What's more useful, a hatchet or a saw?

It's a tool that can be used as a weapon, can gut and skin game, can fell a tree, can be used as a hammer, and it just feels good holding it staring into the fire.

Leave the wimpy a$$ed foding saw home.
 
Definitely a hatchet.
Hatchet forwards = chopper
Hatchet choked up = knife (well, almost)
Hatchet backwards = Hammer
Hatchet head held in two hands = scraper
Hatchet + Me scared = Weapon
It's the most useful multitool!

On the other hand;
Saw = Saw

I disagree that a hatchet is more tiresome for collecting firewood. Most of the big stuff and anything thicker than 3 inches I just feed in, its the smaller stuff I'll cut. And with a hatchet this can take just the one swing. As for safety, that's up to the user. The only time I came close to injuring myself with a hatchet was when I was young and "inexperienced".
 
Looking at the comments you guys have posted has gotten me thinking some more since my origional post. When I am elk hunting I carry two fixed blades, one on my person at all times, and one in my pack. I also have the kershaw folding saw. I feel confidant I can do most anything with those. That said, if I were to choose I would go for the fiskars 14" hatchet. It does IMO use let energy than a saw, think about cutting a 3" limb, you are sawing back and forth which heats your muscles and expends more energy than one or two swings from a hatchet. The fiskars only weighs about 1 pound. Pretty light. Also, remember one is none and two is one. If you break the knife, which can happen (murphys law) you only have a saw which greatly limits your ability to do many things. The hatchet is more versitile, especially a sharp one. You can do most anything with it. Perhaps this elk season I will carry the hatchet as well. I usually have the saw for cutting the elk or deer, which cab be done with a knife of course, but it's easy for a saw. Survival situations can occurs anytime when your not expecting it, so you should be prepared.
 
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watch this video (which I found in another thread) and decide how many of these things could be done with a saw...there is a reason that you will find woodsmen without a saw but not without some kind of axe.


http://www.nfb.ca/film/survival_in_the_bush/

David

By the Way...I wonder how many of today's survivalists would stack up to Angus Baptiste?
 
When camping a saw is more convenient, BUT in a survival situation the hatchet is my choice hands down. I have broken folding saws and in one situation, if we didn't have an axe with us it would have been rough.
 
I just watched that video from the bowdrill thread posted by Danny Boy. Yeah, if you could have only one. I'd go for the woodsman :D I wish I knew how to save videos like that to my harddrive. That one is a Gem - a Canadian gem no less ;)

(Damn though - I want to slap that cameraman silly...Too much time centered on the host or Angus' face & shoulders doing the work with only a couple of seconds showing the actual activity being done)....
 
I get the impression the guys who favor the hatchet don't spend a lot of time cutting wood. It is often written you should pile up three or four times as much wood as you think you'll need, because it burns a lot faster than you would think. And that's a LOT of wood.

A saw takes a whole lot less energy, is faster, works in the dark, and is infinitely safer. It's also much lighter to pack.

Last time I camped every hour or so somebody would head out in the dark to cut a branch off a blowdown and drag it back to the fire and cut it into serviceable pieces. This would be foolishly dangerous with a hatchet.

A light bowsaw, like a Fiskars from your local hardware store, is inexpensive, light, durable, energy efficient, and fast. Compared to it, a hatchet is an iron-age tool (which came after the stone age).

There's no comparison when it comes to actually living in the woods. Try both side-by-side and you will see there is no contest.
 
kgd said:
I just watched that video from the bowdrill thread posted by Danny Boy. Yeah, if you could have only one. I'd go for the woodsman :D I wish I knew how to save videos like that to my harddrive. That one is a Gem - a Canadian gem no less ;)

(Damn though - I want to slap that cameraman silly...Too much time centered on the host or Angus' face & shoulders doing the work with only a couple of seconds showing the actual activity being done)....
Click to expand...

And he just stood by and watched the bear take the fish...he could have at least yelled for Angus to come with a switch.

David
 
I burn it in half and chuck the ends in, then burn them in half and chuck those ends in until I run out of beer. Then I go to sleep.....warm.
 
G'day Keith

keithcarter said:
I get the impression the guys who favor the hatchet don't spend a lot of time cutting wood. It is often written you should pile up three or four times as much wood as you think you'll need, because it burns a lot faster than you would think. And that's a LOT of wood.

A saw takes a whole lot less energy, is faster, works in the dark, and is infinitely safer. It's also much lighter to pack.
Click to expand...
Speaking only for myself, I don't use a hatchet a lot to cut wood down to size for the fire. Why bother, when using the fork of a tree is so much easier than either a hatchet or a saw :D

Lazywaytotrimfirewood.jpg



If the wood doesn't readily yield to this technique, simply feed it on the fire as it burns
Nochoppingneeded.jpg


Both these techniques take far less energy than either chopping or sawing :thumbup:



But back to the question of what's more usefull.

With a saw, I can saw wood.

With a hatchet I can do a variety of things including;

hammering in tent pegs...
Hammeringinthetentpegs.jpg


... as well as splitting limbs for kindling, carving utensils for the camp kitchen and stripping bark for a shelter. Links to videos showing these activities can be see in the post here: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=649938

I know which tool I find more usefull.



Kind regards
Mick
 
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