a
machete and a
tomahawk.
the Tracker and the ATAX are
both great tools in my eyes, but they are made to
miniaturize and minimize your tool load-out, just like some of the tools i have designed personally.
after all, it doesn't matter how good your tool of choice is, if it it isn't realistic to keep it with you when you might require it, i reckon.
Tom Brown may have claimed that the Tracker is the best single tool for the wilderness
(i don't know if he did or not, but i seem to remember him alluding to such a thing once), but Ron Hood never said anything of the sort about the ATAX in all my time around him. - it is a minimalist tool by design. i like my ATAX on a good haft,
especially inverted, with the curved part of the blade pointing down. i've been meaning to make a composite handle for it, and am just about ready.
i carried an
ECO Hawk and a
Fast Axe 2 (which is much like brother pitdog's knatchet) on my desert trip last week and was very happy with them, because they took up
very little room and weight, and folks never saw them,
while my favored set-up of a proper long hawk and machete would've drawn unwanted attention if i didn't hide them wrapped in my blanket or something.
........
whatever the choice of the most useful tool is
for the individual user, you can bet it is going to be fast to handle for their common tasks.
- for
me, that involves a lot of
gleaning-type activities (like butchering fresh road-killed antelope and deer on walkabout), movement (like pulling spiney branches out of the way instead of breaking them, which a proper hawk allows one to do quickly and fluidly, especially with the other hand full of rifle or shotgun) and
small diameter wood collection (which a machete is perfect for). - the
ECO and
Fast Axe 2 do this adequately in a smaller package than i preferrably carry, with the
machete and
proper long hawk.
i tend to want blades that have
a lot of defensive capabilities too, and the
ECOs and
Fast Axe 2's are not too shabby in that department, concerning how small they are, before improvisation with hafts, etc. -
this is also why i love bowies so much.
if i was killing bears regularly, my favorite edged tool would probably be a boar spear... you see what i mean; we all do things differently, hence our tools differ accordingly,
all other factors equal....
HTH.
vec
