Of all the tools you could get your hands on for your prepper lifestyle, it almost goes without saying that an ax or a hatchet should be right up there at the top of your list.
While many, if not most, survivalists will say that a solid knife should be your most important purchase and should always be with your bug out gear, you would actually be far better off packing a trusted hatchet. Why?
A hatchet can be used for anything a knife can, and more. A hatchet can be used to fell trees, skin animals, craft shelters, pound stakes, and pretty much everything else out there in the wilderness.
On top of that, a hatchet will likely last through many more sharpenings than most knives, due to it starting with more metal in the first place.
So how should you start your tool shopping decision? Start with this awesome video after the break.
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Hell yeah – /really/ good idea to get an axe and a hatchet /and/ learn how to use them properly long before silliness abounds.
If we’re talking survival, its not enough to just own an axe. Learn how to make handles, pin them, sharpen the head and how to actually use the thing. A few good overstrikes can leave you with nothing but a paperweight and a shitty winter.
Jason Beduhn
or, if you’re REALLY bad at swinging it, a missing foot.
Never walk
away from home
ahead of your axe and sword.
You can’t feel a battle
in your bones
or foresee a fight.
I used my old broken splitter for a wedge
Who knows from experience
Better yet, learn some smithing and you can make your own axe.
#Onojutsu or “axe techniques” is an official part of the Hatchie-ryu Ninpo curriculum because of my own real life survival experience (2 years$#%&!@*bush living, not by choice). Like someone else said, it’s not enough just to own it. Use it. Train with it. Practice. Become intimately familiar with its versatility so that all actions become second nature. Consider the pros sand cons of using it as an expedient weapon, then learn to compensate for the cons.