If ever there was a product that defined a zeitgeist, it was the Best Made axe and the Americana backwoods revival of the last two years. Wherever you turned, it seemed, there was Best Made…in print, in pixels, no matter where you looked, another beautiful Best Made. Last year, however, one of the founders, Graeme Cameron, left to pursue his own vision of a company, brand, and fine cutting instruments. This morning, his Base Camp X opened for business, with a product line of four axes and a very cool Nepali knife.

The brand is the story, of course. If you simply want an axe, they’re easy enough to find, and cheaper, too. It’s tribal affiliation and the love of an idea that draw someone to a designer axe, the nostalgic promise of log cabins, summer campfires, the wooden canoe by the lake, historical childhood scented on the drift of cedar smoke. Roll up the sleeves and grab the axe…what could be more fundamentally North American than that? The axe represents a dream, escapist yes, but simple and sustaining, too: a tool to be used with your hands, no confusion about it. Uncomplicated, uncluttered, purposeful, an axe is everything we’d like our lives to be. Or maybe it’s just something very cool and very satisfying to use.

Adventure Journal caught up with Cameron on the eve of Base Camp X’s launch.

How did Base Camp X come about?
When I was a young kid my dad took me everywhere in the bush. I fell in love with the trees. It has been in my DNA for generations and I explored some of that when I co-founded Best Made. What I came to realize is that people want to know what is behind a brand and they most definitely want to share their own story and create a connection. Base Camp X is me getting more personal. I felt it was time to do much more than sell a product — I wanted to put a brand story in motion and create my own world.

I see a brand as only being as good as the people that support it and believe in it. Since I have a story that involves hard labor, axes, the forest, and Legacy – it only made sense to tell it.  Everyone needs to have a place that speaks to them, so I don’t hesitate in asking “Where is your Base Camp?”

The other thing that really got me moving on Base Camp X was the notion of Legacy. I love the idea of leaving my mark on the world in some way, and leaving behind possessions that won’t become outdated. I can’t think of a better thing to leave to my son and hopefully his kids than an insane axe collection (that I used) and a story to go with it. I really believe in starting tradition within the family and I think few would disagree. Base Camp X is all about beginning new adventures and leaving that mark for those that follow.

Why did you and Best Made part ways?
This is such a straightforward question — but very difficult to answer. I think that my response could really vary on this one. I’ll give it a shot and hope that it makes sense.

In the spring of 2010 I decided that it was time for me to step back and follow my own brand vision. The distance between Toronto and New York started to grow and it was very very frustrating being so far from production. Being in Toronto, I was on my own and spent a ton of time communicating with my partner via phone and e-mail. I am most definitely a face to face kind of guy so this started to challenge my ability to build on input to support the direction we where doing our best to head in. I wanted to start my own operation in Canada but felt that the only way to do it my way…was by myself. I cannot properly explain just how tough it is to be in a long-distance business relationship. I was very sad to say goodbye to my beloved Best Made Company, but I knew that I was leaving my side of things in more than capable hands.

You have a history with axes that goes beyond just making them as a business. Tell me about your cabin.
I decided one day that it was time to step up see if I had the metal to do it. You read about these amazing feats accomplished by pioneers like Dick Proenneke, creating a building site and building a hand hewn log cabin. I didn’t want any machinery involved, even though that would have made it happen a little quicker. My dad had this book from the 50′s called “How to Build Your Home in the Woods”… it was mind blowing. It took a ton of time to locate the trees, way more time than I had anticipated. Cedars that grow thick, straight, tall and solid through the core are not the easiest pickings, but in my mind it was the ideal tree. The bugs don’t dig on it and it smells amazing, not to mention its longevity. Every tree was carried to the worksite on my shoulder or tandem with my dad. Pulling a 300-pound tree out of a cut zone over a km away is a feat, throw in some granite ridges and about 100 billion black flies and we have a challenge. I ended up with a bunch of close calls but managed to herniate two discs in my back about halfway through construction. Falling with a 24-foot log balanced on your shoulder is not a good idea…six months for recovery but we got back to it as soon as I could lift the weight again. The cabin is heated with a wood burning stove and we light it with candles and old school kerosene lamps. I did it all with an axe, some chisels, a good rope and my dad, not to leave out my wife Renee, who was there from start to finish.

What do an ax and hand labor mean or represent to you?
Balance…it is truly all about balance. The tools that you carry are only as effective as the person who not only wields them, but who cares for them. Using my hands to build a cabin or to manage a forest…it’s all the same. You need to focus on all aspects of the operation, albeit simple — the slightest loss of focus can lead to damaged tools or worse. It’s this aspect of “hand labor” that fascinated me…you can’t fake your way through it.

The axe is the ultimate hand tool as far as I am concerned — it is extremely versatile and you can apply it to much more than chopping firewood. It would have been pretty much impossible to develop our civilization without the axe…it allowed us to carve our way into the interior, build roads, bridges, homes, etc. Not much would have been possible without the axe.

Best Made was really embraced by the design community and the media and became a bit of a poster child for North American backwoods revival and so-called the Williamsburg lumberjack. What does that say to you about people’s need to be connected to the outdoors or to a more elemental time, if anything?
I think there are a ton of people out there looking to connect with the environment. There is a very real romantic notion that one gets when picturing themselves in a simpler time. Could you make it? Would you have what it takes to actually get it done out there? Whether that is done physically or through a brand…people want a story and they most definitely want honesty. Not everyone can or wants to pick up an axe and head to the back 40, but they might just want to be a part of a brand that represents the ability to do that. I think that products can be a very effective portal/transport device to those places. You might be sitting in your living room in downtown L.A., but that axe on your wall will take you places far outside of the confines of that room…with just a look.

What is it about cutting wood by hand?
When I pick up an axe it transforms me into something else. There is a real connection between my physical being and the inanimate wood and steel of a chopper. It truly comes alive when I get the grip on and head off to do my thing. The impact of an axe bit and a solid chunk of hardwood is gorgeous. The sound, the visual, the energy that connects with your core…it’s very real. So picking out the appropriate axe, locating your wood, turning a log into a pile…then burning it. Does it get any better? Not many people have a bad time around a campfire or even a wood-burning fire place.

Which do you prefer, the smell of freshly cleaved wood or the smell of a campfire?
The campfire wins every time for me. It’s tough to enjoy a whiskey while swinging the steel…not impossible, mind you…just not recommended. The campfire is a place where everyone is welcome —power in the rawest of forms and with the right wood…. you can’t beat it.

Base Camp X marks its debut with four axes and a Khukri, a Nepali knife. Learn more at www.basecampx.com.

Photos by Graeme Cameron.

Tagged as: camping