Buying a couple of new axes.

Well, I am going to have very limited tracking and camping this year as I have ended up with a very painful rotator cuff tear in my left shoulder. It is so painful that my driving is limited to 20 minutes at a time. This is curtailing a lot of my plans for 2012 and I am having to rethink them while I heal up. I have my annual budget that I usually spend on these activities but am now going to focus on getting a few new bits of gear that I have had my eye on but have not bought as I would rather spend the money on transport to track or camp in a different place.

Over the last few years I have had the opportunity to carve a few spoons and am planning on continuing with that and progressing onto kuksa cups, bowls and canoe paddles. I have been looking at getting a new axe to use when carving and am struggling to make my final decision as to which I will get. I have a little choice in that as it s my 40th birtday this year I am going to spash out and buy two new axes.

At the moment I am looking at a Roselli as seen in this pic below. I came across this in this blog:

http://spooncarvingfirststeps.blogspot.com/

I have been following spoon carving first steps for a wee while now and find it quite inspiring. Thank you Jon Mac.

The other axe that I am seriously considering is the Gransfor Bruk Swedish Carving Axe.

I have used one of these axes and enjoyed using it. The one that I had the opportunity to try out had a single bevel and was designed for a right handed user. It did feel strange and tended to dig in a bit. Gransfor also do them with the standard two sided bevel. This is where my quandry lies. Do I get the single sided bevel or the one with the bevel on both sides? Or are there better axes out there for carving with that I have not heard of ????

http://greenwood-carving.blogspot.com/search/label/axes This link belongs to Robin Wood who is another blogger that I follow. In this he would tend to go for the bevel on both sides as it can then be used as a more allround bushcraft axe. I see some strong logic in this.

The other tools that I am planning on buying are a couple of mocotaugans or crooked knives. As far as carving canoe paddles I hape to get to the stage of making them with only the axe and crooked knife. I suppose all of this gear shopping is to motivate myself for getting healed up from this injury. I have another 4 weeks of physio then it is onto steroid injections. I just hope that with resting that it does not have to go to surgery.

While it is healing I am limited to reading about what I normally prefer to do. Really hope this retail therapy helps with the cabin fever that is starting to settle in.