Is the Axe the Best Survival Tool?

It’s just another data point for you guys but the short answer is no. But Nutnfancy’s is not really anti-axe. There are situations for which an axe is well-suited. But I am realistic about how it rarely fits well into SURVIVAL AND BACKPACKING systems. Some armchair critics and car campers, sometimes inexperienced in backpacking, will tout the axe as a much better wood chopping and splitting tool than the survival knives I review and show in use. True, an axe is a capable tool as I show in this video. When wielded with skill it can chop effectively and it pairs of limbs with ease. But you’ll need a long handled version like this – Gerber Splitting Axe, #GB-42763, to minimize your work. Even then the axe is bulkier, heavier (4 lbs!), potentially more dangerous than a large survival blade, lacks the finesse to produce fine kindling, and its an inefficient use of your limited energy in a survival situation. Also its pretty much guaranteed that you wont have a large handled axe like this with you when you get stranded and/or youre miles into the backcountry. I have backpacked many hundreds of miles into various terrains and I see few backpackers, miles into the backcountry, porting around an axe of any kind. Theyre just too heavy and bulky (of course the Hot Shots use their Pulaski axes with good effect for trail-building, brush clearance, and fire suppression techniques but thats wilderness fire fighting). However, as I proven myself many times, a medium to large knife …