Modified Trail Hawk

[blade man]

Some months ago, inspired by Vec's hawks, I set out to make my own. I've done four so far, and they freaking ROCK!

Work done is as follows:

Clean up/deburr eye
Improve fit of head to the haft
Slim hammer poll to lighten and improve penetration
Lighten head
Reshape and curve beard
Hollow grind beard
Full convex bit and beard (I hand convex them as the final step)
Refinish and blue head
Drill lanyard hole
Stain and finish handle
Give haft paracord wrap for grip and for overstrike protection

Specs: (roughly, these have varied slightly from hawk to hawk)

OAL: 19"
Length of haft below head: 17.5"
Edge length (bit): 2.25"
Edge length (beard): 2.5"
Head length: 7"
Overall weight: 20.5 ounces


On paper, these don't seem lighter than stock, but WHAT a difference in hand! The heads lose a few ounces through grinding, and the handle picks up just a tad from the stain and finish. I now know what people mean when they say a good hawk feels alive....handling one of these really does make you want to scalp something!

I've been really happy with these....the blueing is coming out beautifully, the heads almost appear case hardened. It's wrapped so that when you grip at the top part of the wrap, your hand is 1/3 of the way up (thanks Vec!). The convex edges are ground properly, thinned down and sharp. Both edges will cleanly slice newspaper. They way I grind them, I leave just a bit more metal behind the bottom point--for strength--where the primary and beard grind meet.

I've sold two so far.

Let me hear what you think!

 

[blade man]

A shot in hand, and a hawk that will get its wrap tomorrow. Tried to get a shot of the true colors of the blueing, very hard to capture in a photo. Also a shot of my marking.

 

[blade man]

This one will also be wrapped tomorrow.

 

[Wolf_1989]

Looks good :thumbup:

 

[Cpl Punishment]

Looks good. Real good.

May I suggest for your next one you get the 30" replacement handle and use that?
I think you may see why some of us like the Trail Hawk with a 24-26" haft.

Also, if you're going to use wood hafts, why not get some rawhide lace for the wraps? Soak it, wrap it as tight as you can, and it'll really reef down when it dries. I think it'd add more structural strength to the haft.

 

[Dusty One]

Nice looking work....Looks like youre having fun !

 

[vector001]

very well done, brother.

vec

 

[blade man]

Aaaand here's some shots of the finished hawks. The last pic is a little iffy, I'll try to get a better shot soon. Enjoy!

 

[Cpl Punishment]

Nice pic with your "little bitch" (3rd pic)!

 

[Dr Heelhook]

I love that. Just too bad about that stupid little screw hole on the side of the hawk. Someone should make a petition in order for Cold Steel to stop drilling those holes. If someone wants a hole there, they can make one themselves, but it's not so easy to fill it once it's there .

 

[blade man]

And here's some better pics as promised of my most recent one.

 

[Bull Jones]

Looks good. Real good.

May I suggest for your next one you get the 30" replacement handle and use that?
I think you may see why some of us like the Trail Hawk with a 24-26" haft.

A couple of questions:
1) Where are these longer handles, (for that matter, any replacement handle), to be found?
2) Are these made specifically for the C/S which has a slightly larger eye?
3) What is the nominal price for handles these days anyway?

Thanks!

 

[Cpl Punishment]

1.) On the Cold Steel Website http://www.coldsteel.com/trailhawk.html at the bottom of the page.
2.) They are made by CS to fit their hawks.
3.) It's on the site.

 

[jnanson]

Nice job I must get me a couple of those. What blueing did you use and can you give a quick run down on how you did it?

 

[Liam Ryan]

Very nice mod, my favourite I have seen here. One question though, was it easy to convex the beard? I thought these were differentially hardened at the cutting edge, so material on the beard should be softer/not hold an edge as well.

It really is sweet looking.

 

[blade man]

Regarding the blueing, I'm using Birchwood Casey blueing...comes in a paste tube, just wipe it on. (I use a paper towel) The longer it's on, the darker it gets. When you're ready, just wipe the excess off (I finish wiping with wet cloth).

After I shape the beard, I hollow grind it, then move to the belt sander to convex it. It's pretty easy, the majority of the work comes from removing the hollow grind. I then move to a mousepad and sandpaper for the final hand convex.

Liam, thanks for the positive comments. Yes, only the edge and poll are differentially hardened, which does mean that the beard won't hold as good of an edge. However, it's not completely soft, and I've been making these as an economical alternative to the very expensive modern "tactical" hawks. I could harden the beard edge, but it would increase the cost substantially , and I've been pretty happy with the performance as is.

Thanks for the positive comments everyone...I'm doing a batch of 5 hawks right now, so I'll update this in a few weeks. Might be some long hawks in there, Cpl. Punishment ...

 

[Corso]

That first one has got to be one of my favourite mods of a I've seen. I think its the Reshape and curve beard that does it for me.

nice work, makes me want to put away my hatchet and try one of these

 

[Liam Ryan]

Yeah, the curved beard gets me excited as well, it was the reason I bought the trail hawk
first. I will have to bust out the angle grinder once I strip the paint on mine.