Axes & Tomahawks
Tactical • Breaching • Camp • Throwing • 16 Models
From the Algonquin tamahaac carried by Rogers' Rangers in the French and Indian War, to the Vietnam-era tactical tomahawk revival, to the modern breaching hawks issued to USAF Security Forces in Afghanistan, the tomahawk and its axe cousins are the most enduringly useful edged-striking tools in American military history. Keep Shooting carries 16 models across tomahawks (Camillus, CRKT, SOG), hatchets (Cold Steel, Gerber, OKC, Walther, WatchFire), rescue axes (Ontario SP16 SPAX), throwing competition axes, and the US Army Pioneer Tool pickaxe head.
About Axes & Tomahawks at Keep Shooting
Keep Shooting carries 16 models of tomahawks, hatchets, breaching axes, throwing axes, and specialty pioneer tools covering the full span of American edged-striking tools — tactical tomahawks from SOG and CRKT, hatchets from Cold Steel, Gerber, Ontario Knife Company (OKC), Walther, and WatchFire, the Camillus Ravenous tomahawk, the Ontario SP16 SPAX Rescue Axe built around the same full-tang 1095 blade philosophy as the Spec Plus knife line, the Cold Steel Competition Throwing Axe for axe- throwing sport and training, and the US Army Pioneer Tool pickaxe head for the traditional-kit builders. Our lineup runs from the $13.42 WatchFire Campers Hatchet through the $89.76 Ontario SP16 rescue axe.
The word tomahawk comes from the Powhatan (Virginia Algonquin) word tamahaac, originally referring to a stone, bone, or antler chopping head hafted to a wooden handle with rawhide strips. The tool pre-dates European contact by thousands of years across the Eastern Woodlands and Great Lakes cultural regions — the Iroquois Confederacy, Algonquin Confederation, and allied nations carried tomahawks as everyday utility tools, hunting implements, and close-combat weapons. European trade steel replaced stone heads through the 17th and 18th centuries, producing the steel-bladed "trade hawk" that came to define the tool for the next three hundred years. By the time of the French and Indian War (1754-1763), the trade tomahawk had become standard-issue field kit for irregular colonial forces on both sides — most famously Rogers' Rangers, the proto-Special Forces unit raised by Major Robert Rogers to conduct long-range reconnaissance and raiding in the Northern New England and Quebec theater. Rogers' Rangers carried rifles, tomahawks, and long-bladed knives as their core field kit, and their operational doctrine emphasized the tomahawk as a close-range weapon, a utility tool for shelter and fire-making, and a thrown-weapon capability at short ranges.
The tomahawk's place in formal American military kit was cemented during the American Revolution. The Continental Congress mandated that every American soldier carry either a sword or a tomahawk into battle, and several Patriot commanders — including George Washington's Commander-in-Chief's Guard — standardized the tomahawk as the preferred infantry sidearm. The tool's combination of lightweight portability, dual-use utility function (shelter construction, firewood, field cooking), and close-combat capability made it more practical than a dedicated sword for the mobile irregular warfare the Continental Army actually fought. The Continental-issue trade hawk largely disappeared from formal US military kit through the 19th and early 20th centuries as bayonet doctrine replaced personal edged-weapons emphasis, but the tool persisted as frontier, logging, and camp kit for the rest of American life.
The modern tactical tomahawk revival begins with Vietnam. In 1966, veteran paratrooper Peter LaGana designed and produced the original Vietnam Tomahawk — a redesigned steel-headed hawk with a hickory handle, marketed directly to US soldiers deploying to Southeast Asia. An estimated 4,000 Vietnam Tomahawks were carried by US troops through the 1960s and early 1970s, primarily by MACV-SOG (Military Assistance Command, Vietnam — Studies and Observations Group) cross- border operators and other special-operations units running the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The "Hatchet Force" nickname for SOG's covert strike teams that operated from 1966 onward was partly metaphorical and partly literal — the small-team, fast-moving operational profile echoed the colonial-era ranger doctrine that originally made the tomahawk useful, and many SOG operators actually carried one as personal kit. The Vietnam Tomahawk effectively re-introduced the tactical tomahawk to American military culture after a 150-year absence.
The post-9/11 era brought the breaching tomahawk into active use as a dedicated piece of tactical kit. In spring 2001, knifemaker Ryan Johnson of RMJ Tactical was commissioned by the USAF 820th Security Forces Group to design a modern tomahawk combining 18th-century lines with 21st- century engineering — the result was the Eagle Talon Tomahawk, an all-steel integral-construction hawk with a razor-sharp 3-inch primary edge and a 3-inch distal-tapered spike designed for shattering tempered glass, penetrating sheet metal, chopping through concrete and wood, breaking chains and hardened padlocks, and breach-and-extraction work. By fall 2001 the Eagle Talon was in Afghanistan with Special Forces elements, and the breaching-tomahawk concept has been part of US tactical-team kit ever since. The tools Keep Shooting carries — particularly the SOG FastHawk and Tactical Tomahawk, the Cold Steel Trench Hawk, and the CRKT Woods Chogan T-Hawk — are the civilian-available descendants of this breaching-tomahawk design lineage.
Our current catalog breaks down into five functional categories. Tactical tomahawks — purpose-built for breaching, rescue extraction, and hard-use striking applications — include the SOG Tactical Tomahawk ($66.79) with a stainless steel head and ballistic polymer handle, the SOG FastHawk ($47.47) in a smaller carry-format variant, the Camillus Ravenous ($46.39) combining chop and spike functions in a single tool, and the CRKT Woods Chogan T-Hawk ($59.96) designed by custom knifemaker RMJ/Ryan Johnson's collaborator Ryan Johnson. For the full SOG catalog including the MACV-SOG heritage line the company was built around, see our SOG brand page.
Camp hatchets are the traditional wood-splitting and fire-making tools — smaller-head axes with handles short enough to carry on a pack belt. Cold Steel dominates this tier with three entries: the Frontier Hawk ($37.95, a period-correct trade-hawk reproduction), the Axe Gang Hatchet ($31.83, a Chinese martial-arts inspired design), and the Trench Hawk ($59.95, a WWI-inspired close-combat tool). Gerber contributes two modern American-designed hatchets: the Pack Hatchet - OD ($35.82) in the 9-inch belt-carry size and the Mini Cleaver ($24.95). The OKC Camp Plus Hatchet ($79.69) is Ontario's Kraton-handled, powder-coated 1095 blade camp axe (see the full Ontario catalog at our Ontario Knife Company brand page). The Walther Mini Axe ($27.95) and WatchFire Campers Hatchet ($13.42) round out the budget entries. For the full Gerber catalog see our Gerber brand page.
Rescue and breaching axes are the professional-tier pieces. The Ontario SP16 SPAX Rescue Axe ($89.76) is the premium entry in our catalog — Ontario Knife Company's Spec Plus series breaching tool with a forward-swept blade, a gas-shutoff wrench cutout, and a pry/nail-pulling heel designed for fire-department vehicle- extrication and forcible-entry applications. The SP16 is the tool you want if you actually need to pry open a crushed vehicle door, shut off a gas meter at a fire scene, or breach a locked interior barrier in a rescue scenario. Throwing axes are a growing category driven by the competitive axe-throwing sport that emerged in the 2010s as a formal league activity. The Cold Steel Competition Throwing Axe ($34.95) is a purpose-built throwing tool — balanced for rotational stability in flight, hardened steel head that won't deform on repeated target impact, and a straight-grain hickory handle replaceable if damaged. The Gerber Gator Combo Axe ($53.43) is a specialty hybrid with a combination axe head and handle-integrated gut-hook knife.
The US Army Pioneer Tool Pickaxe Head ($24.95) is the historical and period-reenactment entry — the genuine US Army pickaxe head issued as part of the WWII and Cold War pioneer tool kit carried by combat engineer and infantry units for field fortification, trench excavation, and roadbed work. The pioneer tool kit typically included a full-size shovel, a pickaxe, and a wire- cutter, all carried on the vehicle or unit supply train rather than on individual soldiers. Our stock is the pickaxe head only (no handle) — fit it to a standard pickaxe handle from any hardware store for a functional tool, or hang it as-is for military-kit collectors assembling a period loadout. For the deeper period-kit collection category see our Military Surplus Field Gear catalog.
Choosing the right tool in this category comes down to intended use. For camping and backcountry wood-processing — shelter construction, firewood, tent-stake pounding, food prep — a camp hatchet from Gerber, OKC, or Cold Steel is the right tool; look for a 12-18 inch handle and a 2-3 pound head weight. For tactical, breaching, and first-responder applications, a purpose-built tactical tomahawk from SOG or CRKT — or the Ontario SP16 SPAX rescue axe — offers features (spike, pry, cutout) that general-purpose hatchets lack. For historical reenactment or period-correct kit building, the Cold Steel Frontier Hawk (trade-hawk era), the Camillus Ravenous (Vietnam- lineage), or the US Army Pioneer Tool (WWII-Cold War) are direct-issue correct choices. For competitive axe throwing, the Cold Steel Competition Throwing Axe is purpose-built for sport.
Axes & Tomahawks live inside our broader Knives & Tools category, which also includes our Machetes catalog (the right tool for vegetation and brush work rather than wood), Fixed Blade Knives (for dedicated precision cutting and fighting-knife applications), and Multitools for the urban-EDC pocket- tool category. Most complete outdoor kits include a knife, a machete or axe, and a multitool — three edged tools doing three distinct jobs — rather than trying to force a single tool to cover all three applications.
Keep Shooting ships all axes and tomahawks from our Pennsylvania warehouse with free shipping on orders over $49.95 and hassle-free returns. Edged-tool orders ship in accordance with destination-state mail-order regulations; some states restrict tomahawk or double-bladed axe shipment and our order system will flag the issue at checkout. Whether you're a firefighter or EMS professional adding a rescue axe to station gear, a hunter or hiker building a camp-kit hatchet loadout, a tactical buyer or breacher training professional buying a purpose-built hawk, a competitive axe-thrower picking up a sport-rated throwing tool, or a military- history collector assembling a period- correct Revolution, Vietnam, or WWII-era kit, every axe and tomahawk in our catalog is authentic brand inventory from the manufacturers and military supply lines that have been equipping field professionals for more than 250 years.
Frequently Asked Questions — Axes and Tomahawks
Keep Shooting carries a wide selection of Axes and Tomahawks products from trusted brands. Browse our catalog to see the full range, and use the filters on the left to narrow by brand, price, or product type.
Yes! All orders over $49.95 qualify for free shipping, including Axes and Tomahawks products. Orders typically ship within 1–2 business days.
Keep Shooting offers hassle-free returns on Axes and Tomahawks products. If you're not completely satisfied, contact our customer service team for a return authorization. All products must be in original, unused condition.
If you need help choosing the right Axes and Tomahawks product, our team is available to assist. Check individual product descriptions for detailed specifications, or contact us directly and we'll help you find the best fit for your needs.