- Joined
- May 17, 2006
- Messages
- 4,290
So, I have been using the Frontier Tomahawk that I modified to feed my fireplace, but had a chance to get out in the desert last weekend and really rely on it for some warmth and food. This area I was in was full of dead wood that had been there for who knows how long. Most of it was pretty hard.
The Hawk is drop forged from 1055 Carbon steel and easy to sharpen. A chopping tool like this doesn’t need to be a fuzz stick maker, although some really good hatchets from GB can do that. I usually have a SAK for my much needed whittling, carving, and making fuzz sticks so I won’t need the Hawk to do that.
I cut the handle down to 16 inches in length. I am still not sure how it will affect the overall performance as I am not using this for throwing. What I will be doing with this Hawk is taking it on overnight trips and survival training courses here in the states. Overseas the machete still rules.
For chopping wrist size pieces of wood, splitting kindling, and taking down green saplings for various uses, this seems to be the most practical tool. Saying that I like lightweight gear is an understatement and this Hawk (with cut down handle) weights about the same as my machetes. However, it save energy because as we all know chopping with a machete on hard wood is more of a chop, wedge, wrestle blade out of said wood, chop, wedge…you get the picture, type of affair. The Hawk rarely gets stuck in wood and all the time is spent actually doing work. It lacks weight to split like one would do with an axe or hatchet on a stump, but sometimes it makes it through. Like I said, I will be using wrist size pieces and not much larger so it is easier to bring them down together (tomahawk head and handle lined up parallel with the wood) and splitting by pulling the two pieces away from each other.
Here are some woodcraft pictures from last weeks outing.
-RB
Making long pieces into shorter ones. Believe me, if I could karate kick (stomp) these into smaller pieces, I would have.
The Hawk bit deep into the dense wood. If you ask me what kind of wood I’d say it was “desert steel.”
Chopped up to size.
Not even close to finished, this task would take me into the late evening.
The Hawk is drop forged from 1055 Carbon steel and easy to sharpen. A chopping tool like this doesn’t need to be a fuzz stick maker, although some really good hatchets from GB can do that. I usually have a SAK for my much needed whittling, carving, and making fuzz sticks so I won’t need the Hawk to do that.
I cut the handle down to 16 inches in length. I am still not sure how it will affect the overall performance as I am not using this for throwing. What I will be doing with this Hawk is taking it on overnight trips and survival training courses here in the states. Overseas the machete still rules.
For chopping wrist size pieces of wood, splitting kindling, and taking down green saplings for various uses, this seems to be the most practical tool. Saying that I like lightweight gear is an understatement and this Hawk (with cut down handle) weights about the same as my machetes. However, it save energy because as we all know chopping with a machete on hard wood is more of a chop, wedge, wrestle blade out of said wood, chop, wedge…you get the picture, type of affair. The Hawk rarely gets stuck in wood and all the time is spent actually doing work. It lacks weight to split like one would do with an axe or hatchet on a stump, but sometimes it makes it through. Like I said, I will be using wrist size pieces and not much larger so it is easier to bring them down together (tomahawk head and handle lined up parallel with the wood) and splitting by pulling the two pieces away from each other.
Here are some woodcraft pictures from last weeks outing.
-RB
Making long pieces into shorter ones. Believe me, if I could karate kick (stomp) these into smaller pieces, I would have.
The Hawk bit deep into the dense wood. If you ask me what kind of wood I’d say it was “desert steel.”
Chopped up to size.
Not even close to finished, this task would take me into the late evening.
I've been thinking about sharpening the beard so I can use it more as a knife and to use it on pull cuts for harvesting grass and for cutting through stubborn wood fibers when splitting from the side.
