Gear Patrol

A list of locales that are not axe-friendly: your kid’s preschool; any school, for that matter; certain churches, chapels, mosques, temples and cathedrals; Apple stores. For everywhere (ok, not everywhere) else, there’s the Best Made Co. Duck Canvas Axe Case ($110+). This perfect answer for card-carrying axemen is designed with safety and protection in mind,…

Often, when you’re a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. So good on Hardcore Hammers for busting their own paradigm with the Hardcore Hatchet ($45). The move is a natural one for the hammer makers — from one artful, useful expression of wood and metal to another. Like their hammers, every hatchet is individually…

Think of the Cold Steel Special Forces Shovel ($35) as a cross between a camping trowel and a tomahawk. If you happened to formerly be a member of the Special Forces of the Main Intelligence Department of the General Staff of the Russian Army (a.k.a Spetsnaz GRU), this bad boy may even look familiar. It’s…

Few things are more primal than an axe. It’s the minimum amount of tool that can come between man and the act of felling a tree. But simple doesn’t mean crude — the perfect axe is a transcendent thing. To find out what that looks like, we sat down with Graeme Cameron, formerly of Best…

Some tools are made for creating, others are destined for destruction. The Garret Wade Box Hatchet ($10) has breaking written all over it. Stare at the head, and you’ll see it’s part hatchet, part hammer, part nail remover and part crowbar, making it the mother of all frankentools. Why the name Box Hatchet you ask?…

The duo behind Best Made Company (designer and author Peter Buchanan-Smith, and outdoorsman and environmental entrepreneur Graeme Cameron) aim to make you rethink the value of a quality axe. The two are men with accomplishments and experiences befitting of men you’d trust to construct a quality axe: building hand-hewn log cabins, winning Grammy awards, rugby,…

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,…