Tomahawk haft question

euroross

euroross

Joined
May 19, 2008
Messages
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Has anyone ever thought about stabilizing a tomahawk haft? Just a crazy thought I just had. Could it work?
 
I thought you were talking about stabilizing the wood, ala stabilized knife scales. This is interesting to me for several reasons. First, the only re-handle I've done with stabilized hickory went okay, but that particular wood seemed sort of brittle. That's the first experience I've had with stabilized wood, or hickory that was that thin.
I've had other hickory shafts break on me, but really I think the variation in wood, how it was seasoned, the cut, and the grain of the wood all factor in to how long it can last. Also, the level of use and abuse vary for tools, and hawk that get thrown are really going to see impacts.
The best hickory, that's been seasoned correctly and with the right grain alignment is already very strong. Kingfisher is a company that makes hickory martial arts trainers. They make Bo staffs, Bokken and such, but they also offer a impregnated hickory option. Their process sounds like a stabilization process, and they claim that "under normal use" these should never break. I considered one of these, but some of them are $300 to $500!:eek:
Thing is, throwing a hawk can create very serious harmonics and akward angles of impact that will simply overstress the handle. From my limited experience with stabilized hickory, I'd say it's not worth it. Get some very seasoned wood, with the correct grain alignment and throw well.
I have been told that if you soak a piece of wood in a mixture of diesel and engine oil that the wood will soak it up. As it dries, over time, the wood will be stronger and heavier. I've never tried this, but would the extra weight add even more of an impact when thrown?
 
I would bet that fire hardening would work better than chemical stabilizing for hickory. Some First Nations used to bury their hafts under a fire to do this. I go with what Foxx said, good dry hickory or Ash with proper grain alignment. I throw pretty much every day in the summer and have only broken 1 haft when I hit it with another hawk.

Regards

Robin
 
I have several hatchet, hammer, and rigbuilder hickory handles (and a red oak wakazashi bokken that I had) that I picked up years ago at a local hardware store. As an experiment I put them in a 3 foot long piece of PVC pipe that was 3 inches in diameter. One end was sealed using PVC cement, the other end had a threaded end.

After stripping the handles of varnish and sanding them. I put them in the pipe with and filled the it to the brim with a 50/50 mix of boiled Linseed oil and turpentine. (Be careful here if you do this as wood floats and will want to pop out as you fill the pipe.)

I sealed the threaded end with Teflon tape, however Teflon tape will melt with contact with turpentine, and wrote the date (and the contents) on the PVC pipe with a sharpie.
This experiment started August 27th 2007, as I still have the pipe in case I want to do this again.
Back then I read an article about how back in the day people would do this to make their tool handles just about indestructible, so I decided to put together this little experiment.

At the time I lived in a 2nd story apartment and out on the balcony there was a uninsulated storage closet. It would get crazy hot in the summer, and pretty cold in the winter.
I made sure to leave the handles in the pipe for a year. I figured this was good as it would cook the chemicals into the wood.

Every few months I would go in there and shake the container and rotate it so that one end was up, and the other down. So that all the wood in there would be thoroughly coated and cured even though there was some air in the pipe.

After a year I pulled the handles out, and hung them out to dry on a pegboard that I hung in that storage closet.
It took me a few years before I had anything to hang on the handles,
They took a very long time to cure (read months), and they still smell like the mixture of Turpentine and linseed oil when you shape them or work with them. The Turpentine eventually does evaporate out and leave behind some of the diluted linseed oil, but it takes quite some time.

However, I have halved 1 Cold Steel Vietnam Tomahawk and 1 small hatchet with the handles and I have not had any issues happen.
The only down side is that the hickory handles that I used are now a slight tinge of orange. It is pretty distinctive.
Also, your hands will smell like Boiled Linseed oil after working with them.

I guess I need to grab some tomahawk handles online somewhere and start over again.
Then just ship out the handles in a few years to a few members willing to test them to destruction.
 
foxx said:
I thought you were talking about stabilizing the wood, ala stabilized knife scales. This is interesting to me for several reasons. First, the only re-handle I've done with stabilized hickory went okay, but that particular wood seemed sort of brittle. That's the first experience I've had with stabilized wood, or hickory that was that thin.
I've had other hickory shafts break on me, but really I think the variation in wood, how it was seasoned, the cut, and the grain of the wood all factor in to how long it can last. Also, the level of use and abuse vary for tools, and hawk that get thrown are really going to see impacts.
The best hickory, that's been seasoned correctly and with the right grain alignment is already very strong. Kingfisher is a company that makes hickory martial arts trainers. They make Bo staffs, Bokken and such, but they also offer a impregnated hickory option. Their process sounds like a stabilization process, and they claim that "under normal use" these should never break. I considered one of these, but some of them are $300 to $500!:eek:
Thing is, throwing a hawk can create very serious harmonics and akward angles of impact that will simply overstress the handle. From my limited experience with stabilized hickory, I'd say it's not worth it. Get some very seasoned wood, with the correct grain alignment and throw well.
I have been told that if you soak a piece of wood in a mixture of diesel and engine oil that the wood will soak it up. As it dries, over time, the wood will be stronger and heavier. I've never tried this, but would the extra weight add even more of an impact when thrown?
Click to expand...

This is what I was talking about. Thanks for the input.
 
SamuraiDave said:
I have several hatchet, hammer, and rigbuilder hickory handles (and a red oak wakazashi bokken that I had) that I picked up years ago at a local hardware store. As an experiment I put them in a 3 foot long piece of PVC pipe that was 3 inches in diameter. One end was sealed using PVC cement, the other end had a threaded end.

After stripping the handles of varnish and sanding them. I put them in the pipe with and filled the it to the brim with a 50/50 mix of boiled Linseed oil and turpentine. (Be careful here if you do this as wood floats and will want to pop out as you fill the pipe.)

I sealed the threaded end with Teflon tape, however Teflon tape will melt with contact with turpentine, and wrote the date (and the contents) on the PVC pipe with a sharpie.
This experiment started August 27th 2007, as I still have the pipe in case I want to do this again.
Back then I read an article about how back in the day people would do this to make their tool handles just about indestructible, so I decided to put together this little experiment.

At the time I lived in a 2nd story apartment and out on the balcony there was a uninsulated storage closet. It would get crazy hot in the summer, and pretty cold in the winter.
I made sure to leave the handles in the pipe for a year. I figured this was good as it would cook the chemicals into the wood.

Every few months I would go in there and shake the container and rotate it so that one end was up, and the other down. So that all the wood in there would be thoroughly coated and cured even though there was some air in the pipe.

After a year I pulled the handles out, and hung them out to dry on a pegboard that I hung in that storage closet.
It took me a few years before I had anything to hang on the handles,
They took a very long time to cure (read months), and they still smell like the mixture of Turpentine and linseed oil when you shape them or work with them. The Turpentine eventually does evaporate out and leave behind some of the diluted linseed oil, but it takes quite some time.

However, I have halved 1 Cold Steel Vietnam Tomahawk and 1 small hatchet with the handles and I have not had any issues happen.
The only down side is that the hickory handles that I used are now a slight tinge of orange. It is pretty distinctive.
Also, your hands will smell like Boiled Linseed oil after working with them.

I guess I need to grab some tomahawk handles online somewhere and start over again.
Then just ship out the handles in a few years to a few members willing to test them to destruction.
Click to expand...

This sounds really interesting. How about posting some pics?
 
It has been way too long since I paid for this site. I will upgrade my membership tomorrow.
I think I might be able to borrow my wife's camera... if I can find it.
We will see about attaching pics then.
 
Dave,
You can just post a link to your pictures, ala photobucket or other, you don't have to actually post the pics.

It makes sense that the combination of an oil and a solvent? or fuel would achieve similar results. The smell would be different. The way my friend said, diesel and car oil would be pretty nasty on your hands, yet I see how it could work.
I'm curious about the weight before and after the treatment.
 
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I have used carbon fiber laminations for hawk handles....they work fine. Expensive though. As for the other....try denatured alcohol for the solvent...it won't stink as bad and it will quickly come out of the wood, leaving behind the linseed oil which I believe is what you want. Commercially how they stabilize wood etc, is that they dry the wood to a certain humidity then warm it and put it under pressure with some diluted form of epoxy...then let is dry under the pressure. It is forced into the material.
 
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