Can you cut down a large tree with a Small Forrest Axe?

Well, I had a dead tree that needed to come down and I had a curiosity about the work that could be done with a small forest axe. So, I combined them into one effort and this video is the result. While the video was uploading, I went out and measured the stump at the cut location and it wound up measuring 12.75 inches. I also looked at the raw footage to see how long in real time it took to fell the tree. Believe it or not, it was less than 20 minutes.....actually 19:59. OK, technically less than 20 minutes...LOL. Still rather amazing to me, especially when you consider that the center of the tree was lightered and had only been dead about two or three months. Although a full sized axe would have made the job easier, carrying one in a Bushcraft Bag is no fun and a hatchet is way too small for anything other than camp chores. So, this 19 inch axe is an awesome compromise for Bushcraft camping.

We used a Helco Werk and a Gransfors Bruks on this experiment. Jesse wound up using the Helco for all of his chops and I used the Gransfors for all of mine so we didn't get to make individual comparisons. Even so, as I was editing the footage, I was surprised to see the chunks flying when I was chopping with the Gransfors. I had expected to see that from the Helco due to the geometry of the axe head but was pleasantly surprised by the results the Gransfors was giving me. The Gransfors has already proven itself to me on some of the more detailed things it can do but seeing how well it did on a large tree just made it all the more special to me and I am even more of a fan of this Swedish Axe than I have ever been.

Even though the video is a bit long, I decided to leave every single chop in the final version. This way you can get an idea of what our actual effort was (I did speed portions up to 4X though, just in case you think I'm really fast for an Old Mountain Man....LOL). In the end, I must say that I am now a huge fan of the Small Forest Axe!!