Josh Eggert

Josh Eggert is one of the few craftsmen who treats his axe making business like a full time job, and his work reflects the care, effort, and time he puts into each piece. As the winner of the 2023 Craftsman award in both the community choice and juried best axe categories, Josh's work reflects his stubborn attitude of making sure everything is always just right and done correctly (a trait his wife refers to as "stubborn in a good way- sometimes").

Josh's love for building and working with his hands started at a very young age helping his Dad, Grandpa, and Uncle with various house projects. He quickly developed a knack for figuring out how things work through these house projects and, as a teen, auto repair which quickly grew from a necessity to a love. Josh's first car was a 1990 Bronco which needed a ton of work, and while it may not have been ideal at all at times, Josh grew to love working on that car and that passion and determination, combined with the fond memories of the time spent with his family around the house, instilled the love of working with his hands which would shape the next several years of his life.

The technical and mechanical knowhow Josh developed during his formative years carried into a career working on race cars, eventually leading him to Colorado. Josh has worked with a few racing teams, and while he no longer does it full time, he still works part time, flying out to races for on site support all around the country. He commends his wife on the incredible support she has given him in pursuing both his passions of racing and throwing, which often see him traveling. 

Josh's wife and children (a 10 month old baby boy and 4 yr old girl) also join him at his weekly axe league, which has become a great experience for the whole crew (his daughter is even becoming engrossed in knife throwing and always asks dad if he remembered to bring "her knives"- a small set of Smith and Wessons). Brandon and Anne Schell bring their daughter up as well, and they, along with the entire community at Primal, have become like a second family to the Eggerts. 

Josh's path to axe throwing started, like many, at a friend's birthday party. From there, he experimented with building his own handles, making some for fellow leaguers out in Colorado Springs and reigniting some of his love for building and working with his hands. While temporarily out of work due to the Covid shutdown, he started making more and more axes, and established Mountain Axe Works, which has evolved from a hobby to a full time project which he undertakes while also working as a full time dad to his two children, a job which keeps him just as busy (we connected during their nap time for our interview). 

In speaking about his process and favorite builds, Josh mentioned he typically spends about 10-15 hours on an axe-although his longest build is about 30+ hours and over 1400 individual pieces made to look like the old school, zebra gum some may remember from the 90s. Most recently, he built himself a new axe, which he then used to both hit his first 64 a few weeks ago and set a personal league-night record for himself a few weeks later. While he attributes some of that to the "new axe theory" that everyone throws better with new stuff when first throwing it, it's no doubt we will see him rising to the challenge of some large tournaments soon enough.

Josh's favorite memories (so far) include the entirety of Angrywood- which he likened to a large festival/party with most of the people he likes most- as well as beating Lucas and Tyler in Duals at Primal's tournament in 2022. He is also rightfully proud to have qualified for every event for the 2022 World Championship and for taking 2nd at Lizzie's after dropping to B in round 1. He is looking forward to heading back to his home state in a few weeks for the second annual Ragnarok tournament.

Among his favorite axes are the big axe he made for Anne Schell, the orange inlay hatchet many may have seen at worlds, and the Axe with which he won the craftsman awards. Josh may tell you that he is "not an artist" and, like most throwers, will prefer something that throws well to something that looks pretty, but, in looking at the pieces he's created, it's clear that he is just as much artist and designer  as he is builder and creator.