Hand axe, tomahawk, hatchet, or saw?

[Naphtali]

Excluding use as a weapon, for what jobs is a hand axe/tomahawk/hatchet more efficient than a portable buck saw or folding saw?

[skillman]

I would suggest you carry both and see which you use most!

Steve

[Joe S.]

We talking today or a trip in the way back machine.I done think folks back then had folding saws and such.As for today and you had to pick just one I suppose the axe.The axe can do both jobs granted with a little more effort.The saw can't chop nor split.

[Top Jaw]

Having trekked with and without a saw, I can tell you they are valuable when cutting up firewood over about 5" in diameter.  But beyond that task, we never used the saw over an entire 4 day stretch for anything else around camp.  The belt axes were used often throughout the day.  Plus they are in your belt, and always ready when you need a tool besides your knife. 

[rich pierce]

Hatchets and tomahawks are durable compared to saws and easier to sharpen with a rock. You can bury an axe, come back a year later and make it work.  That just shows durability when neglected. A saw is a poor weapon and not good at dispatching game and saving a shot. So in an 18th century frontier or wilderness situation, picking one or the other, I'd pick a trade axe.

But a saw is amazingly efficient for cross-cutting and felling larger logs. Can't build a cabin with just a saw though cause you can't square up the logs.

[Natureboy]

  For wilderness fires, you don't need anything stouter than 3 or 4 inches, which can be cut with a saw.  Not even all the way through--just saw it half way and bang it on a rock.  I've always cautioned against splitting wood with a hatchet, because you have to swing it so hard that it becomes dangerously inaccurate.  I split kindling with my large axe, because the mass of the axe will do the work without having to swing it very hard.  Thus, it's much more accurate.  Lacking a large axe, you can always find small enough wood to use as kindling, and if it won't break up by bending, it's too wet to burn anyway.  If you're way out somewhere and have a serious accident with a hatchet, you're in a dangerous bind.

[JohnnyFM]

A small hatchet, or bag ax or tomahawk good for skinning deer/big game and can assist in field dressing.

[Robby]

For me, any one of those three are hands down more practical than a saw.
Robby

[David R. Pennington]

Took a trip a few years ago back packing and canoing in Canada. The leader of the expedition, an experienced backpacker, urged me to leave my little belt axe at home. He said he had a folding saw that would handle all our needs.I brought it anyway. Shortly into the trip the little saw failed. A pin broke or something.
At one campsite most of the 'squaw wood' had already been scavenged by previous campers. There had been a big storm a couple years or so before and they had float planed crews in with chainsaws to clear the trails. They had left lots of unsplit logs 18-20" in diameter by 2 feet long (nicely seasoned) that all the other campers had left alone except to use as stools.
Some complained at suppertime about the lack of fuel for the cook fire. I remarked that there was an abundance and said that my little belt axe would soon supply the need. I was met with much skepticism that my tiny hatchet was up to the task.
I found a small pole that I cut into a few pieces. One larger piece was my maul and the rest were sharpened one end for wedges. I would mark a spot on the block of wood with the hatchet to start my wooden wedges and drive them in with the maul. In a short time a large stack of split firewood was ready for our cook fires all provided by my little hatchet.

[Natureboy]

  Really clever, David.  Here in the Pacific Northwest, coastal tribes built substantial long houses with huge planks they split from trees, primarily Western Red Cedar, using wooden wedges.

[David R. Pennington]

Time spent with my grandfather paid off. That is how they split fence rails. They had one iron wedge to start the split and then leap frogged the wooden wedges (we called them gluts). Dogwood makes good ones.

[Black Hand]

Excluding use as a weapon, for what jobs is a hand axe/tomahawk/hatchet more efficient than a portable buck saw or folding saw?

A saw cuts wood. A belt axe cuts/splits wood, makes/pounds stakes, skins game, carves, digs holes (hammer poll only), clears brush, cuts meat skewers, other.

I prefer to use a saw for cutting firewood as it does a quick job and is far less dangerous when one is tired, cold or otherwise impaired. It will cut more wood quickly and with less effort than an axe, and in my opinion is essential for winter camping. The axe does the job of dropping standing-dead trees (and lopping branches) which are then cut into manageable pieces with the saw.

For sheer versatility, I prefer a hammer poll belt axe or full/half-sized axe.

For optimal usage, both must be sharp. I carry a small, flat chainsaw file.

That said, even longer pieces can be burned in half then each half burned in half again until the pieces are small enough to place in the fire...

[Gun_Nut_73]

IMO, Black Hand pretty much nailed it (sorry for the pun).  A saw can cut wood across the grain, and that is about it.  The others can all cut, scrape, chop, split, etc, etc.

I'm a blade freak.  When I go backpacking or camping, I usually carry a folding knife, like CRKT M16, in my pocket, a fixed blade knife in a belt sheath, such as the Gerber Strongarm or Cold Steel SRK, and small hatchet of belt axe strapped to the pack.  I can always be sure having at least one blade with me at any time.

[Black Hand]

I'm a blade freak.  When I go backpacking or camping, I usually carry a folding knife, like CRKT M16, in my pocket, a fixed blade knife in a belt sheath, such as the Gerber Strongarm or Cold Steel SRK, and small hatchet of belt axe strapped to the pack.  I can always be sure having at least one blade with me at any time.

EDC - at least 5 different blades.
In the woods - belt knife, hammer poll belt axe, axe (single- or double-bit axes in several sizes), hatchet and bow saw in addition to the above knives (chainsaw is in the truck).
When in the 18th century - a belt knife, a folding knife in the gun bag and a penny-knife in the waistcoat pocket as well as the hammer poll belt axe and perhaps the small bucksaw (made from Mountain Maple).

[bob in the woods]

I never go out to camp in the winter woods without my axe.  Also, if I can drag it to the fire, my work is done on that piece of wood  In the summer or Fall, I carry my tomahawk/polled hatchet. It does what I need done. Honestly, I almost never chop wood with it.
Smaller pieces , branches, twigs etc are all over the forest here. We'll drag a dead fall or two across the fire and we usually good for the night.

[Natureboy]

  I have to tell this story on myself.  I was in the barn where I stored my firewood, splitting kindling with my axe.  I had about a cord of clear, straight-grained cedar, the scraps from a shingle bolt crew.  Beautiful wood, and so old and dry the pieces popped of and rolled into a pile.  I was enjoying the sound of the kindling as it bounced down, sounding like a marimba.  My wife came into the barn, and watched for a while, and then asked: "do you ever cut yourself doing that?"  I answered no, and of course immediately sliced a flap of skin off a finger.  The first and only time it ever happened, because I keep my axe less than sharp, and hold my hand well down the piece I'm working on.  The power of suggestion?

[vtmtnman]

I routinely carry my tomahawk and it's versatility is great.I also like that I can replace the handle in the woods if need be.The saw is only a saw but the hawk doubles as a lot more.Both is best but for one only I'll slide the hawk in my belt.

[grabenkater]

  I have to tell this story on myself.  I was in the barn where I stored my firewood, splitting kindling with my axe.  I had about a cord of clear, straight-grained cedar, the scraps from a shingle bolt crew.  Beautiful wood, and so old and dry the pieces popped of and rolled into a pile.  I was enjoying the sound of the kindling as it bounced down, sounding like a marimba.  My wife came into the barn, and watched for a while, and then asked: "do you ever cut yourself doing that?"  I answered no, and of course immediately sliced a flap of skin off a finger.  The first and only time it ever happened, because I keep my axe less than sharp, and hold my hand well down the piece I'm working on.  The power of suggestion?

Ever wonder why women were accused of being witches?

[T*O*F]

I don't know if the Norlund company is still in business or not but their Hudson Bay axes were the best around.  I won several  tree chopping competitions with one.  I had (still have) two of their hand axes that I used extensively for a zillion years.  For primitive use, I carried a Ft. Meigs hand axe.

[Natureboy]

  Yes, Brabenkater, my wife can also conjure up storms, tornadoes and hurricanes.  She wants to know where you live.