Feeling good about a small axe

upnorth

upnorth

Joined
Nov 25, 2006
Messages
7,038
I have finally moved up from my do it all fiberglass handled big beater axe. My sharpening experiment with a Lansky puck went well right away, and I finnished up with the Spyderco rods. The G.B. is paper slicing sharp now, after a camping trip. Not sure about the hawks but they feel more than working sharp. Any maintenance tips or axe tips beside the obvious are appreciated. Thanks.
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Nothing special to caring for an axe. Keep Sharp and oiled.

I like the hawks in your pic but the handles looks really long. I have a Frontier Hawk that I cut the handle to about 15" long. I kept trimming until it felt right. Same with my Pipe Hawk, with it I stopped at about 16". I really like my hawks!
 
collecter said:
Nothing special to caring for an axe. Keep Sharp and oiled.

I like the hawks in your pic but the handles looks really long. I have a Frontier Hawk that I cut the handle to about 15" long. I kept trimming until it felt right. Same with my Pipe Hawk, with it I stopped at about 16". I really like my hawks!
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Now that I took a more serious look at axes it seemed a little overwhelming. Tung oil, melt with tree pitch, bees wax, paint the handle, on and on. I figure K.I.S.S. and just go with a half hour soak of Linseed then a wipe off. Maybe do that once or twice a year. Sometimes less is more. As for sharpening I was using a file on my big beater so the Lansky puck was fun, but I had a heck of a time finding one. I understand why you would saw off a Frontier hawk as the handle is oversized. It is super light and does not have the mass of my Rifleman, so moving lower on the Frontier handle I can get a deeper bite with this light weight. Might cut it down, might not.
 
I thought longer would be better until I tried my short handle in it and it felt better so I trimmed the handle bit by bit until it felt just right.

I love my frontier hawk!!! It easily out-chops my biggest and heaviest knife which is a Kabar. I would rather carry this hawk than a bigger knife.

How does your riflemans hawk compare to the gb axe? I never owned that hawk but I used to have the small foest axe.
 
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