Mod'ing The CS Trail Hawk

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Q, wow, great tutorial! One question: I would love to get something textured on the handle like the paracord wrap, however, I also want to keep the ability to quickly remove the head from the handle if needed to use it as a hand tool. With the 550 wrap can you still remove the handle? Suggestions if you can't?

 

If you want a decent gripon the handle you can file ribs into it. I did this to my hunting priest on a cheap bench grinder in like 2 minutes, but the same could easily be done with a stick file.



This way you can make use of the take down ability of the hawk and still have a decent textured grip.

Hope this helps

 

Samon - I like that idea. How comfortable is yours after awhile of use?

 

Also one other question. It looks like I found a place locally who is going to powder coat my tomahawk head! So the main thing I wanted to do was convex the edge and take the pits out. Anyone else have any other suggestions of anything to do to the head before I send it in for powder coat?

 

Well, as it's a priest it doesn't get lots of use - just enough to bash a rabbit in the face..

But! I have played with it and the end is weighted, and it's alright. I'd say go for thinner grooves/ribs, thinner and more and it should be pretty decent!

 

Bsmith,

Very nice pipe hawk! That is what I am working on right now (my first). What is the finish/patina on the blade?

 

Samon,

I have burned (soldering iron) a few patterns on the shaft already towards the blade end. What I was thinking was burn a line of small rings around it for say 5 inches where the balance feels the best and then sand down shaft in that area a bit just to smooth over the burns.

Anyone suggest a good method for marking the rings onto the shaft prior to burning? Want to get them nice and straight before I burn them in.

 

Use a pen to mark them out and then cut them in with a hacksaw to get them super thin and stack loads in for extra grip!

 

Thank you brother. It isn't nearly finished yet, it still needs sanding and another coat of poly. Then comes the leather and such.
With the head, I stripped it, sanded lightly with 220 grit, then dipped it in hot apple cider vinegar a few times. I didn't want much patina, just enough too ward off rust a little. I'm gonna let it naturally darken with use.

 

Would you recommend powder coating or forcing the patina via apple cider vinegar? I have seen you mention the apple cider vinegar hot dip and also I have seen leaving it in apple cider vinegar (room temp) for 2 days. I think in the long run I would like the patina better as if I scratch or nick the finish I can always just redo the patina there vs powder coating. Plus I do like the multi color of the mustard/vinegar patina. So I am thinking maybe dab some mustard on there randomly - let it sit for an hour or so and then put the whole thing in ac vinegar until I like the darkness of the patina?

 

If you want spots or blotches try mixing the mustard into the vinegar (any vinegar will do) untill it's lumpy. Paint/pour it on the surface of the steel so the mustard blobs stick and leave it in the open air for a few hours. Clean it, check it and if you want it darker do it all again with the blobs and a few more hours.

This is what I mean, I done it to a knife I made to get an older look..




I've tried just soaking the whole blade in vinegar befor and although ti does work, you get a faster more aggressive patina when you dip it and let it air for an hour then redip/repeat. The air helps it all oxidize and kick in better.

I wouldn't bother with powdercoating it or anything like that, it'll just come off and cost money that could be spent on other stuff!

 

Samon,

Well, the main reason I wanted to do the vinegar dip was to help prevent rusting. I think what I will do is do the vinegar/mustard like you did on yours above in some artistic pattern, let it sit for a few hours, wipe it off and then do a quick dip and then air dry in vinegar just to make sure any spots that didn't get it before got a little bit of patina on it.

Plus I did a dark red/brown stain (I think it was red oak) on the shaft so having the head a bit lighter looks good. Hopefully have a picture of it to post here by the end of the weekend!

 

I prefer forcing a light patina. All your basically doing is speading up the natural process the metal goes through. It aids in preventing rust, and doesn't affect the cutting ability of the tool. Just my opinion though.

 

I have the CS Trail Hawk, and I feel like it doesn't do very well when chopping or splitting, even on smaller stuff. Am I better off with a different model? I don't want something as heavy as my Wetterlings Large Hunting Axe.

 

Wow cubefx! That is just some awesome work. If you have time please share how you went about cutting that heart out. The inlay is just beautiful work. That thing is bordering on artwork.

EDIT: that is artwork!

 

They aren't great splitters but they certainly cut well once cleaned up! Mine cuts very deep and busts out chips like a boss. Comparing a hawk to a proper axe will show the axes heavy weight design to cut and split better but the hawks are lighter, more packable and can take down. My GB sfa chops better than my hawk, but not by a land slide!



What are you comparing it's cutting power to?

 

So tried out my first CS tomahawk mod. I was given a factory CS Pipe Hawk so started with that one. Nothing fancy but very useful.

One thing I noticed is that yes the factory handle was very long and I have seen several people cut theirs down. I found that my hand rested about 1/3 up the handle for most chopping however the extra length seemed to be a good counterweight and if I wanted to I could do a decent 2 hand grip on the extra if needed so I kept the factory length and didn't cut it. Just sanded and stained with I think red oak sealer/stain combo.


Did a little burning (same pattern on both sides) with an old soldering iron.


Sand blasted the head (took about 5 minutes to remove all of the paint) and then did the mustard/ac vinegar method Samon suggested. The steel was almost silver after sand blasting it and the patina is really nice. Almost a dark blue/grey with some staining around the edge that I like the look of. Makes it look well used.


One thing that seemed to be a constant in the posts here is that people don't like the factory bevels on the edge. I barely touched mine to a belt sander when I first started the project (before sand blasting) so I didn't take that much off but otherwise I really like the edge on this one. This is the best pic I could get of the edge geometry so please excuse the blurry pic. Literally 5 minutes with an eze-lap folding stone (medium and fine) and I can shave patches of hair from my arm with the edge.


Left to do: not much. I think I would like to get a belt loop for it however as I am not planning on carrying it around with me its not a big deal. I would like to do some sort of end cap such as the very nice norse hawk that was posted however I do not want to interrupt the ability to remove the blade quickly if I need to. Besides that not much else I can think of. I was thinking of patterning the handle as its just smooth wood but after awhile chopping some dead wood with it I was not having any slipping issues that I could see so just going to leave that part alone.

Suggestions? Especially after seeing the beautiful norse hawk just posted I think that might be my next one. But want to try each of them in my hand at the blade show coming up in Atlanta first. Just have to wait an extra month for that.

 

Just an updated pic of my modest trail hawk.
I'm constantly impressed and dumbstruck by the stuff I see here.

Curse you all and your awesome hawks that motivate me to work on mine!

Blued the head, did some filework. I got rid of the overdone leather and sinew wrap around the head and below, opting simply for some sinew under the head for a choke grip.
Tried to keep it more simple, and I love it!

 

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If you love your Cold Steel hawks and have some ideas about how they could make them better, stop by the new Cold Steel forum and add your comments to the Tomahawk thread.