Late Night Television

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Darteres

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Feb 4, 2008
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So I'm sitting on the couch last night around midnight, flipping through the channels, and I come across Last of the Mohicans. Right at the scene where the first ambush happens. Pure awesomeness compared to the other stuff on the tube at that time. Of course, I sat there and watched the rest of the movie, even though I have it on DVD about 2 feet from where I was sitting. I haven't seen the movie in a while, but I remember as a kid when I first saw it that I HAD to have a flintlock and a tomahawk.

That got me to thinking about the usefulness of a tomahawk in the woods. I remember my old no-name brand hawk was fun to throw until the head broke. :eek: Then my mom took it away. :rolleyes: How many of you use a tomahawk out in the woods? I mean actually use it. What do you use it for? Is it practical enough to pass up a GB SFA for a weekend romp in the woods? Certainly has to be lighter than the khukhri that I tromp around with.

Another thing that I tried to watch was the "survival" gear they carried. Hawkeye had a blanket roll the whole time. Wonder what was inside it? I would imagine a bit of flint/steel in the possibilities pouch. They certainly were traveling light, for sure. Course, if I was running for my life that much, I would be too. What else would someone of that time carry? Looked much lighter than my several day gear pack.

(also, now I want another tomahawk and to finally get that flintlock...:D)
 
Hawks are primarily weapons, to my mind. Cool ones at that, just not perfect woods tools. Axes/hatchets on the other hand are designed with woodwork in mind as a primary task. The hawk will bite deep into the wood, but it will almost inevitably stick and force you to interrupt chopping to yank it back out. They also give you a (much?) smaller blade to work with, so misses are more likely.

I turned a CS trail hawk into a good hawk and took it out for a while, but found it just didn't do as much as it ought to be able to for the weight (versus a big knife or hand axe). Inefficient chopping, can't split well, etc.

Not that they aren't still cool! And if it floats your boat get yourself one (or two) and take 'em out to goof off with. At least your mom isn't going to take it away this time. :D
 
This one actually chops pretty good,probably because it`s got a 4" convexed cutting edge. A very early American Tomahawk Rogers Rangers spike hawk. Of course that spike could really hurt if you hit yourself with it! :eek:

John

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i have also wondered how these people were able to carry so little on multi day (or multi week!) excursions...

i figure it has to do with their ability to take almost all of their food from the woods (hunting every day, foraging, fishing, etc) and that they didn't have to carry very much water because they were always passing streams and rivers, and there was no need to purify.

if you are really hardcore you could probably get your base weight down to around 7 pounds or possibly less for a summer trip for a couple of days with modern gear... in the colder months that would be alot harder to do.
 
i love that movie...:thumbup: lots of good hawk and knife action... daniel winkler did a lot of the original knives for the movie...

they did travel extremely light..i too wish i could see what else they carried, in those haversacks, blanket rolls and possible's bags....
 
This is what I always loved about Louis L'Amour's books (I know Mohicans was Cooper but I digress). He often described the items carried and the why's and what for's. Movies like that and books like those are the reason many if not most of us have the desire to get outdoors.
Me, I'd like a Tinker made knife please.
 
I loved reading L'Amour's "Last of the Breed" and the details about how he survived in Russia. A bit of it seemed like story-telling, but some of it I can imagine would be seriously practical. Need to re-read that book.
 
One of my favorite movies as well.

The regular kit carrieds by most of the long hunters of that era consister of a couple knives, hawk, rifle plus powder and ball. and a billy pot with a few items in it.carried in a bag.

The Hawk was primarily a weapon with nsome survival applications. These men used survival shelters which were made out of stuff lying on the ground and pulled off trees. All they needed to use the Hawk on long knife for was occasionally to split down wood for kindling or to obtain fatwood, so the hawk didn't need to perform heavy chopping tasks. It did get plenty of use in setting trap lines etc.

Most of thr gesar was carried in a bushroll or swag which is hardly shown at all in modern books on survival (the last time I saw it presented was by Richard Graves in his book "Bushcraft"), and that was 30 years ago.

One can if you possess the same level of skill still get by with just as light of a kit. At the expense of the area you are camping in. You would seriously piss off the leave no trace folks. A really good treatment of the sheltering techniques ifs give in Thomas Elpels "Participating in Nature". When the longhunters got back home to the homestead they reverted back to using axes as the everyday chopping tool.
 
I love that movie as well, it was what got me googling hawks, which led me to the axe/tomahawk forum here, and the W&SS forum was close behind.:D
It was one of the last good stories before Armageddon came along and ruined movies forever.
I own about 4 hawks now, none of them high end, and tried making a few of my own from flat stock. The tomahawk has to be one of the coolest edged tools ever.
 
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