Union /KABAR hatchet/ knife

[OLDE CUTLER]

I had seen pictures of these before, and I can recall at the time I thought they were a real neat combo.

Sundog picked up one of these in a lot of knives he bought, and I had a chance recently to look it over good, and now I am not so sure about them. I originally thought that it would be an advantage to save the weight of a second handle by just having one to interchange between the hatchet and knife. But when you actually have one in your hand to look at, it seems kind of klunky. The handle once on the hatchet, cannot be put into the belt sheath that way. Only with the handle on the knife blade will it fit into the belt sheath, so it always has to be switched back. And I can envision doing this out in the freezing cold when you really cannot feel your hands, that may be a problem. The many Western hatchet/knife sets I have seen had separate handles for each. The head of the Union/KABAR hatchet is only .160" thick, the same as the knife blade so they can use the same handle. It does not have much weight or mass for doing any kind or serious chopping. You can see in the photos on the scale that the Union/KABAR hatchet weighs in at 1pound and 6 tenths ounce compared to the Estwing I have at 1 pound 9.2 ounces.

I suppose one intention was for field dressing deer, and it may be adequate for cutting through bone to do that (with the assistance of a wood stick). But for doing any serious chopping, I think it would be seriously lacking in "power". I would like to hear comments from those of you that may have used this unit or the Western combo sets and what your opinion is. This set is tang stamped KABAR on the hatchet handle and Union Cutlery, Olean NY on the knife. Am I correct that these were made from about 1920-1940?

[Gunsil]

Several companies besides KA-BAR made these hatchet/hunting knife blade changers. Western made two models, Case made them, and Kinfolks made them with their own mark and for other companies. They weren't made for chopping down trees, they were made for dressing larger game and the hatchets weren't for cutting through bone, but for cutting through joints and ligaments.

[eveled]

Pretty neat as a collectable, but never struck me as very practical. Not meant for wood, but I'm sure lots of them were broken on wood.

I'd rather have the Estwing, and a good knife.

[Gunsil]

Actually they are pretty strong and would work for shaving tent stakes from branches. I have seen hundreds of these and have never seen a broken one so I guess most who purchased them used them as intended. I like Estwing and Norlund hatchets myself and have collected hatchets for years along with knives and razors, and done quite a bit of camping and hiking deep woods, but if you are on a long hike a hatchet weighs a lot, especially the all steel Estwings. The small Norlund was always my favorite pack axe.