Best Camping Axes & Hatchets: Trialed & Tested [2024 Update]

The best camping axe we tested was the Gerber Freescape. While the Freescape is available in multiple sizes, we found the 17.5-inch model offered us the most versatility, making it capable of carrying out both smaller and larger tasks with ease.

Weighing in at 2 pounds, the Freescape strikes a happy medium between the ultra-lightweight axes in our review and the beefier, car-camping models designed for high-volume wood processing.

The Gerber combines a lighter composite handle with a hefty, forged steel blade to optimize balance and provide far superior striking power to most of its straight-shafted competitors.

The lightweight composite handle also absorbs shock better than almost any other axe in our review and is grippy enough to reduce slippage, even when using the tool in wet weather or when working up a sweat.

Another nice touch is the PTFE-coated blade, which is designed to reduce friction and provide a clean chop or cut. We didn’t expect this feature to make much of a difference in practice, but it did!

This one-piece, lightweight tool is the perfect camping companion for buyers who like to get their chop on around camp but ain’t too keen on carting too much extra poundage in their pack.

Estwing is an American company that has been manufacturing axes, pry bars, and hammers that have served their users for well over 100 years. The company’s Sportsman’s Axe is a sleek, tidy little tool that weighs in at a mere 1.86 pounds but packs enough punch for light wood splitting and chopping.

The Sportsman has a comfortable, leather-covered handle that is easy to grip and uses a hand-sharpened blade forged from a single piece of steel.

This makes it great for performing more delicate campsite tasks like food prep, whittling, or delimbing branches, while its 14” length offers a little more leverage to boost strike power and make up for the lighter weight of the head.

This axe also comes with an easily removable sheath, has a sharper edge than many of its weightier competitors, and has a nicely sized butt-end that’s perfect for hammering in tent pegs or stakes or even tenderizing your steak dinner!

If you are keen to get your paws on the most classy-looking camping hatchet out there, look no further than this.

Husqvarna has a 300-year history of producing high-quality, last-a-lifetime products, from rifles and shotguns to sewing machines, motorcycles, and lawnmowers. But it’s in the camping axe market that this prestigious Swedish brand really makes its mark.

When it comes to weight and packability, this wooden hatchet is a true winner, using a 13-inch shaft that provides enough leverage for solid strike power yet weighing in at a very portable 2.24 pounds. This makes it ideal for light cutting, building shelters, splitting small pieces of wood, and driving in your tent stakes.

If portability is your main concern, look no further than the Gerber Pack Hatchet.

Measuring just 9.5 inches, this is the smallest option on our list. It also weighs a mere 1.3 pounds, making it among the lightest, too. Despite its diminutive size, however, we found the Pack Hatchet to pack a reasonable punch. While it won’t ever chop logs or limb trees for you, it has enough heft to split kindling and let you carry out other small chopping tasks.

The full-tang construction means the Pack Hatchet feels nice and steady in your hand and is strong enough for swinging strikes.

We are big fans of a few small features included in this hatchet. The best of these are the molded, rubberized handle, which provides great grip, a nylon sheath that can be mounted to your backpack, and a lanyard hole that ensures it stays there when you’re on the move.

If you’re looking for something that’s the perfect size for backpacking, this lightweight survival axe may be the model for you.

SOG (Studies and Observations Group) has long excelled in making knives and small axes and their combination of strength, multitasking ability, and durability has even made them a standard issue tool for Navy SEAL units and the US Special Forces. Credentials don’t come much better than those!

This SOG Camp Axe combines all of the combat-worthy features that have made SOG’s products so popular since first being used during the Vietnam War. It’s light, tougher than nails, measures just over 11 inches, and uses a super sharp, 3.5-inch blade that’s ideal for more delicate tasks around camp.

This tomahawk-style hatchet isn’t made for processing large quantities of wood, but is ideal for cutting, trimming, splitting kindling, and campsite food prep.

As mentioned above, tomahawks are primarily combat and survival tools and the Kangee T-Hawk is, simply put a survivalist’s dream. It’s incredibly versatile, low-volume, incredibly well made given its budget price, and light enough to be carried even on long-distance backpacking trips without overburdening yourself with pack weight.

The Kangee is made with lightweight carbon steel with a glass-reinforced nylon handle. This combo provides a nice weight balance and decent strike power for such a small axe. It also boasts a secondary blade on the top of the head that allows you to cut, trim, and slice with more precision when need be.

The full-tang design used in this product makes it very easy to handle and absorbs vibration nicely when striking harder woods, while the splitting spike on the butt end makes it easier to process chunkier logs than with other models in this weight class.

This lightweight, long-shafted axe is ideal for backcountry campers who want an axe that’s tough enough to take on larger chopping tasks but light enough not to overload your pack.

Fiskars is a Finnish company with a long history of building rugged and durable hardware. This hatchet was designed in Billnas, Finland, and it’s perfect for any camping task, including getting those tent poles in place, chopping up to medium-sized logs of wood, or making kindling to get your bonfire started.

As with all things Fiskars, it’s also pretty much unbreakable and built to last a lifetime. It also uses a hugely convenient, textured non-slip grip that effectively absorbs shocks and is great for all-day use.

Schrade is a well-known manufacturer of knives and outdoor tools and accessories that’s been around since 1892 when George Schrade patented the press button switchblade.

Although their trade is mostly in knives, they have wandered into the survival and camping hatchet market in recent years, making scores of high-quality full-tang hatchets, survival hatchets, and axes.

This 1.6-pound, 12-inch model performs well across the board. It offers decent striking power, uses a tough, ding-resistant blade that doesn’t require frequent resharpening, and uses a handle that’s absolutely ideal for camping in cool conditions.

Because it’s made with a protective rubber coating with finger grooves, it’s much more comfortable to grip for longer periods than most other designs and far better at absorbing shock. If you’ve ever tried to sink a regular axe into a stiff chunk of wood on a cold morning, you’ll know just how valuable this attribute will be!

This Estwing Camper is hand-made in the USA and is one of those no-nonsense, one-piece axes that offers, above all else, lifelong reliability.

Estwing Manufacturing Company is based in Rockford, Illinois. Their founder, Ernest Estwing, was from Sweden and started the company back in 1923. Since then, Estwing has developed a rep for producing high-quality yet low-cost hammers, axes, and other forged tools.

The Camper is another model that sits somewhere between a backpacking and car camping option. It weighs in at 2 pounds and 13 ounces and measures 17.3 inches overall. While this doesn’t make it the most portable chopper in our review, it still has plenty to offer that makes it well worth a punt.

First of all, it uses a full-tang design that, together with the rubberized, shock-absorbing handle and curved shaft, make it far less likely to sting on errant strikes or when chopping particularly stubborn wood types. Estwing even claims that this shock-reducing grip reduces vibration and shock by up to 70%.

Secondly, the Estwing’s 17.3-inch length means it packs way more cutting power than other axes in the 2 to 3-pound weight range, meaning it’s more than capable of slicing through large chunks of wood and a solid choice for high-volume processing.

Finally, the Camper also uses an incredibly sharp bit that stands up well to repeated use and abuse, meaning it provides far better value for money in the long term than pricier competitors.

If you have some more serious lumberjacking to do on your car camping trips, there are few options out there as suitable as the Gransfors Bruks Small Forest.

The GB Small Forest weighs in at 2 pounds and measures 19 inches in length. This means it’s not the most portable option out there, of course. But it also means that it offers far superior leverage and head weight than most of the other axes in our review.

Because head weight and shaft length typically translate directly into striking power, this one’s a winner for anyone who envisions using their axe for high-quantity processing, felling small trees, or any other larger and tougher tasks.

In terms of quality, this product is truly hard to beat, too. It’s made with a forged steel head with a 4-inch, broad edge that slices through tougher woods with absolute ease, even when striking against the grain. The shaft is also as robust as they come and curved into a nice ergonomic shape for easy handling.

This quirky-looking camping hatchet might lack the old-school aesthetics of the hickory-shafted items above, but is a good choice for those looking to balance portability with striking power.

The V14 weighs just 1.45 pounds but uses a 15-inch shaft that provides plenty of power-boosting leverage when swinging at larger logs and branches. The lightweight shaft also makes weight distribution surprisingly effective and the textured handle makes for easy, slip-resistant handling.

While there are more suitable options out there for processing large volumes of wood, this one’s a solid option for buyers keen to have an axe for every occasion, whether that means a backcountry backpacking trip, a car camping trip, or light use around the home.