Friends, there comes a time in every young axe-throwers life when they find the purchase of off-the-shelf axes to be...unsatisfying. Sure, the type of axe you throw has some impact on your throwing, but really it's the skill, dedication, and technique that makes the thrower. Why spend more than retail for an axe when a 15 dollar half-hatchet will do the trick?
Here's why: because it looks cool, and you want to.
Late one night last week, I couldn't sleep. Now, I've suffered (or benefitted, depending) from insomnia most of my life. I think the longest I've gone not sleeping was about 49 hours or something. I've been doing much better at it, but every once and again I have a hell of a time trying to rest these little badger eyes. When that happens, dear reader, I do the only sensible thing: I look online at all the axes I could buy and daydream.
But UNLIKE most nights of mindless, sleepless frivolity, I came across a post that was just a little bit too good. A fella by the name of Garrett had a beautiful, WATL-designed axe that was as delightful as it was sharpened. So I went ahead and made an offer within maybe 30 minutes of the post going live. And that was that.
This little cutey-pah-tootie is a wenge/maple core, scales of roasted ash/maple, aromatic cedar and pink and blue maple veneers. A whole lot of wood types and colors that just kinda, you know, come together to look like some sweet paneling from the 70s. Like a British spy's liquor cabinet. At least to me.
I think it might be a little...I don't know...unprofessional to talk about the price. But this isn't a professional website: it was $150 bucks, which is much, much closer to what I'm comfortable spending than a lot of the axes I've seen come up for sale.
Garrett went as far as to trim down the handle (it was 17.5, I asked for 16), and shipped this little killer the very next day (or I guess the same day, as it was 2AM when we made the deal.
AXE ARRIVED SATURDAY. SUNDAY WAS THE MARATHON LEAGUE.
There is probably something to be said about testing out equipment before using it in earnest, but for my part, I don't care much for thinkin.
So, without ever having tested the axe, and having not a notion of how it threw, I woke up at 7 in the morning to go to a marathon league at Meduseld. Now, a few things of note: This league was made up of the top throwers in all leagues at the Meadery, with two notable exceptions: Jon, who just signed up for his first league a week ago, and me.
I did not expect to do very well in this marathon league at all, especially because I was using an axe that had a longer handle than I'm used to/I had never thrown, but I did very, very well for myself.
No, no dear reader - I didn't take the league by storm. BUT BUT BUT I did throw an average of 70.3, which is higher than my average for almost every other league to date:
And that's not for nothing.
The handle is a bit wider than what I'm used to, but honestly my hand felt a bit better after 7 weeks of throwing than other marathon leagues with my current/past axe. And the little adjustments I had to make to account for the longer handle (you guessed it: starting further back) was an easy adjustment to make.
I still may cut down the handle a bit more, but honestly it felt good and it looked good. And it was good. So I also, you know, might not.
The build is solid as hell. Coming in at around 2 lbs, .7oz, it's also a little bit heftier than I'm used to, but in that way that it just hits harder without feeling a lot heavier. You know what I mean?
Like, it's got that thUMP when it hits the target. As opposed to the "thump" of a lighter axe. I'm talking thUMP, you dig?
OVERALL THOUGHTS NOW THAT I'M A FANCY LAD
I have been notably hesitant to get a custom axe. I think the pricing can be prohibitive, and the fear of laying down a few hundred dollars for an axe you might not even like is scary. But I made a choice last week, in the haze of my own insomnia, and that choice led me to purchasing an axe after only thinking about it for 10 minutes. And friend, I feel like that was a real good choice.
Do I think everyone needs to have a custom axe to throw well in this sport? Absolutely-effing-not. But I do think there is a benefit to having someone who throws axes be the one who puts together a throwing axe, which is the pedigree of most custom throwing axes. I'm hopeful that buying this guy can help tamp down that N+1 mentality I've had going for a while now, as I'm running out of space to put all the ding dang things and my partner is starting to get that look in their eye. You know the one.
Anyway, a big thanks to Garrett Stidham for putting this axe together, being ultra-quick with communication and shipping (very well protected, I'll add, shipping-wise), and for following up after I got the axe asking if everything was kosher.
It was very kosher, Garrett, and stoked on throwing with this beaut for the foreseeable future.
Comments