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Mod'ing The CS Trail Hawk
- Thread starter CitizenQ
- Start date
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2007
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- 1,745
that handle looks outstanding, brother nsaglibene.
i've got a similar little guy going right now.
....
here's another trick every buddy might want to try as a mod on their beloved Trail Hawks, etc. - Simple Digital Camo...;
here's some suggestions, which should not be confused with rules.
(rules? we don't need no stinking rules!)
ya just cut tape in thin strips and blocks,
paint a blotch down,
block it off with tape as you see fit,
paint over the tape and the rest of your head with your neutral color (in this case, light grey),
tape overlapping the old tape and some of the new neutral color,
paint with your receding color (the dark grey).
this is my first try.
finesse will come with practice, God Willing.
i really think you brethren should try this, it's a lot of fun.
paint those wooden handles too.
lotsa fun, lotsa fun - and you get credit for daddy-time if you do it with your kids, which always makes the mommies happy to have a break.
....and when the mommies are happy, ...:thumbup:....
vec
i've got a similar little guy going right now.
....
here's another trick every buddy might want to try as a mod on their beloved Trail Hawks, etc. - Simple Digital Camo...;
here's some suggestions, which should not be confused with rules.
(rules? we don't need no stinking rules!)
ya just cut tape in thin strips and blocks,
paint a blotch down,
block it off with tape as you see fit,
paint over the tape and the rest of your head with your neutral color (in this case, light grey),
tape overlapping the old tape and some of the new neutral color,
paint with your receding color (the dark grey).
this is my first try.
finesse will come with practice, God Willing.
i really think you brethren should try this, it's a lot of fun.
paint those wooden handles too.
lotsa fun, lotsa fun - and you get credit for daddy-time if you do it with your kids, which always makes the mommies happy to have a break.
....and when the mommies are happy, ...:thumbup:....
vec
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2006
- Messages
- 99
Thanks Vec
That digi-cam is effin genious! Now I have to buy another Hawk so I can try that and I'll wrap the handle with some digi-cam paracord!!!
That digi-cam is effin genious! Now I have to buy another Hawk so I can try that and I'll wrap the handle with some digi-cam paracord!!!
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2007
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- 1,745
i attach it with epoxy with special fillers in it - three epoxies actually(one on the bottom, one on the inside of the eye, and another one inside the handle cavity), and a band of material on the top - which could be fiberglass, graphite, or kevlar, depending on what the investor needs.
thanks for asking...
....did you want some specific information for you own project...?
vec
- Joined
- Aug 27, 1999
- Messages
- 4,531
Vector-Your hawks look very professionally done. The idea of making my own tools (modded hawks and plains knives) is very appealing, but I do medicine and I'm good at that, but I don't know diddley about to go about making mods to hawks without screwing them up, So I'll take all the advise I can get. And I want to wind up with a usable tool, not a basket case. The most important thing is to keep the head from coming off accidentally and becoming a missile. I'll take all the advise you are willing to give. Thanks to you and all the other posters who have been so generous in sharing your knowledge.
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that's what happens after ya hose up a bunch of 'em.
i applaud that.
don't quit.
in Hawaii, the natives have a tradition of a male not being a complete man until one learns to make his own weaponry - i am trying to take that to the next level in myself, with modern materials.
i hear ya!
they like to go ballistic at the worst moments too, don't they, brother...!
which line of hawks are you using now? or are you making your own...?
....if you have the Cold Steel hawks, you have the pin in the slip handle configuration. - the handles you see on mine, i think you figured out are of my own design, attached axe-style, for lack of a better descriptor, from beneath the head. - we have a graphite slip handle in the works for folks who just gotta have a removeable head ...:thumbup:....
i would put two-ton epoxy in the eye of the tomahawk, if i were you, and slip the stock wooden handle through. - tape the exposed part of the handle on a test fit before you apply the epoxy.
dog-ear the corner of each piece of tape - these will give you a quick grab spot, when you run the handle through the eye, and then you just peel the tape away and there is no mess - it is all on the tape and you have a perfectly finished hawk with an epoxied head.
a variation on this method is to do the same thing, but have the handle already part-way through the eye of the head when you put the goopy epoxy in the top, then pull the last few inched through and lock it in and keep it straight until the epoxy cures. - hold it straight a little longer, sometimes the epoxy is firm-feeling, but is really just moving super slow, and the head can misalign.
a little extra attention goes a long way.
most of all, try it all, especially what other brothers here advise - these cool cats a re a bunch of smarty-pants, sez i.
if you mess up, a drill, a dremel, and a replacement handle solves everything, i reckon.
and learning is a lot of fun in itself.
....medical is a crucial field, brother fudo - thanks for serving!
yours,
vec
- Joined
- May 5, 2006
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- 1,968
Beautiful Nsaglibene! :thumbup:
On the topic of modding hawks, today i sold some boating crap i had lying around the house and i went to my knife man Jay at Warriors & wonders. I listened to loud heavy metal with him for a bit and then picked up a CS trailhawk.
got it home, not even one minute in the door and i had the shaft out and was burning leopard spots into it with the propane torch. Once that was done I checked the inside of the head for rough spots...i got a smoothy! I handsanded the shaft with 3m autobody paper and then soaked it in Danish tung oil for about 2 hours. Took it out, steel wooled it and buffed it dry. Put the head back on, tap tap tap tap tap and set the set screw. Wrapped form behind the head to just under halfway down the shaft with paracord. and added a lanyard on the end. I was half asleep, i forgot to wet the paracord, but i still got it bloody tight. A quick hone with the DMT stones and i cannot wait for my hike tommorow.
pics soon. no camera
on the topic of flame burning, i got a SWEEEEEET little torch with a PIN spot flame about this big: o < I'm going to pinspot burn my next hawk (see you in a few days Jay! ) i think it will look very cool, little black burn spots all over the shaft, with a deep tung oil finish.
:thumbup:
got it home, not even one minute in the door and i had the shaft out and was burning leopard spots into it with the propane torch. Once that was done I checked the inside of the head for rough spots...i got a smoothy! I handsanded the shaft with 3m autobody paper and then soaked it in Danish tung oil for about 2 hours. Took it out, steel wooled it and buffed it dry. Put the head back on, tap tap tap tap tap and set the set screw. Wrapped form behind the head to just under halfway down the shaft with paracord. and added a lanyard on the end. I was half asleep, i forgot to wet the paracord, but i still got it bloody tight. A quick hone with the DMT stones and i cannot wait for my hike tommorow.
pics soon. no camera
on the topic of flame burning, i got a SWEEEEEET little torch with a PIN spot flame about this big: o < I'm going to pinspot burn my next hawk (see you in a few days Jay!
) i think it will look very cool, little black burn spots all over the shaft, with a deep tung oil finish.:thumbup:
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2006
- Messages
- 99
Thanks Q!
I think im gonna pick up a norse hawk do the head in Digi Cam and wrap the haft with digicam paracord.
I think im gonna pick up a norse hawk do the head in Digi Cam and wrap the haft with digicam paracord.
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2008
- Messages
- 10
I still have to wrap the handle on mine... debating if it is worth it to pull the handle and clean up for something I am going to beat the hell out of... dumb question why not, of course it is. I will probably pull it out and sand and oil before I wrap it.
One thing for buying cord... I was at the hardware store and went to buy some thin cord. I saw that it was $0.10 ft so I asked the guy to cut me a 100ft. Once he cut it, I realized the black stuff I had picked was the poly stuff and was $0.32 a ft!! Aw SHIT! That's a bit more than I was prepared to pay. Turns out the nylon white stuff was the $0.10 stuff. I just put it in the bag and once the guy was gone relabelled it to the cheap bin number... cost me $10 instead of $32. :thumbup:
One thing for buying cord... I was at the hardware store and went to buy some thin cord. I saw that it was $0.10 ft so I asked the guy to cut me a 100ft. Once he cut it, I realized the black stuff I had picked was the poly stuff and was $0.32 a ft!! Aw SHIT! That's a bit more than I was prepared to pay. Turns out the nylon white stuff was the $0.10 stuff. I just put it in the bag and once the guy was gone relabelled it to the cheap bin number... cost me $10 instead of $32. :thumbup:
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2005
- Messages
- 61
Vec,
I really don't mean to be pushy. I'm just very excited and interested in the "composite slip handle" Any updates on testing/production?
Thanks
Shawn
I really don't mean to be pushy. I'm just very excited and interested in the "composite slip handle" Any updates on testing/production?
Thanks
Shawn
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2007
- Messages
- 1,745
you pushy, pushy meanie...!
Slip Handle In-Progress Testing Report:
my local team of wookies and i got together and destroyed five or six of the long 30-inch and some 19-inch protoypes last monday.
tests included but were not limited to:
(1.)
we pre-stressed the handles, which were not fully cured for strength, with a hydraulic press - this is a nightmare scenario for a composite handle, but so is the war it is going off to, potentially - we don't play fair with our designs, and don't expect our investors to have that luxury in the theaters of war.
(but wouldn't that be great?!! "time out, enemy - i got some sand in my eye again....")
(2.)
....then banging the crap out of the handle, on all four sides of the handle, on a hardened-concrete curb (properly-cured cement is a different animal than the crap cement you see on sidewalks, in case some brethren do not know.)...;
we broke the curb into a nice radiussed mess, and chipped the handle - the handles were still serviceable.
(3.)
then we got the sledge hammers, same handles, same curb - it was a gawddam Cliff Stamp party....
it took a lot of crazy-level abuse, but we got the handles broken, but half of them were still serviceable.
i would say that the tests were similar to sticking three or four IEDs up your poop chute and blasting away.
Test Interim Summary:
we think that the nature of the breaks in this model handle (we have a graduated schedule planned - this is just part of the handle evolution to final product) would've taken longer if we had the head on the handles, acting as a collar (the opposite would be true if this handle was wood, where the prying force of the head on the overstrikes test would facilitate breakage - the graphite we used was way stronger than any wood handle on the planet that i know of, so that was a miniscule factor - breakage occured from micro-slicing of the materials, not prying force).
- this model is not, and was never intended to be, the end-model i wanted, ...but we agreed that if there was a collar of material around the head of the handle (or a head in place) - the handles would still be completely intact, by our educated guesses. - we will probably make that model, and some new models that are my personal designs, for the next test round scheduled next week tentatively.
....
- these handles, i would day, as a former member of the Beloved Corps, are Combat Ready - we want them to be Combat Superior.
the reason is, we never want to get them back - Happiness Guarantee means just that......
next test we are going to try to get the handles lighter, and stronger.
they are already pretty, so that is covered generally.
i have had to wipe a lot of wookie drool off of these things.
i am not going to predict exactly when they will be ready - cuz i am dealing with colleagues' egos as well as composites - i am more adept at dealing with the latter - as this is a group effort with some old aerospace-composite professional-buddies of mine.
i have done a lot of tongue-biting on this project ...and my back is bruised from being slapped repeatedly when it was noted that i was in enough self-control to not say "i told ya so" to Chewbacca and the gang.
ya gotta let these stallions run a while before ya yell "whoa!", ya dig...?
....now i'm going off to cry, after being bullied by brother price - in public too... why do these wookies pick on ol' vec, yer friend, so much, sez i...!
oh the misery, oh the shame....
vector001-who-sees-wookies-everywhere-man
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2005
- Messages
- 61
Brother Vec,
Thanks for the update on the handle testing. It sounds like they are going to be great!
Shawn
Thanks for the update on the handle testing. It sounds like they are going to be great!
Shawn