Hatchet in the shop

[Peter Tremblay]

Hello all,

I have a nice hatchet that I use for the odd firewood chopping. I keep it in the shop for various tasks and I was wondering if anyone else has one or uses one in the shop.

If so which one?

[enjuneer]

I have an old Revonoc hewing hatchet that belonged to my grandfather. In my youth, I used it to split wood to kindle the wood-burning furnace each morning. Now I use it to trim up blocks of wood before air drying.

[Guest]

I have a carving hatchet I bought recently. It hasn't gotten much use yet. I never think about it. There have been several occasions when I've done a task with familiar tooks and thought afterward that the hatchet would have done a better job and faster.

[JustinTyson]

I use mine all the time. Beats the heck out of sawing an inch of width off the edge of a board. I used to use my GB hunter's axe, but recently I switched to a carpenter's hatchet that I modified for carving.

[ZachDillinger]

Hatchets are indispensable in the hand tool only shop. I keep a single bevel hewing hatchet for most work, and a period-correct tomahawk that I use for splitting pegs and the like. The hewing hatchet is as sharp as a plane; the tomahawk less so but can still get you if you lose focus.

[JustinTyson]

ZachDillinger said:

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Hatchets are indispensable in the hand tool only shop. I keep a single bevel hewing hatchet for most work, and a period-correct tomahawk that I use for splitting pegs and the like. The hewing hatchet is as sharp as a plane; the tomahawk less so but can still get you if you lose focus.

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I had a single-bevel hatchet for a few years, but it was so heavy that it wore me out after just a few minutes, and I eventually gave it away. I'd like to pick up a lighter one at some point, but they're hard to come by. I find the double-beveled hatchet works well enough that I really haven't been looking very hard.

[Steve Friedman]

JustinTyson said:

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I had a single-bevel hatchet for a few years, but it was so heavy that it wore me out after just a few minutes, and I eventually gave it away.

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Hey, that's my favorite hatchet and I'm smaller, weaker, and older than you!

Steve

[Phil S.]

I have a couple -



A double bevel from Robin Wood and a heavier single bevel Pritzlaff Everkeen.

[KSMike]

I have a GB Wildlife Hatchet in the shop (along with a couple of other GB's) but it never occurred to me that it could be a useful shop tool.

[AHill]

I have a Gransfors Bruks carving axe. I use it mostly for carving spoons, but it sometimes comes in handy for splitting boards. I have a larger axe and a couple of wedges for splitting logs. I also have a froe I use for splitting. I don't care much for Peter Follansbee's style of woodworking, but I have learned a lot from him and Sir Roy on how to split logs.