All Steel Axes/Tomahawks-Uses?

Square_peg said:
The problem with these hatchet shaped knives is that they don't chop worth a damn. Too much weight in the handle and not enough in the head make them slow and powerless.
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Dave Wenger “Wenger Blades” fixed that 👍. The Loki Hawk is nicely balanced. 3/8 in the head down to 3/16 in the handle - micarta scales and excellent convex / Appleseed grind. I would call it a general camp tool that can do many tasks. Not for everyone, nice tool though.

There are definitely better, and cheaper choices for chopping chores.. I guess it’s a bit excessive to some. I recently got one, the quality is second to none, it makes better curls than most of my knives, it’s a decent chopper, great digger, easy to carry and fun.

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Square_peg said:
The problem with these hatchet shaped knives is that they don't chop worth a damn. Too much weight in the handle and not enough in the head make them slow and powerless.
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I disagree. The problem is edge geometry. A properly designed and made full tang hawk (hawk-shaped knife if you prefer) can chop extremely well for it's weight, and within a certain weight/size range.

Most full tangs/tactical hawks aren't made for chopping, but they're too heavy overall and the grinds are insanely thick. So a 3lb tactical hawk will chop very poorly compared to a 3lb axe, but a 1-1.5lb full tang hawk (designed for chopping/cutting) can chop on par with a 1-1.5lb hatchet. The hatchet will split better and the full tang hawk will cut better.

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Their purpose is entirely context-based. Steel-shanked axes are almost always preferred for any circumstances where the need for durability/resiliency ranks higher than cutting efficiency or shock mitigation. Hence why they remain so popular with off-roaders, folks doing demolition work, and so on.
 
Steel handles are miserable, as are Estwing's in general. An argument can be made for some of their striking tools such as trim hammers, and roofing hammers where striking efficiency and handle shock isn't a big deal.
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
Their purpose is entirely context-based. Steel-shanked axes are almost always preferred for any circumstances where the need for durability/resiliency ranks higher than cutting efficiency or shock mitigation. Hence why they remain so popular with off-roaders, folks doing demolition work, and so on.
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I could also see them used by people who have very damp conditions nearly year round and do not care to or know how to keep an axe from rotting away. There are only a few woods in the world that are nearly rot proof and while i know alot of you on here know how to take care of a wood handle, if its something you use on occasion and would want the peice of mind knowing its going to work when you need it, then yes an all steel axe would be the choice. And I definatlly agree with the off-road comment. A good pioneer kit for your truck would probly include an all steel axe axe you can throw it in the bed/back and throw other things ontop of it and not need to worry about it snapping due to negligent care. Also from a comment on the first page, military axes are fiberglass. Breeching gear is all steel wrapped in hard-plastic but thats simply for the weight as a breeching axe needs to be as heavy as possible. And if anyone here uses a breeching axe as a tool for cutting wood, may god have mercy on your soul.
 
> if its something you use on occasion and would want the peice of mind knowing its going to work when you need it, then yes an all steel axe would be the choice

This is a great point.

My choice for this case would be a "plastic" axe like the ones from Husqvarna or Fiskars. But I can easily imagine someone else preferring, say, an Estwing.
 
H0kieengineer said:
Is there really any practical use for an all steel axe/tomahawk beyond “tactical” uses? Thinking something like an RMJ axe. I imagine that they can chop ok, but would not be as ergonomic as a wood handled axe and would transmit any vibrations into the user.

I’m not saying they are pointless, but their utility seems limited. Am I missing something?
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Other uses: Both hawk and axe will greatly reduce anxiety during zombie attacks, general melees, civil disorders, societal breakdowns and other anarchist events....
 
garry3 said:
Steel handles are miserable, as are Estwing's in general.
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I will say that an Estwing hatchet is the only hatchet to actually come out of my hand unexpectedly. Love that it’s idiot proof, but there’s things that I certainly don’t like about it.
 
H0kieengineer said:
Is there really any practical use for an all steel axe/tomahawk beyond “tactical” uses? Thinking something like an RMJ axe. I imagine that they can chop ok, but would not be as ergonomic as a wood handled axe and would transmit any vibrations into the user.

I’m not saying they are pointless, but their utility seems limited. Am I missing something?
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lol, so to summarize, yep you're right.
 
EngrSorenson said:
I will say that an Estwing hatchet is the only hatchet to actually come out of my hand unexpectedly. Love that it’s idiot proof, but there’s things that I certainly don’t like about it.
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With or without the leather stacked washer handle?
 
Square_peg said:
I've seen plenty of those with warped necks. I've seen plenty of warped Estwing hammers as well.

They hold up pretty well while sitting on a shelf.
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You can break ANYTHING !

Estwing axes and other tool are very tough and I don't believe you could break one without extreme abuse .

People use them in ways they were never intended , such as pry bars .

I've wasted an awful lot of time and energy: repairing , replacing , tightening and maintaining wood handles on all types of tools .

Never once did a steel handle fail me or require special attention that slowed or stopped my work in progress . :cool::thumbsup::thumbsup:
 
There's the obvious Eswing hatchets and axes that others have mentioned. To be honest, if you twist/bend one, you'd have broken a wooden one a dozen times over. Although having to rehaft your wooden one a dozen times would likely have caused you to quit using them or learn how to use them correctly.

But since the tactical types, specifically the RMJ offerings were asked about, let's address that:
First, most of these were designed as breaching hawks and designed to chop steel, concrete, windshield glass, etc, and have very obtuse bevels, such as the RMJ Shrike. However, if you don't need those capabilities, then you can easily grind the bit to a convex grind, which we did to a friend of mine's Shrike who had become attached to it during his service and wanted to use it in civilian life as a camp tool. With the convex grind on it, it does tomahawk-class camp chores just fine.

The RMJ Berserker comes with a much more acute edge geometry out of the box, and if you convex it, rather than have an edge bevel, then it's a very good hatchet.

The Winkler hawks and camp hatchets I've seen vary. Their CQB combat axes are pretty thin in the bit and may stick badly in wood. Their camp and general-purpose axes work great, and they also taper thickness as you go down the handle to balance it more toward the head.

The main thing to consider is that they are not axes, compare them to tomahawks. After that, f you put a proper edge on them, they work just fine as tomahawks.
 
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