The Multi-tool Card Axe for emergency survival
I thought this tool is fascinating because it combines the urban mentality of compact and easy to carry with one of the most handy wilderness tools the axe.
Many people have tested this tool out by connecting the card to a branch by a zip tie.
And unfortunately people have found that to not work so well, the card seems to get loose fairly easily and I've also seen the zip tie tear.
The other alternative is to tie it to the branch by cordage.
It definitely seems like using a cord is the way to go however people have found this to be much harder than it looks.
A significant amount of cord tying skills and knowledge seem to be necessary to make it really work.
I wanted to try something different.
I found a piece of flat wood laying around in my garage so I used a file to do a quick sanding job just so I won't get splinters.
Then I used three screws to connect the card to the wood piece.
I later removed the axe card and screws so I could put a simple finish on the wood, this was completely unnecessary but I was liking the wooden handle piece so much I wanted to make it a bit nicer.
I went and tested it out, I was confident that the card would hold well and not start to wiggle or even worse fly off!
I tried it on a small branch and let me tell you what I discovered!
This is what I really like about doing wilderness stuff.
The moment you walk out that door it's you versus the wild.
And mother nature always wins so you need to learn and adapt quickly.
No matter how much research you do, there is always something that is unexpected.
The same exact thing happens in martial arts and self-defense.
So in this case even though I was mega confident, I found out that I had attached the card axe on the wrong side of the wood piece.
So if I'm using my right hand then I want the card on the left side of the handle (the inside).
The upper left photo is after I screwed on the card correctly.
On the other photos you can see the card is on the right side making it awkward to use for my right hand.
Like a more typical axe I could have centered it but part of the deal for me was to quickly make an improvised axe.
It's much easier to screw it onto one side of the wooden handle piece rather than trying to figure out how to center the darn thing.
I'll be making more handles and doing more tests on this fascinating tool.
In the mean time I will keep using the screws because it was solid, I really had no worry of the axe card becoming loose.
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