Gents, I have a well documented affinity for Gransfors Bruks tools, with their small forest axe living in my pack 3 seasons and the Scandinavian Forest axe for winter or longer or deeper trips. I also have a few Estwing hatchets and their axe around, not as good steel or workmanship as GB, but bomb proof. You have to work at it to break them.

I was taught: tomahawk-weapon first/tool second. Hatchet-tool first/weapon second. BTW, spikes on hawks, can be used like the spike on an ice axe in winter and as a probe in summer to break things up while protecting your primary edge. I agree, the hammer poll is more useful, but the spike IMHO is not without utility.

Regards, Jim

I always carry a hatchet. It's heavy but I use it alot. I could fell small trees with a saw but it's hard to split wood with a saw. I could cut little branches off a sapling with a big knife, but it take more time and energy. I could drive stakes with a rock but it's sometimes hard to find the right rock and are riskier to use.

A hatchet is definitely worth its weight to me.

FWIW. I've thought about this because my choice for heavy cutting is a hawk also. The problem is always how to carry, the handle being the real problem. The modern hawks are made to slip off the handle, slip on and tighten with use. That being the case, after cutting some branches with it I'd mark the handle for actual using length and cut off the excess. Then I'd carry the head in a sheath in my pouch, form a metal ring around the upper part of the handle that it will not slip all the way through. Mount the ring on the sholder bag strap, slide the handle into it and tie a loop that is affixed to the bag strap around the lower part of the handle to keep it in line with the strap and in place. The handle can be hung this way from the front or back of the strap. Just a few seconds and it's assembled and ready for use. If you don't expect to meet any bears face to face this should work.
But I will say it's not how I carry my own. My hawk is homemade from a black iron pipe Merchant coupling with a blade made of 1095 steel from a plow disk welded to it. (Yes, I know people will say the weld can fail, but I use them hard and have never broken one.)I don't carry a handle at all. When I need one I use the head as a hand axe and cut one. drive the head into a stump or dead log and screw the handle into place. If I want a better one I can now make it with the first one. I just carry the head in a sheath. Simple, and works for me.

Estwing E24A Sportsman's Hatchet. Rides on my belt.

Good hatchet, I have owned one for over fifty years. The handle is pretty beat up by now, but it still works fine. I don't like carrying it (or any hatchet so far) on my belt at all though. To each his own...

I actually only carry it on my belt when I'm out tromping around in the woods. The rest of the time it's in the truck with my other stuff.