Thanks for the comment. I’d just say that the fact that the typical outdoorsman doesn’t commonly carry a Best Made Axe really doesn’t mean too much. It’s a super-premium product and therefore not the typical. Most cowboys don’t wear super-premium cowboy boots — they wear much cheaper working-man’s boots. Most hunters don’t own $6,000 rifles either; you’re far more likely to see a guy carrying a 30–30 lever action than some super-high end claro-walnut-stocked, double-square-bridged mauser rifle with engraving and everything. But that doesn’t mean the high end rifle isn’t worth the money, or won’t deliver an entirely different shooting experience. It’s just not worth the money to the average hunter, nor was it ever intended to.

The point I was initially making with the column, was simply that there is likely a significant portion of Best Made Axe’s prospective customers who would be looking for some substantiation of the claim “Best Made,” and that they’d likely expect that substantiating content on their Website. And this goes for almost any premium product, too, by the way, so it’s a lesson applicable to lots of my readers.

At any rate, Best Made Axe re-sourced their axe heads and added exactly the kind of content I was expecting to find when I first wrote this column, so kudos to them! Expect a follow-up on this post to delve into exactly how they went about improving this aspect of their already very-successful marketing.

- Jeff

Any small business owner knows that managing the relationship between their brand and their manufacturer’s always needs to be given careful consideration. We at Best Made make no excuses for how we’ve marketed our axes in the past, but it’s been an evolutionary process over the 2 years we’ve been in business. We’ve ramped up our educational content, specifications, and made staffing changes.

We’ve been active in having our products reviewed and tested. We are also very responsive to customer questions regarding all the products we sell. I personally correspond with a number of customers.

We’ve been active in a number of areas beyond our website as well. Our Projects blog has been a joy for us to expound on specific products and features in a way that may not fit into our website copy. We’ve also been active in the social media realm (Facebook, Twitter, and now Google+) all of which allow us to provide content and answer customer questions. We’re also active on BladeForum, one of the web’s largest online knife and tool message boards. All of these different platforms allow us to communicate different information to different customer segments who have different needs. Our website can’t, and won’t, be the be all and end all for our messaging, but we’re always looking to improve it.

Best,
Nick Zdon

Thanks for the comment. It’s interesting because I was just on the Best Made Axe website and was pleasantly surprised to find some improved content around the quality construction that goes into their axes. I was also surprised to learn that their axe heads were no longer made in Maine, but are now supplied by Council Tools, an axe company that still forges their axe heads right here in America, and whose tools have an overall excellent reputation.

Of course, it’s easy to see that a regular Council Tool axe costs between $50 — $80 while a Best Made Axe runs between $150–400, but it’s also clear that added finishing, painting, packaging, etc. has been done to the axes.

Still… that’s not the point. The point is that the Best Made Axe website has been made better and more convincing by adding in some substantive or factual material regarding construction, build quality, etc. And that’s really the takeaway small business owners and craftsmen can use for their own sites.

- Jeff

Thanks for highlighting the fact that there is virtually no mention of how and why best made axes are indeed best made other than the fact that they have the best painted axes on the market. I’ll admit I’ve been intrigued by how the axes have been marketed, at least on the surface but I’m one of those people that not only appreciates the beauty of a tool but also wants to research the tech specs and know how the tool is actually a top quality tool. I have several very good quality axes, something like 12 in all, for all different sorts of woodcutting tasks. Single and double bit, felling axes and smaller job axes, large and small hatchets. Most are handed down from grandfather who used each one more than I ever will. I also have a Gransfors which I purchased. All are kept very sharp, sanded and oiled handles and are importantly used to chop wood. I was looking into the Best Made Axes but couldn’t find any details of how they are manufactured or forged. If I remember right I believe I read somewhere on their website that they were hand-forged which I find difficult to believe. As far as I know there are no commercially produced Amereican made hand-forged axes. Council are drop forged, Snow are apparently from China and there’s no way they are hand forged if that’s the case. Germany makes some very good quality drop forged axes as well but as far as I can tell the only ones making hand-forged axes commercially are the Swedes with Wetterlings and Gransfors. There’s a reason a hand forged axe cost a lot because they require a tremendous amount of skill (years of practice) in order to create a top quality product and they aren’t just popped out by placing molten steel into a giant automated hammer forge. There’s also things that can only be done by hand that can increase the hardness of the bit of the axe-head. Anyways, thanks again for bringing up this topic, I wish Best Made would tell the story of how the axes are made not just the inspiration of how cool axes are and how they are painted and how you can buy syrup and patches on their website.