A Good Hatchet

[rwsmith]

This is timely.....

I need to buy a hatchet, I've always gotten the basic jobs. But now I want a GOOD hatchet.

 

[joe44va]

I'm thinking a hatchet is a bit light for kindling. I prefer my Wetterlings limbing axe that has about a 2 pound head. It's also a good camp axe.

 

[joe44va]

My Wetterlings

 

[Qball]

Is that your 'barbeque hatchet' that you wear at your Lutefisk outings?

bdGreen

My shotgun

 

[reddogge]

My kindling hatchet is so old I have no idea where it came from. But I use it rarely since now I just buy cedar shakes in a pack from Home Depot. Lasts most of the season for $9.

 

[vt_shooter]

I had an Estwing hatchet maybe 50 years ago, when I was a little kid, loved it then, and I lost it somewhere in the woods. Never had another one. After reading all the comments here, and seeing pictures of Estwing hatchets, unchanged after all these years, I thought I needed to finally replace the one I lost, and so I picked one up at Home Depot today for $35. I feel like I have my old friend back Nicely made tool, made right here in the US!

 

[Texas Star]

Will those with Estwing hatchets let us know if they "turn brown" after the clear coat wears off? One poster says that his did. I don't know if he kept it oiled.

 

[30-30remchester]

To answer Texas Star, I am not sure if rust is brown. I have an Estwing Hudson Bay axe that sleeps in my cross bed tool box on my mountain truck. Those boxes are not watertight. My axe has been rusted several times and it required a wire wheel on a grinder to shine it up again. It has stains on the bit and handle.

 

[DWFAN]

I have an old Collins and don't even remember when I got it. A file won't touch it. Still has the original handle and canvas belt sheath. I don't think I've had to sharpen it more than four or five times in fifty plus years.
World-renowned Maker of Axes: The Collins Company of Canton | ConnecticutHistory.org

DW

 

[SquarePizza]

I am a fan of the wetterlings little buddy hatchet.

 

[reddogge]

To answer Texas Star, I am not sure if rust is brown. I have an Estwing Hudson Bay axe that sleeps in my cross bed tool box on my mountain truck. Those boxes are not watertight. My axe has been rusted several times and it required a wire wheel on a grinder to shine it up again. It has stains on the bit and handle.

Controlled rusting is brown and is called browning. It's how metal parts for flintlocks were finished.

 

[Mule Packer]

I have a few, well-made, quality axes and hand-axes (Plumb, Bridgeport, etc.). But, here are two that I use most often for kindling...a Wetterling's Carpenter's Axe and a Wetterling's Small Hunter's Axe. Both are around 19-inches overall in length and weigh approximately two pounds...the Carpenter's Axe weighing a little more.

I keep one in the pickup at all times and the other by the kindling box by the wood stove.

The thing that impresses me most about both of these hand axes is the quality of steel. It is immediately evident the minute you touch a file to the bit of the axe. Just good stuff.

 

[Scrapper]

The thing that impresses me most about both of these hand axes is the quality of steel. It is immediately evident the minute you touch a file to the bit of the axe. Just good stuff.

Same thing with one of my Plumbs. When I'm in a tree I take a file with me so I run it across the blade to get a fresh edge.

I have one other plumb identical to the other except the head is much harder and needs a stone.

 

[Johnwye60]

I just bought a Gransfors Burk splitting hatchet - and am thrilled with it. Been heating with wood for 25+ years and I thought it was time for a new hatchet.
You also can't go wrong with a Wetterlings either.
For a lot less $$$ Husqvarna sells a nice group of axes and hatchets.