Dragon hatchet





The Dragon hatchet is tied with the Inferno Adze for the best hatchet available in terms of its ability to cut wood. It is a members only tool. As with all hatchets, it is both a weapon, requiring 60 Attack to wield, (like other Dragon weapons), and a Woodcutting tool, requiring 61 Woodcutting to use. It is a rare drop from Dagannoth Rex, Dagannoth Prime, or Dagannoth Supreme, all of whom inhabit Waterbirth Island. Currently the price for the Dragon Hatchet fluctuates between 1,600,000 coins to 1,800,000 coins.

The dragon hatchet is more efficient than the rune hatchet at cutting trees; it is about 5-10%  faster than a rune hatchet. However, there are still debates on whether the rune hatchet is as effective as dragon hatchet if used on trees that are below Yew.

Like other dragon weapons, the hatchet has a special attack, which is called "Clobber." This lowers the target's defence and magic by the amount of damage dealt during the hit. The special attack uses up 100% of the special attack bar. The special attack is especially useful when battling a Jade vine. Although it's not quite an efficient melee weapon, its special attack is somewhat useful when fighting mages, because it can lower their level of magic by the amount of damage you dealt on them;You could also lower their defence to make them more vulnerable against attacks. In the recent Q&A between some Jagex developers, Mod Mark released the exact differences between a Dragon hatchet and a Rune hatchet:

"Dragon axes are approximately 5 to 10% better than rune axes. This depends entirely on what sort of tree you are hitting and what your current Woodcutting level is, but it’s roughly 5-10% better. Having a better hatchet means more logs and therefore more xp. The nice thing about dragon axes is that they are rare enough to hold their trade values – this means you can be relatively safe in the knowledge that you can buy one and resell it. Any extra logs you did get from using it would more than pay for any money you might lose from a shifting resell price, assuming you used it efficiently while you were trying it out."

- Mod Mark

Trivia

 * When it was released, the dragon hatchet simply was considered a more expensive, red-coloured, Rune hatchet with better combat stats as it cut logs at the exact same rate (which Jagex actually confirmed in the knowledge base earlier). This was later updated, making the dragon hatchet the best hatchet in the game, it is now about 5-10% faster than a rune hatchet. Now it is popular among members for cutting trees such as Magic, Yew, Maple and Willow due to the faster cutting speed which can allow for more logs cut. Therefore, faster experience, and cash if selling the logs.
 * The special attack animation was redone to make it more smooth.
 * On 1 April 2009, Jagex officially changed the names of all woodcutting "axes" to "hatchets".