CS Hawk for bushcraft survival

BearKinder said:
I don't trust the numbers you put up, the Frontier is significantly heavier than the Trail.
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The original numbers i gave came from a cut/paste from ColdSteel.com but i went ahead and weighted my 2 hawks

No mods:

Cold Steel Trail Hawk 669 grams
Cold Steel Frontier Hawk 564 grams

I was surprised that the Trail was heavier.. and it felt a lil heavier too.. tha absence of hammer part lifted some weight i guess
 
Doc, if you take the heads off, it would be better to weigh only the heads because each handle has different density. My guess is the difference between the heads is less than 100 grams.
 
dogstar said:
Doc, if you take the heads off, it would be better to weigh only the heads because each handle has different density. My guess is the difference between the heads is less than 100 grams.
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Im still not sure about removing the screw from the head.. I was thinking about securing it more some way because my frontier head was moving a few millimeter from the stock handle (which is not a problem at all). But all i can say without removing the head is, that Trail feel more heavy to my hand.. and right now, im going with both for a 2 nighter in the wood this weekend
 
DocBurN said:
The original numbers i gave came from a cut/paste from ColdSteel.com but i went ahead and weighted my 2 hawks

No mods:

Cold Steel Trail Hawk 669 grams
Cold Steel Frontier Hawk 564 grams

I was surprised that the Trail was heavier.. and it felt a lil heavier too.. tha absence of hammer part lifted some weight i guess
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Heh, how about that.

The Frontier FELT heavier to me. So much for my arm-mount scale, eh?
 
Sharpen them just like an axe.

Either use a belt sander, or file to a convex, refine with an axe puck, then strop to a polished edge.
 
DocBurN said:
Im still not sure about removing the screw from the head.
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Remove it. It will be the best thing you will ever do with it (the trail hawk at least). Since hawk handles are designed to flare out at the end, the head won't come out while swinging and will only get more wedged in there. The best part is that the head is easily removable if your haft breaks, if you want to carve different size handles, or if you want to take it off to use it as a chisel, splitting wedge, plane, etc. The other side of it is if you don't remove it, it will dig in and damage your handle and keeps it from wedging into the end so it will loosen and wobble.

I don't know if you watched it, but someone posted IAwoodsman's video "Cold Steel Trail Hawk" on this thread and that's a good source to see reasons why you should remove it.
 
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Drummertist said:
Remove it. It will be the best thing you will ever do with it (the trail hawk at least). Since hawk handles are designed to flare out at the end, the head won't come out while swinging and will only get more wedged in there. The best part is that the head is easily removable if your haft breaks, if you want to carve different size handles, or if you want to take it off to use it as a chisel, splitting wedge, plane, etc. The other side of it is if you don't remove it, it will dig in and damage your handle and keeps it from wedging into the end so it will loosen and wobble.

I don't know if you watched it, but someone posted IAwoodsman's video "Cold Steel Trail Hawk" on this thread and that's a good source to see reasons why you should remove it.
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oh absolutly i watched it.. it was this video that made me push the purchase button. About the head, the benefit of removing the screw is obvious and i agree with your statment. Matter of fact right now, the trail hawk head is really well wedge on the handle, and my frontier is a lil loose and move up and down a few millimeter.. I was really planing on removing the one on my frontier cose of that, in hope it would wedge better on the first swings..

I got a 2 nighters in Northern Canada woods tomorrow and decided to tests drive both of them.. i'll remove the screw right now.

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and i had to improvise sheaths since i didnt had enough time for a better solution
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Oh I really like the sheaths. I have 2 Lb's of cowhide remnants on order to make a sheath for my trail hawk (it was only $10. Woo hoo!).
 
dogstar said:
Doc, did you sharpen your hawks? Looking forward to your field report.
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I tried but even with ok tools, i have everything to learn.. a got an edge on the trail, just not the edge I was hoping for.. at this point, i am really considering a belt sander or similar machinery.. or find a good teacher that will show me.. no matter everything i read here, it never seem to become an awesome edge. After what i got on the trail hawk, and checked the Frontier factory edge, i decided to not even touch the frontier for now and bring a few tools for in-the-field sharpening after uses.

1) maybe i am not aggressive enough with the file..
2) maybe i do not have the right angle on the 2 sided stone i got.. even tho its looking good from my eyes
3) on the sharpmaker, i get a good upgrade to the edge
4) the stropping part with the bark river compound and leather hone make a good polished finish but doesn't seem to upgrade the edge further..

its a sad "ok" edge
 
I cheated on the sharpening - got one of those pocket sharpeners with both carbide and ceramic hones for knives. Took a while to reshape the edge but the carbide did the job. The ceramic finished it up nicely. I looked for a sheath, decided to make my own. My wife has them on epay now for the trail, frontier, and soon the pipe and rifleman hawks.
So far I think I am fondest of the frontier, it just feels the best in my hand. Unable to test them all, as I am shipboard for another couple of months, so am looking forward to your results.
 
Just got my frontier hawk (new style #90FH) with 22" handle.

It weighs 634 g or 22.375 oz on my kitchen scale. The new Cold steel catalog specifies 22.4 oz. Pretty darned close!

Do you have any observations from your field testing?
 
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I'm a big fan of both the Trail hawk and the Frontier hawk. I like the hammer poll on the Trail hawk a lot and the shorter blade bites pretty deep. I think the Frontier hawk is a better chopper overall because of the wider blade. I did Vectorize the trail hawk and put a longer handle on it. Their both good tools and relatively inexpensive, have one of each.
 
I suffer from a lack of time and will report in details but so far, all i can say is they both performed very well but at the end of the day, the Frontier was outchopping the trail..

and it was one heck of a cold night.. sheesh
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