5 Bushcraft Hatchet Tips!
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- Опубликовано: 24 сен 2016
- Today I would like to share 5 simple and inexpensive tips that greatly increased the capabilities of my bushcraft hatchet. I restored this old hatchet, spending around $15 dollars on everything. Now it's my favorite cutting tool when I'm traversing the the woods.
Here are the tips:
1. Make the hatchet scary sharp. A sharp edge can cut with much greater efficiency and precision than a dull one. You can sharpen the hatchet with a normal sharpening stone, a round puck stone, or via the Rooster method.
2. Give the hatchet a lanyard hole and cordage. This allows the hatchet to be hung up on a branch keeping the sharp edge from moisture and possible damage via dirt or rocks.
3. Make the handle of the hatchet axe relatively thin. A think handle is easier to grip along it's entire length making it comfortable to switch positions. The thin handle also improves the efficiency of each cut by allowing more energy to go towards the head rather than to speed up the handle.
4. The hatchet should be balanced. A balanced hatchet can be swung with greater accuracy, and reduced wobble. It also easier to choke up on a balanced hatchet and use it for longer periods of time without hand fatigue.
5. Give the upper toe of the hatchet a 90 degree angle with a metal file, the toe can then be used to stab like the tip of a knife. It can also be used to throw sparks in conjunction with a fire steel.
Awesome posting. Thanks for sharing.
Greg
Thanks for watching! I'm glad you like it! :D
Excellent advice!
Thanks!
Thank you so much for sharing this video and the 5 tips. It’s a great help in preparing for my hatchet for the task.
Glad it was helpful!
Great vid! I love watching earth, discover and relax...
thanks!
What a great video. I just learned these, thx alot
Thanks for watching, I'm glad you found it helpful :)
thanks for the video, keep em coming!
Thanks for watching! :)
Gloves will help to prevent wood splinters. Had more than my share. :)
Thanks for the advice!
I had to watch this again. Such a great video bro👍😀
Thanks! :D
Great job, I enjoyed your video and learned a few things
Thanks for watching, I'm glad that it was useful to you! :D
Awesome video and good information!
Thanks I'm glad you like it. :D
Excellent video.
Cesar Lopez thanks for watching! I'm glad you like it :)
Very well done. You managed to verbally put everything together in a great teaching vid. I can assure you that anyone should be able to learn a 'trick' or two from this. Heck I've been woodsrunning for over 55 years and I never thought of the 90° set for a ferro rod. Guess old dogs can learn new tricks lol 😉. Keep up the good work and 'stay safe keep warm have fun & whittle to keep your sanity'.
ol greybeard dino
; - ) >
Doug Duncan thanks! I'm glad you like it! :)
well done my friend,nice skills to have
so steve thanks man I'm glad you like it. :)
thanks a lot for the tips, I find them very useful, by the way, I love your channel keep up the good work!
thanks a bunch for watching! :)
Wow, thank you for this video. I figured I basically already knew how to use a hatchet, but you gave me some very helpful tips that I hadn't even considered. Thanks again and thumbs up for sure!
Frederick Dunn thanks so much for watching! I'm glad you found this helpful.
Great video
Thanks for watching! Glad you like it :)
great video brother!
Thanks I'm glad you like it!
Hatchets are hard to beat! Solid tips, subscribed and looking forward to more. Take care!
Thanks for subscribing! I'm glad you liked my video :)
Cool!
Thanks for watching! :D
It really depends on what u intend to use it for for example if u intend to use it for chopping wood or trees to bring them to the ground u will need to have a thick edge not a thin one like the one he has here the reason why is because if u use the thin edge for wood chopping u risk damaging or even chipping the edge (something that can ruin ur hatchet) but if u intend to use ur hatchet just to split wood than this thin edge is preferable or if u wish to woodwork with ur hatchet this thin edge will allow u to do that however on the other hand if u got super high durability steel u can use a thin edge to chop wood with no problem but assuming the steel isnt best quality u should really make up ur mind about what ur going to use ur hatchet for keep in mind once u use a thick edge on the hatchet u cant woodwork with it while if u have a thinn one u can easily woodwork just like u can with a bushcraft knife
Thanks for watching and sharing your experience!
Great tips, I am looking for a camping/hiking axe, I like the Gransfors Bruk Small Forest axe for this task. I hope it's worth the $198 AU + shipping. :D
Great video thanks.
Thanks, I'm glad you found this to be helpful.
I would like your opinion on this:
I've always heard you shouldn't use the axe as an hammer (like done in this video at 3:20). Even though the force is the same as when chopping, the quicker stop leads to a higher impulse (hard "bang" so to speak) which could actually lead to metal at the thinner parts of the axe head to bulge out slightly, thus making is become loose.
Instead I've been recommended to use the axe to create a simple mallet (or just use another piece of wood to strike with).
Thanks for watching! I have tried both creating wooden mallets and batons and using those to hammer in wooden wedges as well using the back of the hachet to hammer in wooden wedges. So far (3+ years of use) I have not seen the head come loose on the 2 hatchets that I own.
Okay!
Probably it depends on how reckless you are and the quality of the tool, and you seem to be neither reckless nor use low-quality tools! ;)
And thanks for both a quick response and a great video! :)
First of all, it's in the official papers that came with my Gränsfors Bruks hatchet (not exactly what you'd call a crap brand made by amateurs). I just assume that they, as professionals, have a reason for putting that advice in there.
Secondly, I sincerely doubt pro woodsmen use these kinds of small hatches to "drive in steel wedges when splitting a long log". So you are comparing apples and oranges.
Problem with your reasoning is that this is an axe bought in Sweden, made by high-end Swedish axe maker that came with Swedish documentation. So no American would ever come close to it.
Regarding what pro woodsmen use: that was my whole point, you are were obviously talking about full-sized felling axes, whereas I was asking the maker of this video about the specific kind of axe used here, which is a small hatchet. You are the one who brought a whole different type of tool into the discussion.
Fredrik Wahlgren l
I like hatchets as well but I think that the tomahawk is more versatile.
Thanks for watching! I haven't tried tomahawk's yet. I'm looking forward to getting one one of these days.
Do you reply to comments?
Thanks for watching! I try to.
Dude, love the vid, & I thank you for it....but damn, you didn't need to show like 47-minutes of you scrapping off your fingernail to make your point there - I found that truly disturbing....that gave me the willies big time, but ya, great vid otherwise. Scott
Thanks for watching! My fingernails are starting to get mighty thin with all the cutting tools I have laying around :)
How do you make you're hatchet so sharp I tried with my wet stone but it doesn't turn as sharp as yours please tell me how
Thanks for watching! I use a dry wall spreader with some sand paper attached to it. It's called the rooster method and it works really well.
oh thanks I will surely try it by the way can you please say which grits you have used
@@saidulmondal8839 Sure thing I started with 100 grit, then 300, then 1000, and finally 6000. By the time I'm done with the 6000, it was mirror smooth at the edge.
unfortunately for me my hatchet is 100% steel with a rubber grip but it works amazing
Thanks for watching!
You can split reality in two with that hatchet :-1
Lol thanks!
But does it really need to be that sharp?
Thanks for watching! Yes I find that it helps to get the edge as sharp as possible as long as the convex nature of the edge is maintained. When I initially was sharpening this edge, I didn't know what I was doing and made it a V edge which while very sharp was also not that durable.
@@WannabeBushcrafter thanks, sha4pening my hatchet a lot more vastly increases its capabilities, but I don't want to sharpen it too much, as I fear it might slightly deform the blade, or the entire head.
@@Hayzie3 yes I find that the angle of the edge can be made more acute if the quality of the steel is high. So the steel of most axe heads that you buy at home Depot simply cannot hold an acute edge it would roll very quickly. So you are stuck with an obtuse edge that is more durable but much less efficient. However modern swedish axe steels from places like Hults bruks or Gransfors bruks can hold an exceptionally acute angle without rolling or chipping, but they are expensive. Some older American or German axe heads are built with the same steel quality but can be had very cheaply.
Well, I don't want a knife or a hatchet that will shave hair. Sharp is a function of edge condition, not of whether it will or won't cut hair. A blade with a bevel angle of twenty degrees per side is just as sharp as one with a bevel angle of ten degrees er side. It won't shave hair because of the amount of steel directly behind the edge, not because it isn't sharp.
A bevel angle of ten or eleven degrees, hair shaving sharp, is impressive, but it's also extremely fragile, and will dull very fast, and, depending on the steel, will chip or roll easily. And it just isn't necessary on a knife or a hatchet. Unless, of course, you're only going to use the blade for shaving or slicing paper.
A shaving angle bevel might also be fine if you intend to do nothing with the axe except fine carving, though this doesn't make much sense because there are other, better tools for that job.
Shaving angle bevels are impressible, but not at all practical on a knife or a hatchet. There simply isn't a need to have anything with such a bevel, except for a dedicated tool made to do just that one job. Even then, the edge won't last long, may be difficult to sharpen, and puts an undue amount of wear on the blade. This is especially true of axe blades of any size because quality axe heads are differentially hardened, and the close you sharpen to the line where hard edge meets soft backing, the closer you come to ruining your axe.
The traditional bevel angles are fifteen degrees for a pocketknife, seventeen degrees for a food knife, twenty degrees for an all around, general purpose knife, and twenty-four to twenty-six degrees for a hunting knife designed for skinning large game.
And axe falls between twenty and thirty degrees per side, depending on what the axe will be used for. A double bit axe is often sharpened with a twenty degree bevel on one edge, and a thirty degree bevel on the other. These bevel angles cut anything that needs cut, and make the edge last a lot longer, thus making the axe itself last a lot longer.
There's nothing wrong with having an axe that you only use for carving, and you may want a chisel grind on that axe, but if you're going to use your axe blade for several different things, it should have a convex grind, and should have a bevel angle of at least twenty degrees per side. Otherwise, you probably won't have that axe very long, if you use it much at all.
A real woodsman's pocketknife, such as a Trapper or a Stockman, has very thin blades, so an angle of fifteen degrees on these blades often will shave hair. But there simply is no reason to have a shaving never on anything, unless all you plan to do the knife or axe is shave hair and slice paper. There are specialized, and far better tools, for anything requiring a shaving bevel.
With a knife, these tools are a razor, a scalpel, a box cutter, a dedication carving knife that is almost always a fixed blade, etc. With an axe, you need to buy a different head, one specifically shaped for carving and to plane.
It more or less goes back to the fact that there is no such thing as a one tool option. People generally get the idea when you hand them a scalpel and let them use it for a day. It's a microcosm of what happens to an axe blade that's sharpened at too steel an angle.
Anyone who does wood carving will disagree with u. A shaving sharp knife, axe is a must to do ur craft properly.
Tip #1: While these are sharpening methods, to not lubricate the stone is asking for poor results, and it's very dangerous.
Tip #2: Never hang your hatchet upside-down in wet weather. Gravity will pull the water down to the head, and now you have rust issues. The purpose of the hole on the handle is for a lanyard, but it's meant to tie around your wrist while using in case it slips out of your hand (Wii players know this well).
Tip #3: Don't thin your handle unless you're a master of this trade. It unbalances the swing and it becomes more likely to fracture.
Tip #4: (this is just tip 3 repeated)
Tip #5: This only applies if your blade is dull, otherwise this is completely pointless. Second part of this tip was for ferrocerium rod use, but you already have a straight edge on the back of the head (unless of course you were using it as a hammer -- see notes below).
3:23 - Do not use your hatchet like a hammer unless it's specifically designed to do so. You'll prematurely snap the head off by breaking the wedge within.
0:01 - Do not take advice from someone whose channel name has "wannabe" in the title. They're already admitting they don't know what they're talking about.
Say Heah, Tip Number 6, Get a Axe Holster from Eugene at reviewsog.com he makes excellent quality Axe Sheath's and Holster's and I can carry my Fav. compact 17" Hultafors Bruks Agdor Hatchet on person very comfortably. Thanx You.
Thanks for watching!
Y W. ,, .
that's not a very thin handle...
Thanks for watching! Yeah that was my first try with restoring a hatchet. I've made thinner ones since then, but the absolute cross sectional width of the handle has a lot to do with the grain orientation and quality of the handle itself. Some handles just cannot be made very thin without the risk of it breaking during use.
Personaly prefer a tomahawk
Thanks for watching! I haven't played around with a tomahawk yet, hoping to do so in the near future!
@@WannabeBushcrafter id recoment the cold steel pipe hawk but it needs a lot of customizing . Tomahawks are most of the time lighter and have a narrower blade wich makes them better at hacking but worse at splitting. throwing them is also quite fun
@@jacco4418 Nice! Thanks for the recommendation!