How young is too young for a boy to get a hatchet?

[Steven Seelig]

I'm inspired by the new shipment Riv has of the Gransfors Bruk Hatchet, but not for me.  My son is turning 10, and at some time in the past, probably when he was 5, I told him he could get one when he turned 10.  Little did I know he would remember.  He's a handy and inquisitive fellow, and my parenting view has always been to let him do stuff on his own.  He has ridden his bike by himself to the local market here in the wilds of the city of DC since he was about 7 and seems to be semi-responsible when on his own.  

We do bike camping together, so there could be a need for a hatchet to chop wood for fires, but as a Grateful Dead head I'm aware that Jerry Garcia's brother axed off his middle finger when Jerry was 6.  It worked out for him.

My wife seems okay with letting me decide, which in most circumstances is a green light.  I think a hatchet would be better than something with a longer handle.  And I am willing to get him something good he can own his entire life.

Any perspectives?

Steve

[Deacon Patrick]

Has he experience with proper care and use of knife? A hatchet is the same thing, but will cause more harm faster, so we’ve waited until several years of knife experience and proper care (usually starting at 6-7) with our daughters before they got to handle the hatchet.

With abandon,
Patrick

[Mark Schneider]

My son was ready at 10, but he grew up in the forest and had helped me deal with fire wood for years. He was very responsible with handling an axe (and a knife) so he was definitely ready. Ultimately you have to make the judgement on his maturity, level and his capabilities.

Your son sounds mature enough, I'd give him a shot with it, show him how to maintain it and monitor him, see how he takes care of it.

Mark

[Philip Williamson]

Ten seems like the right age to me, but all children are different.
I’d say trust your judgment, and trust your kid. It worked out for my kid (in my opinion).

My friend was over with her 14 month old, who just LOVED running around in my back yard. He was standing next to a metal yard-art thing with sharp rusty “leaves” at the same height as his blond little noggin. I touched his head and said, “Hey those are sharp.” He just smiled. I shrugged and said, “You’ll learn,” and turned my attention back to the adult conversation. His mom was laughing really hard. She said, “I was just listening to a podcast about Lazy Parenting!”

I tell that story to illustrate that my perspective may not be your perspective. Also, it takes a lot of work to be a “lazy” parent and let kids take the right amount of responsibility for themselves.

Philip
Santa Rosa, CA

[Drw]

I teach art and basic woodshopping to kids this age. I’ll second the idea that it’s about building up to it, skillwise, rather than a specific age. I’m also not sure it’s a responsibility issue either. There are certain safety things you just learn with practice and exposure. I’ve had very responsible kids make very dangerous mistakes simply because they hadn’t had enough exposure to a tool to understand the ways it moves and what happens when your hand is in the way. I think I’d go pocket knife-regular knife-hatchet- with a project or 5 based around each tool, before moving on.
My dad gave me a hatchet when I was maybe 10 or so, but he had had me making kindling with his for years at that point.

[Justin, Oakland]

I taught 2nd graders how to prepare a meal using kitchen knives, measuring and cooking over open flame. Do the hatchet. Teach well and you’ll give him confidence for life.

-J

[sameness]

Sounds like a Minutemen B-side.

Jeff Hagedorn
Los Angeles, CA USA

[Steve Butcher]

I grew up on a farm in West Central Missouri and had a variety of sharp objects, amongst other things that could harm me, readily at my disposal.  I recall instances picking up a hatchet to whack away at some stick or limb and received immediate instruction in how to do so safely by my father.  His by line while I was growing up still rings in my ears:  "safety first".  I think this may have come from his years of serving in the U.S. Army as a heavy equipment operator.  Anyway, my opinion is that if a parent has the knowledge of how to use anything safely, it is their responsibility to teach their child how to do so.  From my experiences, I feel age 10 is a good age to teach safe hatchet handling skills (as well as axe or knife), as well as to how best to care for said implement.  These are all good things to teach, not only for safety sake; but for building maturity and a sense of responsibility.  I, also, feel another area that begs close monitoring, is how a child behaves with a hatchet, axe, or knife when in the company of their friends and peers.  A child is often anxious to demonstrate their new "skills" but this needs some instruction, as well.  Sermon over...

Steve Butcher
Stockton, very rural southwest, Missouri

[Mark in Beacon]

On Tuesday, December 4, 2018 at 11:54:42 PM UTC-5, Lum Gim Fong wrote:
> You let your child out on his own on the streets of DC at 7-10 years old?!?!?!

Hey, no parent-shaming! Headlin: Weird Things You Didn't Know About Rivsters And Their Kids.

Compare this to the Mongolian kids hopping on little horses at two or three years old. My kid has been fencing since he was 7, so he's at least got some awareness of pointy tools. Plus we cook together in the kitchen, and have done some basic bicycle repairs. I wish my dad had been more of the type to introduce me to these skill sets.

[Eric Daume]

Ways not to use a hatchet: chopping ice you're standing on:

Eric

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[Dave Grossman]

Compare this to the Mongolian kids hopping on little horses at two or three years old. My kid has been fencing since he was 7, so he's at least got some awareness of pointy tools. Plus we cook together in the kitchen, and have done some basic bicycle repairs. I wish my dad had been more of the type to introduce me to these skill sets.

That is my motivation with my kids as well.  In our modern world most of us (especially in urban locales) are devoid of these types of skill sets.  I've tried to learn as much as I can but I know so little. I want them to have a good understanding of those skill sets as they age.  My six year old has been cutting veggies and fruit with a knife since he was 3.  He makes a mean salad these days.

[Steven Seelig]

Thanks for all the thoughtful responses.  Yes, I do let my kid ride his bike around DC in our neighborhood, mostly on sidewalks.  The safety and experience perspective others have offered applies for him.  He has been taught what to do and when and I trust that he will do what's right when he's by himself.  I have taught him that being safe from cars is 100% his responsibility. My experience is that he's far more responsible when on his own than with a pack of other boys his age where he seems compelled to do a "hold my beer and watch this."

On the knife angle, he got a Swiss Army knife when he turned 8, and within 30 seconds of opening it from the package gave himself a nice slice in the finger.  But it happened only once and now he's very careful while using it and other sharp objects.  

I never knew it, but I am a "lazy" parent per the above definition.  

Steve

[Patrick Moore]

Steve: I approve, though I have to admit that I failed to be as confident when my daughter was your son's age. In fact, from what I read, child abductions, for one danger, are lower today than they were in the 1990s. But I say, kudos.

OTOH, one of my early memories is slashing my left forefinger with a very nice pocket knife my father gave me for an early birthday; forget age. I just looked at the star now, 55+ years later.

On to the more general question. Looking back on my childhood, I am amazed at how much freedom I and my siblings had in the 60s and 70s; such as, age 14, calling Mom and telling her "I'll spend the weekend with Brian" and getting unquestioned permission. This left me hitchhiking back 30+ miles on a drowsy Sunday afternoon along an isolated blacktop with infrequent traffic while hung over from the previous night's festivities -- Thika back to Rosslyn NW of Nairobi, 1969-1971. And yet my parents were very, very attentive and strict. My brother, almost 6 years younger, would disappear, age 8 to 10, into the surrounding bush to play with the village children, learn Swahili, and hunt pigeons with stones, to roast over a fire along with wild potatoes. As long as we were home by dinner time, no one complained; no one even asked. I learned urban survival skills, especially from the few times I was picked up, hitchhiking, by drunks or stoners, either somnolent or hilarious, or angry and agressive; a year or 2 later, urban bike riding skills in lawless traffic. My brother learned rural survival skills. We all survived, the better for the youthful freedom.

On Wed, Dec 5, 2018 at 6:57 AM Dave Grossman <gma...@gmail.com> wrote:

Compare this to the Mongolian kids hopping on little horses at two or three years old. My kid has been fencing since he was 7, so he's at least got some awareness of pointy tools. Plus we cook together in the kitchen, and have done some basic bicycle repairs. I wish my dad had been more of the type to introduce me to these skill sets.

That is my motivation with my kids as well.  In our modern world most of us (especially in urban locales) are devoid of these types of skill sets.  I've tried to learn as much as I can but I know so little. I want them to have a good understanding of those skill sets as they age.  My six year old has been cutting veggies and fruit with a knife since he was 3.  He makes a mean salad these days.

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Auditis an me ludit amabilis insania?

[Randy Franks]

There's a lot of good, reasonable advice here. I'll just add a couple points of reference and some resources you might peruse.

The Cub Scouts have a hard prohibition against pocket knives through 2nd grade. After that, kids can earn a Whittling Chip allowing him/her to carry a pocket knife at Scout events. The Boy Scouts, which is 6th graders and up, have a woodworking badge called the Totin' Chip addressing knives again, as well as larger tools like hatchets and saws. They can also lose the privileges if they're irresponsible or unsafe, and have to re-earn the chips.

The skill checklist and lesson plans floating around are good references. It's common sense stuff, but I usually find something useful, like a way of explaining that resonates with kids (e.g. stick out your arm, turn in a circle, if you cannot touch anybody it's safe to open your knife).

-Randy

On Tuesday, December 4, 2018 at 6:36:45 PM UTC-8, Steven Seelig wrote:

[William R.]

I've had a Gransfurs hatchet in the house since my son was 10 or so. He's 14 now and still has all his digits. I showed him early on what he could do with it, how sharp it is. He especially likes how you can do pretty precise wood shaving with it if you hold it at the head. We have a couple of the knives that Riv sold/sells here too. He likes how you can do broader work with the axe and fine tune with the knives. Now my daughter is 10. The axe kind of scares her, she's not into it, but she likes carving and whittling with the knives. I recently scored a 6 lb long handled splitting axe at a flea market for $10. That is my favorite new tool. The kids stay away from that and my son makes "Here's Johnny!" jokes when I handle it, but it splits logs like nobody's business.

Regarding Jerry Garcia: I didn't know that he was missing a finger. Not a head, but I like em. Wondering how you axe off a middle finger without getting the others. I guess if things are arranged just so.

Bill in Westchester, NY

[Brian Campbell]

A-side, "What makes a man start fires" of course.....

[MTR]

I would recommend getting a boys axe (light head longer handle) over a hatchet, axes are much safer then hatchets. If you miss with an hatchet it is more likely to hit the person using it then a longer handled axe.  

On Tuesday, December 4, 2018 at 6:36:45 PM UTC-8, Steven Seelig wrote:

[Kalmia Vt]

I gave a small axe to one of my children at about ten years old, a Wetterling's with a length of about 19 inches. I think the Gränsfors Small Forest Axe is about the same size. This is a good length for a person that age to use two-handed, as an axe. It's easy to chop off a finger or other parts using  one-handed. Two-handed gives better control and keeps both hands out of any impact. I taught my child a set of safe practices for using an axe, and seeing they could be trusted to follow the safety rules I had many happy hours and days listening to forts and tiny cabins being built out behind the house. Basically, I believe that a small axe of appropriate length and weight for the child's size is far safer than a short-handled hatchet, and they are ready when supervised use can be tapered off to less- and un-supervised. 

[Steven Seelig]

As the original poster, I would say that I was not particularly interested in having someone explain to me the depth and breadth of bad things that can happen to my kid as I am well aware of that fact.  In our neighborhood, every middle school and many elementary school kids walk to and from their schools, apparently taking their collective lives in their hands.  So an introduction of those statistics could not really have been meant to illuminate me of those dangers and instead must have been done to let me know that person who posted them did not approve.  That would fall into the category of unsolicited opinions that the poster should consider not offering in the future.

Thanks for the tip on the two-handed hatchet for the kid, which makes a lot of sense since his use of it will likely be on his own.  I will explain to him the Jerry Garcia thing, and the Boy Scouts rules, and let him understand he needs to follow those.  BTW: he is in the Cub Scouts and has earned the right to carry a pocket knife, so he has an established track record of following some safety rules.

Thanks for all those who responded.  His birthday is Dec. 26th and I'll send a picture when he gets his gift.

Steve

On Wednesday, December 5, 2018 at 10:47:35 PM UTC-5, Drw wrote:

There’s also a lot of people on that sex offender list who did things most of us would not consider to be sex offenses. Urinating in public for example. I’m not defending anyone, but those lists can be super deceptive.

[Will]

My suggestion would be to get him a hammer, a box of nails, and do a couple of simple building projects together. That lets you see what level of physical coordination he has and also... his approach to problem solving and safety.

[Arthur Mayfield]

I've had a knife in my pocket since I was five, but the machete I got when I was twelve (without my mom's knowledge) gave me a nasty, deep cut on my index finger. I was holding it in one hand (with the edge turned forward) while brushing something off my jeans with the other. There's a nice scar to remind me, since I used a butterfly bandage so mom wouldn't find out—It definitely needed emergency room treatment and stitches. I could have easily lost the finger or the use of it, or have gotten an infection. When I was 16, I was removing an old bush with a hatchet and chopped into an underground wasp nest.They were a bit incensed, and the result was neither pretty nor comfortable. Luckily I'm not allergic, but hundreds of stings is dangerous, allergic or not.

The problem I see with chopping tools and kids under about 14, is that they can do a lot more serious damage in a flash than most pocketknives. I'd recommend close parental supervision.

[Justin, Oakland]

I’ve taught kids to do both and think that I’d rather give a kid a hatchet before a hammer. Very easy to read off a finger nail or smash a finger tip. YMMV and each parents decision is their own within reason.

-J

[jack loudon]

"Looking back on my childhood, I am amazed at how much freedom I and my siblings had..."

This was also my experience, growing up in rural northern California in the '50's and '60's.  As long as I did well in school and was polite to grownups, I could do just about anything.  My otherwise strict parents would let me roam at will (with bb gun or pellet gun), as long as I was back by dinnertime.  At age 11 my friend and I took an overnight trip down the river in our separate rowboats.  We were dropped off upstream and picked up the next evening at a prearranged spot 30 miles downstream.