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| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review: ( 77 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
66 of 67 found the following review helpful:
 Worth every penny! Aug 31, 2007
By jimnypivo
"Jim Hisson"
I was a Boy Scout leader, and once spent five hours in a far away hospital Emergency Room with a lad who was injured by unsafe blade use. I'm sure you don't want that to happen to you.
You won't encounter a loose hatchet head on this baby because the head and shaft are forged of one piece of fine steel.
Its effective handle design of leather washers over a steel shaft is safe, comfortable, and cushioned.
There also is a `hammer' tool at the `pal'l of the hatchet, My older version has a nail puller notch at the `back' of the blade, but the new-fangled ones evidently do not.
The Estwing hatchet is not heavy, nor is it designed for heavy work. The Boy Scouts of America recommend sawing any piece of wood larger than the diameter of your wrist instead of chopping with an axe or hatchet.
The boys in our Scout Troop always borrowed my personal Estwing to cut kindling because it is light and well-balanced. It is less likely to cause arm fatigue from extended use than a heavier, wooden-handled hatchet.
Its blade is thinner than most hatchets and its head is tapered, making it very easy to sharpen. My Diafold Double Sided, Fine-Coarse sharpener makes quick work of any dull blade, including the Estwing's.
I really, really like this tool. It is great for Outdooors use and also comes in handy on construction/destruction projects around the house.
Take good care of it and your grandkids will be using it on their own childrens' campouts.
40 of 42 found the following review helpful:
 Good metal, poor handle Dec 12, 2010
By Bobby Dunn
"The Cyclops"
I have an old copy of this and its pretty sharp with good metal, but the problem I have is the handle. It got wet and just fell apart (it looks like wood in the pic, but its laminated leather and dry rotted). I called Estwing and they said it happens but there was nothing they can do. I figure a camp axe should be more durable than that. Now my beautiful hatchet has tape for a handle. No one else has reported this here, but they know of the problem at Estwing and don't have a solution. I would recommend getting it with the rubber handle if you think it may ever get wet (which I did with the longer handle), but if you want something to look pretty on the hearth to split kindling this is the ticket.
19 of 19 found the following review helpful:
Happy camper Jun 16, 2008
By Joe Mcardle
If you are a woodworker, or anyone else accustom to receiving flawless tools, you may be slightly disappointed with this hatchet. The tool arrived sharp, but with a few imperfections in the cutting edge. However, 10 minutes of honing easily corrected the problem. The hatchet is well balanced, and cuts very well. The polished blade, leather handle, and decorated sheath make the Estwing hatchet a very handsome tool. I brought it on a camping trip a few weeks ago, and my fellow campers were very impressed with both its appearance and performance.
14 of 15 found the following review helpful:
Great, light hatchet Feb 13, 2008
By W. Dunne
This hatchet works great, feels great in your hand and is very sharp. If you plan to own a hatchet that you will take reasonably good care of, this is the hatchet for you. With the handle construction being as beautiful and comfortable as it is I would be reluctant to throw it in the bottom of a tool box. Mine hasn't failed by any means but just looks too delicate for a rough, back of the pickup kind of life.
I own several Estwing striking tools and have had great performance from every one of them.
10 of 10 found the following review helpful:
Fine hatchet, mediocre splitting tool. Sep 26, 2010
By no so-called
I bring this on canoe trips to split kindling and small firewood, clean branches off firewood, and sometimes as a machete. It's indestructible, not too heavy, and I don't mind how it looks. The poll's a hammer, if I need one. The head sheath is decent quality leather, with a pair of belt slots.
Most importantly, it's stainless, but still takes and keeps a good sharp edge. Sharpening stainless is usually a challenge for me, so that's a big deal, and nice not to have to worry about keeping it dry. Most hardware-store hatchets and axes these days are soft steel that won't take an edge at all. I keep a DMT D3E 3-Inch Dia-Sharp Sharpener Credit Card Sized Extra-Fine with me to touch up the edge.
On the other hand, the original bevel was so convex that after a few camping trips it could no longer be sharpened at all. I got a bit disenchanted with it, until I put a new flat bevel on it with a Dremel and a diamond bit. Much happier now. UPDATE: The Dremeled bevel worked, but didn't look too good. More recently I got a sharpening station and put a beautiful flat bevel on it, a bit narrower angle than the Dremel one.
So it's a five-star tool if you've already invested in the power tools you'll need to put a new bevel on it. If not, it's three stars, because you'll be spending a lot of time with a wood block and 60-grit sandpaper turning it into a usable hatchet. Frustrating, but true: People these days sell you tools that are simply not ready to be used, and those are the good ones -- the bad ones can't be made usable at all. And it's because customers put up with it. You know what Snow & Neally charges? It's an outrage -- and you'll be grinding a new bevel on their axes, too. What a dismal bummer. But with the Estwing, you at least get the basis of an excellent tool, at a sane price.
The other problem is that the cheeks are very concave. It splits kindling well enough, but anything too much larger can get to be a problem. That is, even more of a problem than it needs to be. Naturally no hatchet this size is well-suited to splitting anything much larger than kindling.
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