Dynamite will generate a cavity pretty quickly
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Light weight axes are preferred for packing/backpacking. Like wise it’s good for axes that will do as much or more cutting. As in knife type cutting. As chopping. They aren’t as good for splitting wood. And they a bit time consuming for felling anything but saplings. But this is the whole idea behind a tomahawk. And carving axes are just as lightweight. Lightweight axe work with some benefits of a knife. You can cut saplings to make traps, skin and butcher the animal. All with one tool. As an example.
That said skelitonizing the head has always struck me as a bad idea. It’s just going to weaken things.
That’s interesting. I’ve always just brought along my hatchet and my polymer-handle single bit because those are just the tools I’m used to. I’d make some comment about “maybe I’ve been hauling around way too much weight all these years” but I already knew I was. It’s just what I’m comfortable with.
Stick that in a back pack and hike with it three days. The whole ultra light thing isn’t really my bag, but weight savings are weight savings. And even a decent hatchet isn’t going to be much use for knife duties.
We used to bring a hachet. But a friend gifted me a tomahawk. And as much as its a stupid tactical tomahawk is much more useful for certain things than the hatchet was. At much less weight. And its fun to huck into a tree. The lack of weight, and the fact that it has a spike (tactical!) instead of a hammer head on the reverse makes it less useful for splitting wood . So since we car camp, do the RV thing, boat or otherwise have cargo capacity we bring a camp ax. That was the real game changer over the hatchet. It can actually be used for full sized axe things. You can split wood properly about as well as a full axe for much less weight and length. And it really isn’t much more difficult to pack than a hatchet.
The tomahawk helps to fill in the bottom end. Your machete comparison was apt, it basically does the same stuff in much more compact form. And its pretty decent for chopping onions. A decent lightweight camp axe and tomahawk will probably weight less than your full size axe on its own. And be more practical to cram in whether you’re talking about restricted space in a car or keeping a pack practical. And it will actually cover more duties than the axe/hatchet combo. At this point my goal is just to get a non-stupid tomahawk and a better camp axe. Its a nice combo. One entirely predicated on keeping the axe heads light.
Have you checked out the fiskars pack hatchet or the estwing camp axe? The Fiskars is lighter than my heavy seax, and the Estwing is as durable as anything twice its weight.
I have the friskers camp axe. Some compatriots have the hatchet. All of them want to trade up to the camp axe after trying the two side by side. And I’ve been eyeing that estwing. The thing is a camp/pack axe seems to replace both a hatchet and a full sized axe when space is a concern. The tomahawk just seems to fill in some of that small thing bushwacking stuff you don’t realize is important until you can do it. More of a bonus than a necessity.
But the friskers really are a phenomenal value. They rival hardware store brands for cheapness and they’re a huge, huge step up. Their ultimate splitting axe has made my live infinitely easier.
The estwings are just crazy quality at the price too. Their hatchets have done a very good job of surviving my father and grandfather’s “park it under the shed for 10 years” maintenance model. The camp axe seems to be around the same weight but a little longer and better balanced than the friskers. And I like the size/shape of the blade better. The friskers stuff is all very flat and wedgey, optimised for slitting. The estwing could conceivably be used for felling. Though I think I’ve had to do that maybe once in my life.
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