Channel Your Inner Lumberjack

It’s often said that firewood warms you twice – first, when you split it and again when you burn it. Most men have forgotten about the first part. We blame it on too much shrink-wrapped firewood at the gas station and all the sterile gas fireplaces these days. If, like us, you still like to get your hands dirty, the Gränsfors Bruks Large Splitting Axe is the tool for you

Gränsfors Bruks is a small company in Hälsingland, Sweden that’s been forging axes, mauls, and hatchets for over a century. They forge every tool by hand and engrave the maker’s initials onto the axe. Mine has a small “RA” stamped near the business end. That’s for Rune Andersson, professional blacksmith. When was the last time you had such a direct connection with the person who built one of your tools?

The axe is an elegant brute to behold. It has a 27-inch hickory handle with circular grooves at the end for extra grip and a three and a half pound steel head that sleeps inside a grain-leather sheath when not at work. While Gränsfors Bruks makes a smaller version, this beast is designed for splitting wood rounds, those cross-sections of trees left behind after a tree is felled. The concave end of the wedge can power through rounds as wide as two feet diameter with one well-placed blow.

Wielding the splitting axe takes practice and some care, especially if you intend to keep both your feet. However, once you refine your technique, you’ll be demolishing rounds like a seasoned lumberjack. There’s something about splitting wood that taps into the primal core of a man. Maybe it’s our fire-building instinct; maybe it’s the anachronistic beauty of simple, hard work done with a hand-forged tool. Whatever it is, don’t be surprised if your beard grows a little faster and you start wearing more checked flannel, should you choose to hoist this beast.

Cost: $140

Also See: The Garlick Saw Company Lynx 26″ Rip Saw | Leatherman Genus Landscape Multi-Tool | Strider Cord Wrapped Hatchet XL

Burn Baby Burn

I have serious doubts that many of you spend a regular amount of time 13,000 feet above sea level. Well, this is Gear Patrol so maybe you do.

If so, then I sincerely hope you’ve got a Colibri XTREME II High Altitude Wind Resistant Butane Lighter packed with your gear. According to the manual that came with my Colibri, the Xtreme II is the first lighter specifically designed for high altitude conditions. It’s also perfect for those outdoor excursions I know you love taking and using an excuse for overengineered gear.

The Xtreme II uses Colibri’s Quantum ignition system that produces a damn-near scary single column flame that won’t falter - no matter how much wind or how little oxygen you have. Its metal encasing has threaded caps that seal each end of the lighter and the bottom camp even has it’s own integrated compass. Pretty handy.

Cost: $55

From The Men That Brought You Multi-Tools Comes… Light

Leatherman Serac S1 looks right at home on your keychain

As a man, you’ve probably had or currently own a Leatherman multi-tool of some kind. It goes with you on your camping trips, sits in the glove compartment of your car or toolbox, or even your tactical missions… if you’re a tactical mission type of guy.

Come this Fall, Leatherman will have a new option to help illuminate your next camping trip, or otherwise, with their sweet new lineup of keychain and pocket-sized LED flashlights. The S1, S2 and S3 (S1 pictured above, S3 below) will provide up-to 100 lumens on various settings and engineered to operate on a single battery. Better yet, many of the sheaths (for the past few years) that currently hold your Leatherman will accommodate the Serac flashlight.

Cost: Serac S1 ($25) | Serac S2 ($50) | Serac S3 ($70) @ Leatherman (Fall 2008)

At first glance you might think it’s a pruner but upon second glance you may also realize it’s a Leatherman. You’d be right. Not only are you looking at Leatherman’s take on a pruner, but in fact it’s the new for 2008, Leatherman Genus. The Genus is a landscape multi-tool with stainless steel bypass pruners, 420 HC clip-point knife, sprinkler-head adjustment key, phillips screwdriver, flat screwdriver, saw, bottle opener, soft-wire cutters, open-end adjustment wrench and a diamond-coated file.

The Leatherman Genus weighs only 11 ounces and is made of T6 anodized aluminum and stainless steel blades and tools. Works with Leatherman’s removable bit drivers for additional tools.

Cost: $90 @ Gardeners Edge

What’s the manliest tool you’ve got in your repertoire. Is it a chisel ground blade with reverse brush radius like this Strider large hatchet wrapped in cord? Is it a pound of S7 steel coated with black oxide with cutting edges on not only the blade but the underside of the head? Does it slide into a Kydex head sheath?

What this means to you: Your job may involve more banking than breaching or counting instead of chopping. That doesn’t mean your next camping trip won’t benefit from a wood chopping beast like a Strider hatchet.

Cost: $475 @ Blue Line Gear

Also See: Other outdoor multitools

Yeah, it’s a saw. We’re posting a hand saw and this is why. A guy needs to know his way around tools and being able to saw through a piece of wood is a necessary skill set.

The Lynx saw by the Garlick Saw Company of Sheffield England has a heritage of over 150 years. Each piece is handcrafted one at a time by an English craftsman. The steel alloy blade’s teeth are taper ground to a straight tooth line ensuring proper geometry (no binding = no strained shoulders). The handle is made of gorgeous American Black Walnut.

This saw is often backordered wherever you look so buy and plan accordingly.

How to: Proper handsaw basics article at Popular Mechanics.

Cost: $180 @ Traditional Woodworker