>>1927852Very few axes and hatchets have hardened polls. Rafting pattern axes and carpenter hatchets are a few that do. The steel of an axe or hatchet head is very soft except for the bit, which has undergone heat treatment, allowing it to withstand the force of being driven into something repeatedly without chipping, rolling, bending, etc. The poll of an axe or hatchet has not. You can most definitely use it as a hammer on materials like wood or plastic (in fact many loggers and arborists use an axe to hammer wedges) but using it to strike metal will cause it to malform (see my picture above for all of the material I've had to remove from a poll that's been mushroomed over). Now this isn't always a big deal, however it can and will cause the eye to lose its shape over time, and can even cause it to crack. So yes, you can certainly use it as a hammer on anything that isn't metal or rock, and you can get away with using it on metal in a pinch, but it isn't advisable. If you're using it to drive tent stakes, I personally don't see a problem with it, but if you're using it to do tasks better suited for a hammer or mallet, you can damage the hatchet. Note the eye crack in picrel
