I know good work when I see it, and I appreciate all those who have carved out a niche with a little cottage business on the side. Enter Adam Choate and his homemade Kydex sheaths for small hatchets and tomahawks.
I have two favorite edged tools for backcountry (read, backpacking) use. One is my Gransfors-Bruks mini hatchet, a gift from my good friend, Pilgrim, a few years ago. The second one is my self-customized Cold Steel Trail Hawk. Both are worthy tools in deep wilderness, giving me a way to process stove wood for my Kifaru stoves or an outdoor campfire, pound tent pegs, and dismember elk, mule deer, pronghorns, or any other ungulate that I am fortunate enough to harvest. One of the only beefs I had with Gransfors-Bruks was with the anemic leather sheath they put on the mini hatchets. Cold Steel doesn't even provide one with the Trail Hawk, and given the bargain price of $35.00, I don't blame them. However, I have always needed bombproof, weatherproof, and safe covers for my tools. I dug deep with an Internet search, and through a long and winding road, found Adam on the Bushcraft USA forums.
Adam does high quality work, has reasonable prices, and his service is second to none. Like I said, I know good work when I see it, and Adam does good work! He has several different colors of Kydex, and my choice was easy...coyote brown. Adam likes bladed tools, and so he can accomodate various popular tools for molding. It just so happens that he had both the tools I needed sheaths for, so I didn't have to send him my tools for molding. You'll find that Adam's Kydex moldings fit your tools like a glove, and have excellent fit and finish.
What's this got to do with tenkara or lightweight backpacking? Well, those trout have got to have a good fire for cooking. You can set them over an open fire using Daniel Galhardo's kotsuzake method, but that will only last as long at it takes for the next summer thunderstorm to soak the fire. In the event that happens, if you have a collapsable wood stove, you can move your fish cooking inside your shelter. Either way, you will enjoy having a tool that will split up lots of stove or campfire wood in a hurry. That's why I always carry one of my two bladed splitters.
Here's my Gransfors-Bruks Mini Hatchet with Adam Choate's coyote brown sheath.
My Cold Steel Trail Hawk with its own sheath.
The Gransfors-Bruks Mini Hatchet and the Cold Steel Trail Hawk together for size comparison.
If you'd like to contact Adam, you may email him at choate4428@comcast.net, or you can visit some of his postings on the Bushcraft USA forums...he goes by "stratocumulus". Adam also frequents Bladeforums as "snakedoc". Great work, Adam! Stay tuned, I may have more Gransfors-Bruks tools in need of some Kydex!
Great looking tools, I was looking at the Mini hatchet but after talking to some I think I want the GB Small Forest Axe a bit cheaper and more axe like.
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