Awhile back I asked if given a choice between a hatchet or a knife, which would you rather have in a survival situation? I got back many comments about how an axe is superior to a knife and so on.
I’m asking the same question again, but I want to make it very clear this time that I’m talking about a hatchet – not an axe.
Why? I’ve always liked the idea of a hatchet, but when push came to shove I always wound up using a heavy duty survival knife to do most of my cutting and chopping. They just don’t seem to have the utility a good survival knife has – at least in my opinion.
If you’ve been reading my gear posts for awhile you’ll know I favor the Becker Campanion for my survival knife. It’s a work horse and I find that it’s great for small chopping jobs not to mention the million other things you can do with a survival knife.
So here’s the question again: If you were getting ready to run away into the woods for a couple weeks of survival and you could grab either a survival knife or a hatchet, which one would you choose?
There are no wrong answers here, folks. Everybody is different and has a different way of looking at survival. Please let me know what your decision is below. Tell me whether it’s a knife or hatchet and let me know what kind you’d use. If I find one that intrigues me I’ll get it and do a gear review for the others.
Questions? Comments? Sound off below!
43 comments
what about a tomahawk? or a BIG bowie knife? I would think either of those would work as well
I carry a cane knife – its like a machete on steroids. About 1/4 inch thick with no blade flex. Keep it sharp as a razor and its great for felling trees as well as skinning and kitchen duty.
A tomahawk isn’t ideal because it doesn’t have enough weight in the axe head to process wood properly. If you’re stuck for a couple of weeks, you’ll be processing a lot of wood. The easiest way to do that is with a hatchet.
Always been a hatchet guy. I have a nice folder I got from a garage sale that is in my pack as well. However, I use the hatchet WAY more. It’s got a flat back (for doing hammer like jobs). I like the idea of the roofers hatchet (axe blade, hammer and pry bar). The hatchet I use I have no idea of the brand. It’s over 20 years old and it’s still very servicable. I can get that sucker razor sharp if need be. I could see in a survival situation how a knife could be useful (skinning/dressing dinner) but a sharp hatchet blade could do the job if that’s all you had (I didn’t say as well or as easy, but it could do it). The only drawback is the one I have is pretty heavy for it’s size (they way it should be).
For hand to hand I might side with a good knife over a hatchet but not by much (hard to use a hatchet as a weapon in close quarters). The hatchet’s utility is king though.
If it was only one. Then put me FIRMLY in the hatchet camp.
the hatchet , I can fashion a useable knife out of almost any scrap metal
I carry a Tomahawk as well as a hunting knife in/on my pack. Of course I always have my defense knife in my pocket to.
I prefer a good survival knife with a serrated edge on the back for cutting small limbs. I’ll take the versatility over the advantage of chopping and splitting that a hatchet gives. The knife is better for digging, slicing and filleting game, intricate whittling (for snares or making other tools), and defense (it can be added to a stick to make a spear). In my mind it’s all about versatility over specialization.
if I was going “camping” on purpose, I’d be taking all three…
Sven, hatchet, and full tang fixed blade knife. I probably should have bought a hatchet with a hammer head, but didn’t. if I was going for a week, I’d have a BFH, and a crowbar along too. if I went with a group, we’d also take a Hudsons Bay axe.
if I was by myself, and hadn’t planned ahead, I’d want the “Becker”.
(If I was going “camping)
Well grab the bob, a tent, a Bic lighter and some food, a few old pots & pans and go find a camp ground and start sitting around a fire telling lies and having a good time…
I could tell all the lies I want to here from the comfort of my arm chair.
Rogers’ Rangers, a knife and a hatchet.
Semper Fi
I bought a Cold Steel Trail Hawk Tomahawk for only $22.00 on Amazon. I really like it after I did a few mods and took of the ugly paint they put on it. Look on U-Tube and a lot of people are buying this tomahawk because it’s 1/4 the price of others and with a bit of simple mods it looks like a period hawk.
As far as the knife hatchet debate. I take both a knife (about 5 knifes if I count EDC) and a tomahawk. I use to take a hatchet, but have switched to the tomahawk.
I’m starting a new collection / addiction phase in my life and it’s tomahawks.
If you want a tomahawk for a good price and are willing to do some very simple mods take a look on U-Tube for “Cold Steel Trail Hawk Mods. ”
As far as Duel Survival, it went down hill after Dave got fired, Joe the new guy is a moron and has no personality that transfers well to the camera. I tried to watch it with him in it but I just don’t like it anymore. I gave it a chance, I watched 3 of the new shows but it lost it’s appeal when Dave left.
Also I think Dave carried Cody as what kind of fool goes to places like Alaska with no shoes. Dave is the guy that I would want to be stuck in the wild with, not Cody. Dave goes out makes a weapon and kills something to cook over a fire. Cody goes looking for bugs to eat.
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I have to go with Irish and Ranger, No one tool can be a “do all” I mostly pack a hand forged copy of a 1745 British light infantry ax(AKA a “tomahawk”) a good “bowie knife” a good small skinner and two pocket knifes on lanyards. But Hey I’m like as not to be found in the wood with a flintlock or wooden longbow, in moccasins and a breach clout, with my face painted—did I mention that I was raised in a cave by wolves?
Forgot to say the reason for a tomahawk over a hatchet is because I like them, but also you can remove the head of a tomahawk in the field and use it for shinning a critter, use it for small cutting jobs like food preparation, use it for a wedge splitting wood and if the handle ever breaks you can make a new one using the tomahawk head to shape a new handle. Yea you could use a hatchet head to make a new handle, but it’s a lot harder to make sure the head stays on when giving it hard use.
A hatchet doesn’t have a removable head like a tomahawk. It’s all in how it attaches to the handle. A hatchet head is pounded on from the top and a wedge pounded in to keep it in place. A tomahawk head is installed from the bottom, it slides up the handle and forms a friction fit as the handle is larger at the top then the bottom. this makes for a very strong connection that will not allow the head to fly off and at the same time allows for easy removal of the head to be used for other cutting needs or to be packed away in a bob or backpack.
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Firmly in the hatchet camp. Got a small Gerber pack ax. It will literally shave hair. Had it for a looong time. Purchased it’s big brother which has been use and abused since day one. Spend the past 10 years chopping kindling left outdoors in rain and snow etc.
The only place I see the knife being a one up would be cleaning game. That said I wouldn’t want to fillet fish with a survival type knife, or clean small game.
Hatchet would in my opinion be allot more useful building shelter than a knife. I make a point of taking some 10 common nails with me when I venture out. There for usage with my small Gerber ax. Don’t think you could drive nails with a knife so well. If I had to dig I’d choose the ax. Cutting firewood no contest. It’s edge is sharp enough I don’t see where the knifes edge would have an advantage. I’m not sure I see much of a disadvantage in defense either.
I’m firmly in the hatchet / ax camp.
http://m.rei.com/product/824226/gerber-gator-combo-axe
This is what I’m talking about less the knife in the handle
Our woods here are mainly hardwoods, and chopping with an hatchet can get frustrating. And if its small enough to be chopped, its small enough to be wedged into a tree’s crotch and broken by pushing, pulling or simply inserted into fire and burned apart. I think I’d prefer the knife for those reasons.
Chuck Findlay’s reason for tomahawk DIY hafting made sense to me, one of my kits has a ‘mouse tomahawk’ head stuck in a corner for just this reason.
I think j.r. nicely states one of the reasons I prefer the knife. I tried a tomahawk not long ago and while I liked it it was still too light for my taste. I suppose if I want something to chop with I’ll jump right to an axe. The heavy Becker is pretty decent for chopping small stuff. I wouldn’t want to attempt a tree, but limbing a tree it would work ok.
Never forget the Spetsnaz shovel , that little thing can chop a small tree down …as well as dig a hole ….or as they sometimes use it for ….a fry pan .
That’s the reason I carry the 18th century BLI ax . Its a “tomahawk” with a 3lb head and a 14 to 20 inch handle. Its a lot more like the original “Hudson’s bay” small ax. Its bigger than by half than most modern hatchets.
My Cold Steel Trail Hawk has a somewhat light head. But it also comes with a 22-inch handle, it’s long for a hand hatchet / tomahawk tool. Many tomahawks and hatchets are 16-inches or so. The 22-inch handle is a force multiplier as it really increased the energy the tomahawk has. It chops wood better then my Gerber hatchet that has about a 14-inch handle.
Tuff to pick one, I think a knife is a slightly better tool as you can do finer work with it. I adore my Gerber tomahawk though; cuts, splits, hammers, etc…
large fixed blade knife 6-12″, much more portable, versatile,and when battoned will preform just like a hatchet to process fire wood. a good pommel can be used to hammer. hands down superior food prep from breaking down a deer to slicing melon witch is probably where the majority of the work will be.
The thing is we don’t have to be in the one over the other frame of mind. We can have both with us when we venture out into the wild. I would bet most of you are like me in that I have LOTS of cutting devices / tools on hand to play with / use. I have numerous knifes (every time I’m at a pawn shop I’m looking at the ones in the glass case.) hatchets, axes, chainsaws and tomahawks. I keep at least one hatchet and tomahawk in the truck, I have no idea how many knifes I keep around. I buy one, it disappears for a while, it turns up in the tool bag, or in between the seat of the truck, in the basement someplace, on the window sill by the TV, on top of the refrigerator, and numerous other places. The point is that I’m never too far from a cutting tool that can do the job. And also that I have way too many of them for some reason. No reason to exclude any one of them from my outings, in fact I always have my choice because there are so many of them floating around. Enough of them to give a SWAT team a heart attack if they ever came into my home, or did a serious search of my truck.
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Hatchet no . Its made for only one thing , chopping wood ….on the other hand a traditional Tomahawk would fill both needs very well , tomahawks are designed to be taken off the haft , and used to cut , scrape , etc ( not as good if you want fine detail , but I dont have that need the majority of the time ) . They chop very well if you get the right shape , if you get one with a hammer pull on the back , you will find that you will use that a lot . The hawk is far superior to the hatchet and much more versatile . I imagine that is why most colonial frontiersmen had one on them . Between a tomahawk and a ka- Bar , you could do most anything you needed to .
OK so many here like tomahawks. What ones do you have? I’m developing a desire to spend some money (tomahawks) and want ideas as to where to spend….
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Mine is an M48 clone, but my Girlfriend’s Dad made a few modifications to it. It has a light weight metal handle with a pry bar and a “sleeve” that covers the spike making it into a hammer
Cold Steel pipe hawk
Going to the original question, ‘in a survival situation, which would you choose?’, I have to say a knife. ‘A survival situation’ means I didn’t have a choice in what I brought, and I always have a few knives on my person- they’re a lot easier to carry than a ‘hawk or Hudson Bay hatchet.
However, if the emergency is that I’m surrounded by a squad with pack on my back needing dumping, what do I grab verses what do I leave? Again, the knife is going to be on my person already, I’d probably not even think of grabbing a hatchet rather than more ammo or a spare pistol.
I’ve found that on my trips into the wilderness i use my hatchet much more than my knife. I carry a great knife with me everyday but rarely my hatchet so i really work to use it. I use it for trees of course, manipulating my campfire, dressing meat, and overall outdoor fun.
I can see both working well but truly in the wilderness i want some shelter first and the hatchet helps me accomplish that easily. I can then use it to make sharp spears for other needs.
As far as using it for self defense…with a little practice anything can be a great weapon.
the biggest problem today is being able to have either item with you…
the survival knife is sitting here, on my desk, whereas the hatchet may be in the trunk of the car. (in the “day hike” bag) I am limited by where/how I got into the woods in the first place. if I’m far enough from home, and didn’t travel “here” in my own car, then I’m limited to my pocket knives, or maybe nothing at all. (if I flew “here” or took AMTRAK for example. that’s why I had to stop at LLBean to get a multi-tool in last weeks scenario)
If you are going to be working in an area away from your home and you have to fly (or use Amtrack) you can mail yourself a package and have it sent to any post office. You just send it to (insert your name) you for general delivery and go pick it up at the counter. The post office holds packages for at least 30-days.
This method is how people that hick the Appalachian Trail resupply themselves. They have pre-made boxes that they have a friend mail to them and they walk to towns along the way and pick up the box of food and supplies.
Nothing says you can’t do the same thing. Obviously you don’t send guns, ammo or explosive things, but a knife or other survival / EDC items are OK to send through the mail.
thanks Chuck, good idea.
Thanks Chuck wasn’t aware of this
cold steel has whats called the riflemans tomahawk that’s what I got I like it because you not only have the cutting edge but you have a hammer head as well I have beaten the hell outa this thing ive thrown it at trees split wood taken down small trees with it pounded tent stakes and that was 12 or 13 years ago that I bought it and it still works fine
Where did you hear/see the news about Cody leaving? I can’t seem to find it, but I did find this
Check it out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3o3mqaGR2c&feature=youtu.be
Here is a U-Tube talk about Cody and his getting fired.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kDPgWuPMeM
Gurka Kukri. Panewei type preferred.
Not a single mention in 33 posts.
Heavier than a K-Bar, or a most of the hatchets mentioned, but still a handy knife tool. Legendary as a weapon. comes with a small knife and a sharpener iron.
In the Infantry I carrier the K-bar and the standard E-tool which is also good for chopping, and as last ditch weapon which proved its worth in WWI trenches and in Viet Nam.
One or the other would never be a good choice. And a small folding limb saw is a light and makes much quicker, quieter, easier work at cutting though real wood than a hatchet.
Kukri, and limb saw and E tool and good folding knife. Skip the hatchet if on foot, bring a 3/4 axe such as the one by Estwing if you are part of a group, a small car, or with pack animals. Bring everything if by truck.
I tried a kukri , did not work for me , then again , the one I had was of low quality .
Getting sold on replacing my old hatchet with a rifleman’s type tomahawk.
I’ll take the hatchet any day. My preferred tool is the Gransfors Bruks Wildlife hatchet. It will chop, split small wood, and will function fairly well as a knife.
While tomahawks are nice(I have several, both production and custom) they will not out perform a quality hatchet like GB, Wetterlings, Husqvarna just to name a few.
As far as a large fixed blade replacing a hatchet for wood processing. Well that’s just delusional. When I go into the woods I carry my hatchet and Victorinox. This combo has worked well for me for over 25 years.
My GB hatchet has been used to feather stick, carve tent pegs, cut up food as well as process firewood and fashion poles for tarp shelters. As long as you keep a proper edge(it should be able to shave hair) a good hatchet will do all you need.
Really? tomahawks and tactical blades for “hand-to-hand combat”? Alright, RAMBO! Listen, a hatchet is far superior to a fixed blade knife for dealing with wood. I take my Stihl axes with me with a simple pocket knife, and I am sure that I can do a lot more than you with it. Knives are for carving things, nothing more. Knives are not meant for batoning firewood, throwing or “attaching to the end of a stick for a spear point”.
Topps Armageddon
I can fashion it into a deadly spear.This may keep threats at a distance. A step above a pointy stick made with a hatchet