Survival Skills: Safety With Axes

A good ax or hatchet can be a major player in camp life. This tool proves us with high quality, split firewood and saves us a lot of labor and time. It can help with specialized tasks also, like bow making, bowl carving and making camp furniture. But be careful! The ax is also one of the most dangerous tools in the woods.

• Don’t swing an ax downward in a “circle.” If you miss your target, you’ll chop into your knee, shin or foot! Instead, straighten out your swing at the end of the chop and drive the axe into your chopping block. And yes, you should be using a chopping block

• Keep the ax head covered when transporting it. You should also use the cover while staying in camp, instead of leaving the tool lying around or stuck in a tree or a stump.

• When cutting branches off a tree, or putting in a notch to fell a tree - NEVER chop upward! A glancing blow can drive the ax into your neck, face or head.

• Never swing an ax with a loose head. The ax head may literally “fly off the handle” and kill someone.

Looking for some in-person training with axes and other camp tools? Join one of our Bushcraft classes to learn survival techniques with axes, knives, saws, rope, and much more!

Written by Tim MacWelch Frist published in his book The Ultimate Bushcraft Survival Manual