United M48 Tomahawk FAIL!

I know one guy on the boards here had a custom Ti handle done for his SOG. It was nuts.
 
I question the m48 myself. I think the axe head design or steel used is garbage. I can't get a decent edge on the dang thing. I've gotten so PO'd that I went outside and threw the hawk, repeatedly and without visible signs of form, into a 3/4" plywood board. 1st of all, not the spike, nor the blade, and not surprisingly the handle, wouldn't stick into the board. And the dang hawk didn't break. It is tough and dull. If it were able to take and edge it wouldn't be half bad. By the way, mine is the black handle model.
 
Just make another handle out of it, I would get a piece of aluminum or even a cold steel replacement handle.
 
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FortyTwoBlades said:
I know one guy on the boards here had a custom Ti handle done for his SOG. It was nuts.
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Yeah, i have chatted with him. IIRC he said either a friend did it for him or made it himself. Either way, he said if you had to pay for it, you wouldn't want one anymore !!! UBER expensive. I think his screen name was bubbakanosh or something similar.
 
I have beaten mine to death, thrown it hundreds of times and have NEVER had the slightest problem. Weird. I hope they take care of you
 
I guess a full tang or wooden handle that you could easily replace would be a winner. No easy way to detect voids until it fails.
A shame it only lasted a few whacks.
 
I see a design flaw. If you don't extend the tang through the grip portion of the handle this is to be expected. A full length tang, hidden or full tang would have prevented this.

Chris
 
At the bare minimum it seems to need a longer tang so that the stresses on the unsupported region are diminished.
 
Hickory is better than plastic for almost any application I can think of. That thing broke like a Glock.
 
drail said:
Hickory is better than plastic for almost any application I can think of. That thing broke like a Glock.
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That was low road. Good luck defending that unfortunate choice. This thread is now going to get so sidetracked I can only speculate it was to get the attention off the plastic tomahawk. Nice try.

United is well known for cheap impulse flea market and gun show fodder. The hawks that use fiberglass handles seem to have no problem. What we have is a hawk head and short stub shaft bolted to what may have been a flawed handle. Really not much different that the average paring knife in the kitchen drawer. Stub tangs are well known to be weak.

Other UC owners claim to have abused their hawks without this failure, which I'm willing to take at face value. Wood handled hawks are capable of failure, the owners even brag about the facility of making one new right there in the woodland. OK. Others simply don't want to bother, and buy full tang. They aren't cheap - neither are full tang knives.

Make a choice, you get to prove it was right or wrong.
 
if you want a cheap but GOOD tomahawk to throw around and ACTUALLY USE and wont break get a cold steel trail hawk their great hawk also very modable and if the handle breaks like the m48 u can just order or make a new one
 
Best bang for the buck is Cold Steels hawks. I use mine at work, they handle the abuse well. Check out the Trench Hawk.
 
I have yet to have my Hawk break after hundreds of throws. Same with my SOG. There is probably a small percentage that will always fail on an injection molded handle. They can't all be perfect. I overheard at the Blade Show the SOG and M48 are both actually made in the same factory, by the way. SOG supposedly started using United Cutlery's Taiwan and China manufacturers many years ago.

Regarding the the edge staying sharp, the steel used for both the M48 and the SOG is essentially no better than a 420/440B. I have had to resharpen these a number of times, but I am pretty hard on them. I don't think they are not meant to stay sharp for cutting a giant trees down or anything. They are meant to hack and damage people and things, or have fun throwing them like I do.
 
This is why i use the everloving shit out of my tools BEFORE i need them in a life and death situation. I dislike surprises.

I wouldn't have a problem using my M48 in a survival situation, but i've cut trees, chopped dried hardwood and basically used it for everything you can do with one, including LOTS of throwing. I haven't had a single problem
 
This is why i use the everloving shit out of my tools BEFORE i need them in a life and death situation. I dislike surprises.

I wouldn't have a problem using my M48 in a survival situation, but i've cut trees, chopped dried hardwood and basically used it for everything you can do with one, including LOTS of throwing. I haven't had a single problem
 
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