- Joined
- Jun 11, 2008
- Messages
- 1,409
Forewarning- NO comparison pics yet.
I know I know, Its blasphemous to post the comparison review before you have pics to show the differences but I have my reasons. I'm Comparing my new Coal Creek Forge hawk to my Cold Steel Frontier hawk since they are almost the same shape.
I have a few knives from various makers on the forums but have only bought knives from the for sale forum, never actually had one made to my specs. My main use for a tomahawk is for rough shaping bow staves and for campcraft. Because of this, my two biggest requests were a hawk that could bite deep and have great balance for prolonged use without fatigue.
I inquired about having a hawk made and was pleasantly surprised with how quickly Stephen replied and how he was willing to walk me through figuring out what kind of hawk I actually wanted (I own three CS hawks but had no idea what would work best for me). He sent me several email that included pictures of different styles so that I could see what shapes/sizes/weights I could choose from. In the end, I went with a "simple" french trade hawk because it seemed to be the best compromise of function without having any extra parts that I didn't need for my use.
I'm not going to say what I paid or how long it took to make out of respect for the maker but I will say that I was completely blown away with the price, time line, and great communication of the whole process.
On to the pics. Here is what arrived yesterday
Full View
Right Side
Left Side with Maker's Mark
I picked a simple design but I wanted it to have just a bit of personality so I asked for some file work to dress it up.
File Work
Since the main purpose was for wood shaping for bows and large crafts I needed it to take large and predictable chunks out of whatever I was working on. This is something I find hard to do with the cold steel hawks when working with Ironwood for bow staves. The reason is that CS hawks have very little or no taper from one third past the haft to where the edge starts. The Coal Creek Forge hawk has a very smooth taper from haft to edge bevel and this helps to keep the penetration even when shaping woods that want to split. There is another benefit to this smooth taper that I only realized today while comparing the two directly. The Coal Creek hawk doesn't bind in the wood when splitting. It has a little more mass and splits more efficiently but it also doesn't bind up on partial splits like my non tapered Cold Steel frontier hawk.
Beard Side View Showing Taper
I usually wrap my CS hawks with a little paracord to act as an over strike protector. My new Coal Creek hawk came with a nice wrap of artificial sinew. The wrap was so tight and finished so well that I couldn't even get my thumb nail ti catch on the individual strands. That might not sound like a big deal but I work with art-sinew on many of my crafts and can say that the patience to keep tension that tight on a wrap that long (very long thick wrap) should definitely be noted in a review.
Artificial Sinew Wrap- over strike protector
Now, on to performance. I played with these today and didn't have a camera on me which is why I don't have pics. I also gave my frontier hawk to my friend (Acutus on blade forum) since I don't think I'll be using it again. I'll see him on Monday and get some direct comparison shots of the hawks together. Here is what I can say in the mean time. The CS hawk has an off center bit and the hole for the haft is not symmetrical. The Coal Creek hawk has a perfect fit to the haft which is as well centered as I can tell it could be without measuring.
The Cold Steel hawk dulls quickly by comparison when sharpened at the same angle of appx. 40deg inclusive and polished to the grit of 20 micron paper. This makes the Coal Creek hawk able to work much longer between touching up the edge.
The cold steel hawk sticks well when throwing but the exception is when using Hornbeam (ironwood) as the target. None of my cold steel hawks can stand up to horn beam after only a couple throws as the edges roll easily. This doesn't happen with oak and maple but I thought I would mention it because the Coal Creek hawk handles Hornbeam very well and after a couple dozen throws did not show ANY edge rolling.
All in all I think this hawk has taught me the difference of what a "real" hawk can do. I wanted a tool that would be a compromise between a large knife like a Heavy Bowie and a hatchet like my 17in Wetterlings hunter's model. After a few emails, looking at pics, and settling on the specifics, I now have that tool.
I know I know, Its blasphemous to post the comparison review before you have pics to show the differences but I have my reasons. I'm Comparing my new Coal Creek Forge hawk to my Cold Steel Frontier hawk since they are almost the same shape.
I have a few knives from various makers on the forums but have only bought knives from the for sale forum, never actually had one made to my specs. My main use for a tomahawk is for rough shaping bow staves and for campcraft. Because of this, my two biggest requests were a hawk that could bite deep and have great balance for prolonged use without fatigue.
I inquired about having a hawk made and was pleasantly surprised with how quickly Stephen replied and how he was willing to walk me through figuring out what kind of hawk I actually wanted (I own three CS hawks but had no idea what would work best for me). He sent me several email that included pictures of different styles so that I could see what shapes/sizes/weights I could choose from. In the end, I went with a "simple" french trade hawk because it seemed to be the best compromise of function without having any extra parts that I didn't need for my use.
I'm not going to say what I paid or how long it took to make out of respect for the maker but I will say that I was completely blown away with the price, time line, and great communication of the whole process.
On to the pics. Here is what arrived yesterday
Full View
Right Side
Left Side with Maker's Mark
I picked a simple design but I wanted it to have just a bit of personality so I asked for some file work to dress it up.
File Work
Since the main purpose was for wood shaping for bows and large crafts I needed it to take large and predictable chunks out of whatever I was working on. This is something I find hard to do with the cold steel hawks when working with Ironwood for bow staves. The reason is that CS hawks have very little or no taper from one third past the haft to where the edge starts. The Coal Creek Forge hawk has a very smooth taper from haft to edge bevel and this helps to keep the penetration even when shaping woods that want to split. There is another benefit to this smooth taper that I only realized today while comparing the two directly. The Coal Creek hawk doesn't bind in the wood when splitting. It has a little more mass and splits more efficiently but it also doesn't bind up on partial splits like my non tapered Cold Steel frontier hawk.
Beard Side View Showing Taper
I usually wrap my CS hawks with a little paracord to act as an over strike protector. My new Coal Creek hawk came with a nice wrap of artificial sinew. The wrap was so tight and finished so well that I couldn't even get my thumb nail ti catch on the individual strands. That might not sound like a big deal but I work with art-sinew on many of my crafts and can say that the patience to keep tension that tight on a wrap that long (very long thick wrap) should definitely be noted in a review.
Artificial Sinew Wrap- over strike protector
Now, on to performance. I played with these today and didn't have a camera on me which is why I don't have pics. I also gave my frontier hawk to my friend (Acutus on blade forum) since I don't think I'll be using it again. I'll see him on Monday and get some direct comparison shots of the hawks together. Here is what I can say in the mean time. The CS hawk has an off center bit and the hole for the haft is not symmetrical. The Coal Creek hawk has a perfect fit to the haft which is as well centered as I can tell it could be without measuring.
The Cold Steel hawk dulls quickly by comparison when sharpened at the same angle of appx. 40deg inclusive and polished to the grit of 20 micron paper. This makes the Coal Creek hawk able to work much longer between touching up the edge.
The cold steel hawk sticks well when throwing but the exception is when using Hornbeam (ironwood) as the target. None of my cold steel hawks can stand up to horn beam after only a couple throws as the edges roll easily. This doesn't happen with oak and maple but I thought I would mention it because the Coal Creek hawk handles Hornbeam very well and after a couple dozen throws did not show ANY edge rolling.
All in all I think this hawk has taught me the difference of what a "real" hawk can do. I wanted a tool that would be a compromise between a large knife like a Heavy Bowie and a hatchet like my 17in Wetterlings hunter's model. After a few emails, looking at pics, and settling on the specifics, I now have that tool.
