Camping and woodcraft - Scoutmastercg.com

114 CAMPING AND WOODCRAFTkeep a hot fire before his lean-to throughout thenight.If an axe Is bought ready handled, see that thehelve is of young growth hickory, straight grained,!and free from knots. Sight along the back of the'helve to see if it is straight in line with the eye ofthe axe, then turn it over and see if the edge of theaxe ranges exactly in line with the center of thehilt (rear end of handle), as it should, and that thehilt is at right angles to the center of the eye. Agood chopper is as critical about the heft and hangof his axe as a shooter is about the balance of hisgun. If the handle is straight, score a 2]5^-footrule on it, in inches. Get the axe ground by acareful workman. The store edge is not thinenough or keen enough. One cannot be too carefulin selecting this indispensable tool: some grades areof the best steel and hand-forged, but many othersare just " bum."Have a leather sheath for the axe-head, to preventaccidents when traveling. Some are made withstrap attached for carrying on one's back, but this isneedless : in the few cases that you carry an axe thatway, tie it to outside of pack with a string.An axe lying around camp has a fatal attractionNot thatfor men who do not know how to use it.they will do much chopping with it; but somebodywill pick it up, make a few bungling whacks at aprojecting root, or at a stick lying flat on theground, drive the blade through into the earth andpebbles, and leave the edge nicked so that it willtake an hour's hard work to put it in decent ordeiagain. And the fellow who does this is the onewho could not sharpen an axe to save his life. Itnever seems to occur to him that an axe is of no useunless its edge is kept keen, or that the best way toruin it is to strike it into the ground, or that a choppingblock will prevent that. You may loan yourlast dollar to a friend ;but never loan him your axe,unless you are certain that he knows how to use it.