1844 Helko Werk GermanyVario Heavy Universal Axe - German Made Heavy Duty Large Felling Axe and Cutting Axe - Head 5.5 lbs, Handle 36 in. (Heavy Universal) #10055

*update post using it to fell a tree*.Last week I had to fell a tree. Nothing huge. An old fir tree, was half dead and needed to be removed. Was about 15’ tall. Trunk was about 10” diameter. Not a huge tree by any measure. But large enough for me to get a sense of the axe. Long story short. This isn’t much of a felling axe. My 3 1/2 pound jersey pattern Council tool did a far better job than the 6 pound helko. There are three reasons for this,1) the way the axe is assembled (discussed below) it’s entirely bit heavy. This is fine when you’re splitting wood as the force of gravity is aligned with the direction of the axe. However When you’re felling a tree, gravity is transverse to the swing direction. And you have to actively fight to prevent the axe head rotating down. This results in a reduction in accuracy and increased fatigue. 2) the axe sharp, but is quite thick behind the edge and therefore doesn’t bite as deeply as a thinner axe and 3) it’s really heavy. The 6 pound weight is excellent for splitting, but swinging it sideways into a tree. It’s not clear it’s adding value and it is more tiring. I ultimately cut the tree down with this axe and then went back to lower the stump about 8 inches. The second go round I used my Council tool 3 1/2 pound. The job took half the time with a Council. I still like the axe a lot and consider it to be excellent. However, I’m thinking I might buy the splitting maul bit and switch it out. Essentially just make this a dedicated heavier splitter, which is already what it is. **I wind up chopping a fair amount of wood. Firewood for heat in the winter. Firewood to cook in the spring and summer. Being in the northeast the firewood here is all maple and oak. Sometimes cherry. All pretty hard dense woods.The axe arrives with a brochure. A little bottle of oil (like Balistol I guess) and a hex key to change the bit. This particular axe, the helko vario 2000 heavy universal is by far the heaviest axe I own. It’s heavier in fact that my splitting maul (a fiskars x30 which is fine). It has a very large edge. And a heavy slightly hollowed profile. The Vario serious have interchangeable bits. There is half inch think back plate and a strike protector which i guess is around 5/32” thick, the bit bolts on through all this via 2 large hex bolts. It has a vaguely medieval vibe.The bit is shaped like a Tasmanian axe, and it’s basically as if a splitting maul and Tasmanian had a baby ( a big baby). Which of course is the idea. It’s meant to be capable of splitting rounds. But unlike a maul also credible for felling. I haven’t tried to fell anything with it but I did need to break down some smaller rounds. 10-12” x 15” stuff for cooking. This made quick work of them. The weight is a little unusual (no forged eye so all the weight is bit down) and it took a few minutes to get comfortable with my swing. What I noticed was on a full swing the axe doesn’t even seem to bite, the wood essentially splits apart on contact. Not sure how else to describe it. But it feels like the combo of being very heavy and quite sharp transmits enough energy to these small rounds that they just explode. Do to it’s size and mass It was a bit unwieldy for breaking smaller pieces down. I do have a few nits. 1) the handle is beautiful huge piece of straight grain American hickory (thick feels more like a baseball bat than an axe handle). But someone coated it with something and stained it brown… why? So now I have to strip that and oil it. It’s frustrating on an axe at this price point that the handle doesn’t just ship oiled. 2) this is minor but the edge on the axe when it arrived wasn’t very sharp. That was easy to correct. 3) this one is the most important. I’m not sure this would be the design I bought if I were to do it again. The idea of the universal axe appealed to me again a good splitter that could also fell a tree. It is a good splitter although from what I understand the dedicated heavy, splitting maul head is far better at that. And having spent some time with it I don’t think it would be my choice for felling a tree. When you’re splitting, the mass works for you. When you’re felling it really doesn’t. I think if it ever came up that I needed to fell a tree with an axe, I would grab my 3 1/2 pound Council tool jersey pattern. It’s lighter by half and sharper with nearly the same edge size. The nice thing about this Vario set up is I may just swap this to the splitting head and give up on it as a felling axe. Hope this helps.

Work of art, not sure how I did it without this axe

I've already dropped it on some good oak, and lord does she go through it! Very satisfied so far, at 36 years old, and have been swinging iron shaping mauls mostly, a very nice experience. I felt I needed a heavy head for precision, due to my tenure in the afore mentioned. My only questions for me is handles. That's pretty precise for me to attempt to recreate. I'm sure I could, but it would be quicker to have one or two laying around. How much?

I chop a lot of wood -- no less than 15 cords of pine and oak over the last year. While I love the ergonomics of this Vario 2000 Heavy Log Splitter, and how well it works in big pieces of wood, the head attachment is very flawed.First, the hex head bolts that ship with the axe were metric grade 8.8 and within weeks the bolts that hold the head on sheared and I had to drill them out (which unless you are fairly handy, I suspect most people who buy this axe won't have left hand drills and extractors). I replaced the bolts with grade 12.9 which seemed to last longer, but still shear on a regular basis and are harder to drill out. After drilling out another sheared bolt this evening, I figured I'd write this review.I'm fairly certain that head could be designed with some kind of keyed mating surface where most of the stress would be taking up by the head and its mating mechanism instead of the bolts - the bolts would just hold the head on and not take the brunt of the shear load. When they redesign this axe, I'd certainly get one and I might actually try to mill/drill and make a mockup of the mechanism that I think would work. Perhaps drilled holes in the head and metal dowels welded to the metal retainer on the shaft?If you want a pretty axe that looks great hanging up on the wall and works great on small stuff, this axe can't be beat. If you are chopping big logs, be prepared to have lots of extra M8 x 80mm cap head screws (and come to think of it, maybe use M10 bolts that are seeming 1.5x strong in shear strength based on the tables I was looking at. Hopefully someone from Helko can comment!)In any case, I do love how well this axe works and rotate using between the GEDORE OX 635 H-3009 and the Fiskars IsoCore Maul.For the $65 price, the Fiskars IsoCore is probably the best working splitting maul for the price. I don't really like the handle on it, but it works.