Dixon's Tomahawk

Joined
Sep 9, 2007
Messages
214
I bought a tomahawk at Dixon's Muzzleloading Shop in Kempton, PA about 10 years ago. For the past few years I've used it as a garden tool. The relatively thin blade chops through the wood on my property well.

The edge had gotten dinged up pretty badly from hitting pebbles. Today I went out and bought a couple of new files to resharpen it. The blade is fairly soft, so with the sharp new files it didn't take me long to get the edge repaired. I then taped a sheet of 150 grit sandpaper on top of a mousepad to my workbench, and polished it up. I wound up with a nice convex edge. The 'hawk will now slice newspaper.

While I was working on the 'hawk I decided to wrap the handle with paracord. I left a gap of exposed wood as a grasping surface, because I thought it might be too thick if I wrapped the whole thing. At the bottom I drilled a hole through the handle and made a wrist loop. (This was inspired by the thread about modding CS Trail Hawks.)

I took her out back and whacked a few things. Big improvement. Here are a couple of pictures.

dixons_hawkr.jpg


dixons_hawkl.jpg


I have an Ontario 12" machete and a Cold Steel Trail Hawk on order. It'll be interesting to see how they compare as choppers.
 
That's a classic tool. Great job on the mods!
 
I think you will find the trail hawk a very light weight tool. It will pack easy, but has a much smaller edge than your current hawk. I have a Rifleman hawk, which is much heavier. It chops decent. throws very well.
 
I think you will find the trail hawk a very light weight tool. It will pack easy, but has a much smaller edge than your current hawk. I have a Rifleman hawk, which is much heavier. It chops decent. throws very well.

Yup, the reason I got ordered a Trail Hawk was because I want to try something lighter than what I already have.

I took the hawk out back again today and used it to remove a few limbs from a tree in my yard. Reworking the edge was definitely worth the effort.
 
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