Machetes look like great fun in jungle movies, with everybody up front chopping away at six foot grass and sapling thickets and hardly slowing down the march--but try one in the American woodlands and you'll quickly realize that the full length machete was meant for tender green growth, not the briar ...

Ernest Emerson, martial artist and knifemaker, eventually came to regard the tomahawk as one of the essential survival tools for modern times. Creating high quality combat knives favored by such respected groups as the Navy SEALS, his reputation for practicality and simplicity, expressed by modern craftsmanship, extends to this well known personal combat ...

In Vietnam, American Special Forces soldiers soon learned a lesson their ancestors knew very well--a tomahawk is better than a knife for close combat. In spite of its popularity, my own opinion of the Vietnam tomahawk has always been that it's a wimpy little ax, with a head that's too small ...

United Cutlery's Black Ronin Tomahawk has enough points and sharp edges that no matter how bad you may be at throwing, you have a decent chance of getting this ax to stick in a target. The traditional tomahawk has one rather narrow cutting blade; this has two, one a wide ...

Smith & Wesson's stainless steel Bullseye is an economical and reliable camp ax with a few odd points of styling that some will like. Blade styles of hatchets are often carried over from old designs, suited to tasks most users don't perform today. In colonial times, most hatchets ...

One of the nice things about canoe camping is that you can take more than you could comfortably carry. Instead of a little packer's stove, you can take a two burner camp stove; instead of a lightweight trail tomahawk, you can take a Russ Kommer hatchet with a 4 ...

Medieval weaponry history tells us that the Danish axe surfaced somewhere between the reign of the Vikings and the Middle Ages. It's another example of a peaceful agricultural tool that evolved into a hunting weapon over time, much like the Japanese sickle or kama.

A traditional Danish axe can be ...

Here's the original Hero's Axe, not the antiqued version, by Hanwei designer Paul Chen. This original model is beautifully embellished and polished, and honestly would look a lot better mounted for display than the antiqued Hero's Axe, making it a much better choice in our opinion. The biggest reason for that ...

The naginata is quite an important weapon in the field of martial arts. It's identified by a curved blade, a long wooden shaft, and a traditional tsuba similar to the ones you'd find on an ancient Japanese sword.

Hanwei's version of a Japanese naginata is of course designed by none other ...

Here we have another Cold Steel product that's a fair value for what it offers. Do a search on functional tomahawks and you'll see a lot of quality products for the same price as the Rifleman's Hawk. So we're not about to throw it into the "expensive" bin anytime soon.

This tomahawk axe sports the ...

Ever had the urge to own an axe that had a more "modern" feel to it? Then this is your utility axe, hands-down.

Condor's Wilderness Tool provides all the functionality that you need from a double-bladed axe without looking embarrassingly ancient.

It has a blasted satin finish over a genuine stainless steel blade. The ...