Here is a short clip I made showing the basic defensive motions I use when working with the e-tool. All these motions will work just as well with a hatchet sized axe.

From wiki

A redrawn version of a Russian caricature (on Napoleon’s 1812 campaign in Russia) by British artist George Cruikshank. A Russian peasant holds a bloody axe above Frenchman’s head, ready to strike. On the ground are the bodies of two French officers, whose skulls have been split by the Russian soldier’s axe. British caricature. Dorothy George translates the caption as: “There were hordes of you, weren’t there? Well, that’s the lot! That’s what you were up to, trying to hack your way through; in future you won’t give any trouble!”

Not really on topic but a very cool period illustration as long as your idea of cool is split open craniums:)

• The Dances of Podhale (Poland)

• Joseph Needham
• Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, Vol. 3, No. 2 (Dec., 1937), pp. 117-119

“Universal Geography: Or a Description of All Parts of the World, on a New Plan, According to the Great Natural Divisions of the Globe; Accompanied with Analytical, Synoptical, and Elementary Tables” By Conrad Malte-Brun

Published by Wells and Lilly, 1828

The peasantry form the great mass of the people, their costume is well fitted for a cold climate and a pastoral life. The guba, a large woollen cloak, defends them against the inclemencies of the season; and the kalpak or felt cap, which is now worn by horsemen and even by kings, still .retains among the peasants its ancient Tartar or Finnic shape. A wallet hangs from the shoulder, and every man carries the valaska, a small hatchet with a long handle, an instrument which they wield dexterously.* No alteration has perhaps taken place in the dress of the Ionium* or peasants since the time they fought in the armies of Attila.

Austria: Containing a Description of the Manners, Customs, Character and Costumes of the People of that Empire

By Frederic Shoberl

Published by C. S. Williams, 1828

The usual costume of the peasants of the Bukowina, consists of white or red trowsers, a shirt, the wide, open sleeves of which are embroidered at the wrist, and over that an open waistcoat bordered with fur. With a pouch slung over his shoulder, and a long handled hatchet, which supplies the place of a stick, in his hand, he usually p’roceeds to his work in the fields and woods.

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The woodcutter of Bocsko in the county of Marmaros, whose axe is his only companion, frequently abides for weeks together in the immense forests, to earn wherewithal to satisfy his scanty wants, partly by cutting wood or fuel, which he conveys at a very moderate rate to Szi- geth, the capital of the county, and partly by furnishing timber for salt-rafts.

His apparel is of coarse hempen stuff; in winter he dresses rather warmer, but even then his bosom is uncovered and icicles may be seen hanging from it, without prejudice to the health of this hardy Highlander. His shoes consist of a piece of tanned ox-hide, which is fastened on the foot with a leathern thong, and just serves to keep it from the ground.

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The dress of these cattle-keepers in the county of Schii- megh, consisting of a shirt and wide trowsers of coarse linen as already described, is rendered stiff and of a dark dirty colour by the giease with which it is purposely imbued. Their object in thus besmearing the clothes is to render them more durable, and to prevent vermin from harbouring in them, as well as to defend the person from the bites of gnats : but whatever the object may be, they are seldom changed before they are ready to fall in pieces. The feet are enveloped in wool, over which they fasten on the sole a piece of leather by straps. Besides a round hat, frequently ornamented’ with a ribbon, and a large mantle of thick coarse woollen cloth, for here they seldom use sheep-skin cloaks, they are provided with a leathern pocket, hanging by a broad belt over the shoulder, and carry, for offence and defence, a small axe with a long handle. The broad belt by which the pocket hangs is generally adorned with two or three rows of shining metal buttons, for which these herdsmen are so eager, that they have been often known to fall upon travellers for the sake of them alone. The axe serves them in place of a stick, and in time of need becomes a formidable weapon against man or beast. They understand the management of this instrument so well, that at the distance of twenty or thirty paces they seldom miss a mark set up against the trunk of a tree. Their skill in this exercise is derived from constant practice while their flocks are feeding.

Travels Through Several Provinces of the Russian Empire: With an Historical Account of the Zaporog Cossacks, and of Bessarabia, Moldavia, Wallachia and the Crimea
By Pierce Balthasar Campenhausen, Freiherr von Pierce Balthasar Campenhausen
Published by Printed for Richard Phillips, by J.G. Barnard, 1808

The external appearance of the Wallachians, forms a
singular contrast with the state of degradation in which
they live. Their manly countenance, the axe which is suspended
from their girdle, the sheepskin, which is thrown
across the left shoulder, and fastened on the breast, reminds
one of the old Roman attire; the buskins which they
wear, all serve to give an. idea that the Wallachians are a
poor but warlike people, also one is indignant to find so
pinch weakness and pusillanimity, under such a bold and
dignified exterior. But although the oppression, under
which they have so long laboured, has degraded their cha-
lacter, it has not been capahle of obliterating those external
traces of energy and independence with which nature
has impressed them. ,

Universal Geography: Or A Description of All Parts of the World, on a New Plan, According to the Great Natural Divisions of the Globe; Accompanied with Analytical, Synoptical, and Elementary Tables
By Conrad Malte-Brun
Published by A. Finley., 1829

The lowlanders of past
times let no opportunity escape of harassing the mountaineers, who, irritated
or driven to despair, often invaded the plains and laid waste the
lands of their oppressors. Their enemies rarely ventured to approach the
mountain passes, those who were so bold, seldom or never returned. The
incursions have been checked during the Austrian administration, and by
the punishment of many Gorales, the rest have been intimidated. Although
prohibited from carrying the axe, they still appear with it on their mountains,
but it is no longer employed for an unlawful purpose, and every
traveller may now visit the country, or reside in it without danger. The
axe is a national arm, which the Gorales handle with great dexterity; they
can hit any object with it at the distance of forty yards; the same weapon
is considered an ornament, the people never lay it aside during their games
or the dance.

Any firearms peeping out of a carriage-window commonly sufficed to keep such fellows at a respectful distance, as the swineherd is never armed with any other weapon than his fokos. The fokos is a hatchet, with a long handle, which the Kanasz hurls with great dexterity. Whenever he desires to pick out and slaughter one of his hogs, either for his own use or for sale, the attempt would be attended with danger, in the half-savage state of these animals, without such a weapon. The fokos here assists him, which he flings with such force and precision, that the sharp iron strikes exactly into the centre of the frontal bone of the animal he has marked out: the victim sinks on the earth without uttering a sound, and the drove quietly proceeds on its way. That he can strike down a man with equal precision at eighty to a hundred paces, is proved by the gallows at the entrance of the forest — the three-legged monument of his dexterity. During recent events too the surgeons of the Austrian army will readily furnish the Kanasz and Csikos with certificates of their ability and skill.

Follow this link to learn more about Moravian Vlachs.

If the Kanasz possesses a hut made out of branches, the brigand becomes his companion for the night. His relations with refugees and vagabonds of the forest are the result of circumstances ; he is their spy, their sentinel. In return for his services the brigands respect the animals he guards, and for which he is responsible ; but if the opportunity occurs of doing a stroke of business for himself, the Kanasz does not neglect to profit by it. He manages the little hatchet which he carries in his waist-belt with as much dexterity as the Spaniards the knife and the Italians the stiletto. The Kanaszes are fond of assembling together for games of skill, and hurl their axes, which whirl round and round in the air as they fly whistling into the trunk of a birch-tree at forty or fifty paces distant, with great exactness of aim. To the Hungarian peasant, as well as to the Russian and Wallachian, the hatchet is a weapon of warfare which he prefers to a gun. I have often seen in Transylvania the peasant going out to hunt bears with nothing but a single axe ; he lies in wait, and when the animal comes up, lets fly this axe, which splits open the animal’s head.