FALCILUX Folding Hatchet | 9.25" Overall Length | DC53 Blade | Orange G10 Handle | HX OUTDOORS FT-19C

I bought this on a whim because I love gadgety tools and this looked neat.

After spending an hour or two hacking at some mostly hard woods side by side with my Fiskar's hatchet, I have some thoughts and opinions.

First the good:
-It is surprisingly solid. Zero flex in any direction when locked open. Even prying laterally to split wood, it felt very strong.
-The lock system is essential; I forgot to put it on and the axis lock disengaged while batoning. No issues when using the lock switch.
-The edge is 1.25", half that of the Fiskars. The folded profile is significantly smaller than the Fiskars handle. This is actually a slight advantage for the size, weight and balance of it; I was getting similar or slightly better penetration depth to the Fiskers, thanks to all the weight and force being focused into a smaller area. It weighs about as much as the Fiskars, with most of the weight balanced just above the axis lock.
-Size; it is smaller than I expected, which does make it fit nicely into pouches and pockets when folded; the Fiskars has a much, much larger profile, and is far less convenient to carry.

The not so good:
-The edge came quite dull. It's a hatchet, so I wasn't expecting to shave with it, but I could safely run a finger along the edge. Once sharpened it held its edge nicely through the abuse.
-It is impossible to baton it past the frame holding the head. The frame juts out quite a bit, and the axe face geometry doesn't spread the wood enough to bypass it for batoning. With harder swings, the wood split enough to allow the whole head to penetrate past the frame, which means it works for what it is supposed to do (I recognize that batoning with a hatchet is using it wrong, but it's good to know if it can for emergency purposes).
-The ergonomics are generally not good. Lots of harsh edges, sharp corners. The butt of the grip digs into the heel of my palm and my XL hands just barely squeeze into the lower part of the grip. I like that it has lots of grip options, but none of them are very comfy after a minute or so of chopping. It allows you to choke up really nicely on head, but it is difficult to control because the hammer face is so large; holding it like an Ulu works best, with one finger wrapped over the top. This, plus the edge face geometry make it hard to use properly for feathersticking and fine work. A wrist lanyard feels essential for it, as it was not very grippy and wanted to slip out of my hand when chopping with gloves on.

In closing, this is a neat gadget than can handle fairly heavy duty work, but is held back by poor ergos. With some modifications to the handle and head to eliminate hot spots it could be a lot more functional and usable for more than a few minutes at a time. As it stands, if you need a small footprint for packing and plan to keep usage light, it might make for a good backpack or camp hatchet. The weight makes me reluctant to say it would be good for backpacking, although it would probably be a good fit for a bug-out bag.

Compact enough to carry on hikes, strong enough to handle campsite chopping. The DC53 steel + titanium coating combo is awesome �� no corrosion, great edge life. Would buy again.

Hatchet was so sharp out of the box that I cut my arm off between the wrist and elbow, approximately 2.879 cm from the centerline of the elbow joint.

I was alone at the time so I tried tried to improvise a tourniquet but could not recall the correct procedure, so as I faded away due to blood loss, I scribbled a note in the dirt for my wife to relay this message as I am sure someone from Customer Support will want to know how it’s working out. I think it is very shar—p is what I told her.

Its cool n sturdy

Excellent

Packed, shipped, and delivered insanely fast. The Hatchet itself is awesome and has smooth action for the size.

Nice tool, small and comfortable, perhaps a little heavy, useful to carry in the woods or to do some work around, the sharpness should be improved and it would be comfortable and useful to have some type of sheath or attachment for the backpack. Passed with flying colors

I ordered it after seeing a video in social media and got excited holding it first time. Call me a bit manipulated, but I was not. It is a good compromise between being light but still enough weight to be useful in tracks. Just need to be sharpened a bit but this ist something of favour. Is is save in use (absolutely), and unfolds not that easy like it looks like in videos, in my pov a pro. And at the end it is not looking boring :)

Exalted couality!!!

Nice hax, great for every day. It only should be sharpener more, but I fixed it :). It Is great package.

It’s awesome, super quality, excellent materials in all of it 10/10