James grew up on an Ozarks farm where tools like axes and picks were still used in the daily routine and the blades of stockman's pocketknives served their original functions. Receiving his first pocketknife at age four he got it open by himself nearly a year later and spent his formative years wandering the woods with a succession of ever larger knives, a book of matches and a rifle.
A veteran of Vietnam, James also served in Alaska during a stint in the Army, receiving his first intensive culinary training by setting a record for extra KP at Ft. Richardson.
Settling in the Pacific Northwest after his discharge, James crewed on sailing yachts in local races, backpacked hundreds of miles of mountain trails in search of good trout fishing, and occasionally attended college.
His first serious job as a civilian resulted from answering a Seattle Post Intelligencer want ad requesting someone who could lift 120 pounds repeatedly and wasn't afraid of fire. James apprenticed to John Frazier -- the most knowledgeable traditional foundryman in North America at that time -- for the next six years.
Returning to the Ozarks James made his living by growing ginseng on a hand-terraced wooded hillside and selling handmade wood turnery, furniture, sculpture and architectural carvings. James harvested trees from his own land, processing logs into posts and beams and turnery billets with saws, axes, froes and planes. Since many tools he needed were no longer available, James built his own forge from a barbeque grill, a vacuum cleaner and a 55 gallon steel drum, found a chunk of railroad track for his first anvil, and taught himself blacksmithing -- creating his own knives and tools from scrap steel and sweat.
Changing economic pressures eventually forced James back to the restaurant industry in Branson, Missouri, and later to even more success as a maintenance engineer for one of Branson's largest condominium resorts. Finally escaping to Indiana, James now makes his living telling true stories as a freelance writer.
Although the Gransfors Bruks Outdoor Axe is a little smaller than the award-winning Hunter’s Axe, it’s certainly made well enough to do most of the same work. The Outdoor Axe even includes some of the features of the company’s best splitting axes. Choose this camp axe if you want an outdoorsman’s tool that does nearly everything well.
With a head weight of one pound and a handle length of 14-3/4 inches, this camp axe shaves more than half a pound off your pack load in comparison to the Hunter’s Axe. The hardened flat poll of the Outdoor Axe will drive tent stakes or nails, and the steel collar around the top of the handle protects the axe during splitting chores. A 2-1/2-inch-wide cutting edge on the axe bit is ground thin enough for use as a knife edge. Like the Hunter’s Axe, you can use this light hatchet for field dressing game, slicing through hide, and flaying skin from meat with light chopping strokes. Think of it more as a cutting tool than a chopping tool when it comes to working with bone. Use it with the same care you’d give the edge of a heavy knife.
Gransfors Bruks equips the Outdoor Axe with a handle of prime American hickory, shaped at the company’s factory in Sweden and matched carefully to the axe head. A leather sheath fully protects the cutting edge when not in use and allows you to stow the axe with other gear safely.
In every Gransfors Bruks axe, you’ll find the signs of hand workmanship, since the company eliminated unnecessary finishing from their manufacturing process decades ago. Other companies might cover up flaws with paint, but Gransfors Bruks rejects axes with flaws. Every axe is the work of one smith at the Gransfors Bruks forge and doesn’t receive the smith’s initials until it’s perfect.
James grew up on an Ozarks farm where tools like axes and picks were still used in the daily routine and the blades of stockman's pocketknives served their original functions. Receiving his first pocketknife at age four he got it open by himself nearly a year later and spent his formative years wandering the woods with a succession of ever larger knives, a book of matches and a rifle.
A veteran of Vietnam, James also served in Alaska during a stint in the Army, receiving his first intensive culinary training by setting a record for extra KP at Ft. Richardson.
Settling in the Pacific Northwest after his discharge, James crewed on sailing yachts in local races, backpacked hundreds of miles of mountain trails in search of good trout fishing, and occasionally attended college.
His first serious job as a civilian resulted from answering a Seattle Post Intelligencer want ad requesting someone who could lift 120 pounds repeatedly and wasn't afraid of fire. James apprenticed to John Frazier -- the most knowledgeable traditional foundryman in North America at that time -- for the next six years.
Returning to the Ozarks James made his living by growing ginseng on a hand-terraced wooded hillside and selling handmade wood turnery, furniture, sculpture and architectural carvings. James harvested trees from his own land, processing logs into posts and beams and turnery billets with saws, axes, froes and planes. Since many tools he needed were no longer available, James built his own forge from a barbeque grill, a vacuum cleaner and a 55 gallon steel drum, found a chunk of railroad track for his first anvil, and taught himself blacksmithing -- creating his own knives and tools from scrap steel and sweat.
Changing economic pressures eventually forced James back to the restaurant industry in Branson, Missouri, and later to even more success as a maintenance engineer for one of Branson's largest condominium resorts. Finally escaping to Indiana, James now makes his living telling true stories as a freelance writer.
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Although the Gransfors Bruks Outdoor Axe is a little smaller than the award-winning Hunter’s Axe, it’s certainly made well enough to do most of the same work. The Outdoor Axe even includes some of the features of the company’s best splitting axes. Choose this camp axe if you want an outdoorsman’s tool that does nearly everything well.
