Brian Lad,
I see that you're now posin' for magazines. Don't forget who's 'hawk is in your left hand.
For those of you who don't know, I'm being a wise-guy. Brian and I were on this trip together with Ron & Karen Hood of Hood's Woods. To say that the Ranger Spike Hawks were VERY USEFUL would be a tremendous understatement.
Due to the several days of continuous wet and melting snow, freezing rain and other "normal" surprises which SUMMER in the northern Rockies held for us, Brian & I found the 'hawks to be an EXCELLENT and possibly vital tool for creating the sort of shelters needed to support a snow load using only the 'hawks to procure, shape and assemble the frames and our ponchos to give our crew a place to become dry & warm, cook and generally recharge. Remember: for survival your priorities revolve around the 'twin sisters' of shelter and water. We had plenty of water, and it was all nice and cold
so shelter was the number one priority.
Our best 'heavy' shelter was a "long house" made from two issue ponchos, one civilian poncho and a reflector "space" blanket. It was warm, dry and quite comfortable for the whole "tribe" under very wet & cold conditions. The shelter could have been made with field knives, but was completed in record time, along with a cooking rack (zo my vater vill boil faaaaster...) and a few huge stacks of fire wood using two Ranger Spike Hawks.
The shelter was designed to have a reasonable draw for the fire, so that smoke went 'mostly' up between a space in the ponchos and was fed by air which was drawn in under the poncho edge. Once the wood was dry it worked rather well, but like all campfires burning pine, there were times when all that you could do was to clamp your eyes shut and feel the tears running down your face. Happily, with this design it doesn't happen as often...
Speaking of fire wood, why were the Ranger Spike 'Hawks so useful? Picture all wood in the entire region after being soaed in freezing rain and wet snow for days. Where do you find DRY wood for your fires? There was a lot of standing dead timber from recent fires, but it was all soaked >on the outside<. The inside of the wood was all perfectly dry. Using the 'hawks, Brian and I would down the standing dead trees 4-6" in diameter, drag then to camp, drive the blades into the trunks to start a split and then reverse the 'hawk to drive the spike into the split and wrench the 'hawk handle to the side, spreading a long split in the logs. If it didn't split the entire length, I would insert a wedge (branch, rock , Brians' hand...) into the split in the log to hold the split open and move the spike lower into the split and wrench the handle sideways again. Repeat as necessary. We generally split all lumber in to quarters to expose the dry inner wood which burned well and this allowed the wood piles in the shelter's covered entrance way (under the civilian poncho) to dry for use later.
The spike, while an awsome anti-personnel weapon also proved to be a very useful wilderness tool for breaking-up hardpacked and rocky soil for easy digging, breaking up logs, as a high leverage tool for splitting out wood.... basically, any rough work that you would not want to damage the nice & sharp main blade for. The spike is robust, and it is not generally needed to be sharp.
These are just a few of the many uses which we found for our 'hawks. I brought along some leather and made a sheath for mine around the campfire, stitching it with the inner strands of 550 (parachute) cord and my modified Leathermen tool. I then protected the stitches by covering them with a natural glue made from pine pitch and animal dung (NO , I'm not kidding...) The idea of running around the woods with a razor sharp tomahawk in my belt just seemed like a BAD idea.
There will be more that we can post and we have some partial pics of one or two shelters. At the time, we were more concerned about making the video and maintaining daily camp life, so the 'still' pics were secondary, but they should be fun for people to see.
By the way, as much FUN as these 'hawks are to throw, Brian and I both met a concensus that they are SUCH vital tools, that to throw them for fun out in the wilderness was like throwing your only knife: a sin - possibly mortal. We waited until we were at the mountain meadow waiting for the bush plane for extraction before we found it "safe" to do some hobby throwing.
I love my outdoor knives, but the chopping horsepower and general utility of these Ranger Hawks is truly amazing!
As a side note, I often drove in shelter stakes using my Ranger Spike 'hawk turned sideways, using the "sweet spot" at the base of the blade to strike the wooden stakes. It was easy to drive stakes in this manner.
>RadioRay ..._ ._
Ps. I do want to let you know that this was the first time that I had even met Brian. I can tell you that as a team we all went through what any normal person would consider wretched, cold wet and physically draining times. I learned that I can count on him and that he keeps his "stuff" together when it's tough out there - which is generally when we like it the best. This is HIGH parise from me, because I'm naturally mean, nasty and hate everyone with a prettier girlfriend than me, but Brian has this "drive-on attitude" which I've NEVER seen outside of the elite military community so he was seriously enjoying the shitty conditions right along with the rest of us 'sick-os'. Under conditions like this, all the "tourists" have died from exposure and we Hoodlums then have plenty to eat!
