Pics are coming. Just waiting for the Flickr upload to finish
The May long weekend was the first summer camping trip of the year for me and it was the first chance I had to really try the Snow & Nealley kindling axe set I purchased from Cabela's.
If you missed the preview I posted about them I'll catch you up. Cabela's was awesome. Cheap shipping and prompt service. The head on the Penobscot axe was crooked and the handle had poor grain direction but a quick call to S&N and they shipped me a new handle free of charge. I'd never re-handled an axe before but it wasn't too hard to get in straight after a bit of fiddling. They don't come sharp and it took me a bit of work to sharpen them...but at least I know it's done and done right since I did it myself. They do have a lifetime warranty so that's comforting.
Splitting Maul
The 3 lb splitting maul is, for lack of better terms, perfect for my car camping needs. It's small enough to fit into the same Rubbermaid crate as my other camping gear and heavy enough to dispatch all but the most knotted logs.
The wood that the parks people set out was pretty good this year as it was the first day of the season they were open but there were some really chunky stubborn logs to deal with. I found that I could easily swing with one hand or two but preferred 2 from a standing position as 3 pounds of sharpened steel can be hard to stop when a glancing blow sends a swing towards your knees. I was also happy to see that I could choke up on the handle all the way to the head comfortably. This let me use the same maul to split kindling less than an inch across.
In fact the maul worked so well that I was able to split all the wood I needed for all three days in one session without getting tired. I split all the wood and didn't even think to try the Penobscot Kindling Axe part of the set.
It's far too heavy to carry backpacking but it's now found a perfect place in the car camping box.
Penobscot Kindling Axe
Since all the splitting was done so handily with the maul, I tried some other stuff with the axe. I tested all the usual tricks like limbing some dead fall and then chopping it in half across the splitting log. It worked very well...so well it was almost unremarkable. The balance was good and worked well in one hand or two. This would be my selection for backpacking if an axe were desired. I didn't do much splitting with it but I'm sure it would work much better than a machete or batoning a knife.
The sheaths seem to be of good quality. I've treated them with Fluid Film to help preserve the leather. I've also done the same with the heads as they're carbon steel and will rust.
Conclusion: It seems to me now odd that they are sold as a set as it's not really practical to use them as a set these days...unless you needed to split logs AND fell/limb trees. That said however each has it's pros and cons and each has found it's place in my gear. Bonus marks for being hand made, having a life time warranty, and having traditionally styled heads which can accept any standard handle. Points lost for not coming sharp and one coming with a crooked handle with a bad grain. The maul is definitely going to see more use but the Penobscot axe will certainly be welcome in the back woods where making fire takes more than splitting some nicely sectioned and provided logs like in a national park camp ground.
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