I read and watched a number of reviews before I ordered this axe so knew exactly what to expect in terms of weight, size and function. I it helped in that I have owned a couple of Gransfors Axes and know that the quality is always good. The service from the team at Woodlore is excellent so a 5 star rating.

Small but mighty. A brilliant and dynamic bit of kit.

I wanted a 'small axe' for light work when doing lightweight camping. I also wanted an axe that I could begin training my young scouts with that would not only fit their smaller hands but would be of a weight suitable for them to use for periods of time without tiring them. This axe has more than ticked both boxes. The axe is well balanced and although slimmer than normal the handle feels good in the hand for both larger and smaller hands. To see a young persons smile when they have used one of these tools for the first time is truly gratifying.

Beautiful axe, well balanced and extremely sharp. Fantastic service, arrived next day after ordering. Very pleased with my purchase - can't beat Swedish craftmanship along with Ray Mears' reputation for an eye for detail and quality. I still have my knife from 2000 Woodlore courses!

Beautifully crafted axe! After using this hatchet for a while making spoon blanks and feeding the house's wood box with kindling I've discovered a few points on this mini hatchet: It seems to be putting weight saving ahead of performance, it's a great 'all-rounder' but lacks head weight for much actual cutting. The roundish handle will make your hands tire after a bit of blank making, having to keep a good grip on the handle to keep it from spinning. It is a good work out on your hands! I feel a traditional oval shaped handle would improve this. For back country carry, this hatchet is great, I also have the Mini-hatchet and this is similar but with a longer handle. Almost a tomahawk style? Quality wise this tool is hard to beat. Sighting down the handle, the blade was skewed off a bit and crooked but it didn't seem to affect the performance luckily. But for a hatchet this expensive, this might of been corrected. Overall it's a great tool for packing around but not up to par with the small forest axe for actual cutting performance. Shipping was incredible, received my axe within the week all the way from England! Thank you!

Great Axe at a good price. Delivered as promised.
Very happy with the experience - thank you!

A story, I collect and engrave Knives, I also customize small hatchets, well this model Gransfors Bruks Outdoor Axe, I bought my first one 20-30 years ago and it is still in use today. 2 handle replacements - both my fault. I live in the Australian Bush, knife, gun, axes are a part of life. If I could only take one item to help survive bush I would take this. I cut all veges, meat and food with it, you can get them so sharp you can shave, cuts kindling, branches and small logs for the fire.

Look it will fall a 18 inch thick tree if you get on your knees and work hard, but it will do it. Can use it as a hammer, strike a fire lighter off it and after some practice it throws, deadly accurate. It is light at usually under 500 grams depending which maker made it, you can look up on the Bruks website by the 2 initials on the top left face, who made it, most have a bio. You don't feel it on your belt or backpack if traveling. Needs a belt loop to carry and I get a smaller blade face only cover made for mine.

I have 19 in my collection one of each maker I have found so far, plus 5 more I have, in each of our 4 vehicles, behind the back ute seat and my personal one, which is modified and engraved that goes everywhere I go whilst in the bush..

Since Covid came the factory has been shut a lot and stock is now getting impossible to find, My Australian supplier had run out and some of the outrages prices from the US $400US plus is just ridiculous.

These 2 landed at my door for a little less than the special price I get from my dealer and ship fast, easy and simple.

Ray Mears Bushcraft and the Woodlore team for me and my purchases were just OUTSTANDING to deal with in every way.

I can not recommend the Gransfors Bruks Outdoor Axe highly enough or this team for their service and professionalism.

David Rennie
Western Australia

Amazing little axe, Gransfors Bruks are a quality brand and their commitment to sustainability and product quality is second to none (in my opinion) and I would highly recommend this axe for light wood chopping, kindling and carving etc etc. I'd say for felling small trees and bigger log splitting you should look to the Small Forest axe or the Scandinavian axe for bigger jobs.

Wow, gorgeous axe with a long warranty and a very handy 'axe' book that it comes with, filled with info on how to use for many different applications along with info about their other axes. When I went looking for this axe, this place was the only one with her still in stock. I haven't gotten to use it to its full potential yet but for some small little projects it's very nimble and I love how easy it is to attach to your belt and how lightweight/balanced it is. Got a feeling it'll be with me on all camping adventures moving forward. I have never bought from Ray Mears before but I will definitely be back for some other things in the future. It appears they really only carry high quality and well-tested gear!

I added this axe to my kit because of its size and weight. It's very lightweight and easy to carry. The axe arrived fairly sharp. My first trip in the woods found this a much better tool for processing small campfires than a knife alone. I always thought an axe would be cumbersome in the field, I was wrong, now I'd never camp without this axe.

This wee axe is what I expected, great fit and finish, the usual hand forged head and sharp as anything. I gave it a bit of TLC and now it shaves. I've done a bit of limbing and some chopping and look forward to using it on canoe camping trips as soon as we are free to do so. I like the profile of the blade as it will split wood easily so I think this will be a very versatile small axe. I am pleased I bought it and cannot thank the customer service staff enough for the advice.

I've been looking for a good quality axe that's lightweight and easy to carry when hiking & camping. I'm a big fan of Gränsfors Bruks and as soon as I saw it listed on here I bought it. The fact that each axe is hand forged makes it that much more special and a sign of quality.

The axe was delivered securely and well packaged and took less than two days to arrive. I'd highly recommend.

A great axe to have in your pack. Can be used to split logs, trim branches or make a feather stick.

It is a very wonderful product, the correspondence of the shop is also good

Perfect little axe for a day pack. It came razor sharp. It bites deep in to wood despite its size and weight. Makes short work of tent stakes and kindling.

The head was out of alignment on this particular axe. Poor workmanship on poll. Generally poor workmanship for a GB product. Design is great, terrible execution.

It was a present for my wife for Forest Schools, she loves it as it is very light and strong.

Bought as a Christmas present. Very fast delivery, amazing service and already in use by the other half! He loves it.

Great little axe for round the camp chores and light day wood trips. It's light but powerful for all round work.

This axe itself would be really nice but was hafted offset to midline with a poor grind and a big gap at the back. This is of course the fault of Gransfors Bruks production line and should have never made it through quality control, however it should never have been sent to me in the first place. I sent it back to Gransfors Bruks and after some discussion they decided to send me a new axe free of charge. Bottom line is that GB makes a good axe and they stand behind their product. I hope that better inspection of axes is done before they are shipped out in the future. I am sure that if I contacted Woodlore they would have refunded my money or replaced the axe, but these things should not be necessary when you purchase a premium tool.

This is a very good Gransfors Bruks axe!

A beautiful small hatchet, a beautiful tool to handle and carry even before using it. I've seen so many online reviews for this tool and the reviewers miss the point. Lars Falt designed it as a small lightweight hachet to easily carry on the belt and rucksack for quick and easy access and use. It's limited in use due to its size but the average field crafter can get by just fine doing the small essentials around camp i.e. preparing kindling, carving, preparing fire starter, any small job done with a good fixed handle bush knife. All said and done, it's worth the high price and there is a limited supply so buy one as soon as it becomes available. Highly recommended!! Great service from Woodlore, fast and efficient and I have no problem giving my money to Mr Mears; he is deserving of it and one of the better personalities in this media world. Keep up the good work Ray.

Excellent axe. I have wanted an axe like this for a long time and now I own it.

Fantastic quality; a had crafted work of art! Delivered in a timely manner. Thank you.

This item is well made and functions great, the grain orientation is excellent which is always a factor when buying hand tools. This axe is very small and should really only be used for splitting kindling or small tasks for which it was intended. Raymers.com did an excellent job in shipping this product in a timely manner, and the price is the best I have come across thus far. Thank you!

OMG! Got this for my birthday and I love it. Have tried out some basic carving and am so impressed with the quality. I lightly sanded the handle then protected it with bees wax.

Small axe with great capacity. Cuts large diameters better than I expected. Splitting wood goes easy and for wood carving projects very suitable due to the low weight. Fits easily in your backpack.

Received quickly and it was packaged well. I purchased this from Woodlore because the colour of the handle is darker than anywhere else and because it is stamped Ray Mears instead of Gransfors Bruks. What I received was excellent, but the handle was a light color and the Ray Mears stamp was very lightly embossed. Due to the coating of Linseed Oil and Beeswax, to protect the handle, it won't except stain. I burnished it with a torch and recoated it with linseed oil to make it a little darker. No big deal. However the Ray Mears logo almost completely rubbed off with a single pass of fine sandpaper. Regardless, it is a fine product. I had read a review of the head being slightly out of alignment wtih the handle, and I found mine was the same. But still not a deal breaker. It's a fine hatchet, redesigned to be more axe-like, but I also desired this design as it is more tomohawk-like, with its longer, straight handle.
All that said, I love it. I may rehandle it with wood I can stain darker, but it's not worth the timme at present. It's a great axe. I'm giving it 4 stars simply because of the embossed logos being so lightly applied and the picture on the Woodlore site showing it with a darker handle.

This axe is a bit overpriced, yet exactly what I needed in regards to size, shape and weight. Service and shipping speed was excellent, as always from Woodlore. The axe itself seems to be of superb quality as well. Has a little roll on the heel from quality control which does not compromise usability.
The sheath is kind of average but it does its job. I have yet to see how this axe will hold on after extended use. I gave this axe a five star rating because it is exactly what I needed and because of the hassle-free experience with Woodlore's service. If I had to configure price into the review I would not give a rating higher than four stars.