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The beauty of a camping axe lies in its simplicity. It’s nothing more than a blade attached to a stick. Yet in the right hands, it becomes a useful tool that hasn’t changed for centuries. It accomplishes what it needs to with an efficiency that can’t be improved upon. Or can it?

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After using axes for so long that it never occurred to me that they could be improved. It’s bold to take such a basic, established tool and try to make it better. Here are five axes that we found that could change the way we cut wood.

The Cross Axe

This thing looks like someone should be swinging it around in Lord of the Rings. It’s also the most ambitious design here. “Hey, why am I only splitting in two? Why not finish twice as fast and crack a beer?” Good question. The bad news here is that this is a DIY axe. You’ll need some decent metal working skills to create one of these. You can find the clever fella and how he did it on Instructables.

The Leveraxe

The Leveraxe is strange looking indeed. It’s made in Finland, weighs about five pounds, and is guaranteed for ten years. The Leveraxe produces a levering action and requires less effort to split wood. It also requires less force and is thus a little easier on your body. Plenty of users with bad lower backs have reported being able to use them with ease. In those cases, some people are happy to pay the $239 price tag. If you want to give one a go you can get them on Amazon.

The Chopper 1

The Chopper 1 has splitting levers built into the axe head that engage and help to separate the wood with each swing. Some users report easier splitting, and use the Chopper 1 as their main splitting axe. The design is interesting, but my main concern is the loss of downward inertia and the possibility of energy being directed outward too soon. The loss might indeed be worth it, and the price isn’t awful in comparison to the Leveraxe. It’s $99 on their website.

The Klax

I know. This has “Kickstarter Multi-tool Axe Thingy” written all over it. That’s because that’s what it was. The Klax was successfully funded on Kickstarter a few years ago. Some people really dig this thing. In my experience multi-tools like this end up doing a bunch of different things poorly. It’s not heavy enough to split wood, and it would be awkward to use as a knife (that’s a knife edge on the bottom). Still, for some people the idea of tossing a little gadget like this in their pack is appealing. I’ve never needed hex wrenches at the campsite, but hey – to each their own.

The Stone Axe

Ok – this isn’t an advanced design, but it would change the way you cut wood and it IS unique. This article is all about strange axes, and if you had the time and desire you could turn the clock back about a million years and give this a shot. I’d be willing to bet that after three swings with this thing you’d be happy to pay $500 for any of axes shown above. Also, this clip comes from the Primitive Technology Youtube channel and you should check it out.