When most Americans traveled either by foot or by canoe, the most common and most practical sidearm and camp tool was the tomahawk. The preferred weapon of Native America caught on quickly among the European pioneers, and the combined demand created a massive influx of trade axes to the Americas. Some were of excellent quality and some were only created for profit, with hollow pipe stem handles and pipe bowls instead of polls. Few pipe axes kept the fragile bowl intact for long. The more practical forms of the one-hand axe proved best for work and for survival in the dense brush and virgin forests of the New World.
For campers, hunters and canoers today the hatchet or camp axe is still the sensible solution to many everyday problems. Tasks which would take hours with a belt knife take minutes with a good hatchet. Hunters of big game use the axe to cleave bone. Expert campers use axes to build emergency shelters, and chop and split firewood. Full sized axes may be better suited to farm work, but hatchets and tomahawks go anywhere — small enough to fit in the pack or lash to the bottom of a canoe seat.
Sporting axes today include another popular European import, the mountaineer’s ice axe, and military tomahawks which serve peaceful purposes equally well. The pipe axe also survives — today as in the old days usually a cheap souvenir.
Our choice for the best axe is the Emerson CQC-T Tactical Tomahawk. It’s top quality, designed to handle anything from camp chores to combat.
Smith & Wesson’s Bullseye Hatchet provides an inexpensive alternative that’s still practical and reliable.
Cold Steel’s Throwing Tomahawk combines a functional hammer poll with an axe blade, and is tough enough for throwing practice.
Possibly many of today's backwoodsmen are a little embarrassed to carry a tomahawk, but I wouldn't think of leaving mine at home. In camp, I'm always looking for an excuse to use it. This very affordable Trail Hawk from Cold Steel weighs a little more than my ...
Gerber's Back Paxe offers backpackers a versatile camp tool small enough to carry conveniently into the deep woods. While it doesn't provide full-sized power, for some uses the Paxe outperforms a survival knife of equal weight.
If you build things when you go to the woods -- like primitive shelters ...
The Francisca Antiqued Axe from CAS Hanwei reproduced a genuine combat axe design used by marauding Viking warriors. Now a favorite of collectors and competitive axe throwers, this historically accurate axe would grace any wall. Around the camp, it's too good not to use.
The antiqued finish of the high ...
If you think this camp axe from Snow and Nealley looks a lot like a tomahawk, you're right. The Hudson Bay axe pattern was hot stuff as trade goods throughout the Great Lakes during the days of the Fur Trade, and versions of this versatile pattern ...
The Gerber 45905 Camp Axe is a good size for canoeists and hunters able to carry larger gear on their backwoods journeys. Although it's nearly indestructible, the wrap-around handle style does limit the cut compared to traditional builds.
That's really the only drawback to this axe's nearly one-piece construction. ...
Even though it looks too simple, the round eye of this very basic frontier axe makes it one of the best choices in camp axes. Unless you insist on driving tent stakes with the hammer poll of a tomahawk there's seldom need for more than a good chopping edge.
In many ...
The Cold Steel Spike Tomahawk brings back an old frontier style that was more fighting tomahawk than camp axe. The spiked poll of the axe is obviously dangerous, so if you're going to use this one in the woods, be careful. The backswing gets a little hazardous.
In fact, even ...
Cold Steel's Trench Hawk brings convenient technical improvements to an already popular tactical tomahawk design. Changes make this an excellent axe for throwing, as well as for ordinary camp work.
The drop-forged 5150 high carbon steel of the axe head fits a slot in the strong polypropylene handle. Strong ...
This lightweight camp axe from SOG Specialty Knife and Tool cuts weight down to sensible levels and still performs reliably and well. Ground from one piece of high carbon 420 stainless steel, there's not much in this axe to break so you won't need to worry about ...
Timber framers know this tool. If you've tried an axe for chopping joints for log buildings or post-and-beam construction and it didn't work out well, it was probably because you had something else in hand. Only the squared edge of a carpenter's axe will chop a truly flat surface.
The ...
Hand forged in Storvik, Sweden, the S.A. Wetterling Axe with hickory handle represents 100 years of Swedish tradition. The best Wetterling axes like this one are shaped by hand forging, a process that requires patience, time and a high degree of skill. The end result is a better axe.
The usual ...
Although the Gransfors Bruks Outdoor Axe is a little smaller than the award-winning Hunter's Axe, it's certainly made well enough to do most of the same work. The Outdoor Axe even includes some of the features of the company's best splitting axes. Choose this camp axe if you ...
The froe is the tool most woodworkers don't realize they need. This Shingle Froe from Peavey will quickly become one of your indispensable tools if you split kindling and firewood. Woodturners will like it even more.
This simple blade of iron or mild steel will cleanly split a short bolt of ...
Many people do enjoy splitting wood for the campfire or the wood stove, and the Gransfors Bruks Large Splitting Axe makes that warming chore go well. Ordinary chopping axes work fairly well for some types of wood but just bury themselves in others. This special axe blasts through.
The difference between ...
Park the noisy gas-powered hydraulic log splitter in the barn, and get out the Gransfors Bruks splitting maul instead. Splitting wood by hand is fun, excellent exercise, and faster than splitting with a machine. Don't forget the steel wedges for the tough blocks.
Even a cheap splitting maul can handle ...
The Premium Single Bit Michigan Axe is the top-of-the-line axe for Ames with a polished axehead and a high-tech, wavy fiberglass handle. Though it's guaranteed for life, you'll still need to take good care of it.
Although the polish might not seem important to an axehead, it actually does improve ...
If you're working up a new garden spot or moving bushes, you will encounter roots that only some sort of axe will handle. The Planter Axe was built for that. With a 5-1/2 pound steel axe head and a 36-inch-long handle of American hickory, a determined gardener can move ...
The Truper "Do-It" Michigan Pattern axe is what most people see in their imagination when someone says "chopping axe." This old axe pattern was a favorite on the wagon trains, which were filled with people who knew only a little about frontier life.
The Truper is a standard, modern axe ...
Kit Rae describes the Black Legion War Axe as one of the two fearsome axes wielded by the Barumen, the monstrous soldiers of the Black One. In the fantasy history which inspired the Swords of the Ancients series by United Cutlery, the Barumen evolved from a strange genetic mixture ...
The Axe Book, produced by Gransfors Bruks, gives new axe owners a leg up on the old craft of axemanship as well as several other basic living skills which are becoming increasingly rare in the modern urban world. At the Gransfors Bruks facility in Sweden, modern craftsmen hand forge today's ...
Since I don't spend much of my time in high rise buildings, I don't see many firemen's axes -- though in many places, they're a standard part of the landscape right next to the fire extinguisher in the hallway. The AMPCO Fireman's Pick Head Axe could provide that same level of ...
Estwing solved the ancient riddle of how to make an axe handle that won't break by forging the entire tool from steel. The Estwing Sportsman's Hatchet brings the durability of a fine steel-shanked carpenter's hammer to the campsite in this 16-inch-long and nearly 2-1/2-pound camping tool.
Forged from high carbon ...
The Ames True Temper Landscaping Axe could be considered the civilian version of the Pulaski Firefighting Tool used by smoke jumpers and other wilderness workers to clear trails and firebreaks. The model used by the U.S. Forest Service is heavier than the Ames, but this lighter version ...
Fiskars doesn't claim that the Pro Chopping Axe is unbreakable, but it does give the axe a limited lifetime warranty against defects in worksmanship, covering both head and handle. Most owners of the Fiskars Pro will not take it past its limits, which are set pretty high anyway. In one ...
The average single bit axe sold today runs about three and a half pounds, so the steel-handled Estwing Camper's Axe is heavier than normal in spite of the compact 26-inch length. With a cutting edge of 4 inches and some streamlining of the high carbon tool steel head, the ...
Snow and Nealley's "Our Best" Single Bit Axe chops kindling, splits stove wood, shears branches from downed trees, and works equally well for any number of light chores around the woodlot or farm. This 3.5-pound axe isn't out of reason for a group backpacking trip, either, provided people ...
When craftsmen of today try to recreate the work of previous generations, there's a good chance they'll just end up wondering how those old-timers did that. Modern tools were designed for modern materials and often don't fare well on traditional challenges. The Gransfors Bruks Swedish Carving Axe is one ...
The Mini Hatchet from Gransfors Bruks qualifies as the sporting blade you didn't know you need. Carrying the belt axe or tomahawk is an option many people don't even think about today, but it used to be standard equipment on the frontier. Lennart Pettersson, one of the smiths at the ...
Whether you're trying to break into the Professional Lumberjack circuit or want an excellent tool for the homestead, the Lumberjack Competition Axe from ProChainsaw is the right choice. At 5.4 pounds it may seem heavy -- if all you've ever used before is an ordinary hardware store version. Those are toys. This is the real thing.
The high carbon steel head ...
Available in 60, 65 and 75-centimeter lengths, the Mountain Axe by Omega Pacific follows the principles the company set for itself years ago in its effort to produce high quality climbing gear at an affordable price. High tech manufacturing procedures and top quality components lower the cost but ...
Only 19 ounces in weight, the 26-inch Petzl Summit offers full-size strength and a design with a few important improvements over the simple mountaineer's ice axe with straight shaft. The Summit's strong aluminum shaft, covered with a tough rubberized coating for improved grip and warmth, includes a curved upper ...
Machetes look like great fun in jungle movies, with everybody up front chopping away at six foot grass and sapling thickets and hardly slowing down the march--but try one in the American woodlands and you'll quickly realize that the full length machete was meant for tender green growth, not the briar ...
Ernest Emerson, martial artist and knife maker, eventually came to regard the tomahawk as one of the essential survival tools for modern times. Creating high quality combat knives favored by such respected groups as the Navy SEALS, his reputation for practicality and simplicity, expressed by modern craftsmanship, extends to this well known ...
In Vietnam, American Special Forces soldiers soon learned a lesson their ancestors knew very well--a tomahawk is better than a knife for close combat. In spite of its popularity, my own opinion of the Vietnam tomahawk has always been that it's a wimpy little ax, with a head that's too ...
United Cutlery's Black Ronin Tomahawk has enough points and sharp edges that no matter how bad you may be at throwing, you have a decent chance of getting this ax to stick in a target. The traditional tomahawk has one rather narrow cutting blade; this has two, one a ...
Smith & Wesson's stainless steel Bullseye is an economical and reliable camp ax with a few odd points of styling that some will like. Blade styles of hatchets are often carried over from old designs, suited to tasks most users don't perform today. In colonial times, most hatchets ...
One of the nice things about canoe camping is that you can take more than you could comfortably carry. Instead of a little packer's stove, you can take a two burner camp stove; instead of a lightweight trail tomahawk, you can take a Russ Kommer hatchet with a 4 ...
Here we have another Cold Steel product that's a fair value for what it offers. Do a search on functional tomahawks and you'll see a lot of quality products for the same price as the Rifleman's Hawk. So we're not about to throw it into the "expensive" bin anytime soon.
This tomahawk axe sports ...
Ever had the urge to own an axe that had a more "modern" feel to it? Then this is your utility axe, hands-down.
Condor's Wilderness Tool provides all the functionality that you need from a double-bladed axe without looking embarrassingly ancient.
It has a blasted satin finish over a genuine stainless steel blade. The ...
| CURL error code = 6. (Could not resolve host: rest.ebay.com) |
Twitter
RSS