Survival and Emergency Preparedness

I typically carry a machete when out in the woods on my ATV or mini bikes or just walking around. They are very good for cutting branches, trimming brush etc, etc. Not to mention they are like a cutlass and can be used like a sword. Not so good for splitting fire wood or making tinder for fires, or for pounding stakes into the ground.

A hatchet, i.e, hand axe is much better for splitting wood and pounding stakes but they tend to be too heavy to carry around.

Been thinking about a tomahawk. They are usually lighter and easier to carry than a hatchet. Could be used for self defense. If you get one with a hammer head instead of spike you could pound stakes with it.

I've carried hatchets and machetes but never a tomahawk. What do you think?

I carry a hatchet on my tractor. I can use it to take down small branches and I can use it as a hammer. So, for me, the hatchet is handier, but I'm also carrying it on a tractor.

TLDR: Get a hatchet and a machete.

I am going to preface this by stating I have a Bias about how tools developed and a mixture of my own experience. One being in the woods as a kid, a lot. The other my parents loved going to the old fashion black powder shoots in costume. I did learn a lot from those events.

I did learn a lot of primitive tools, how to use them and what they were good for. Big knives, not really good for much. Making a knife is worth the skill it teaches you, and making a knife means you have made at least a spoon and fork too. (Mistakes, result in other tools being made.) Bow and arrows take time to learn and master. Making them is an art form in it's own, and arrows are not nearly as fun to make.

Get a hatchet, a tomahawk was designed as a weapon to use against other humans. It works kinda good for that, (I was never sold on the idea, as it was good for much kinda like giant bowie knives) Fun to throw at stumps, not so much for attacking trees. A sharpened hatchet can be used the other way EG.. as a weapon if you have no other choices, and works well on trees.

For my CJ I keep a Machette (they take up very little space at all) and, an Axe. one for light weight brush and one to clear up bigger things. If I know there are going to be trees in the way I throw in a 16" bar Stihl chain saw and safety gear. Again right tool for the job as my grandfather preached to us kids when we were playing around the barn. Funny, He never made us do questionable things, but I am more than sure he may have planted the ideas from time to time.

Thanks for the different perspective. Another thing I carry in my truck and on my ATV is a folding bow saw called a "What-A-Saw". I bought three of them on sale a few, maybe 3 decades ago. Comes with three blades that fold out. A fine tooth blade for metal, a medium blade for processed boards/meat and a serrated blade for logs. It the branch it too thick for the machete, hatchet I use the saw on it. Very handy and light weight.

There are places for all three. Camping/off roading/hunting are behind me. So the focus is on defense.

1. machetes. I live in an urban area. My neighbors and relatives are untrained in firearms, knife fighting. Essentially, if shtf, they are going to have problems. However, based upon my own training, within 1/2 day, they can be taught basic ergonomically correct strikes. Thereafter, they have to practice the movements. A machete allows striking at a distance. So, it is cheaper to have a pile of them than have other defensive tools for shtf for those unskilled people in the group.

2. hatchets. Considerably more functional. I have stopped my avocation of building hatchets, acquiring and repairing or modifying swords, machetes, knives and old tools. The exceptions ares upgrading carry options for machetes and swords as well as fixed blade knives.

3. tomahawks. I have one in every room and the car. If I sense shtf is coming, I will unsheath them.

4. Combat/fighting/fixed blade knives. Throughout the house and in the car.

A long lost ancestor who crossed the plains with his weapons and tools. circa 1848

Note the hatchet and pick axe. Looks like he has a sword in his left hand. Looks too narrow for a knife and not a bayonet considering he's carrying a plains rifle. Not sure what that is under the hatchet on his belt. Might be horse shoe nail pliers. Might be pistol in a cross draw on his right side as well.

Mac66 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 05, 2023 3:19 pm A long lost ancestor who crossed the plains with his weapons and tools. circa 1848

Note the hatchet and pick axe. Looks like he has a sword in his left hand. Looks too narrow for a knife and not a bayonet considering he's carrying a plains rifle. Not sure what that is under the hatchet on his belt. Might be horse shoe nail pliers. Might be pistol in a cross draw on his right side as well.

A frontiersman and pioneer with musket and tools. ca. 1849. The attached note reads "Dr. MacBeth in the costume in which he crossed the plains, fleeing from the cholera of which he died."

Altho the axe and hawk have definitive uses here, In the tropics of Fla the machete is of the most use... I mostly carry a large knife and folding saw when marching around the woods.

Gnepig wrote: ↑Sun Mar 05, 2023 11:05 pm

Mac66 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 05, 2023 3:19 pm A long lost ancestor who crossed the plains with his weapons and tools. circa 1848

Note the hatchet and pick axe. Looks like he has a sword in his left hand. Looks too narrow for a knife and not a bayonet considering he's carrying a plains rifle. Not sure what that is under the hatchet on his belt. Might be horse shoe nail pliers. Might be pistol in a cross draw on his right side as well.

A frontiersman and pioneer with musket and tools. ca. 1849. The attached note reads "Dr. MacBeth in the costume in which he crossed the plains, fleeing from the cholera of which he died."

Are you Clan MacBean? That's where I saw this

Just thought it was funny popping up after me posting here about carrying a hatchet.

I carried what I believed was a Chinese sword in SE Asia. It gave more distance than a folder.