If all you have is a hatchet, I’d imagine a more waddle-and-daub situation rather than a cabin. For a proper cabin, you really need an axe with weight behind it, a hammer, wedges, and hopefully a tree saw (and then adz, draw knife (or similar) and so on for finish work). An ax, depending upon the type and health of a tree, is kinda a terrible way to take it down on its own.
And if for some reason, in your frontier scenario, you have plywood and bracing material, you could go with a rammed earth structure!
I just learned about rammed earth and got a few books about it, it’s so fucking cool. I want to build a house with it now, so my great great great great great grandkids can inherit it
If all you have is a hatchet, I’d imagine a more waddle-and-daub situation rather than a cabin. For a proper cabin, you really need an axe with weight behind it, a hammer, wedges, and hopefully a tree saw (and then adz, draw knife (or similar) and so on for finish work). An ax, depending upon the type and health of a tree, is kinda a terrible way to take it down on its own.
And if for some reason, in your frontier scenario, you have plywood and bracing material, you could go with a rammed earth structure!
I just learned about rammed earth and got a few books about it, it’s so fucking cool. I want to build a house with it now, so my great great great great great grandkids can inherit it