# Hatchet Of Your Dreams



## papadan (Mar 6, 2009)

Let's start a new dream thread. LOL So the other day, I was out splitting a couple Apple logs and Oooopps!









I broke my trusty old hatchet…..;-( So yesterday I stopped at a big yard sale and guess what I found….Yep a new to me hatchet! It's an older Stanley H122. It was dirty and a little rusty, and I had to pay a whole $5 for it. Little bigger than my old one, maybe that's a good thing. Last night I cleaned it all up, sharpened it and made a blade guard for it.


















So how about it people, show me your favorite Hatchet!


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## lew (Feb 13, 2008)

Looks really nice!

I have an old "Plumb" hatchet that was my Dads. Retired it from use because I was afraid of breaking it.


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## Loren (May 30, 2008)

I've thought a broad hatchet would be useful.
One face is flat for trimming beams.

https://www.gransforsbruk.com/en/product/gransfors-broad-axe-model-1900/


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## papadan (Mar 6, 2009)

Lew, an old Plum would definitely be hard to break, those were really fine built tools. I have a few wrenches and a gear puller that were my Grandfathers and I still use them all the time. Loren those Gransfors tools look too expensive to actually use. LOL


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## bandit571 (Jan 20, 2011)

not too sure about the 'hawk, but…









This should clean up nice enough…


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## JCamp (Nov 22, 2016)

Papadan- any chance u could weld that head back together An give it to a grandkids for light duty stuff?

My personal favorite is my estwing with the leather stacked handle. I can sharpen it up to where it'll shave my arms. I also like my bigger estwing. I think it's called a boys axe or camp axe. It's got a blue metal handle an does a great job I carry it in my truck in case I come across a tree down somewhere when I'm feeling energetic. Lol


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## BillWhite (Jul 23, 2007)

You guys can't have my Norlund camp ax. 
Bill


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## Handtooler (Jul 24, 2012)

My favorite is a Plumb Boy Scout hand axe from 1951. Still sharp and usable.


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## JCamp (Nov 22, 2016)

My belknap(or some version of that spelling) the old plum and my newish estwing 








The little bigger estwing


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## Karda (Nov 19, 2016)

did you borrow the stone ax from Fred flintstone that is a nice one


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## papadan (Mar 6, 2009)

Bandit, I love that "hawk" but wouldn't want to use it. JC, my grandsons are 16 and 20 now, they would do way too much damage with a hatchet. I may weld it back together though. It is a little no name I picked up somewhere about 20 years ago.


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## alittleoff (Nov 27, 2014)

That estwing camp ax is really nice. I have one just like it. Use it all the time.
Gerald


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## Karda (Nov 19, 2016)

I have an estwing, got it from my FIL. It was rusty and covered in paint, but it cleaned up ok


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## BlasterStumps (Mar 13, 2017)

I have an old hewing axe that came to me without a handle. I fashioned a handle for it out of an bigger axe handle. I took this picture of it on the block when I was breaking down some pieces of slabs for a birdhouse.


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## jeffswildwood (Dec 26, 2012)

The one I made a fire fighter friend of mine. Just decoration only though.


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## Tideline77 (Apr 15, 2016)

I also have the Eastwing camp axe, and it is a great axe

had it over 25 years


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## JCamp (Nov 22, 2016)

Jeff- that little hatchet would be a good toy for a kid too. Mine would b trying to chop each other with it tho. Lol
Timeline- I just about returned the estwing axe when I got it. I'm a tightwad an it was a $45 impulse buy. I could hav got a foreign made one for about 10-15$ but I watched a YouTube video an the guy was running a trap line in Alaska. He'd b 20+ miles away from any help at all An he had one of these axes strapped on his snowmobile. I figured if he could trust it with his life I could atleast give it a shot. It ended up being a great little axe. Ive carried it in my truck for a few years cause it's not as messy as a chainsaw. 
Only thing I don't like about estwings is all the leather handled ones I've ordered from Amazon hav been loose. I try to just buy from a store now cause they don't seem to have that problem


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## Tideline77 (Apr 15, 2016)

I carried my eastwing on horse pack trips and ATV trail rides in the Mountains of southern Colorado
that and a pack saw and you can clear the trails pretty easy of fallen Aspens
in the spring of the year the trails always had some fallen trees across them.

lots of Elk hunters carried a small hatchet to split or rip an elk or deer pelvic bone and ribs
precise work can be done with a sharp hatchet

I always used a pack saw that had fine teeth on one side and course teeth on the other…....


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## hairy (Sep 23, 2008)

I don't do any hatchet work, but I've been haunting yard sales & flea markets searching for a meat cleaver. All the ones I've seen must have been the best ever made judging by price. I can see the $ signs rolling in their eyes when I ask how much. I've had the occasional time where I thought it would be the right tool for the job, but like you, $5 is about what I want to spend. Usually a hammer and chisel works just as good.

The reason I say this is that I can see a cleaver taking over after a hatchet, like going from a draw knife to a spokeshave to clean up rough cuts. Just a thought …


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## Mosquito (Feb 15, 2012)

Not sure it really counts as a hatchet, but at an MWTCA meet a year or two ago I came across this decorative one


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## bobasaurus (Sep 6, 2009)

Here is a hand-forged carving hatchet head by Blackbear Forge that I made the handle for:




























The head is O1 steel, the handle is apple wood with jatoba wedges.


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## bandit571 (Jan 20, 2011)

Blank of wood was too thick…









Used the "new" hatchet









As I didn't have a Froe…

Fiskars X7….


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## Redoak49 (Dec 15, 2012)

When I was still working, we made the steel for Estwjng. We would make more than 500 tons at a time for them. We would all wonder hammers or axes that much would make.

I you are interested, it was a 1055 steel. For other companies, we made grades such as 1060 to 1080. It is quite a range of carbon. Personally, I would not try to weld a hatchet or hammer.


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## papadan (Mar 6, 2009)

I'm not going to waste time trying to weld the old one. Mos, that's awful purdy, but I wouldn't try to split an apple log with it! LOL bobasaurus, a hammer handle is why I was splitting the apple logs when I broke my old hatchet.


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## BlasterStumps (Mar 13, 2017)

Wow Bobasaurus that is what I call a nice hatchet. I really like the curved cutting edge. You don't see many like that. Nice work on the handle. Nice looking all around.
Mike in CO


> Here is a hand-forged carving hatchet head by Blackbear Forge that I made the handle for:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## bobasaurus (Sep 6, 2009)

> Wow Allen, that is what I call a nice hatchet. I really like the curved cutting edge. You don t see many like that. Nice work on the handle. Nice looking all around.
> Mike in CO
> - BlasterStumps


Thanks Mike. I really like it a lot, though I don't get a chance to use it very often. I have split a few drawbore pins with it, though. John Switzer from Black Bear Forge is a great blacksmith… I dabble in smithing a bit but I have nowhere near his skills. Forging something of this size is a daunting task. He even hot punched the eye for me.

Edit: here is the website if you want one: http://www.blackbearforge.com/axes.htm


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## onoitsmatt (Mar 7, 2015)

A bunch of enablers is what you are:


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## runswithscissors (Nov 8, 2012)

Since nobody else has mentioned this bit of wisdom, I guess it's up to me: If you break the handle on your grandfather's axe, and replace it, it's still your grandfather's axe. If you break the head, as you did (they are very tough, so it's a rare occurrence), and replace it, it's still your grandfather's axe. If you do both in sequence, it's still your grandfather's axe.


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## papadan (Mar 6, 2009)

The one I broke was someone elses grandfathers, I got at a yard sale. Kinda small and weak, I chopped into a small log and then hit the axe with a hammer to drive it through…....it didn't! Now I have another someone else grandfathers hatchet, bigger and heavier, it did split the apple log!


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## papadan (Mar 6, 2009)

Bump


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## eaglewrangler (Jun 15, 2011)

I worked at a lot of historic places over the years, and once you figure out how to use a carpenter hatchet, it will become that go to tool for many unique situations. It is a big chisel, draw knife, hand plane, pencil sharpener, chamfer router and excellent negotiating tool, It does however put a lot of wear on the elbow. I have built a lot in various centuries technology and never yet needed a standard hatchet for anything. My dad always said an axe was safer, miss and hit the ground vs miss and hit yourself with a hatchet. So the axe was handed to me from an early age.


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## papadan (Mar 6, 2009)

Eagle, show us a picture of yours!


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## papadan (Mar 6, 2009)

Bump


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## Tideline77 (Apr 15, 2016)

I was at the blue store looking for a marking knife….....and the hammers and hatchet rack was close down the isle

so I took a gander

and I noticed the ESTWING now has a hatchet with the blue rubberized handle and the size is in between the camp axe and the standard hatchet

not sure why I have an affection for Hatchets or Estwing in particular

making Estwing hammers


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## papadan (Mar 6, 2009)

I was at a flea market Saturday morning and a guy had a couple cases of hatchets he was selling for $20 each. They were brand new and had been dipped in red paint except for 6" for the hand grip. The grip had been dipped in clear paint. These hatchets were super light weight. I couldn't tell what the metal was, but the handles were Pine. I dented one with my thumb nail and think the heads could be aluminum. He was telling people they were made for splitting kindling. Anyone ever hear of such a thing? I saw him sell 4 while I was close to his booth.


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## bandit571 (Jan 20, 2011)

Meh..









West Liberty, OH ….Labour Day Tractor Fest….









Takes three tents for this guy to set up in, plus a lot of tables…every year









Oh, and there are a few tractors sitting around….including a farmall that powers this little saw mill..









They didn't have the big blade set up, but it was just leaning against a wagon..









Never know what you might find down there..









Saws or planes..









Or just an old water pump..









You will need some good legs to walk around, though…









Might be worth the trip…


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## JCamp (Nov 22, 2016)

Papadan- that reminds me of the old saying that a fool An his money are soon parted
About 30min away from my house is a Amish store. I can't remember the name brand they sale (something like Vaugh or vanguard maybe) but there American made hatches are 15$ plus tax. I don't know why ppl buy these junk ones when even decent Chinese stuff ain't that high 
As I've got older I get a little aggravated that other country's make crap that we buy with our American money from our American jobs and then we throw the junk away in our American landfills It would make a good executive order that the contry of origin is where the garbage is returned to


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## JRsgarage (Jan 2, 2017)

i always wanted to get a gransfor or a wetterlings but my estwing keeps working…


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## bobasaurus (Sep 6, 2009)

A Garant hewing hatchet/axe I picked up from Patrick Leach at Handworks 2015. I refinished the handle to change from a nasty flaking poly/varnish to BLO. I also reground the cutting edge to be steeper.


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## JCamp (Nov 22, 2016)

This is not a hatchet An not my favorite. I'd found the head under an old building I tore down 5 years ago I put a handle on it An never sharpened it (didn't have a bench grinder) and didn't bother getting the rust off. I've since got two bench grinders so today I fired one up An used the wheel brush to get the rust off An put a edge on it 
Didn't see a name on it but it's the first double edge axe that I've owned


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## papadan (Mar 6, 2009)

Bobasaurus, I've been on Leach's email list for several years, that man has all kinds of old tools for sale.

JC, I've got an old double bit just like that. LOL


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## WayneC (Mar 8, 2007)

I have a couple of Japanese Hatchets (Ono) that I really like.


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## verdesardog (Apr 2, 2011)

Hand forged in Sweeden>>>








http://photocamel.com/gallery/data/1742/medium/20170210.jpg[/img[/URL]]


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## woodcox (Nov 21, 2012)

Ah, another fo the watch list thank you, papadan!

This thread had me realize I lost an old, new to me Tru-Temper hewing hatchet when my camp trailer was stolen last year. I had just restored and honed it to have as a camp swinger. I just put in ten minutes diggin through the shop trying to find it when I realized the last place I'd had it. Scumbags! But, I see there is plenty of fodder here to push for a replacement Also, the roofer's pattern looks handy as well.

These will keep me warm in the meantime. A requisite EW I've had and abused for twenty years and my prized Robin Wood from across the pond. An early one before he started branding his handles that came shaving sharp. I love the machined knurling that sticks in hand.










Of my dreams? A Füchs like the one Peter Follansbee covets is a bucket list item. I've even thought about commissioning a smithy to reproduce one. I think that would be a serious chunk of change to have done.

An old hewing Ochsenkopf/Oxhead may have to suffice though.


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## bobro (Oct 24, 2014)

No pix, but my favorite was forged by my grandfather- my 84 year old dad still uses it.


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## papadan (Mar 6, 2009)

Woodcox, I really like that Robin Wood, what was your address?

bobro, sounds like a great hatchet, soon will be your turn to use it then pass it down!

I have one Son and 2 Grandsons, they are all computer nerds and have no interest in any kind of tool use. I have tried teaching them basic auto mechanics, woodworking, and construction and can't keep their attention for more than 10 minutes. I have just about any tool anyone could need to fix anything on Earth and they will probably be sold off at a yard sale when I'm gone! ;-(


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## bobasaurus (Sep 6, 2009)

> Woodcox, I really like that Robin Wood, what was your address?
> 
> bobro, sounds like a great hatchet, soon will be your turn to use it then pass it down!
> 
> ...


I'm a huge computer nerd but I love tools too. It's nice to work with my hands after staring at the screen for a full 8 hour workday.


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## papadan (Mar 6, 2009)

They work with their hands too…...playing games on TV.


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## bobasaurus (Sep 6, 2009)

> They work with their hands too…...playing games on TV.
> 
> - papadan


Another of my favorite pastimes . I got started woodworking by making a wooden computer case, someday I want to rebuild some of my old game systems with wooden cases as well. I like combining my hobbies like this. Someday I'll forge damascus steel handlebars for a wood framed bicycle with an onboard computer gaming system, reaching the pinnacle of my hobbies.

Here is a beauty that I would love to try making someday:










https://gearjunkie.com/hults-bruk-damascus


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## bandit571 (Jan 20, 2011)

Till then, try these…









Just for fun…


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## BlasterStumps (Mar 13, 2017)

Stopped at a yard sale today where I found this hatchet in a box with a bunch of hammers. Didn't really want or need the hammers but did like the hatchet. I believe it is a Norlund "Voyager". Little water stain on one side of handle. Otherwise looks pretty clean. I think it will be nice to have in the shop. Look like originally the maker coated the head with a metal flake copper paint. Shows a little in one of the pictures.


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

Nice find


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## BlasterStumps (Mar 13, 2017)

I rescued a couple more tools out of the box of hammers and stuff that I got at a yard sale the other day. The Plumb hatchet had the handle broken off so I knocked out the old stub and put in a new one. Shot it with some black engine paint and did a little sharpening to get rid of some nicks in the edge. With the cost of the handle at a thrift store, I figure I have 75¢ in the hatchet all total plus my labor.

The poor ol' Disston No 4 saw has had a bit of a hard life. Even the stamp on the spine doesn't look like it was done correctly. But just look at the patina! : ) I cleaned as much of the crud off of it as I could and tried to sharpen it. Not a very good job though.

That big box of junk hammers, saws, and a couple hatchets cost me $5. That wasn't the best of it though. I picked up a 3/4 hp 1725 rpm motor for another $5. I might just find a use for that thing : ).


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## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

I bought the Adze on the left at a flea market. For fast removal it works great.

The Axe/Adze combo on the right I bought from mapsyst He is a blacksmith from Bulgaria. He is a member here but not very active. His communication was great. Shipping was under $20 and it took about a month to arrive at my door.

I was a bit wary because of the price, but it has become my favorite. I would highly recommend it when a hatchet and small adze is required. I use it to start spoons, kuksas and some finish work on dough bowls.

You'll see it featured in many projects https://timetestedtoolswoodcarvings.blogspot.com/


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## mapsyst (Oct 1, 2014)

Thank you, Don!


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## OleGrump (Jun 16, 2017)

While there are a few floating around the shop/house, the hatchet that stands out most in my memory has a tale worth sharing with the good folks on LJ. It came into my life in February, 1972. My parents went to a small-ish family owned furniture store and took me with them. I was a boy at the time. There was a salesman standing in the vestibule next to one of those large cardboard drums with the metal rims on each end. As we entered the store, this fellow reached into the drum, retrieved a hatchet and handed it to me, saying "We're giving these out to all the kids who come in today in honor of George Washington's Birthday. Be careful with this and don't hurt yourself !" I thanked him and Dad took custody of the hatchet. Being a promotional item, it was rather dull, so he sharpened it and conveniently kept it tucked away until he needed me to chop some small firewood. Sadly, it has disappeared sometime over the years. I wish I still had it, just for the memory. Imagine the liberals allowing something like that to happen nowadays!


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## BlasterStumps (Mar 13, 2017)

I can only peek thru my fingers at those adze Don. I don't need any new addictions. : ) Nice tools for sure.
Mike


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## DavePolaschek (Oct 21, 2016)

Thanks for mentioning Ivan's hatchet, Don. I ordered one from him this morning.


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## JohnMcClure (Aug 24, 2016)

I handled this Plumb that a good friend gave me. Actually I started on the handle first, by the time it was nearly done I told my friend it was too good to become a mallet as I intended, so he offered the Plumb head with a bit of original handle still stuck in the eye.

Full project writeup here: http://lumberjocks.com/projects/370425
Handle is laminated on a taper from walnut and cherry.








I love this thing!


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