My Two Hawks Competition Throwing Hawk arrived last week & I'm very, very impressed. It is a truly beautiful piece with great fit & finish. The 6150 steel is nicely blued & the premium grade American hickory handle comes with a "London Oil gunstock finish" (I believe, linseed oil w/paste wax finish). A couple of nice touches are that the hawk is serial numbered & comes with an owner's certificate & care instructions.
<a href="http://home.nyc.rr.com/bcknives/images/Two%20Hawks%20Competition%20Throwing%20Hawk.jpg"><img src="http://home.nyc.rr.com/bcknives/images/Two%20Hawks%20Competition%20Throwing%20Hawk.jpg" alt="Two Hawks Competition Throwing Hawk" border="0" width="256" height="192"></a>
OK, the form of this hawk is really nice but I wanted to see how it would function so I took it up to our camp this past weekend for a workout. The head features semi-sharpened top & bottom edges designed to increase the chance of sticking into the target... and, boy, does it stick! I have a few hawks that I play with but this quickly became my favorite thrower. At just a little more than a pound (Two Hawks lists its weight at 1.25 lbs.), it is quite a bit lighter than my other throwers and caused no arm fatigue at all even after extended throwing sessions.
Two Hawks mentioned that he deliberately leaves the heads on the soft side so that they will roll, rather that chip out, upon contact with rocks, nails, etc. Although I am getting pretty good at hitting the mark, I still have my occasional misses. You guessed it... and the edge hit rocks twice & did roll.
The good news is that I was able to fix the edge using a combination of a chakma (smooth steel) from one of my khukuris for most of the straightening and a medium Sharpmaker stone to finish the repair.
Even though this hawk is purpose-built as a thrower, I wanted to see how it would handle some camp chores. I was pleasantly surprised. While it is certainly not a heavy duty chopper, it had no problems at all going through some wrist-size pieces of dry hard wood. It also proved very capable of striping the thick bark from an old log. Given the geometry of it's primary edge, it would probably also serve well as a big game skinner in a pinch, not to mention be much better than a skinner for those pelvis bones. I'll have to remember to include it with my hunting gear next Fall.
In short, it's a winner!
(Edited 7/24/01 to correct URL.)
<a href="http://home.nyc.rr.com/bcknives/images/Two%20Hawks%20Competition%20Throwing%20Hawk.jpg"><img src="http://home.nyc.rr.com/bcknives/images/Two%20Hawks%20Competition%20Throwing%20Hawk.jpg" alt="Two Hawks Competition Throwing Hawk" border="0" width="256" height="192"></a>
OK, the form of this hawk is really nice but I wanted to see how it would function so I took it up to our camp this past weekend for a workout. The head features semi-sharpened top & bottom edges designed to increase the chance of sticking into the target... and, boy, does it stick! I have a few hawks that I play with but this quickly became my favorite thrower. At just a little more than a pound (Two Hawks lists its weight at 1.25 lbs.), it is quite a bit lighter than my other throwers and caused no arm fatigue at all even after extended throwing sessions.
Two Hawks mentioned that he deliberately leaves the heads on the soft side so that they will roll, rather that chip out, upon contact with rocks, nails, etc. Although I am getting pretty good at hitting the mark, I still have my occasional misses. You guessed it... and the edge hit rocks twice & did roll.
Even though this hawk is purpose-built as a thrower, I wanted to see how it would handle some camp chores. I was pleasantly surprised. While it is certainly not a heavy duty chopper, it had no problems at all going through some wrist-size pieces of dry hard wood. It also proved very capable of striping the thick bark from an old log. Given the geometry of it's primary edge, it would probably also serve well as a big game skinner in a pinch, not to mention be much better than a skinner for those pelvis bones. I'll have to remember to include it with my hunting gear next Fall.
In short, it's a winner!
(Edited 7/24/01 to correct URL.)
).