Blog AXEMAN

If you could only own one small axe, which should it be? It's the question we hear most at the shop, and the honest answer is that it depends on what you'll ask of it. Kindling by the wood stove is a different job from dressing game in the fall or carving spoons at camp.

We carry dozens of hatchets in our hatchets collection, and we've used most of them ourselves. Below are the ones we'd happily put our name behind for 2026, grouped by what they do best. Every one ships from our family-run, first responder-owned shop in South Langley, BC, through Axeman.ca.

There's something about a good tool under the tree. It doesn't need batteries (well, most of them), it won't be out of style by spring, and if you choose well, it gets handed down to someone else one day.

Every year around this time, folks call the shop asking the same thing: "What should I get for the person who splits their own wood, walks the back forty, or spends every weekend at camp?" So we put this guide together. These are the tools and gear we use ourselves, from makers we know and trust. Everything here ships from our family-run, first responder-owned shop in South Langley, BC, and you can find all of it at Axeman.ca.

Pour a coffee, take your time, and let's find the right gift.

It might feel strange to talk about wildfire in October. The rain is back, the woodstove is lit, and smoke season feels a long way behind us. But the conditions that shape next summer's fires are being set right now, through this fall and winter.

As a first responder-owned business, wildfire is never far from our minds at Axeman. So we wanted to take a calm, early look at what 2027 could bring, why this winter matters so much, and what you can do over the quiet months to be ready.

The leaves are turning here in South Langley, the mornings have that damp, woodsmoke smell, and the days are getting noticeably shorter. It feels like the right time to sit down with a coffee and look at where this winter is heading.

A good axe can last for generations. The handle, though, is the part that wears. Sooner or later it cracks, loosens, or breaks after an overstrike. The good news is that replacing an axe handle is a skill most axe owners can learn with the right replacement handle, a few basic tools, and a bit of patience.

Whether you have a broken handle, a loose head, an old axe to restore, or simply a favourite tool that deserves a fresh start, this guide walks you through how to replace an axe handle from start to finish.

The best firewood is usually the wood that grows near you, is properly split, thoroughly dried and stored correctly. A dry piece of poplar can provide more useful heat than a premium hardwood that is still wet, while dense woods such as maple, oak and birch can provide exceptional long-lasting heat when properly seasoned.

Canada is a big country, and the woodpile in Tofino looks very different from the woodpile in Fredericton or Whitehorse. Coastal British Columbia has an abundance of fir, alder and maple, while the Interior offers pine and larch. The Prairies rely heavily on aspen, birch and tamarack, while Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada have some of the country's richest hardwood forests.

you better control over every cut. But there is a common misconception about axe sharpening: every axe needs to be sharpened to a razor edge all the time.

That isn't necessarily true.

The ideal edge depends on what you are using the axe for. A felling axe used for cutting across wood grain benefits from a keen, refined edge. A carving or bushcraft hatchet may need an even finer edge. A splitting axe, on the other hand, is designed primarily to split wood along the grain, and taking the edge to an extremely fine, razor-sharp finish may not provide any meaningful advantage.

Back in May, we were watching El Niño develop in the tropical Pacific. By June, confidence was increasing that the pattern would persist through winter. Now, as we head into fall, the signal has become considerably stronger.

There is a forge in Kvillinge parish, just outside Norrköping, Sweden, that has been making iron and steel since 1697. That is Hults Bruk. Three hundred and twenty-nine years later they are still hand-forging axes on the same ground, and this fall they are doing something they have not done in a long time: releasing a complete new lineup of axes, along with new names for the classics you already know.

If you have followed Buckin' Billy Ray for any length of time, you know he does not do anything halfway. This is a guy who rebuilt his body after an accident that nearly ended his logging career, and came back doing the same old-school, hands-on timber work that made him a legend on Vancouver Island in the first place. Watching him sit down with the smiths who have been hand-forging axes in the same Swedish valley since before Canada was a country feels like a natural fit. Two different crafts, same stubborn commitment to doing things properly

Back in May we told you an El Niño winter was taking shape. In August we told you it was strengthening and that windstorms, not snow, were shaping up to be BC's biggest threat. Now the numbers are in, and they are bigger than either of us expected.

As of late August, NOAA is putting the odds of a very strong El Niño at over 90% for this fall and winter, with roughly a 69% chance it becomes one of the strongest on record since 1950. Sea surface temperatures in parts of the equatorial Pacific are already running more than 2°C above normal, and some longer-range models are tracking even higher than that. Seasonal forecasts are always probabilities, not promises, but this is a strong enough signal that it is worth a proper update, and worth adjusting your prep list if you have not already.

We have been following BC's wildfire season closely since spring, and the last two weeks have taken it somewhere none of our earlier updates prepared us for. The province is now under a state of emergency, more than 100 fires are burning, tens of thousands of people are out of their homes, and we lost our first life of the season. This update covers where things stand right now across BC, alongside a full, practical walkthrough of the gear and the plan every rural or fire-prone household should have ready. This one runs long on purpose. Preparedness is not a single purchase, it is a kit and a plan working together, so we wanted to cover both properly in one place.