Field Test: The Best Made Japanese Hatchet, by Bill Wetherholt, Best Made Guide to Cartography
Over Easter I traveled south from North Dakota’s thawing (read: flooding) Red River Valley to the Flint Hills of Kansas. This was my first trip of the season, and I realized about an hour south of Fargo that I had forgotten my brand new Best Made American Felling Axe. Flustered, I dispensed the agitation with miles of open road and the assurance of knowing that I also had my untested Japanese hatchet from Best Made with me. I spent the first night at a truck stop in the car outside Sioux Falls, so it was still an opportunity to test out the hatchet: I displayed it on the dash to discourage night time freaks from disturbing the person catching a few winks under his skullcap. I am happy to report it remained untested as of that morning.
The late morning brought me down a couple miles of Kansas dirt road to the small but welcoming Pottawatomie Fishing Lake Number Two. I set up camp (despite the wind’s best attempts to thwart me), admired the spot I picked, and ran into town for supplies and a bit of business. The town in question is Manhattan, Kansas, home to Kansas State University where my doctoral research begins in August. After meeting some key individuals I headed back to the lake with wood, ice and plans for catching dinner. I had stadium brats for dinner instead once I gave up on the fish.
I must admit that my initial few attempts with the Japanese hatchet to get some kindling out of the wood I’d purchased were rather awkward. It was not the hatchet’s fault entirely: it was discouragingly windy, it was the first fire of the season, and the wood was pretty knobby and the pickings were slim. The axe would have been ideal, but the hatchet turned out to be the little hatchet that could. I could manage to get a pretty good chop into the wood, but it was not going to split anything substantial. However, I could take advantage of the blade length and quality to grab a small log and “hammer” the hatchet the rest of the way home like a froe. The blade had no problems with this technique. I had planned on splitting the wood with the axe and using the hatchet to further split a small section into kindling, instead, the little Japanese hatchet was tasked with the entire job and didn’t flinch. I also found the hatchet to be ideal for hacking small chips of wood at the base of a log. Within a short amount of time and effort I found myself with a nice pile of woodchips, some kindling strips, and some more manageable slabs of timber. I had my first fire going in a respectable period of time.
All in all, I am excited to have the Best Made Japanese hatchet in my arsenal of gear. The feel of the tool is quite comfortable. The blade is versatile and of the highest craftsmanship. Do not discount the equity of a proper axe, but do not leave home without this hatchet either. I expect it to join me on many more trips to come.
Cheers!
