The 16 Best Camping Hatchets
We don’t need to tell you what a camping hatchet is for, if you’ve ever camped with one, it’s overtly apparent—it’s for everything. And if you’ve ever camped without one, the lack was probably physically painful. Instead of letting that happen again, check out our list of the 16 best camping hatchets and prepare yourself.
Smaller than an axe and operated one-handed, the camping hatchet fits in easily with your gear or even in your pack and takes care of what needs doing—clearing an area, splitting wood, making kindling, pounding tent spikes, opening beers, fashioning hot dog spears, and fulfilling fifty other duties that you won’t think of until you’re performing them.
Our list includes hickory handles and multi-tools. Hatchets in the ten-inch range and longer nearly-axe like beasts. There are cheaper buy-it-and-go models, and heritage-worthy investment pieces that your grandkids will hope to inherit. Hatchets for hunting, hatchets for zombie fighting. Whatever you’re planning to do out there in the wild, somewhere on this list is your next hatchet. The camping hatchet you need to do darn near anything when the rest of your tools are far enough away they may as well be on Mars.
Barebones Field Hatchet
Blade length: 3.5” • Overall length: 17” • Weight: 1.2 lbs
If you want simplicity blended with quality, the Barebones Field Hatchet is just the tool for you. Its 1055 high carbon steel head and hickory handle are incredibly durable, and you’ll love how light and well-balanced it feels when you swing it. It’s easily sharpened, holds its edge amazingly well, and is guaranteed to deliver long-lasting durability.
Gerber Gator Combo Axe
Blade length: 2.7” • Overall length: 8.75” • Weight: 1lb 7oz
A two-in-one option, this Gerber Combo Axe is a one-handed, short-grip hatchet with a knife secured inside the handle. On the hatchet, you get a forged steel head with a low-friction surface to keep it from getting stuck as you chop. The hatchet handle is nearly unbreakable, made from glass-filled nylon and covered in Gator Grip, Gerber’s proprietary textured rubber that gives you no-slip control even after the two-hundredth swing. The hidden knife is seven inches long with a nearly three inch blade, perfect for doing anything the hatchet can’t.
Hults Bruk Jonaker Hatchet
Blade length: 3” • Overall length: 9.4” • Weight: 1lb 8oz
If it’s heritage you’re after, how about a company that’s been making axes and hatchets since 1697? When Swedish company Hults Bruk started hand-forging their axes, a good axe was the difference between surviving a winter and not. Their tools are still made in the same foundry by hand, at the rate of 100,000 a year. Not mass-produced by a long shot. The Jonaker is their most compact hatchet and comes with a leather sheath, ideal for any camp pack.
Estwing Sportsman’s Axe Camping Hatchet
Blade length: 2.75” • Overall length: 12.5” • Weight: 1lb 6oz
You might remember this one from that time you went camping with your granddad. Estwing has been making tools out of their Illinois manufacturing plant since the 1920s. This one is from their Sportsman’s Axe line: the twelve inch Camping Hatchet, forged in a solid piece from head to handle out of American steel. The handle is wrapped in genuine leather that’s hand-sanded and lacquered to a shine. It’s a handsome hatchet, one that will outlast your own grandkids.
CRKT Black Powder Hatchet
Blade length: 3.61” • Overall length: 13.2” • Weight: 1lb 11oz
Columbia River Knife & Tool partners with knife designers and inventors all over the world to make their line of highly original blades and tools. This Black Powder Hatchet was designed by Ryan Johnson of RMJ Tactical, a Tennessee-based knife and tactical tomahawk company. The hatchet head is made from carbon steel with a hammer at the back and a blade that’s over three inches. The black powder coating and black glass fiber/polypropylene handle made this one cool looking—and durable—hatchet.
Gerber Myth Hatchet
Blade length: 3.5” • Overall length: 9.2” • Weight: 15oz
If your camping adventures will include procuring your own dinner from the land that surrounds you, get the Gerber Myth Hatchet. It chops wood as deftly as it does bone and the rubber grip won’t get all slippy on you when you’re elbow deep in underbelly. Of course, those who plan on having cans of beans for dinner will also find something to like here: a robustly chunky size and hardened-steel forged blade with a special grind that keeps an edge longer than average.
Off Grid Tools Survival Axe
Overall length: 11.5” • Weight: 1lb 11oz
It doesn’t look like an ordinary hatchet, because it’s not trying to be one. The Survival Axe from Off Grid Tools aims to give you 31 functions in one foot-long tool. From seat belt cutter to hammer and claw, to a fold-out 6” sawzall blade, this is a ready-for-whatever multi-tool that happens to have a sharpenable hatchet blade on its carbon steel body. It’s black oxide-coated and has a glass-filled nylon handle with a rubberized grip to maintain comfort as you use it 31 different ways.
Hardcore Hammers Hatchet
Overall length: 18” • Weight: 2lb 8oz
It’s made in the US and called the Hardcore Survivalist Hatchet. Big bonus: it’s the only hatchet on our list that’s specifically designed for zombie apocalypse survival settings. With a big, solid American hickory curved handle and a weighty 19 ounce head, this is a hatchet that cuts like a full-sized axe. On the back of the head is a hammer with Hardcore Hammer’s patented recessed striking head. This is one tool that lets you pound nails, chop wood, and fight back an undead horde.
Husqvarna Hatchet
Blade length: 3” • Overall length: 15” • Weight: 1lb 8oz
Their bright orange chainsaws and futuristic robot lawn mowers get all the attention, but the Swedish company also puts some weight behind hand tools. This is their wood-handled hatchet made from hickory and measuring in at about 15 inches with the head. It won’t cost you quite as much as some of the other Swedish axes out there but it’s a solid piece with a distinctive curve to the handle.
UST ParaHatchet
Blade length: 3.4” • Overall length: 9.7” • Weight: 11oz
This all-steel hatchet packs a few extra bells and whistles—like an eight-foot length of orange paracord wrapped around the handle, plus hex wrenches and a wire cutter cut into the blade, with a sheath that boasts an extra pocket for the included magnesium fire starter. At under ten inches and a little over eleven ounces, it’ll make an ideal backup tool, one you’ll be glad to have when the unexpected shifts into reality.
Gerber Pack Hatchet Camping Axe
Blade length: 3.5” • Overall length: 9.5” • Weight: 1lb 9oz
This new offering from Gerber is a simple but burly hatchet that’s perfect for a pack. The price is reasonable enough that you won’t feel squeamish putting it through its paces at the campsite. Finger grooves just below the head give you close up control for shaving off bits of starter but the hatchet’s substantial enough to give you a good chop. It’s got a stonewashed finish and a rubberized grip in your choice of flat sage or coyote brown.
SOG Camp Hatchet
Blade length: 3.1” • Overall length: 11.5” • Weight: 1lb
Another great option with a hammer at the back of the head, this Camping Hatchet from Seattle-born SOG is a stainless steel workhorse with a glass-filled black nylon handle. The sheath itself is also black nylon, and along with the compact size (under twelve inches) this is a no-nonsense, moderately priced hatchet that will make short work of splitting wood, clearing an area, and setting up camp.
Fiskars Norden N7 14” Hatchet
Blade length: 5.45” • Overall length: 14” • Weight: 1lb 11.8oz
Fiskars brings over three hundred years’ worth of craftsmanship expertise to bear on the Norden N7 14” Hatchet, delivering a highly durable tool that will excel no matter what you use it for. The high-quality hickory wood handle has been reinforced with special patented Fibercomp protection that makes it virtually indestructible, and the carbon steel axe head is both beautifully sharp and incredibly tough. With an excellent balance and precise blade geometry to give you a long cutting edge, it’s a tool fit for a Viking—or an outdoorsman badass.
BuckNBear BnB Pack Hatchet
Blade length: 3” • Overall length: 9.25”
BuckNBear has forged a true masterpiece in the form of the Pack Hatchet. Lightweight, comfortable to hold and swing, the D2 steel hatchet gives you both a powerful swing and excellent control for more detailed cutting. The high-performance handle is easy to grip and sits comfortably in your hand, giving you the full confidence to swing with all your strength. The axe head itself comes with both a tactical hammer on the back end and a grinder/sharpener integrated into the top, making it a highly versatile and practical tool for any camping or hiking trip.
Adler German Axes Rheinland Hatchet
Blade length: 4” • Overall length: 14” • Weight: 1lb 14.4oz
With more than a century of crafting superior quality axes, Adler German Axes knows how to combine ergonomic comfort with incredibly rugged materials. This fourth-generation, family-run forger has produced a truly amazing tool: hyper-tough C45 steel, U.S.-sourced hickory handle coated with anti-slip paint, and a solid wedged-in head that will power through any lumber without wobbling or breaking. This German-made axe is even made following sustainable practices, reusing lumber waste to power the factory. Talk about excellence at an amazing price.
River City Forge & Tool Hand-Forged Wayfarer Hatchet
Overall length: 16” • Weight: 1.5 lb
Looking at the River City Forge & Tool Hand-Forged Wayfarer Hatchet, you’d never know it was made in a small two-man blacksmith shop—it just screams luxury, quality, and reliability. The US-made axe combines the toughness of hand-forged alloy carbon steel with premium Amish-turned American hickory, and even includes an American Buffalo leather sheath to protect the axe’s edge. Its rustic look makes it the perfect option for men who want to tap into their “mountain man” roots and swing a true woodsman’s hatchet.
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