Very well made product.. firm and balanced.. automatically makes you feel like a skilled lumberjack..

The competition thrower IS a nice little axe however I feel that the handles are not finished very well with cross grain sander marks on them and sadly are not "razor " sharp at all with mine having a blunt edge for half of the blade. But after a little TLC this can be a very nice little axe. I also feel it is priced a bit on the high side. But with the WATL TM that's what you'd expect.

Perfectly balanced and easy to throw and if necessary chops wood like a hot knife through butter.

We are starting up our own axe throwing business and will definitely be purchasing more axes from watl

My daughter and I have been really enjoying our experience learning ax throwing with this ax. I love the quality of the ax and I will be buying another in the future. So well balanced and the blade is ready out of the box.

My boss owns an Ax House in Tennessee. This is perfect for practicing for our work gatherings!

Arrived super fast! Great quality and very sharp!! Ready to use right away!!

I have fallen in love with the sport and I was excited to get this new axe. I found the weight very manageable and the throws were very consistent. The only thing I wish was the edge would be sharper. I am consistently hitting on the broad part of the blade and it is not sticking, however if I alter my throw to have the top edge of the blade it sticks with no problem. I am gong to upgrade to the ace of spades shortly. cannot wait for that

Great balance and stick. I will be buying more.

This is my first axe from WATL and at first I thought there wouldn't be any difference between it and my camp hatchett. I was wrong! I threw for an hour and stuck a solid 85% of my throws. I'll definitely be upgrading soon.

Great thrower right out of the box. My son and grandson all love throwing it too. I may have to order another one.

These axes work great! I picked up four of them and I am very happy with the way they throw I order two commander axes.

I only use WATL products! By far the best out there!

Good.

Great axes! Good balance and easy to throw. I'm a beginner.

The axes are really great for beginners. Having said that they do dull a little quick. I wish I would have just spent a little more and gotten the Corporal. Really nice axes to learn to throw that style with. Definitely recommend for beginners.

Great service and a great axe to start league training with

Its a great axe! The handle might be a little long. The axe does hold up nice though.

I haven't had a chance to use them yet. We're knee deep in snow right now. I've made a target but it will have to be outdoors.

Sweet little thrower

It looks like it's 30 years old after learning how to throw an axe with it. Now we can stick it.

The axe is well balanced and throws great. My only problem was that it was extremely dull.

Can't wait to see how this axe works

This product was clearly quality made, the blade was extremely sharp straight out of the packet and ready to go. great product

Very well made throwing axes! Handles are of good quality, the axes are very well balanced and fly nicely.

I really like the Competition thrower, it’s the second one I purchased from you folks. The second one I bought for my daughter , she’s going to start throwing as well. Me personally, , I’m do for a upgrade soon

Best throwers on the market hands down!!

Good starter axe for my son. Would like to see them profiled down a bit more out of the box but all in all a good axe.

Not having a sturdy blade guard for transporting the axe to throwing events is a disappointment.

Three my friends and loved it, it sinks great in new wood, mine had a few small blemishes but nothing to deter me. I can also do some grain structure on the handle that’s telltale breaking point, but I’m gonna put a little tape on it and let it ride.

Bought this for my daughter....she loves it

Nice and heavy lands with a thump

Good throwing axe for beginners. This was my first WATL axe and I have been using it for league for the last 5 weeks. I have about 18 hours of use on it and I had to sharpen it twice and to buff out a few small nicks. I am a one handed thrower and this is perfect for that. Get a sharpening stone and watch a YouTube video, only take a few a minutes. Came out of the box ready for use.

Great throwing axe for beginners!! Great high quality product, would buy again and recommend

Started competition with this, it has taken a beating for sure. It still working good. I have abused this bad and still in good shape.

Great exactly what I ordered

It’s a nice thrower. Very satisfied

Looking at these axes (I bought 2), my first thought is the handles will need to be replaced. One of the handles has near perfect grain orientation (almost completely parallel to the axe head) but the run-outs on it are a little close together. The other has grain orientation that runs a little more than 45 degrees to one side and has almost no visible run-outs.If you are unfamiliar with grain orientation and run-outs, to put it simply, grain orientation is the direction the grain runs in the handle and run-outs are the arrow/triangle patterns you would see on the side of the handle. These two things correlate to the strength and durability of the handle and the likelihood of it breaking.Now for the throwing review.I actually bought these as starter axes for some people I turned into axe junkies.Normally, I throw a slightly lighter axe than this (about 1.5lbs) with a 14 inch handle, so throwing these took a little bit of adjustment in my throwing position. Some people say that the handles are too slick or they slide out of the hand too easily and that is truly a personal preference, and some who throw axes professionally or who coach it might even warn against putting grip tape on it altogether to avoid the handle sticking in your hand too long.Overall, these are great starter axes but be advised: there is a 50/50 chance of you getting a not so decent handle, so be prepared to put a new one on it. Also, the white varnish on the head does scuff and scratch easily, so you may or may not want to take that off.Update: The two axes I bought here are holding up perfectly. The people I got them for are as stated in the original review, beginners, and they love them. I ordered the starter kit from WATL themselves which included one of these and the Big Axe. This brings my personal collection up to 6 different axes and of them all, this competition thrower is my number 2 in the line up.

This axe needs a sheath, even if we have to pay for it it should at least be an option. Trying to find one is a genuine search

Great axe for beginners and experts alike. Loved the price point. If you are new to axe throwing and don't want to break the bank this is a great axe.

Son loves it!

I bought this for a friend for his birthday and he loves it. Said he hit the target on his first throw.

Great axe for beginners or pros ! Really good quality!! I bought 2 to begin with I will definitely order a couple more so everyone can throw their own axe when playing

Works great!

Says it’s a regulation axe. I’m not sure what that means but I’m getting the hang of it as a novice.

Great throwing axe

The wooden handle is a little off kilter

Be careful...very sharp.....regulation weighted......and lots of fun!

this thing is nice! Its easy to throw and has a great weight to it. As a beginner I can say this is a great axe for beginners or pros since its so easy to use. It is worth the price and works great

I bit heavier than expected. Smaller people will have issues throwing this one-handed. Overall build quality is great and I imagine plenty of years of use.

Great axe, if your looking to buy an axe for throwing this is it....I was looking for a good throwing axe and purchased 5 different ones to find the best one.The WATL axe to me was #1P.S. little tip, helps to grind and disk sand to get a much thinner blade, than she's a real sticker!!!

Great weight and throwing axe.

These are great axes. I have not had any handles break or come loose.

This has a little heft to it, which is what I wanted.

Best throwing axe I have purchased so far. It isn’t as pretty as a few others, but it flies true.

I throw axes about once per week, I am not a pro but do it often enough to know what I like and don't about this one. The hatchet is built very strong and I purchased it because one of my hatchets of this same style was breaking on the handle right underneath the blade. I love how this one is about twice as thick at that junction point so I don't imagine I will have trouble with it breaking any time soon. The blade came very sharp and sticks into boards like it should. I even tried it on a very dry board and stuck it every time with ease. The design and logo look great, it is absolutely the right length handle and it is a very solid axe.What I didn't like about the hatchet is that the grip is very slick so I would recommend getting some hockey tape. I taped mine up after the first use. The axe weights about 1lb more than similar style competition grade throwing hatchets which isn't a problem except for the fact that I need to move back in my stance by about one full step to complete one rotation before hitting a board which hurts my accuracy by being further from the board. I tried throwing this hatchet with two hands and it didn't work out too well as this is designed to be used as a one handed throwing hatchet. The white paint on the blade gets scuffed up right away so it doesn't stay as pretty for as long as you might think. The heel of the blade is about 1/3 inch too long and adds a lot of weight. I had a really hard time finding a leather holster for this hatchet (still haven't found one) that fits the 1/3 inch excess on the heel vs other competition throwing hatchets. The blade itself (looking directly down the blade) gets thicker much quicker than similar style axes. This puts a rather large cut into the boards and really starts to chew up boards quickly. It would be better if I put a grinder to it on both sides and trimmed it down about 1/4 inch on each side to make it a little thinner.Overall, I would likely buy it over again but I would like it more if the grip was a little stickier, if the blade wasn't as thick, if the heel didn't weigh so much/stick out. Love the look and it throws very solid.