Helm Wrecker -Month review AAR

W

WJC01

Joined
Mar 3, 2006
Messages
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Received the Wrecker at the Blade Show in Atlanta from James the 1st week in June-Here's my one month (and a week) After Action Report

Since it's arrival I have carried and used the 12 inch wrecker almost daily (I take the dogs out for their walks on the trails behind my house which I've pretty much started, constantly maintain and lengthened for the past 22 yrs ) so this Hawk does not just go on an occasional weekend trips it literally is out almost daily . It has been at the beach (ocean and lakes,creeks)and numerous parks. It has turned out to be the perfect woods,field hawk. The long aggressive head with sharpened beard makes it easy to use to pull-cut vines and saplings which minimizes bending over too far during trail clearing. It's weight and grind make it a great woodchopper yet it still makes nice fuzzsticks as well. The extra long head makes it easy to handle during those fine cutting chores. It occasionally bites into the dirt during use but I still have not had to touch up the edge after a month of cutting -it still slices small briars and vegetation with ease. The smooth texture on the handle is easy on the hand for chopping and prying. The spike puntures well and is very tough. The large beard also enables me to use it to hook and drag logs which is normally done with the spike. The beard was also be used to hook onto limbs to help pull me up from creek banks and up steep inclines.
The sheath set up works great and holds the hawk very secure while deploying and resecuring is easy as well.
If I were to suggest any changes that would be to change the spike slightly for ease in lock breaking (emergency breaching of chains and locks) and trim the sheath down closer to the shape of the hawk head to shrink its footprint when carried in the pack and on the body.(mainly round off the 3 squared off corners so they follow the shape of the head).
I still have some tasks I plan to try but so far in the field this is a great piece of gear.:thumbup:
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Chopping in with a good bite on the beard makes it work great for dragging "outta the way"
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Looking Good-still pointy
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Fatwood fuzz stick-note remember this is the Wrecker and not a Mora
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Nice pics. With in the next year or so I plan on doing th 100 mile wilderness section of the App trail in Maine and with no doubt a Helm Hawk and blade will be with me.
 
Thanks for the testing and review! Looks like you put it through a pretty good gamut of tests.

Just to mention, yours is an older style sheath. While the newer ones are still mostly rectangular in profile, the feed lips are a good bit narrower so it isn't as wide. Not something that you can tell from a picture, or would probably notice unless you were the guy who made them. :D Got some stuff in the design phase looking at specifically handling padlocks while retaining general prying ability.

Shaw11b - Only the top right one with the cord wrapped handle is a Helm Forge knife. The others come from the Grinding Division. :D Expanding my mid-tech line beyond tomahawks.
 
Loved this review! Beautiful pics. There is just something to be said about when you pair a beautiful hawk with a winkler knife! They dont just look good together, I think they make the perfect woods companions and is pretty much all you would ever need out in the wilderness has far as tools.
 
Storm Crow said:
Thanks for the testing and review! Looks like you put it through a pretty good gamut of tests.

Just to mention, yours is an older style sheath. While the newer ones are still mostly rectangular in profile, the feed lips are a good bit narrower so it isn't as wide. Not something that you can tell from a picture, or would probably notice unless you were the guy who made them. :D Got some stuff in the design phase looking at specifically handling padlocks while retaining general prying ability.

Shaw11b - Only the top right one with the cord wrapped handle is a Helm Forge knife. The others come from the Grinding Division. :D Expanding my mid-tech line beyond tomahawks.
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Well I'm really diggin the little knives and am saving up to order an Edc 4inch to accompany my hawk and knife set. 😀 I'll let you know when those said funds are available to place the order. But I am very jealous of lazy otters collection. Both the grind and forge division blades
 
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Heres a cheapo padlock. Did not take any force to pry it open-Did not break just opened

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So next step was death by spike. My wife the "combat photographer" got hit by the flying debris!

I popped open a master lock with the RMJ active shooter last week and noticed that the compact size makes leverage a challenge. For me (not a burly character) I would go with a minimum length of 15 inches .
Can you post a sneak peek of the new spike design?
 
I definitely would go with a 15" over a 12" for leverage. 12" is compact and doesn't take up a lot of real estate, but you sacrifice leverage in chopping and prying.

The design is just in my head right now. Gotta see my waterjet guy and get some CAD work done.
 
I was actually coming to this thread to ask a similar question. I am sketching up a woods hawk, thats also designed to be a survival type hawk.
Trying to find a good length that wont be so long its cumbersome, but not so short that you give up the benefits of a hawk. I have also been trying to decide between 5/16ths thickness taken down, or 1/4 inch. Part of me sayd 5/16ths for more axe like performance, but part of me says 1/4 inch for a faster tool. Any input from some of you guys who have real experience making and designing these ?
 
Just strictly from a users end I'd say go with a 1/4 inch-add too much weight and it will stay in the truck-Length will be what fits the end user. For a woods hawk for me this 12 inch models perfect. I'm 5'7" 165, I hike with mine. For someone who does not travel much with it and uses it for camp tasks they may desire a longer model.
 
Silverthorn - It's easy to make a tool too heavy. When chopping, it needs momentum to sink in, but that also means that there is momentum that you have to overcome to get the tool to swing. Too much weight and you will not be able to accelerate enough to get in a good chop. I'd go with 1/4" thick steel for a full tang 'hawk.

As for length, balance out compactness vs. leverage. Which is more important to your needs? Anything under 12" overall is really going to lose chopping power, so I'd make that the bottom end of length. More ideal for me is the 15" or 18" length, but I don't have to worry too much about compactness of gear.
 
I find my 15 in her to be the perfect size to weight to chopping ability. My 18 in is nice but I find myself choking up on it to the 15 in mark so that's why I went with a 15 in next and it is the perfect size. I can grip really low without feeling like it is too unwieldy.
 
Thanks for the input guys. I know what looks good on paper isnt always what works well, and thats why I asked in here.
On the thickness, I was pretty much thinking that the head would be the only part at 5/16ths with the tang being tapered down to 1/4. I think I was figuring it would make it hit a little more like an axe, but still be lighter than say an Estwing hatchet or camp axe, and probably still lighter than even a traditional wooden handled hatchet, with the weight of the tang making the balence a bit more nuetral and still keeping it relatively easy to swing. Having said all that, I have zero experience designing hawks or hatchets, so I was just going by what seems right based on handling other tools. If the tang was 1/4 with the exception of a pommel which would still be 5/16ths and the head was the only other part at that thickness, would it still be too heavy a tool with a 2 inch deep grind on the cutting edge ? I would also be routing out the tang in two places, I beam style to decrease overall weight without damaging strength. Just spitballing, because like I said, im no pro at this or anything.
 
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Yeah I need to Cad it, at the very least and see what it says weight and pob and such would look like as well as stress points.
 
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Punched through level 2 armor and then steel

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Penetration and quite a dent in the wood-penetration and blunt trauma

Helm Wrecker vs Kevlar-Generally my Hawk used is behind the treeline and is handy for urban emergencies-Here's a glimpse of some different test media
 
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