Initial impressions

Reviews: Fiskars 7884 X27 36-Inch Super Splitting Axe

The axe was packed decently and shipping was fast. The initial wood splitting took some 'adjusting' as I'm used to using a monster maul. So far I have been quite pleased in the 'surviving abuse' category. It has survived several over strikes and misses with no visible damage. The handle seems to be very durable for a synthetic material regarding over strikes. The axe itself was sharp and proved to be very easy to sharpen with a file as the misses required some touch up filing. There seems to be some law of nature that any axe hitting dirt will always find a stone of sufficient size to ding the edge. If you don't hit the ground, it seems to keep an edge quite well. The steel temper is such that I haven't chipped an edge yet but it maintains a sharp edge without being brittle, which is a good quality. That being said, the non stick coating seems to work for and against you. If you strike the wood with just enough force to split it, then it aids in friction reduction. The downside of the coating is that an insufficient strike to split the wood will result in the axe popping out of the split because of the non-stick coating. If it pops out, you don't have the option of striking the head with a sledge or picking the wood up, axe imbedded, and slamming one more time on the stump.

The aiming qualities of this axe are really good and if you take your time, you will rarely miss. The diameter of the wood split for this review ranged from two inches to eight inches. Yeah, two inches was the aiming test.

Overall I would give this splitting axe high marks except on wood with large and numerous knots. It is considerably lighter than the monster maul, therefore less tiring to use, but the monster is still required for those 'tough' knotty pieces as it has quite a weight advantage and even then, sometimes the chain saw comes out to deal with the really obstinate pieces. It does have a short learning curve in terms of adjusting your swing for just the right amount of strike energy. Swing too hard and you will begin to chew up the splitting stump and too soft a swing will result in the axe popping out of the wood.

Considering the axe weight, and therefore the range of wood it should be used on, I gave it five stars for its performance to date. Once you learn to adjust your swing for the wood piece, it will save you exertion and ease wood splitting. If you split wood, this is a very worth while axe to own and it will cover the majority of most peoples wood splitting requirements. Large diameter still goes to the monster maul though...