Dedicated Tomahawk / Camp Axe Forum?

Should a separate general forum be set up for tomahawks & camp axes?

  • Yes

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • No

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
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Thanks, Raptor. BTW, as I had mentioned when I first posted about my Plains War Hatchet, Ryan inlayed the wire wrap & tacks so the decorated handle could be easily replaced for throwing. I have a "new style" throwing handle coming from Ryan. I'll post info about it -- somewhere ;) -- when it arrives.

Well, this poll is 1-week old as of this afternoon and I don't know what else can be said or done in support of the proposed forum. Hopefully, this thread now demonstrates sufficient interest & gives enough reasons why it would be successful for Spark to decide in our favor. Regardless of outcome, I would like to thank everyone for their votes & words of support. Happy hawkin'!
 
Brian,
I am crossing my fingers hoping for the approval of this new forum to go through. I was even tempted to comment more specifically on your "Plains War Hatchet" yesterday but I refrained because I thought that we should keep this thread on topic. I didn't want to start a new discussion here. I thought that it would be better to wait for Spark to open up our new forum.;)

No pressure of coarse Mr.Spark, sir.:D

Also, do you think that Ryan is aware of this thread and for this new forum request?? I haven't seem him post here yet. Maybe he voted in silence so that he wouldn't get mobbed by his fans??:)

--The Raptor--
 
Originally posted by Raptor
...Also, do you think that Ryan is aware of this thread and for this new forum request??
Click to expand...
Yes, he is, Raptor. He & I have spoken a couple of times this past week.
 
Gee, it's too quiet back on page 3. ;) We may as well keep this active while awaiting a decision.
 
To keep this thread interesting, let's start discussing some of the hawks out now available.

I'm no expert; in fact I'd like to see a Hawk Forum so I can learn more about the art.

What we can do now it talk about different types, styles, etc. Most of the ones I'm familar with are done by period re-enactors, mostly from the French and Indian War timeframe.

Others who have posted earlier could add a lot now. Lets keep it going.
 
Brian-
Ryan makes the kind of hawks I wish I had time to do (but don't any more). I can sell a dozen $100 high-quality working hawks twice as fast as I can sell one $1200 art hawk, and either alternative takes about the same amount of shop time.
The really nice hawks are a LOT more fun to build, though .... maybe I need to sell the business and retire for real so I can do stuff that is pure fun instead of trying to meet order schedules! Sometimes it's about like being back on the timeclock in the machine shop when I worked for IDECO making drill-rig parts.
TWO HAWKS
http://www.2hawks.net
 
Can some one tell me anything about the hawks formerly sold by Atlanta Cutlery? - looks like cast stainless?. And I think Brigade QuarterMasters had one in their Fall 2000 Catalogue.
 
FYI, I'm going to be away & unplugged from this afternoon through 8/20. (I didn't want you folks to think I've lost interest when you don't see me here. ;))
What we can do now it talk about different types, styles, etc. Most of the ones I'm familar with are done by period re-enactors, mostly from the French and Indian War timeframe.
Click to expand...
Good topic, Blade, and probably one that we'll want to revisit when the new forum is up & running. (I'm being optimistic. :D) In the meantime, my Hawks page has some pix from different periods such as an early Celtic pattern hawk from Bobby Howard & a Viking War Axe from Museum Replicas. Ryan Johnson's site has many styles from the French and Indian War and other periods. In addition to having great eye candy, Ryan also provides quite a bit of historical data & tomahawk trivia. BTW, ATC's Rogers' Rangers models "...are based on historical documents and drawings provided to the American Tomahawk Company by the Ranger Training Brigade at Fort Benning, depicting the Tomahawks used by Maj. Robert Rogers and Rogers’ Rangers."

I know what you mean about the "timeclock", Two Hawks. I also work for myself and, while it has many advantages, I do sometimes miss the days when work would stop at a given time... not to mention the regular paychecks. ;)

Terr, Atlanta Cutlery still sells hawks, although I don't know if they have the ones you are referencing. While I can't comment authoritatively on all their hawks, I would be cautious. I know that some of their products are made by Windlass, who have a reputation for spotty QC among sword players. FWIW, my Museum Replicas' Viking War Axe was made by Windlass & I'll very pleased with it. It takes & holds a good edge & has served me well for several years. I guess I'd just prefer to avoid a crapshoot whenever possible. If you are looking in that price range, I recommend you look at the H&B Forge hawks. Doc4570 did a great review of their Seneca Hawk about a month ago. Can anyone else recommend or comment on other low cost hawks?
 
H&B Forge makes very good quality forged (hammer welded) hawks at a reasonable price. I would trust their quality control. Like any forged hawk, the eye is going to be irregular and you'll have to spend some time cleaning it up to get precision fits to the spare handles. If I were still using forgings as raw materials I would be dealing with H&B. If you're looking at a forged head from other "rendezvous hawk" makers examine them VERY closely because layer separations and bent blades are quite common in this type of head. There are some makers who do solid stuff but there isn't room to list them all and somebody would be unhappy because their name wasn't on the list.

Atlanta Cutlery buys whatever they can get cheaply from whoever is making it. I've seen stuff from Windlass Steelcrafts in India (who make some GOOD stuff, some MEDIOCRE stuff, and some POOR stuff and all three categories can arrive in the same shipment), a lot of Pakistani blades (usually poor), Taiwanese products upon occasion (generally fairly decent), some Cold Steel stuff (they insist on quality control, so the metal is good but some of their designs are pretty clunky and the handle fit was lousy), and some basically pot-metal decorators that are at least as bad as the "contractor" hawks made for annuity issues to the Indians by the government in the 1870's. At one time they had a "throwing hawk" made in India that actually had excellent steel in it and a good hammer weld (I reground them to check the "seams") which I re-sold at Rendezvous as a "cheap trade hawk" for $17. You never know what you're going to find.

Many of the major mail-order firms offer cast-head hawks in the $40 range which are usually 410 stainless. Some sell the Canadian Black Hawk in about the same price range, which is a very solid hawk but the balance sucks. In almost every case they have hydraulic-pressed rough handles, and the heads are spray-painted black. Some resellers actually try to grind the edge a bit but most are as-cast. Due to the metal they use, I won't even consider them as raw materials.

I have nothing against castings. Investment castings work fine for most of the rifle receivers on commercial guns, and I use custom 6150VSS castings as raw materials because I can get better metal that way (in MY alloy) and save some machine time since they are already fairly close to the right shape and size. And no layer separations from a bad hammer weld. These come from MY molds made from MY master heads, and are custom-poured for me by an old established foundry.

This post (and the question it answers) should be in the new TOMAHAWKS AND AXES Forum that doesn't exist yet.

TWO HAWKS
http://www.2hawks.net
 
The ATC Forum has a very informative thread on
handle length vs. throwing distance.
The "Hawk Forum" would be an excellent vehicle for
this type of information.
It's not fair to ATC to use their forum as a general "hawk info" dumping ground.
Doc
 
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