How to Choose a Camp Axe

[Music Playing] Laura: So it looks like we have got a cooking show going on now instead of wilderness show. Dick what do you have here? Dick: Well I am going to be taking off on a trip into the bush for 2, 3, 4 days. I got lot of food in the fridge I do not want it to spoil. So I take it out and I package it up in foil and I got three lovely meals when I am out there. Laura: All of these is from your fridge? Dick: Yes, absolutely. Laura: Well let us check out what you put together. Dick: All right, here I have a nice piece of trout, which I caught in the lake here, and if any of you come up to visit next summer we can go and do that. Along with that are some wild rice, onion and lemon. I had a little bit more lemon juice; I really like my lemon juice and even bit of lemon pepper on top of that. Then let us let the foil up the package here and make a nice tight seal for that. Come back and do the ends later. Over here now, I got a Jumbolia mixture of different kinds of sausages, mushrooms, tomatoes good stuff and to spice out a bit I am going to add some wild juniper berries to it. Over here, I have a veggie mix and again what I want to do just to add a little bit more flavor to that, put in some chaise. Then take this and make sure that you got the edges well overlapping when you make your seal. Do up the ends good and snagged then it is ready to go on your fire. Take it away and put it in here. Guide to go and you are all set. [Music Playing] Dick: Well, Laura I can tell by the smell that these are done. Laura: Oh great. Dick: Which one would you like? Laura: I think I would try a Jumbolia. Dick: Okay, now you have to use your little fingers here to open that up. The foil would not be that hot even though it is -- Laura: It is warm. Dick: Yes it is warm but it would not scratch you. Laura: No. Dick: Is this not the best way you ever saw to use up stuff that you would have stayed in the fridge other wise? Laura: That is, it is like all my food would be stuck on the fridge -- Dick: How would taste of that? Those are onions I mean mushrooms. Laura: Oh it is amazing. I will hold on to that. Dick: Okay. Laura: Thank you. Dick: You know, you got that one, I think I am going to have some fish. Laura: That is so good. Dick: I like that trout. [Music Playing] Laura: Well apparently we are learning how to use axes today. Dick: You got that right. Laura: All right. Dick: Now, some axe you want to carry with you in the bush and not all of them you do. Big long handled axe like this, this belongs in base camp for splitting wood and doing camp chores. But now we go down to this one which is more compact but still can deliver a tremendous blow and do a lot of work and then we go to its smaller brother right here. Both of these are the ones I would recommend that you carry with you when you are on a trip. And the smaller one here now the hatchet is a tool only for expert axe handlers whom had lots of experience because you use of one hand much, much more difficult than the two handed axe. Laura: The work covering axe is later on the DVD. Dick: We are going to cover axes for sure. Laura: Great. Dick: And now, I want to show you what a sharp axe will do. We can shave birch bark which is very, very tough material. Laura: Wow, did you sharpen that axe this morning? Dick: I sharpened that axe this morning because I had been using it quite a bit before. So I mean how much you sharpen it depends upon how much you use it of course and the kind of wood you use it in and so forth. Laura: Are we go over the sharpening on the DVD’s as well? Dick: Yes absolutely. Laura: Great. Dick: So we have covered all basis.