Advice on Son's Tomahawk / Camp Hatchet

Triquetra

Triquetra

Joined
Mar 7, 2002
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759
I need a little advice on putting together a little camp tomahawk for my 8 almost 9 year old. I wanted to make him something that would be practical and that he would have a long time from now as something to remember me and our outings together. So far I've taken my Craig Barr tomahawk head which I like because it has more of a hatchet profile, which would be better for splitting, and the handle that came with my Great River Forge tomahawk, which I find to be to small in diameter for me. Right now the head is anchored tight but from past experience they can loosen with use. I want his to be secured better at his age and to where it can't come off. I was thinking about putting a wedge in the top like a hatchet or axe, or using some epoxy to hold it on. I'm really leaning towards the last. Has anyone done this and how well would it work. It's really looking good so far. Although, I want to give him a practical tool I also want it to look nice so I've put burn marks on it and stained it. I'm going to get some brass tacks and then rub a bee's wax mineral oil mixture in handle. I will post pictures when I get it a little further along. I know that being my son he'll probably try to throw it if he catches me not looking. I think that I will probably put some tacks right below the head so that if it does loosen at least it won't come off.
 
Is it so horrible if the head comes loose? Why not just invert the handle, pound it back on, and get back to work? I guess the head coming loose on a hawk is disconcerting, but are there any inherent dangers I'm not aware of?

If you want a fixed head, why not just get a hatchet? IMO easy removal of the head is the only advantage a hawk has as a tool (excluding use as a weapon). The hatchet is a more efficient wood processing tool.
 
I guess him being young I'm just a little more concerned about the head being loose. Maybe causing issues when he is chopping or just with him fumbling around with it. So far with me it's a pain when it keeps coming loose. For some reason the one I have from Great River is different. Once it's on it seems to lock in place. You can't even get it off without forcing it back and forth. I don't know if the eye is angled different or what. The Craig Barr is a lot more narrow with less surface area on the handle and seems to loosen more. As do my Cold Steel. The reason that I've chose this over a regular hatchet is one just the mystic or nostalgia of the hawk just as with me. The other is that the CB is a lot lighter and with the small handle it fit's his 8 year old hands better. The other that he makes his heads more triangle or wedged shaped like a hatchet so it doesn't have the disadvantage like my hawks. I have been looking at the small GB or Wetterling or even the new Condorhatchet but it just doesn't have the cool factor I guess. Especially for a kid. I guess that we could just give it a try first and see how it goes.
 
One thing you can do is place a turk's head knot under the head, so that if it does come loose it won't slide down the haft. Same thing can be done with the tacks.

Otherwise, try for an optimum haft/head fit and you should be ok when chopping; throwing is different.


Ookami
 
What causes a tomahawk to have a tight fit or not. Like I stated earlier my hawk head from Great Rive Valley Forge has to really be worked to get off. I took my Cold Steel Norse Hawk out to the back yard today to test out. I was making a little hiking hatchet I guess you could say. I cut the handle down to about 13". I put the tomahawk head on and used a mallet to hammer the handle down. it was tight enough to start cutting into the wood at the top and I couldn't see any gaps. I couldn't budge it with my hand. After less that 5 hit on the woods it was wobbling around any you could just slide it off. Very frustrating and really useless as a tool. It makes me want to stick with my Khukuri.
 
It has been discussed before, but here is a short description:

When you pound the head on it will leave rub marks and possibly graze some of the wood at the top of the head. Take it off and carefully sand the handle where the marks are until they're gone. Then smooth out the places where the head has grazed the wood. You may also need to take a round file and deburr the eye of the head.

Pound the head on again and you will (hopefully) see that the head now rides a little bit higher. Take it off, check for marks/grazed areas, sand carefully, pound it back on - rinse and repeat until you have achieved the fit you need. Don't try to rush things as it is possible to take off too much wood. When you're done, the rub marks will be evenly distributed (no more high spots) and the head will no longer graze the wood. Finally, the head should not come loose after a few whacks anymore.

CS tomahawks are rarely well fitted (that is the reason they included the set screw which should be discarded), but then again, they're dirt cheap. Improving the fit is a bit of a drag, but well worth it.


Ookami
 
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I have the new Frontier hawk. I did the repeated sanding procedure; you can see it in my video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUtdoVCbLEk
A few observations:

1. I would say 50% of the eye was not contacting the head in the beginning.
2. I sanded for 40 minutes or so and stopped. The fit was not perfect because I needed to remove a lot more material.
3. I stopped because I realized the head will seat itself as you use the hawk.
4. I recommend some initial sanding to remove the splinters gouged out by the roughly finished eye. Do some fitting, but I would not spend more than 1/2 hour on this.

If you want to prevent it from slipping, a turk's head knot or some whipping with 550. You can also slide pieces of inner tube on the handle directly under the head.

Good luck and have fun.
 
Yeah, I was thinking about referring to that vid, too. It is a pretty good description of what you can do, except for the part on sharpening.


Ookami
 
I would just use some epoxy. Any hawk head, no matter how well fitted will come loose with enough use. That is the main reason I don't use one. Some good epoxy will hold it in place for a long time. I would not use a wedge on a hawk handle because you will have the same problem-the bottom of the handle is smaller than the eye. Since the wedge provides more force on the top part of the eye than on the bottom, the head will probably work its way down the handle.
 
Well, I'll have to admit I did put some JB Weld on the head of the Norse Hawk that I was making into a little camp chopper. I'll have to see how it holds up. I don't think that I could bring myself to do that to my more expensive hawks. I'm thinking about getting my son a Wetterlings hatchet or maybe trying a Shrew Hawk to see if it does any better. I wonder what a Wetterlings hatchet or GB hatchet would look like with burn marks and brass tacks?::rolleyes:
 
I don't think I've ever heard anything good about epoxy. I'm with ookami on this one--it will crack with age, and you said you wanted it to last a long time.
 
A good epoxy will hold longer than the wood handle. These days the technology is just amazing.
 
My concern with young & hawks will be safety. Couse a hawk when bounce off it really bounce off.
Teach a kid to hit something from 35 to 45 angle's is very difficult:eek:
The first time that I reached & use a small hatchet I was 10 years old.
I will never forget that becouse.....my father beat the crap out of me:yawn::D
I love the wood feel on my hand. I will go wood & change it when there's need:thumbup:
 
Actually what I used this weekend on the little Norse Hawk was JB Weld. I thought that was something that would last forever and not crack or get brittle just like if it was metal.
He is young but that's why I've been taking him out and teaching him skills under supervision. Not just the tomahawk but other blades and outdoor tools as well. We were out last weekend cutting limbs with machetes. I got him one of the 12" versions so it was more his size. We discussed and practiced the specifics to using machetes. One weekend a few weeks ago, we practice whittling with his Mora. We always try to practice with as much safety as possible and it's always under supervision.
 
Very few epoxies will withstand impact or so I've read.

How come no one mounts the hawk like an axe. One could look at the typical ancient Scandinavian axes and assume they were mounted tomahawk style as the eye are kinda similar. Archeological evidence shows some at least were not. you could measure the difference between the top and bottom of the eye, and if it seems like a wedge or two (one for length and one for width) will fill it. I dont see why not, though you may need to use sledge or maul handle. Shape the handle to fit up through the bottom and seat on a shoulder
 
I dug out my repro beard to show I wasn't just making things up :) I used it some many years back, but being cast steel with no HT it is prone to deformation
knifes020.jpg
knifes019.jpg
 
Will that method work with a handle that's taper down smaller like most tomahawk handles or a tomahawk head with the eye that's smaller at the bottom?
 
Hi Triquetra.

To answer your question: yes that is what I'm saying. You need to start with a stick large enough in diameter so that you can carve the eye tenon to fit up through the bottom, and create a shoulder for the head to sit on. cut it long so 1/2- 3/4 inch will protrude when done.

Whittle and rasp, measure if possible so that you are close, 1/16-1/8 oversize and then saw for the main wedge. (let the saw kerf tell you how much over size it needs) chamfer the top for easy start. Now you can tap in in a little at a time. knock it back out to fine tune the fit , only removing wood where it shows touch marks. You want to close the kerf and compress the wood as much as you can without getting stuck, splintering, or filing off too much at the touch points. Takes a lot of back and forth.

A little JBweld in this application shouldn't hurt. When you wedge it- (those wedges can be very potent, when overdone can even distort an eye) that epoxy is being forced into the wood and any minute distortion and irregularity or get squished out. In this it is filler not adhesive, so dont use too much as it's more to clean up to see how the wedging goes. Be prepared to wedge it before the epoxy sets(use the slow kind)
 
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I think that I'm going to try Briarbow's method but what confuses me is that nothing would keep the Norse head from coming loose and I went out with my new Frontier hawk with a handle that hasn't been fitted yet and the head taken off and on and it did some chopping without loosening up but he Norse hawk would do it after a couple of chops with several different handles.
 
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