- Joined
- Nov 27, 1999
- Messages
- 3,745
I've always held with the idea that the best survival tool was the one you have with you. I've also felt that as a "SURVIVAL" tool, a hatchet was the one thing that would do it all when the chips (No Pun Intended) were down.
I read about a sheath design many years ago that allowed you to carry a hatchet handle up. Well...I just had to have one so I sat down and designed one. Believe it or not, it came out uglier than some of my knives but it worked.
I have always bought every old knife, hatchet, saw and file that I find at yard sales and I had a smallish Hudson Bay ax head that was perfect for it. I handled the ax with a 12" ash handle, turned the grip area to allow wrapping with parachute cord and have carried the thing in the woods like my best friend.
There is a point to this rambling. Last night we were in the middle of the worst storm I've ever been in. Trees were blowing over night and we had over 7 inches of rain in less than 12 hours. I live on a wooded lot that is one acre of house, shop and yard, and 10 acres of trees. A tree fell over my driveway and I was afraid to leave it there in case we had to get out fast. I have a small creek on my property that had already overflowed the banks at 8:30 when that tree fell. I grabbed my fanny pack that had the hatchet on it and went out. Wind gusts were hitting 70mph by then and trees were cracking and falling all around me. I was able to cut the tree that was in the way and get out of the area within minutes. 15 minutes later another tree fell right where I would have been standing if I were still cutting.
Try that with a survival knife or machete sometime. I could have gone 100 yards to the shed and gotten an ax or a chainsaw but to be honest, I wanted to get out of the woods, not go deeper in. The fact that I had the hatchet with me made a lot of difference. The sheath is made and the hatched modified to allow you to unsnap with your thumb and roll the handle forward until the head clears the sheath. There's nothing complicated and it was so easy I didn't have to think about it.
If any of the sheath and hawk makers can come up with an improved version I'd love to hear about it because now, more than ever, I am determined to keep one on my pack at all times!
I read about a sheath design many years ago that allowed you to carry a hatchet handle up. Well...I just had to have one so I sat down and designed one. Believe it or not, it came out uglier than some of my knives but it worked.
I have always bought every old knife, hatchet, saw and file that I find at yard sales and I had a smallish Hudson Bay ax head that was perfect for it. I handled the ax with a 12" ash handle, turned the grip area to allow wrapping with parachute cord and have carried the thing in the woods like my best friend.
There is a point to this rambling. Last night we were in the middle of the worst storm I've ever been in. Trees were blowing over night and we had over 7 inches of rain in less than 12 hours. I live on a wooded lot that is one acre of house, shop and yard, and 10 acres of trees. A tree fell over my driveway and I was afraid to leave it there in case we had to get out fast. I have a small creek on my property that had already overflowed the banks at 8:30 when that tree fell. I grabbed my fanny pack that had the hatchet on it and went out. Wind gusts were hitting 70mph by then and trees were cracking and falling all around me. I was able to cut the tree that was in the way and get out of the area within minutes. 15 minutes later another tree fell right where I would have been standing if I were still cutting.
Try that with a survival knife or machete sometime. I could have gone 100 yards to the shed and gotten an ax or a chainsaw but to be honest, I wanted to get out of the woods, not go deeper in. The fact that I had the hatchet with me made a lot of difference. The sheath is made and the hatched modified to allow you to unsnap with your thumb and roll the handle forward until the head clears the sheath. There's nothing complicated and it was so easy I didn't have to think about it.
If any of the sheath and hawk makers can come up with an improved version I'd love to hear about it because now, more than ever, I am determined to keep one on my pack at all times!
