Estwing Tomahawk

I appreciate the advice on both parts. Many voices = a rounded world view. I enjoy quality tools and probably spend too much on them. There's something to be said both for not investing money in a tool that's not going to be utilized to their full extent. There is also something to be said for skipping to the top of the ladder. The estwing came today and I like it. It's given me a good idea of what I like in a tomahawk and what I don't. I think Ill be getting another hawk and it'll probably be a more expensive one. I certainly won't be buying another that I haven't held in person first. I am grateful for all the input I've received on this thread. As far as "normal civvie" goes I was in the Army Guard for a minute. I would've been a forward observer with the 157th out of Fort Carson if I hadn't snapped my ACL like a rubber band in AIT. Having said that the Rockies are only 20 minutes away and I tend to go off the beaten path so tools that have a little more oomph are never a bad thing :).
 
Can you post picks of your Hawk in action. I haven't seen any user pics of the Eastwing in this forum. That sucks about the ACL. FO's a good job. I was on an FO team for a while.
That's great that you have a helluva playground nearby.
 
Will do, I'll make it my project for tomorrow. It was definitely an experience and I treasure what I learned. I have a month long backpacking trip planned for the San Juan portion of the Rockies near Ouray for this summer so I've been testing my gear hard. If I can find a 'hawk with a little more juice I'll be using it with the Khukuri on the trip.
 
Here's the hawk in comparison to the Khukuri and the sportsman axe. Unfortunately I wasn't able to go up to the mountains because I'm watching little man today. This is just me messing around in the yard while he was taking a nap for an hour. I took pics of my entire kit, the dead aspen I cut down, the choppers with their respective chips, one hit splits on an old 2x4 and just some posed shots. I hope to get out to the mountains and do an all day with a real camera. Disclaimer: I am a novice, any deficiencies found with the tools probably have as much to do with my technique as with the tool themselves. The tree was on its way out, courtesy of the deer :).

























 
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What I like about the Estwing hawk: the one piece of solid steel design, the spike, and the handle. What I would change: the size and weight of the head. A little bigger and heavier would be great. The hawk was more likely to glance off the tree at shallow angles and didn't bite as deeply as the Khukuri and the hatchet, which I expected. Head on though it split better than the other 2. They all threw comparable size chips. Also as expected the Khukuri was the best of both worlds.
 
Nice collection and thx for the pics. Wandering about your thought process behind taking a Khuk and a Hawk on your trip? Since there both for chopping would it be redundant to carry both and unneeded weight? Personally I have always a chosen a chopper (plumb hatchet, HI Khuk, BK9 or CS hawk), then I choose a mid size knife, small knife and multitool/sak.
 
To be perfectly honest, it'd be more about wanting to bring both. If I was conserving on weight I'd pick the hatchet or the khuk, the hawk is definitely redundant. My normal combo is the estwing hatchet, one of the benchmade 162's and my leatherman oht, plus the mora is almost always floating around in the pack.
 
Ahhh. Yah I hear you. I do that too sometimes. It's like when my wife packs shoes.
 
That Eastwing is definitely an indestructible beast. I cut up some fatwood with the Shrike on a short hike today.
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Pic from the summer
 
I don't think I could break it with anything short of a hacksaw and sledge hammer. I found a new army navy surplus today that has quite the selection of hawks. When the funds are replenished in January I'm going to check them out and see if I can't find one that speaks to me.
 
I've seen the shrike pop up on a few lists now, and you seem to be a fan, WJC01. What's some of the things you like about it? It looks like a sweet piece of steel.
 
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