'Hawk demolition today...

fast14riot

fast14riot

Joined
Oct 27, 2010
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So I had to remove this old spa, that broke down a couple years ago, from the back of my parents property. It was 8.5' square and my trailer is only 4x8 so it needed to be cut in half. I started the cuts across the top edges with a saw, but then put the hawk to work! If it got stuck I took a 5# sledge and smacked it through.

2012-02-04083558.jpg


Fun stuff!


-Xander
 
bearhunter said:
that seems like hawk abuse... just kidding;)
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Repeated beatings with a 5 lb. sledge would be 'hawk abuse. But it doesn't look like this one project did it any harm.

When you need to beat on a hatchet just rough out a quick and dirty wooden mallet. Wood won't mar the 'hawk. Green wood is heavy and makes a good temporary mallet. Dried hardwoods make the best mallets. White oak is nice. Elm is good, too. But my current favorite is London Plane. Tough as all get-out!
 
Square_peg said:
Repeated beatings with a 5 lb. sledge would be 'hawk abuse. But it doesn't look like this one project did it any harm.

When you need to beat on a hatchet just rough out a quick and dirty wooden mallet. Wood won't mar the 'hawk. Green wood is heavy and makes a good temporary mallet. Dried hardwoods make the best mallets. White oak is nice. Elm is good, too. But my current favorite is London Plane. Tough as all get-out!
Click to expand...


I agree, but this is a cheap indian hawk with cracking at the weld top and bottom. If I was trying to split large rounds, I would get a wood mallet or belay pin for sure, but this plastic didn't offer much resistance and would capture the hawk by pinching it. The back of the eye on this one is all banged up from some previous owner beating it with what looks like a framing hammer with a checkered face!

I usually keep a shortened baseball bat just for such purposes, but forgot it this time.


It sure was fun doing this! But it was also very efficient, I started at 0800 and had it on the trailer an cleaned up and tied down by 0915. Actual time to bisect the tub was a little over 35 minutes. A big bonus is that this doesn't create near the mess a reciprocating saw does, which makes cleanup that much easier. I was a foreclosure contacter for a number of years and did tons of demo work, many times I could do the job faster and better with an axe or hatchet than a saw. When tearing down outbuildings, I would collapse them and just use an axe to cut the roof (shingles, felt, sub, and through the joists) into managable sections to load out in one piece.


-Xander

The only true form of hawk (axe, hatchet, or whatever) abuse is to not use it!
 
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