>>881065Your ancestors started with considerable advantages, which they got from their parents. A stone knife, a stone axe, leather/fur clothing.
Your closest ancestors who started with NOTHING were still apes. Humanity evolved alongside tools, we didn't just pop into some final form and then start from scratch.
>>880672>>880687>>880715America's a very big place, and it's silly to draw generalizations. Some /out/doorsmen are people who primarily focus on living and working in the woods. Some are veterans or /k/omrades who came into the hobby focused on wilderness survival in emergency/wartime situations. And some are urban/suburban leave no trace types who entered via environmentalism and an appreciation for nature (but consider their daily lives separate from it).
Each group has its own gear preferences. The /k/ types like a big beefy combat knife, especially the ones with no actual real military experience. The hippies tend to go backpacking in national forests where they mostly can't/won't use an axe anyway.
So different loadouts are common among different cultures of America.
If you don't know what you're doing, it's worse to have an axe than not. The risk of injury is too great and for casual trips you can make up for the lack. So I suggest if OP wants to try axes that he go out with someone who knows how to properly use an axe. Bonus: he can see for himself if it's really worth it.
