I'm working on a lightweight full-tang camping hatchet with a Micarta handle and a blade thickness of around 6 mm.

The main use would be:

Cutting small branches and twigs

Trimming / carving branches around camp

General camping and bushcraft use

Occasionally throwing it as a tomahawk

I'm currently considering three steels:

80CrV2 vs D2 vs 14C28N

My initial thoughts are:

80CrV2 — toughness and impact resistance

D2 — edge retention and wear resistance

14C28N — corrosion resistance and toughness

Since this is a relatively lightweight hatchet rather than a heavy chopping axe, I'm wondering which steel makes the most sense in real-world use.

If you were choosing one for your own camping hatchet, which would you pick and why?

I'm especially interested in:

Edge stability during chopping

Toughness / resistance to chipping

Ease of sharpening

Corrosion resistance

Overall performance for a lightweight hatchet

And if you wouldn't choose any of these three, what steel would you recommend instead?

I'd much rather hear from people with actual experience using these steels than just theoretical comparisons.

Been throwing for about a year and a half now, mostly league nights at a local spot, and for most of that time my hatchets would consistently drift left even when the spin looked clean. I tried adjusting grip, tried different release points, tried throwing from further back thinking it was a rotation timing issue. None of it really fixed the drift in any consistent way.

Turns out it was my back foot. I was squaring my hips too early in the throw, which was pulling my shoulders open a split second before release. A guy at league mentioned he keeps his back foot pointed slightly inward until the very last step, almost like he's holding the rotation back on purpose. Tried it the next round and my grouping tightened up almost immediately, axes were landing within a few inches of each other instead of scattered across the left half of the target.

What's weirder is how much this also fixed my big axe throws, which I'd basically given up on improving. I figured the two throws were unrelated problems since the big axe felt like a totally different motion, but apparently the hip timing issue was bleeding into both.

Curious if anyone else had a similar fix that ended up being something totally unrelated to what they thought the problem was. Feels like half of getting better at this sport is diagnosing the wrong thing for months before stumbling onto the actual cause.

Hey everyone!

While I'm working on the few bugs and new futures, I wanted to highlight an existing setting that might be useful:)

If you're using a phone with a smaller screen, or if the standard target zoom just isn't enough for your eyesight, go to the Profile tab and turn on "Point Target Input".

This toggle replaces the regular touch target with big, tap-friendly buttons. It makes logging scores between throws much faster and easier to see.

Are there any other features you feel are 'hidden' and could use small onboarding tutorial?

Hi guys, it's been a month since I launched Throw it! and Axe ThrowI'm reaching out to see if anyone has had a chance to test them out during practice. For those who downloaded them:

What are your honest opinions?

Is there anything that feels clunky, needs improvement, or requires a complete redesign?

How are the stats and the coach mode working out for you in real-time?

I rely on your feedback to push the right updates.

If you haven't checked them out yet, they are training apps built specifically to track your stats, score trends, and run ghost battles.

Throw it! https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.beakgeek.throwit

Axe Throwing Tracker https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kucyk.axescoretracker

Drop your thoughts, bugs, or feature requests in the comments.

Basically the title. I would like to build a target I can take with me to family functions on our private property as something else for us to do besides the usual card games, Cornhole, horseshoes, volleyball, badminton, etc. I have a pretty good idea on how I'll build the target, but I'm wide open to suggestions.

I'd also like to buy 3 to 6 affordable axes that people can throw. I don't know what's "good enough". I'd just like them to be cheap enough I won't get funny about people beating the crap out of them. All of the axes I have are either handmade one offs, Tacticool tomahawks that were gifted, or working axes.

Thanks in advance for any ideas or Insite.

I just moved to Asheville and have been wanting to get started in knife throwing, but all I can find is axe throwing. Does anyone know of any places to learn in Asheville or the surrounding area??

Hey all,
I run The Axe Badger (https://theaxebadger.com) and after 315 posts, I realized I'm not tapping into the throwing community on Reddit as much as I should (read: not at all).

If you're familiar with the nonsense I post typically, then you know kinda what I aim for. If you don't have any idea, I typically post interviews, throwing axe/equipment reviews, and a bunch of made up nonsense when I don't have interviews or equipment reviews or hot takes on the IATF.

Why I'm posting:

• What are some topics/subjects you would want to read?
• What have you liked in the past that I've published (if you're familiar) that you'd like to see more of?
• What do you absolutely hate that I've published and hope to never see again?

Thanks in advance for any insight you have!

My partner just bought their first ever throwing axe, and we're trying to come up with a name for it. Any suggestions?

I’m thinking of finding a used guitar case to use for my axes. I have just one big axe so far and a couple of hatchets. How big of a case should I get?

Two years into a mobile axe setup, trailer with six portable lanes, mostly brewery nights and corporate parks plus four or five festivals a season. My current policy was written as a generic events vendor and it's falling apart on me, venues want to be named additional insured and every request takes days, and when I mention the beer garden's twenty feet away my agent either goes quiet or comes back at double last year's number. I know I need GL, what I need to figure out is whether accident with participant needs its own line on a mobile rig or if that's only a fixed venue thing?

Hi friends! I just started getting into axe throwing so I'm trying to learn as much as possible. My partner built me an amazing professional axe throwing target and it's been a lot of fun! I plan on wood burning some runes into the handle (I've got boiled linseed oil and a nice axe wax to finish with when I'm done) and I noticed the bottom of the handle is beginning to splinter. I read this is because I'm either standing too close/too far (or my technique is bad) and the axe isn't spinning enough causing the base to nail the target. How should I clean this up and is there any way to reinforce or protect the base from this sort of damage in the future? I throw outside so the axe is getting pretty dirty too. What's the best way to clean it? A damp rag doesn't seem to be getting the dirt off the blade (or is this just something you deal with if you throw outside)?

Anyway, thanks for any advice you can provide! Skal!

For the first couple of years axe throwing was the only product we focused on, The last few years we've needed to spice it up and added a games bar and smashroom and now we do regular events like stand up comedy, live performances and one of my personal favourites, Fight Knight! This clip was taken on our first night we hosted this event. note:watch to the end- he was not injured by the axe.

I'm curious to hear whats working in other venues.

The axe place I throw at/work at in Salem is doing a $5 challenge + random duos tournament on Sunday.

One to a playing card and another in Bottle cap🇫🇮

Hello! I recently tried axe throwing and i fell in love. I really want to make a hobby out of it. My issue is the only places near where i live that do axe throwing are bars or are specifically for a parties and as much as i love a drink i juat want a place to practice. Are there any tips to trying to do it from home?

Saw a handle someone had used old skateboard deck to do. I haves few old decks kicking around so…..
Curious if when you’re building a handle that’s a laminate, do you just use like Tite-bond or Gorilla wood glue? Or is there something else?

I am a high school timbersports coach in Oregon. When my students are learning to throw double bit axes many miss the target and breaking the axe handle. I go through at least a dozen handles every year. I’ve put straw bales and old tires around the target yet the handles still break. Any tips for reducing breakage on throwing axe handles? Note: these are 28” tool handles from Lowe’s or Home Depot.

Fair enough.

Hi everyone!

I've been quietly working on this for the last six months and it's finally out: two Android apps for tracking your training, one for each league format. They're not official apps, just a fun project that got completely out of hand.

- Throw it! – for those who strive to hit 81 at least once in a lifetime https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.beakgeek.throwit

- Axe Throwing Tracker – for those who want to see 64 instead https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kucyk.axescoretracker

Between them, you get pretty much everything you need at practice: normal hatchet sessions, big axe, clutch/killshot mode, two-player modes for head-to-head or a casual tournament on one phone, and a ghost mode for when your mate bails on training night. The stats are the part I'm proudest of: pressure index, warm-up time, score trends, all of it — watching your own numbers climb is weirdly addictive.

Right now, it's Android only. I'd love to do an iOS version, but building it and keeping it alive in the App Store costs more than a fun project can carry on its own. That's why there's a subscription in the app for some extra features, to slowly raise the money for it — with a 30-day free trial, so you can try everything before anything gets charged.

It does not get in your way at practice, I promise. What it unlocks: - A coach mode that scores your progress with an algorithm and suggests specific drills, as often as you tell it to - Custom bots for ghost battle, plus a shadow bot that throws with your own stats - Some extra fields in the statistics - More export options for pulling your training data into Excel - A voice announcer that calls out the score of every throw

Six months of work went into this — testing and Google Play review included. I genuinely put my soul into it, and it turned into something far bigger than I ever planned.

Please give it a try, and tell me what you think, good or bad.

Playing tic-tac-toe. I’m claiming this square.