Are you going to add handle scales? May i suggest horse stall matt material for the handle. It’s a dangerous thing to have a slippery handle on an hawk.
Huh, actually I didn't consider handle scales; I'd wanted to do something that would show off all the cutouts. I suppose they would be much more practical and it definitely would not hurt to add handle scales made of something like Micarta or better yet, G10. I suppose it's what they say "Just because it's tactical, it doesn't mean it's practical!"
Bravo, the renders look awesome. Yes, that's exactly what I meant by tapered tang.
Thanks!
I'm actually still working on the tapered tang at the moment. I'm not sure I could get it done by waterjet if the tang is tapered, it would have to be hand ground. I'll work on it though.
I would get rid of most of the fawns foot, I think it would snag in just about everything it touches
Sure. I'm going to invert the knob at the bottom. I'm still working on it though.
The handle looks uncomfortable. The fawn's foot is turned to support spike use not axe use. Unless you intend for the axe bit to be rarely used then I'd change the shape of the handle.
The 'Black Ops' and 'Tactical' verbiage will appeal to mall ninja types.
Sure, I will reverse the knob.
Sadly, yeah. While I think that Tactical's just a buzzword to sell fancy superfluous features to the mall ninjas, it does sell. But to its credit, I think some of the features like black coating to protect against the rust do have some application though.
Wow that looks so awesome!
Dose anyone know where I can get CAD, Looks a lot nicer then pencil and paper.
Thank you!
Well, I think Siemens PLM actually has some kind of educational program, but I don't know if they offer it anymore. I would reccommend it in a heartbeat though. If you can't find NX, I think Solidworks comes in as a close second.
Just fantastic. I agree with "TwinStick" with making the handle base more pry friendly. A little curve might make it less likely to go "flying" Already picking out my paracord colors for the handle wrap!
Thank you!
Because closed dies could cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars, I would most likely have to get any prototypes cut by water jet. I can try to curve out the handle a bit.
I will definitely post again if I decide to make a production run of Black Ops Tomahawks!
Thank you!
I think that is AWESOME !!!
That being said, I also have experienced the heads getting stuck/wedged, when something being cut/breached wedges into a hole, in the head of hawk. Triangles are STRONG !!! (I know this to be fact as 35 yrs ago, i built a bridge out of toothpicks & elmers glue that held over 1000 lbs for a school project !). The only thing i would change is the tip of the handle. I would make it more pry friendly. Keep us posted on this project please.
Thanks! Yep, trusses and some arcs are great for redirecting stresses!
With the limitations of water jet cutting, I am not sure about pounding the end flat to turn it into something that could be used as a prybar. But I will try, I think that is a great idea.
I would not go hollow grind...for anything that requires deep penetration, it's like driving a T into the material. Due to the shape, the cheeks are constantly fighting the penetration as they do nothing to spread it, but rather ram into the top of it.
Also, I think S7 is a fine choice. I would imagine the hawk would see more use for utility chores with a soldier, and even if it were to see use as a weapon, bones, zippers, plates body armor, helmets are very hard and in a stressful situation I would guess the blows would be less than ideal and run the risk of putting a lot of lateral stress on the edge.
Sure, I can revert to a Flatgrind, that is not a problem.
My 2 cents, It looks great.
Minor changes I would suggest.
1; Don't recess the head, that will still leave a spot for hang up.
Instead, Move the logo to the head, and drill out the area the logo used to be, this solves 2 problems, PoB, and weight.
2; A false edge at the top of the head, or a shallow crescent cut out from the end of the edge on the spike, to the thickest part of the axe bevel would drop some additional weight.
3;You can thin the spike a little,(Say a taper back to its base) but I wouldn't do it a ton because the thick spike helps to balance the head, very much like a traditional poll would.
4; I like the idea of flattening the droop some.(Maybe birds head it a little.)
5; I would be careful thinning the handle too much, as other hawk and axe users can tell you a thin handle hurts when its used, and it doesn't allow for very good control,(although a wrap, or thin scales of G10 or Micarta might weigh less and provide a beefy handle while still dropping weight.)
Overall I think this is a dang sharp design. Nice Job.
Thank you very much, I can start with some of these immediately.
What is a "Bird's Head" though? What do you mean?
Better idea to leave more pass on the head for inertia.
Why not remove the fawn foot and modify it into a little pry-bar.
On the handle,instead of cutting chunks out of it, why not cut it like how you did on the Bravo 18 Tactical recess? That way you will have more lateral strength when it comes to prying.
Hmm. I'll see what I can do about the prybar. It's a great idea and I'm warming up to it - something that could be used to chop, pierce, climb and pry would be very handy in the field.
I cut the chunks out of it for style but also because I had an I-section earlier, and it was quite a lot heavier than the Trussed section. I felt that because I wanted to keep the weight down a bit, it would have been better for me to go with the trussed section rather than the I-section. Because the webs of the I-section are along the neutral axis and are relatively thin even though they are continuous, the lateral strength from using an I-section wasn't all that much different. The recess in the top of the handle I did primarily because the handle there is a bit thin and it would be a bit harder for me to get the EDM or jet cutter into that area while spelling out the "Bravo 18" logo, which has to be milled.
I like where this is going, the only issue I (personally) notice is that the spike is fairly large. To me it looks a lot like a full tang remodeled M48, not necessarily bad but I find the spike on that thing is far too long and can make it difficult to wield as a fighting hawk. It's your creation, of course, but we can all learn from past mistakes made by others!
Just my $.02.
Thanks!
Hmm. How much do you think I should reduce the spike by? I could reduce the amount of curve as well, if necessary.
That looks awesome, I'm in college for engineering and the inventor program is what we used for the graphics portion of one of our classes. It is easy enough to use and easy to learn. I may have to try to so something in it after seeing this
Thanks! Definitely learn CAD, it's quite handy.
The pommel swell looks impractical if not uncomfortable. I would reconsider that bit for sure. Maybe even make a prototype out of something cheap like wood just to see how the handle would feel.
Sure, I'll plot out something fullsize and try making a plaster or putty mockup. This week, the weekend and the next I'll be busy all day every day, but I'll definitely have to do that sometime.
