handle too often, sharpen it once in a while, don't let it rust too badly, and maybe even put some linseed oil onto the handle once a year, then this tool will easily outlast you.

This is a great hatchet for a great price. As far as I can tell, these are still made by Hults Bruk in Sweden, but sold by Husqvarna at 1/4 the price. Husky might be saving money by reducing quality control, but the issues I've seen are worth the steep discount since they don't affect the performance or longevity of the product. I think the weight is perfect but I don't plan on carrying it very far. It has enough length and heft to get some work done, but still fits in the camping gear like small hatchet. Smaller hatchets just aren't effective enough to make it worthwhile. It's too heavy for backpacking, but I stopped carrying hatchets in favor of a small folding saw, or nothing at all(except a good knife). This, like all hatchets of this design, shouldn't be used for heavy pounding, nor should one pound it through a log like a splitting maul. A solid steel hatchet, like an Estwing, might be more practical if you plan to use it that way. First, the good details: Mine came very sharp right out of the box, not quite shaving sharp, but close enough for a hatchet. A razor sharp edge doesn't last long when you're chopping anyway. It also had straight grain running the length of the handle (as much as possible with the curve of the handle). It's not an extremely tight grain, but better than you'd expect for the price. I should also point out that these issues aren't as important on a short handled hatchet as they are on a long handled axe. Most people won't be putting enough stress on a hatchet handle for grain patterns to make any difference, as long as the wood is good quality, which this seems to be. The bad: Not much. Mine came with a tiny burr at the very tip of the edge. I took it off with my fingernail, and a stone would remove any trace in about a second. I still haven't felt the need to do that. The grind on the edge isn't perfectly symmetrical, or uniform from bottom to top - it fades off toward the top corner, but that's just splitting hairs. It works perfectly as is and would only take a bit of careful sharpening to make it look perfect as well. The sheath is adequate for protecting the edge in a car. Mine won't fall off, but it could work its way off if you strapped the hatched to a backpack. I don't see a need to replace it. I considered paying ~$140+ for a Gransfors Bruk or Hults Bruk but I'm glad I didn't. I feel like I got a Hults at a great bargain. I'm sure there are details that make the other better, but at $35 I'm not afraid to let someone else use this, pound a tent stake, or just use it like the camping hatchet that it is. And it still gives me that great feeling of using a beautiful, quality product that most cheaper hatchets can't.

Perfection comes with a price tag. In my experience, there is a nice middle ground where you get the most bang for your investment. This hatchet hits that sweet spot perfectly. So what do you get for $42 and free shipping? My first impression mirrored most here: This is a rather well-built tool. The forging was left clean but with imperfections. No attempt was made to smooth out the rough spots left by the hand forging of the head. It has a very pleasing appearance, however, and was finished with an "acceptable" edge ground into the bit. I'm certain you could press this hatchet into service immediately out of the box, but you'll likely end up wishing you had put a better edge on it in the first place. After 20 or 30 minutes with a puck-type oil stone, the edge was more to my liking. Fortunately, it appears the steel used will hold an edge well, so a minor dressing now and again should keep you going. Next, the handle. This was the one area I didn't expect to need some TLC. While you certainly don't want a glass-smooth finish, this hatchet's handle had the approximate finish of a construction-grade 2x4 stud. I hit it with some medium-grit sandpaper to smooth out the snags and splinters, then cleaned up my dust and wiped it down with a blend of turpentine and boiled linseed oil. In my experience, this blend will soak into the wood better than boiled linseed oil alone, and leaves behind a nice protective coating. There were some positives with the handle, however. The grain of the hickory handle was straight and true, with no visible knots or imperfections. The handle was wedged nicely with a quality round metal wedge driven right in the center of the eye to lock everything together. Bottom line? For roughly twice the price of that cheap-o hatchet with a tubular steel handle on the shelf of the nearest big-box retailer, you get a hand-forged tool that should last a lifetime with proper care and maintenance. You'll need to do some work right out of the box to get a good edge on the bit and address the handle finish. When you're finished, though, you'll have a tool that is on par with some of the high-end hatchets that are twice or three times the price. And that, my friends, is a great value.

Let me preface my review with my "credentials": I am not a professional lumberJack, I am not an 'expert' on steel or blade design nor do I play one on the interwebs, I do not heat my home exclusively with firewood I process myself. What I am, however, is a serious and avid hiker, backpacker and rock climber. I spend most of my free time in the woods and enjoy camping and bushcraft passionately. So it is through that lens that I shall be reviewing this axe. That said, this axe is perfect (for me). The balance is absolutely phenomenal. Of course keep in mind that the only other axe I have to compare this to balance-wise is my Fiskars X15, which I also find to be a great axe, but weighted very bit-heavy (more like a traditional splitting axe than a forest axe). I love the thin bit geometry and was able to bring the edge to where I could shave bald spots in my leg with no effort in under ten minutes. The grain on the haft is very tight, and though not quite perfect is very straight at the head (where it counts). Speaking of the haft, it seemed to be completely unfinished. This was not an issue for me (I would have sanded the finish off to rid it of the ugly warning pictures on one side and the Husqvarna logo on the other anywho), but something worth noting. After cleaning it up at the head with a chisel and a thorough sanding I finished it with a few coats of boiled linseed oil at it is a thing of beauty. Likewise I immediately treated the bit guard with a few coats of mink oil as it too arrived rather dry it seemed. The actual size of this axe is perfect for me and the way I intend to use it. Nearly a half pound lighter than my Fiskars it thus packs quite easy on the back. Though too long to be carried inside my pack, this is not a problem for me, as: A, I prefer my axe strapped to the outside of my pack anywho, and B, the additional inches in the handle allow for a faster head velocity and thus a more powerful swing without the added ounces of a heavier head. In the end I simply can't think of any area in which this axe is lacking. Having never owned nor used a Gransfors Bruks I will not even venture a guess on how they compare. However, I will say this, I truly cannot think of any area of practical importance in which this axe can be substantively improved, so I cannot imagine what real advantage GB could bring to the table (other than possibly fit and finish) over this axe. So in conclusion I'll simply say, if you're looking for a fantastic axe for the campsite, bushcrafting or to take with you when you go hiking/backpacking this axe is perfect for you (or at least it is for me). Though you could easily spend more money, I'm not sure you could actually get a better axe for your purpose. Five star all the way!