Culture

Hot Damn. That’s One Beautiful Axe.

Cuts wood real nice, too.

By The Editors / July 15, 2015 9:00 am

Chopping wood: the only chore so cool they made it a sport.

But you wouldn’t golf with your grandpa’s clubs. So don’t split logs with his axe.

Instead, get your mitts on a Kuromatsu, a new local company churning out stunning axes that look as good over your mantle as they do over your head.

Kuromatsu is the hobby of Matthew Ayriss. He grew up in Vancouver, where they know good axe-work.

Consider his hatchets functional art: stately enough for your wall, sharp and sturdy enough to make lumber.

The steel comes from Council Tool, a Tennessee-based company that’s been pouring steel since the 1880s and outfits firehouses all over the country.

Ayriss attaches the heads to cedar handles coated in shiny, symmetrical, Pantone acrylics.

Then he stitches a leather strap to the neck to safeguard them from wear and tear.

He also uses that leather to make key chains, belts and portfolios that are every bit as becoming as his wood-splitters.

Order a piece or two today.

That’s no chore.