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Feeding your campfire and pitching your shelter are major chores for both recreational camping and survival scenarios. The new 4-in-1 Woodsman from Zippo Outdoor was built to handle many outdoor tasks with just one easy-to-modify tool. So how did it work in my camp?
Right out of the package, the Woodsman was easy to handle and had enough heft to chop respectably. The entire tool weighs 2 pounds 13 ounces, making it a little heavy for backpacking, but plenty light enough to take to deer camp or for strapping onto a Bug Out Bag. The ax handle seemed a bit long, but the 20-inch length is necessary to accommodate a saw blade of decent length.
The bow saw component to the 4-in-1 Woodsman has a 15-inch blade with 73 tempered steel teeth that can cut ably both dry and green wood up to 4 inches in diameter — even hardwoods. The tool comes with a spare blade, if you happen to wear out or lose the first blade. And when you’re not sawing logs, both blades store safely inside the ax handle. The hatchet head cover cleverly doubles as the saw handle. The bright orange color is high-vis, and the rubber padding gives the saw a comfortable grip.
The hatchet head is sharp and lean, making quick work out of tedious chores like chopping branches into firewood length. The only place it struggled was in splitting kindling. The thin blade doesn’t taper into the wider handle. This prevents the tool from acting like a wedge, as most hatchets and axes would. The steel head is 5 inches long with a 4 ½-inch blade. The head poll servers as a hammer (tool 3 of 4), and a tent stake puller is attached to the tension lever for the saw blade. This metal loop can also be used to hang up tool or assist in strapping it down.
In all, you get a bow saw, hammer, stake puller, and hatchet — all of which work well enough — for about $75.
