Cold Steel 'Hawks

MAURICE

MAURICE

Joined
Jul 14, 2000
Messages
3,278
Does anyone here have experience with these? Im looking for a good hatchet at a good price,and the cold steel line caught my eye.How do they work for cutting wood?
thanks,
MAURICE
 
Mo,

I have a couple of CS 'hawks. For throwing, they are awesome! They are not bad at chopping wood either but you will have to do some serious reprofiling on the edge. The CS 'hawks that I have seen were so dull that you could rub them back and forth on bare skin and not even make a mark. They are DULL! 'Bout as sharp as a bag of rabbits! If you have the means to reprofile the edge then I highly recommend them. They throw GREAT! and stand up to a lot of abuse!

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Louis Buccellato
http://www.themartialway.com
Knives, Weapons and equipment. Best prices anywhere.
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"only the paranoid will survive"
 
Maurice, I agree with Louis's assesment of the CS hawks. But if you are looking for a chopper and don not intend to throw it, head on over to your local Sears and check out the Craftsman carpenter's half hatchet. A good chopper for its size with a hammer head opposite the edge. For something a little bigger with a little more heft, look at the rig builder's or riggers hatchet. You can get either of these for about $25 and I think you will be quite happy. In the interest of full disclosure, I own and have used the half hatchet. Don't own and haven't used the rigger's model but have handled it and it is comfortable to hold and presumambly to use.

phantom4

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who dares, wins


 
I have the CS Plainsman Hawk. Used my Dremmel to reprofile the edge, now it shaves! The handle is kinda slick, so I wrapped it with some tennis tape. Makes a good, cheap chopper.
 
In addition to the poor initial edge, the eye is not tapered to match the handle and thus the fit is insecure as the 'Hawk only grips on the top of the head. The head is also left in a very rough finish and the coating is far from smooth. To enhance penetration after doing some edge work you will want to polish the head about 0.5" or so back from the edge. If you are using it for chopping go back a bit further.

Pretty much my major concern was that the head would be tempered too hard and thus would break. However it has seen quite a few throws with no ill effects. And I checked the toughness by impacting the edge significantly on a piece of hardened steel. Even on large dents (1-2 mm deep) the steel would not fracture but simply deform.

If you are not chopping with it at all then you could probably polish the handle a little to get easier releases.

-Cliff

[This message has been edited by Cliff Stamp (edited 04-10-2001).]
 
I don't have a hawk either, but for what it's worth the Sears Craftsman hatchets mentioned by phantom4 are great chopping hatchets. I have one with a 14" hickory handle and a 1 or 2 lb head. It has the nicest handle I've ever seen on a hatchet. It's hickory with some sort of red finish, and it's very close grained and smooth. Definetely a cut above most hardware store hatchets I've seen.
 
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