Felling axes: effortlessly felling trees

What makes a felling axe a felling axe?

A felling axe is built to fell trees and chop through thick wood, and its size shows it. The heads here weigh around 1,000 grams, compared with 600 grams for a hand axe, while the handles are around 66 cm long, compared with 35 cm. Three in four are 60 cm or longer; among hand axes, it is one in a hundred.

• Length does the work. A long handle gives the head speed, and that speed does the chopping. The trade-off is that you need room to swing it, and you cannot just pop it in your backpack.
• Head weight. Around a kilo is the middle ground here. A heavier head bites deeper into wet, fibrous wood; a lighter one is easier to swing for longer.
• Handle. Four in five have a handle made from American hickory: it absorbs the impact and can be replaced. That matters with an axe you swing using both hands.
• Chopping or splitting? A felling axe cuts across the grain; a splitting axe splits along it. They have different heads: if you are splitting firewood, a splitting axe is the better choice.

Hultafors, Gränsfors Bruk and Helko Werk account for most of the range here, with Swedish and German forged axes. Fiskars offers entry-level options with composite handles, while Autine and TOPS sit at the top end.

The best felling axes

Here you will find the best felling axes from brands such as Fiskars and Hultafors who wish to carry on the Scandinavian axe tradition. But also the exclusive hand-forged felling axes made by Autine can be found here.

Chopping like a pro

For centuries axes are used for many different tasks. It is an amazing tool, but also dangerous. It is therefore important to know how you need to use it. This is not only good to stay safe, with the right technique you can also efficiently get to work! It will save you time and energy. In our how to's you can read all about axes.

Take good care of your axe

In addition to using it properly, maintenance is key. First of all you need to take good care of the handle. Is the handle of your axe made from rubber or plastic? If so, your handle doesn't need a lot of maintenance. A wooden handle, however, does require a little more TLC. You can read all about how to maintain an axe in our topic about axe maintenance. Also make sure you sharpen your axe on a regular basis. How? Read all about it in our how to on how to sharpen an axe.