Gear Aid Balta Hatchet: First Look

It’s no secret that I live in Alaska and often must rely on axes and hatchets as essential tools for many of my adventures. I’m a big fan of axes and currently own several. So when the Gear Aid Balta Hatchet arrived last month, I was excited to get it out and begin our test and evaluation.

Through human history, a well-made hatchet has been a key tool in the packs of many frontiersmen or trapper’s. And today, for many of us, its more important than a full sized axe. A tool that can limb small trees, make kindling for fires or even skin animals or filet a fish. A cutting implement that fills many roles. And does it without any need for electricity or fuel other than the users’ own hands and arms. It’s caveman simple but still relevant in the 21^stcentury.

Gear Aid Balta Hatchet Video:

Who is Gear Aid?

Gear Aid is a Bellingham, Washington based company that designs and produces a wide array of products. Ranging from repair tape and adhesives for your favorite pair of waders or wet suit all the way to adventure and activity tools like our Balta Hatchet. They also produce a line of washcloths, towels, and shampoos to remove the stank from your favorite outdoor equipment. The company also supports six different organizations in the Pacific Northwest that work with restoration of wet lands and responsible use of natural resources.

The Balta Hatchet Initial Impressions

When I first removed the Balta Hatchet from its packaging there are a few features that really jumped out at me. First was the overall length of the hatchet. It appears to fit the illusive “Not to Big, Not to Small” size category that I’ve been looking for. The perfect size hatchet is a difficult thing to accomplish. And I’ve been actively looking for one walks the fine line between size and weight.

The second attribute that I noticed was the weight and full length tang construction. The Balta tips the scales at 1.3 lbs. (22 ounces). And the full length tang is made of the same 420 Stainless Steel that the blade head is made of. The entire unit is a one piece construction with the handle being wrapped in a two colored textured rubber grip. The handle in my opinion is a real hit and provides the user with some shock reduction qualities.

A third noticeable feature is at the end of the axe body, a pronounced hook end. This hook end designers say is to assist in the removal or stubborn tent stakes or pegs that need a little extra help being removed from soil. It is recommended that when using this feature the axe be placed back in the sheath.

While twisting and manipulating the Balta we became an even bigger fan of this hatchet when we noticed the pronounced notch at the base of the blade head. This upward swept section is designed to allow the user to grasp the hatchet control the head better when shaving bark or making kindling. This is also extremely helpful if a user was going to attempt to use this as a skinning or butchering axe.

Finally, we address one of the most prominent features of the Balta, it’s hammer head on the rear of the blade. The folks at Gear Aid know that most axe or hatchet users eventually use our tools as hammers for something, so they gave us a bit of assistance with that. The hammer head is aluminum so it’s not designed to provide universal Thor style smashing power, but it will be just fine for driving in tent pegs.

Balta Specifications:

• Manufacturer: Gear Aid
• Model: Balta
• Weight: 1.3 lbs (22 oz)
• Overall Length: 9.5” (241.3 mm)
• Blade Length: 3.25” (82.5 mm)
• Material: 420 Stainless Steel (Minimum RC 50)
• Finish: Stonewashed
• Handle: 1 Piece Textured Rubber

Features:

• Full Length Tang
• Aluminum Tent Peg Hammer Head
• Integrated Tent Peg Removal Head
• 2 Year Warranty
• Sheath Included
• Lanyard Loop

Field Testing

The Balta came out of the packaging sharp and ready to go, so we put it right to work. Luckily for us we had a nice size Willow tree (Salix alaxenis, technically a shrub that grows 30 ft tall and 7” diameter trunk) that came down in one of our last storms. So we had plenty of material to work on. Keeping the first part of the testing in the realm what I would consider normal hatchet work, focusing on smaller limbs and branches. Testing equipment in the conditions they were designed to operate in is essential, anyone can force something to break outside of its design parameters.

Chopping

The Balta has a nice edge geometry that allows the 1.3 lb hatchet to dig nicely into our test Willow limbs. Which is a softer and less dense of the hardwood group of trees. The little hatchet easily and cleanly cut into and through our test samples with little effort. We also had some scrap Cottonwood/Poplar boards that we also decided to test the Balta against. Again, no issues from the Balta with either wood, we even decided to try it against a piece of Hemlock Fir scrap 2×4 we had laying around. There appeared to be zero issues with using the Balta on our array of softwood scraps and branches.

Shaving / Scraping

As we mentioned earlier, the Balta features a head and shaft design that allows users to comfortably choke up on the hatchet and use it to shave bark off trees or shavings off downed wood. The edge geometry of this axe let us easily shave material off the entire selection of sample wood that we used in the chopping tests. It is very easy to use the face of the hatchet to dig into different thicknesses of bark and have it come off the logs in a useable fashion. We used spruce and birch logs in our test. These trees have very different bark and the Balta performed well with both types. This is an important but overlooked test that allows us to gauge how well this would work in fire starting situations. Far too many times I have tried to shave kindling with a full-size axe. The Balta shines in this area and I’m shocked more axe manufacturers don’t consider features like the slightly undercut head on the Balta.

Hammering

This hatchet isn’t designed to be a maul or a splitting axe so it’s important to note that the hammering tests were on plastic and metal tent spikes only. The design team at meant for this to be a camping convivence feature and not a heavy use feature. In our test it worked as expected and was able to drive the tent spikes into our camp site easily enough. It also gave us a chance to use the tent peg removal tip. Which to no surprise worked exceptionally well also.

Final Thoughts

If you spend any time on camp sites, overlanding or just in the woods then you know a good hatchet or axe is hard to find. The Gear Aid Balta has been a pleasant find for me and will serve me well in the situations around camp sites and my house. It our testing we have found it to be well built, with a high-quality steel that so far has stayed sharp and met my expectations. In the hand it feels comfortable, well balanced, and well made. I would have zero issues recommending this hatchet to friends or family.

This hatchet was purchased with my own funds from one of our affiliate links, BattlBox, but can also be picked up directly from Gear Aid. The normal price for the Balta is $49.95 but as of the time of this article BattlBox has a limited time special for $24.97, I have no word on how long that will last.

We hope you enjoyed this first look at the Gear Aid Balta Hatchet. If you think you might need a handy, well-built and affordable hatchet, this is the hatchet for you. If you have any questions on this product or any others we have reviewed drop us a line in the contact information and we will be happy to help.

Stay safe, and get into the outdoors