Hatchet job

[John Joseph]

I found a hatchet head. It's rusty and old, I have no idea who made it, but of all the traditional camping tools, hatchets I find are the lest desirable.
I remember buying one a few decades ago and couldn't wait to get rid of the thing.
Hatchets scare me!
Which brings me to this current unwelcomed guest----
It has phantom bevels

I've never had an axe with phantom bevels much less even seen phantom bevels on a hatchet---they are so cool !
So now I don't know what to do with it.
Restore it? Hang a new handle? Throw it back in the scrap metal pile?
I certainly won't take it camping----hatchets scare me!
Thoughts?
Man, phantom bevels are sure cool!

[Happy Joe]

IMO;
De-rust it and try to restore; it. See if you can find, make or re-finish the proper handle.
Most modern inexpensive hatchets are soft and not desireable. The good ones are quite expensive.
I'm not a fan of hatchets but I am a fan of high quality antiques, they look good and are useful. Have an antique broad head hatchet that has beheaded many generations of chickens and provided at least a generation of kitchen cook stove and washing kindling. They used to be considered essential homemaking gear.

Enjoy!

[John Joseph]

Thanks!

[Boynextcamp]

Hi, John! Did you restore it? I'd like to see pics of restored old good stuff. Nowadays it's a very popular trend, and do you know why? To my mind, steel and materials generally were better in the past. I bought a hatchet(exactly this) and it feels like it’s made of sticks and dirt
All the best
Frank

[MacGyver]

I will always carry an Estwing hatchet/axe with me on trips. When other cutting tools might fail - handles split, blades snap, the Estwing is made out of one solid piece of steel. That makes it about as indestructable as is possible. Sharpened with just a file, the most use it gets is making shavings for tinder and splitting larger pieces of kindling into even smaller pieces.

[gavin-mn]

I think the military shovel is very useful for digging soil and cutting down trees, the axe is too heavy and only used occasionally