Just got my Custom ATC RR Spike

[BlueFlintHawk]

Today that beautiful brown truck rolled up and the man inside gave me something even more beautiful: my new custom ATC Roger's Rangers Spike Tomahawk. Well worth the money; You can see an extra or two Andy added for free to make it CUSTOM. Can't help showing it off... its so beautiful and its MINE! Vietnam Tactical is due on Monday and NG Ranger within 2 weeks!

<img src="http://rob.bandsite.net/rrspikehawk.jpg">

 

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Man, that's a beautiful hawk. Nice choice. Use it with good fortune.

 

[Two Hawks]

Dear Rob,
Thanks for posting those incredibly crisp digital photos of the ATC spike hawk .... it's almost like having one on my workbench to look at!
We always expect good things from Andy's company, and that is about as clean a head forging as I have seen in quite a while. If I could have consistently gotten rough forgings that nice I might still be using them as raw materials like I used to a few years ago! I was particularly impressed with the uniformity of the eye which is always a potential problem with forgings (though ATC is undoubtedly doing some finish machining on them to get them that clean). It used to take me 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours and 8 different files to clean up the eyes on forged heads enough for precision fitting of handles (one of many reasons I now use only custom investment castings which take about 1/2 hour to clean up and polish). Andy's guys obviously are a lot better at forging to a really good mandrel or are punching the eyes to get them that uniform. The eye is even better than those on H&B heads I have seen, and that is a real compliment!
My one recommendation would be to round off the ends of the handle to help reduce the chance of splitting in use. I have found over the years that the typical squared-off corners at the top and bottom of commercial hawk handles provide a great starting point for big chunks of the handle coming off when you hit something wrong ..... which is a problem you definitely don't need in the field!
Best regards (and my compliments to Andy),
TWO HAWKS
http://www.2hawks.net