Bluing a tomahawk

[CVamberbonehead]

Hi everybody, I have a question. Does anyone know what the finsh is on Cold Steel tomahawks? I got a Frontier hawk recently for camping and would like to use gun bluing on the head to get a cool dark finish. I have redone a Cold Steel hawk in the past when they used to have that awful black paint on them, and I stripped it with a wire wheel, it came out pretty cool. The new tomahawk is grey but I cannot tell if it is a painted on finish that I will need to strip or just the normal look of the steel. Does anybody know? Has anyone messed with the more recent Cold Steel tomahawks?

 

[thebrain]

It is a paint and clear coat as far as I can tell, it will need to be stripped.

 

[CVamberbonehead]

It is a paint and clear coat as far as I can tell, it will need to be stripped.

Ok thank you

 

[Alocksly]

Years ago I made a hawk by slicing and grinding down an axe head. At the time I worked at a granite countertop company and we were allowed to use the tools when we were off the clock. This included a wet polisher that went to 3000 grit, so of course I gave my little project hawk a mirror polish. At the time I was also trying to restore an old .22 so I had purchased some cold bluing (Birchwood Casey) chemicals from the gun shop and decided to do that to my hawk head as well. The end result was pretty good actually though not as dark as a professional bluing. The hawk ended up getting left out in my damp shed for a number of years after a move and only had a few small rust spots to show for it. The bluing will quickly wear through on the edge area though if you use it a lot.