Ax throwing comes to Mt. Lebanon
Three young entrepreneurs had their work cut out for them when they decided to go into the throwing-axes-at-targets business.
“When we first opened in Millvale,” Jack Welsh said about last year’s launch, “we had to convince everybody that this wasn’t something crazy. But now the word’s out a little bit, so people realize what they’re walking into and it’s not nearly as dangerous as it sounds.”
The business is called LumberjAxes, and the Millvale venture has gone so well that Welsh and fellow owners Corey Deasy, Matt Peyton have added a new location in Mt. Lebanon, to go along with a third in Arizona.
• Grip. Place your dominant hand around the bottom of the handle of the ax. Place your other hand over the dominant hand. Cross your thumbs.
• Stance. Hold ax outward in front of you, with the blade as straight as possible in relation to the target. (Important: Sharp edge points toward the target, not your friends). Right-handed throwers should put their left foot forward. Vice versa for lefties.
• The windup. Rock your body forward with the ax extended toward the target. Rock your body backward and bring the ax straight back over your head.
• Release. Bring the ax forward at a fast pace and release it toward the target with arms extended. Be sure to follow through and allow your hands to reach your sides.
“It’s built similarly to a bowling alley, where the lanes line the wall,” Deasy explained. “But it’s like darts in the sense that you score points by throwing an object, and you have to get it to stick.”
The Mt. Lebanon venue, at the site of the former Y Not Golf on McFarland Road, features six lanes and 12 targets. The space in Millvale, in a refurbished machine shop, is larger and allows for 20 targets.
They’ve received plenty of use since the first customer’s ax was thrown last September. Along with folks who want to try something different for a night out, groups are gathering there for a wide variety of reasons.
“Anything you can celebrate, I think we’ve done,” Welsh said. “We had a surprise engagement party. We did a few gender reveals, where we put the balloons up with the blue or pink confetti.
“We haven’t had a wedding yet. That’s it.”
Bachelorette parties have proved to be popular, helping to allay some of the owners’ initial concerns.
“We didn’t want to come off too masculine, like: ‘Oh, grab your boys and throw your axes,’ which also is completely fine,” Welsh explained. “But it worked out great, where the girls picked up in it just as much as the guys, if not more.”
LumberjAxes’ third location is in Mt. Lebanon.
The groundwork for LumberjAxes was laid when Deasy’s sister, who lives in Philadelphia, told him about how some of her friends had given ax throwing a try.
“We went to check it out and had an absolute blast,” he recalled, “and almost within minutes of entering the facility, I was like, OK. This is my next addition to Pittsburgh.”
He already had established Escape Room Pittsburgh in his native Greenfield as an activity in which participants use their surroundings, cleverness and problem-solving skills to find their way out of themed environments such as “Dr. Stein’s Laboratory” and “Carnegie’s Million$.”
Escape rooms frequently serve as sites for team-building exercise, and the LumberjAxes owners have found that to be the case for ax throwing, as well.
“During the week, that’s a huge part of our business,” Welsh said. “Once it starts with one department, it just spreads like wildfire through the whole building.”
Business was off to a good start following the late-September opening in Mt. Lebanon.
“It looks like we’re getting everyone who wanted to do it and didn’t want to travel,” Welsh explained. “We brought it to them, and now they seem very happy that it’s in their backyard.”
For more information, visit axethrowingpgh.com.