Bearded axes sure are nice for being able to choke up and do close work with them. Agreed, a soaking with Boiled Linseed Oil will help. I'd rough up the end with some sandpaper first though, just in case they varnished the whole handle and sealed up the fibers. Nice little ax, and it's Michael for the win with the splitting chore!!
I do have this axe and I utterly love it!! I use it as a throwing axe and a self defense weapon for my car. I love the weight and the shape of the axe head! Overall it’s a great axe!!
Thanks Mickael !! No matter what size and shape , an axe will always be on of the most important tools for the outdoors. I have a tendancy to make my own things out of my "resources" before buying new. I fitted a small axe head on a big and long handle just out of curiosity . It turned out to be very light weight but very powerfull due to the velocity produced by the long handle. I use it mainly to split firewood for my small camp stove, It has become my favorite axe. Thanks again for the video and take care mon ami!!
Hey Stéphane, SO true!! You can do everything with an axe! The old formula, if you double the velocity you quadruple the force, with the same mass! 👍 Long slim shaft, small head = POWER! 😄
Hey man, I was actually just looking into this today, how did the long handle work out for you? Think you could fell some small trees with the small head and long handle?
@@BjornUlfden I am using less energy and still getting alot of power from velocity. To be honest, I use mostly a folding saw to cut my trees but for removing branches from the trunk and splitting wood, this is still my favorite axe. It is also much lighter, I won't go back to a heavy axe. Try it you won't be dissapointed.
Nice little wood processing tool. Might check out the crkt chogan. I like it for a pack axe. You dont have to worry about the handle slipping out of the axe head. The blade beard isn't quite as long but it works just fine.
The one thing I would change on the Freye, is the handle. Its too short. But might be hard to change out, since it is a "Real" axe handle. I bought the Berserker, and changed to a 22 inch long handle, from the 19 inch long one. Makes a big difference, when your chopping and splitting wood.
I find 19"-22" is a good size for a mid size axe but it's a personal preference on the exact length 👍 For the weight of the Freyr's head I think the stock handle length works for me but I wouldn't mind another 250g added on the head.
Thanks and again, your filming expertise makes your videos a pleasure to watch. I think Fiskars makes a 17 and 23 inch small size splitters that are genuine splitting “axetes”. I really don’t like the plastic handles on Fiskars although they are incredibly durable. If you haven’t yet done so, perhaps a review on the new Fiskars wood handle products would be beneficial for your viewers. Also, would you be able to do a slow motion video that shows the axe going into the wood and the physics behind the split? Might be fun to see how different shaped heads work. Keep doing what you do !
I bought a crkt woodshawk tomahawk a while back to use for camping and to use as a carving axe. I had to re-profile the edge a little but I bought it with the intention of modifying it anyway. I would not recommend it to anyone who wanted a grab and go tool but if you don't mind fiddling with it they're great.
Indeed - I agree. If you have the time and skills a cheaper axe can be re-ground to out perform a more expensive axe in stock form. I like these little CRKT axes for the money they cost!
Well aspen isn't really hard to split. Manitoba maple, and willow can be a real pain as well as knotty pine or spruce. The Freyr does have a decent splitting edge on it but often the hafts come loose as the wood dries. Bang for the buck you really can't beat the Fiskars in Canada in my experience but they aren't nearly as visually appealing!
Wet Poplar (Aspen) can be a pain sometimes but I prefer spruce or pine as they split and burn way better but sometime you have to go with what you find 😄 Fiskars are the way go to axe if you want durability and I own a few. I personally prefer the wood handles especially when it gets really cold. Thanks for the great feedback! 👍
@@TheEmporiumOutdoors I love my wooden hafts! Over the years I have collected a few classic axes and restored them and I have more than a few heads waiting for attention one day from Walters to a SAW stamped Wetterlings that someone was angling to toss in the steel pile at my local dump. Thankfully the dump caretaker knows me and my axe addiction and interceded on my behalf on that one! It still needs attention but sadly the original haft can not be restored. I especially have a soft spot for the old school bus fire axes and am always on the hunt for them!
@@turtlewolfpack6061 Wow someone was throwing out axe heads in a dump pile 😬 You have a good friend with the caretaker for sure 😄 I love when people restore and fix things that other people call junk - Good for you! 👍
I was a little surprised too, as I know my Hultafors axe would have gotten stuck in the wet wood 🤷🏻♂️ CRKT don't seem to do any final sharpening for some reason 🤔
I always use boiled linseed oil for all wooden handles - Its a great product and cheap. I just used a regular drill around 3/8" and then used a chamfer bit to round the edges. A bit of light sanding will cover any scratches. I then used a flame from a propane torch to darken the wood to match around the new hole. It will then look factory 👍
If you don't have much cash, buy a good saw instead. It's, much better if you want to prep wood in the forest. You can split wood with a large knife, or cut a wood wedge with you saw 😏 and pound it into the round and split it if you need 👍
I'm not a big fan of the bearded axes but I like how you can choke up. And you're splitting some small pieces of wood don't blame you have to see how it works. That's a lot of work with a silky if you have to stick with small pieces. I've stuck to the east wing work with it all day. Grand Forest the limer doesn't stick but it wears your hands out good ax splitter instead of stick like the East wing. But I'm a 2X man tool for the job
Thanks for the feedback! If they were still available I would recommend the Wetterlings Bushman Axe, but they are now discontinued. This is by far my favourite axe for packing 👍
Yes we are having our Tools working for us , we keep them sharp an be care full thill do us for a life time ' man ne er has a nuf ropes or a sharp a nuf nife". Got text about update outings . Be safe for u and pups happy trials to yous. Arth
Give that axe a quick sharpen and it will be more capable than you think!! You can use a flap disk on a grinder to lightly get it sharp and then use a stone to finish it off. Its quick but be careful not to heat up the cutting face 👍
Every knife I've bought from crkt was sharp, and every axe has been horribly horribly dull, my woods chogan looked like it had never actually been sharpened from factory, 1/16th thick on the cutting edge, but they are amazing axes once you put that edge on them
Using an axe for splitting in the field is not efficient. You only need a 12 ounce head to fell the largest trees you will ever need, and you can split anything with improvised wooden wedges. I would never carry an axe that weighed more than maybe 20 ounces overall, completely unnecessary.
I respect your opinion but I disagree. If you are even considering felling a tree with an axe, that's super inefficient compared to a saw. When splitting with a wooden wedge, how did you make the wedge and what are you hitting it with? The best answer to those questions are...an axe 🤔 A small axe for splitting is probably the most efficient use of the tool in my opinion. I'd swap a fixed blade knife for a small axe and then use a small pocket knife instead to save weight.
@@TheEmporiumOutdoors A saw is extra weight and isn't necessary. A saw only makes sense if you aren't carrying an axe, I don't need both. If your axe is capable of splitting anything larger than small kindling then it's needlessly heavy. You're carrying that weight around at all times, when you could just make wedges as needed instead and that actually works better anyway. The best axes for backpacking and wilderness survival are Cold Steel tomahawks, there is no other tool on the market of any kind that have the same level of cutting power for a given weight. My frontier hawk only weighs 19 ounces with an 18" haft but can fell and section trees over 6" diameter so quickly and easily that a saw is not missed. Lightweight head on a long haft is the key to maximum cutting efficiency, as well as a long, thin bit that bites deep. Most conventional hatchets and pack axes are way too heavy and offer little advantage if you know how to create and use wedges.
@@nobodyatall7039 On this we will have to disagree - I'd take a silky bigboy over any axe, any day. Cutting wood is significantly easier with a saw vs an axe. And if you pick the right wood, you don't need to split most of it. But to each his own! Best of luck 👍
@@TheEmporiumOutdoors Saws are only more efficient under ideal conditions, dry lumber clamped to a workbench. When attacking gnarled blow down in various stages of natural seasoning and decay, saws have a strong tendency to bind and bend, and often cannot complete cuts close to the ground at all. Getting a decent pile of firewood in the woods without some kind of chopping tool is extremely frustrating. If you're going to carry a chopping tool, and you're skilled with it, then you don't even need a saw at all. At best the saw is useful for scoring the under sides of suspended limbs so you don't have to chop upside down to finish the cut, but that's not really a big deal. The silky Big Boy is over 14 ounces. That's a shit ton of weight for something I don't even need.
Bearded axes sure are nice for being able to choke up and do close work with them. Agreed, a soaking with Boiled Linseed Oil will help. I'd rough up the end with some sandpaper first though, just in case they varnished the whole handle and sealed up the fibers. Nice little ax, and it's Michael for the win with the splitting chore!!
It looks like they applied the finish to the fitted axe so I should be good! Linseed oil is my go to 😉Love the smell too! 😄
i was looking for someone to suggest what type of oil to use, so it was nice seeing this was the first comment to come up! thanks!
I do have this axe and I utterly love it!! I use it as a throwing axe and a self defense weapon for my car. I love the weight and the shape of the axe head! Overall it’s a great axe!!
Yes - I was also surprised how good this axe was for the look and costs of it. Very underestimated tool 👍
Nice one Michael...Good looking Camping Axe :-)
Thanks 👍
Nice video. Simple and objective.
Many thanks Mauro 👍
Good looking axe and review , thanks for sharing ,God bless !
Thanks, you too!
Thanks Mickael !! No matter what size and shape , an axe will always be on of the most important tools for the outdoors. I have a tendancy to make my own things out of my "resources" before buying new. I fitted a small axe head on a big and long handle just out of curiosity . It turned out to be very light weight but very powerfull due to the velocity produced by the long handle. I use it mainly to split firewood for my small camp stove, It has become my favorite axe. Thanks again for the video and take care mon ami!!
Hey Stéphane, SO true!! You can do everything with an axe! The old formula, if you double the velocity you quadruple the force, with the same mass! 👍 Long slim shaft, small head = POWER! 😄
@@TheEmporiumOutdoors Will the back end serve also as a hammer?
Hey man, I was actually just looking into this today, how did the long handle work out for you? Think you could fell some small trees with the small head and long handle?
@@BjornUlfden I am using less energy and still getting alot of power from velocity. To be honest, I use mostly a folding saw to cut my trees but for removing branches from the trunk and splitting wood, this is still my favorite axe. It is also much lighter, I won't go back to a heavy axe. Try it you won't be dissapointed.
@@stephanelachance6195 how did you go about getting a larger handle put on? And what length is yours?
Nice little wood processing tool. Might check out the crkt chogan. I like it for a pack axe. You dont have to worry about the handle slipping out of the axe head. The blade beard isn't quite as long but it works just fine.
Thanks John 👍 I'll check that out!
The one thing I would change on the Freye, is the handle. Its too short. But might be hard to change out, since it is a "Real" axe handle. I bought the Berserker, and changed to a 22 inch long handle, from the 19 inch long one. Makes a big difference, when your chopping and splitting wood.
I find 19"-22" is a good size for a mid size axe but it's a personal preference on the exact length 👍 For the weight of the Freyr's head I think the stock handle length works for me but I wouldn't mind another 250g added on the head.
I picked one up today for $60. Glad it was a good purchase.
$60!! Wow thats a good deal!! 👍
Thanks and again, your filming expertise makes your videos a pleasure to watch. I think Fiskars makes a 17 and 23 inch small size splitters that are genuine splitting “axetes”. I really don’t like the plastic handles on Fiskars although they are incredibly durable. If you haven’t yet done so, perhaps a review on the new Fiskars wood handle products would be beneficial for your viewers. Also, would you be able to do a slow motion video that shows the axe going into the wood and the physics behind the split? Might be fun to see how different shaped heads work. Keep doing what you do !
Great idea norm! 👍
I bought a crkt woodshawk tomahawk a while back to use for camping and to use as a carving axe. I had to re-profile the edge a little but I bought it with the intention of modifying it anyway. I would not recommend it to anyone who wanted a grab and go tool but if you don't mind fiddling with it they're great.
Indeed - I agree. If you have the time and skills a cheaper axe can be re-ground to out perform a more expensive axe in stock form. I like these little CRKT axes for the money they cost!
Nice little affordable hand axe. It's always the low cost and always there tool, that gets used more than the expensive one hanging up oiled at home.
Very true! 👍
Can you use the backside of the blade as a hammer? I can’t tell of the angle on any pictures.
Yes you can - another feature I always look for in a compact axe 👍
All I have is a Fiskars X7 and a Cold Steel Frontier Hawk. I definitely like the looks of the bearded axe.
Awesome! The Fiskars X7 is legendary for durability! 👍
Oh my that Wetterlings is a thing of beauty!!!! Probably one of the best "Bushcraft axes" ever made.
Hi Steve - Yup, I love it and I have no idea why they stopped making it....🤔
Great video and very helpful, thank you! Between this and the Skeggox, which would you recommend?
Personally - I'm not a fan of the Skeggox handle so I would go with the Freyr for camping and bushcraft 👍
Well aspen isn't really hard to split. Manitoba maple, and willow can be a real pain as well as knotty pine or spruce. The Freyr does have a decent splitting edge on it but often the hafts come loose as the wood dries. Bang for the buck you really can't beat the Fiskars in Canada in my experience but they aren't nearly as visually appealing!
Wet Poplar (Aspen) can be a pain sometimes but I prefer spruce or pine as they split and burn way better but sometime you have to go with what you find 😄 Fiskars are the way go to axe if you want durability and I own a few. I personally prefer the wood handles especially when it gets really cold. Thanks for the great feedback! 👍
@@TheEmporiumOutdoors I love my wooden hafts! Over the years I have collected a few classic axes and restored them and I have more than a few heads waiting for attention one day from Walters to a SAW stamped Wetterlings that someone was angling to toss in the steel pile at my local dump. Thankfully the dump caretaker knows me and my axe addiction and interceded on my behalf on that one!
It still needs attention but sadly the original haft can not be restored.
I especially have a soft spot for the old school bus fire axes and am always on the hunt for them!
@@turtlewolfpack6061 Wow someone was throwing out axe heads in a dump pile 😬 You have a good friend with the caretaker for sure 😄 I love when people restore and fix things that other people call junk - Good for you! 👍
I saw another video mentioning the angled hammer back side wasn't very effective because of the angle and I wondered what you thought about it?
If you know how to use a hammer, you can use this axe as a hammer. There are no issues 👍
I’m surprised it splits as well as it does even after sharpening. I have a CRKT tomahawk that came duller than a butter knife.
I was a little surprised too, as I know my Hultafors axe would have gotten stuck in the wet wood 🤷🏻♂️ CRKT don't seem to do any final sharpening for some reason 🤔
What kind of oil would you soak it in ? Iv just ordered one any tips on drilling the hole for a strap
I always use boiled linseed oil for all wooden handles - Its a great product and cheap. I just used a regular drill around 3/8" and then used a chamfer bit to round the edges. A bit of light sanding will cover any scratches. I then used a flame from a propane torch to darken the wood to match around the new hole. It will then look factory 👍
I'm sold.
Its shockingly good for a small axe 👍
Omg my CRKT chogan works the SAME !!! Even my small wood axe that u purchased from Habor Freight!!! Goofy!!!!
Right on!! Small axe for the win! 😄
You convinced me to get one.
Its as pretty nice light weight axe 👍
I really want to try freyr axe, but it run out of stock in my country.
Now im looking buy CRKT Berserker, what do you think?
I have a friend who has the Berserker and he likes it BUT he find the handle too slender. But that might work for you! 👍
I am pretty broke but do you think this is a good quality axe for camping? I can replace handles pretty well.
If you don't have much cash, buy a good saw instead. It's, much better if you want to prep wood in the forest. You can split wood with a large knife, or cut a wood wedge with you saw 😏 and pound it into the round and split it if you need 👍
I'm not a big fan of the bearded axes but I like how you can choke up. And you're splitting some small pieces of wood don't blame you have to see how it works. That's a lot of work with a silky if you have to stick with small pieces. I've stuck to the east wing work with it all day. Grand Forest the limer doesn't stick but it wears your hands out good ax splitter instead of stick like the East wing. But I'm a 2X man tool for the job
Thanks for the feedback! If they were still available I would recommend the Wetterlings Bushman Axe, but they are now discontinued. This is by far my favourite axe for packing 👍
Very nice
Thanks 👍
Soak it in antifreeze for a couple weeks. It won’t dry out and shrink later.
Great tip! 👍
I use a axe to clear a blow down on 4x4s trials just to get my chain saw to cut off . I use to use chain saw but had a kick back. And is hard for saw.
Every tool as a preferred job - Very true Arthur! 👍
Yes we are having our Tools working for us , we keep them sharp an be care full thill do us for a life time
' man ne er has a nuf ropes or a sharp a nuf nife". Got text about update outings . Be safe for u and pups happy trials to yous. Arth
My Freyr came extremely dull. It’s an ok axe. It looks hella cool but kinda sucks compared to other axes.
Give that axe a quick sharpen and it will be more capable than you think!! You can use a flap disk on a grinder to lightly get it sharp and then use a stone to finish it off. Its quick but be careful not to heat up the cutting face 👍
Every knife I've bought from crkt was sharp, and every axe has been horribly horribly dull,
my woods chogan looked like it had never actually been sharpened from factory, 1/16th thick on the cutting edge, but they are amazing axes once you put that edge on them
SOLD
Thanks! It pretty good for the size and price!
I’m telling you it’s for splitting heads open. Not cutting a tree down. Yes super light cutting wood. But mostly for fighting.
Indeed it is, but I find it also works for splitting smaller logs 😄
Using an axe for splitting in the field is not efficient. You only need a 12 ounce head to fell the largest trees you will ever need, and you can split anything with improvised wooden wedges. I would never carry an axe that weighed more than maybe 20 ounces overall, completely unnecessary.
I respect your opinion but I disagree. If you are even considering felling a tree with an axe, that's super inefficient compared to a saw. When splitting with a wooden wedge, how did you make the wedge and what are you hitting it with? The best answer to those questions are...an axe 🤔 A small axe for splitting is probably the most efficient use of the tool in my opinion. I'd swap a fixed blade knife for a small axe and then use a small pocket knife instead to save weight.
@@TheEmporiumOutdoors A saw is extra weight and isn't necessary. A saw only makes sense if you aren't carrying an axe, I don't need both. If your axe is capable of splitting anything larger than small kindling then it's needlessly heavy. You're carrying that weight around at all times, when you could just make wedges as needed instead and that actually works better anyway. The best axes for backpacking and wilderness survival are Cold Steel tomahawks, there is no other tool on the market of any kind that have the same level of cutting power for a given weight. My frontier hawk only weighs 19 ounces with an 18" haft but can fell and section trees over 6" diameter so quickly and easily that a saw is not missed. Lightweight head on a long haft is the key to maximum cutting efficiency, as well as a long, thin bit that bites deep. Most conventional hatchets and pack axes are way too heavy and offer little advantage if you know how to create and use wedges.
@@nobodyatall7039 On this we will have to disagree - I'd take a silky bigboy over any axe, any day. Cutting wood is significantly easier with a saw vs an axe. And if you pick the right wood, you don't need to split most of it. But to each his own! Best of luck 👍
@@TheEmporiumOutdoors Saws are only more efficient under ideal conditions, dry lumber clamped to a workbench. When attacking gnarled blow down in various stages of natural seasoning and decay, saws have a strong tendency to bind and bend, and often cannot complete cuts close to the ground at all. Getting a decent pile of firewood in the woods without some kind of chopping tool is extremely frustrating. If you're going to carry a chopping tool, and you're skilled with it, then you don't even need a saw at all. At best the saw is useful for scoring the under sides of suspended limbs so you don't have to chop upside down to finish the cut, but that's not really a big deal. The silky Big Boy is over 14 ounces. That's a shit ton of weight for something I don't even need.
@@TheEmporiumOutdoorsnow...sharpening in the field: axe vs Silky, which one would you prefer?
That's not your grandfather's axe.
Hahah true enough 😄