Truper31762 Ditch Bank Blade, 16-Inch Head with 40-Inch Hickory Handle

I brought this bush ax to clear some areas of a lot I brought. It worked great. The bush ax is well made and balanced. I like the hickory handle. It is not light weighted by any measure.

This is an old school hand tool that lets you deal with areas of wild growth. It's a member of the ax family, designed for cutting underbrush and vines and small saplings but not trees. The long handle helps to avoid thorny vines. It also lets you use the hooked blade as a rake.Like every new ax, initial shaping and sharpening of the cutting edge is needed. Make it as sharp as a samurai sword. Proper sharpening before use vastly reduces the time spent clearing ditches, hillsides, fence lines or whatever. Use a file that cuts the steel smoothly at a decent rate, maybe 5/8” wide. File the cheeks first and always work towards edge. This smoothes the blade profile and makes it more of a slicer than a peener.I got it for clearing a steep, rocky hillside with underbrush, fallen branches, thorny vines and kudzu sprinkled in over the top. The tool is really tough, I'll give it an A for damage tolerance. The blade steel and temper are right for this application.The handle is holding up well. With a really sharp blade it doesn't need to be swung very hard.. Hold the end of the handle in one hand, push the blade with the other hand for speed then extend the arm and guide it while gravity and speed do the work. Muscling up doesn't help. The inside curve edge is most effective on vines and small scrub stuff. The outside curve edge is suited for scrub up to small saplings. To save the handle when chopping, hold one hand close to the blade and chop more like a hatchet or machete. A regular ax works better for tough stuff.All in all I think this tool is a fair value. It does exactly what I need it to do. The blade is excellent and should outlast me. I took one star from this rating because the grain angle of the handle is not as good as it could be.

It comes dull so be prepared to spend a little time and file work on it before you use it. Other than that this is one solid and well put together beast of a tool. I've been using it on some rampant bamboo that it trying to take over the back yard of our new place and it's worked great. Even after hitting unseen rocks and metal posts it simply bounces off and keeps on going.

The ditch ax was as advertised. It did need to be sharpened.

This tool came not only unsharpened, but it had no blade ground into it at all. It is thick and rounded over at the blade edge and can't cut butter. I will have to take it to a blade sharpener and spend as much as I paid for the tool to have it properly sharpened.

This is an excellent tool but the handle breaks to easily. This is one tool that needs an UN breakable handle. They are not easy to replace.

I used this blade to clear some very overgrown blackberry thickets along our fence. Wow- what a step up from using an old Vietnam surplus machete and lopping shears! Blackberry vines were 10'-12' high and pushing our fence to the limits. Needless to say we got quite a workout! You will want to keep a sharp edge on this tool if you want it to cut efficiently. A few swipes periodically with a half-round file will bring the cutting edges back easily. The tool is heavy enough to provide some cutting assistance without being too unwieldy and heavy to use, but you'll still need to put some effort into your swing to generate enough force. It easily cut through blackberries, Scotch Broom, and other unwanted brush growth when sharp.This is a great tool for clearing places you cannot bring a brush cutter or mower.

It’s good . Only thing is that it came dull

I thought it was going to be a larger version of the fiskars cutter. This is like the hulk of the brush ax world. A little dull on arrival but nothing that a good old stone can't remedy. Love it.