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- Jan 28, 2006
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I decided to jump in with both feet and went ahead and ordered a Vec Hawk.
In particular, the Black Mamba he had for sale here: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=644463
I did some testing yesterday with it and figured I'd write up a quick review. Unfortunately, we've been undergoing a deludge here for the last week, and my pics didn't come out well enough to bother posting (damn cheap cameras). Here's a couple for those too lazy to go to the sale thread linked above:
First impressions upon opening the box and having a look-see:
1.) It's light. Lighter than I thought it'd be. Not a bad thing.
2.) The size of the haft is right. A tad narrow for my monkey claws, but no problem.
3.) The paracord wrap is TIGHT, which is good, it's not going to ride up and down or spread out when you whack the hell out of it on a missed swing
.
4.) The head is a little smaller than I thought it'd be. not a criticism, I'm just not that good looking at a tape measure and figuring out how big something is from dimensions.
5.) It's one sexy looking piece of symphonious destruction (I don't know what the hell that means, but it sounded good).
Use:
Since there is a shortage of zombies, and we aren't allowed to use the corner dope pusher as a practice target, I could not really test this thing's weapon capabilities on it's intend fleshly targets, which is the primary purpose for this. So, I had to go kill some vegetation. I guess this kind of determines the whole "woods tool" capabilities as well.
I went out to my stack of cut up birch and oak rounds that are severely seasoned (and kept out of the rain). Just so you know, this wood is so hard, that when I tried a 20" kukri, a 18" S&N Pen Bay hatchet, and a 36" Jersey pattern axe -- all of which can be shaved with -- they all split it OK, but as far as bucking it goes, the felling axe only made it in 1/2", the others less than that, at an angle. Straight on, they literally bounced off. So while the hawk's performance will look dismal here, it's not.
OK, first task: splitting. Yeah, hawks suck at splitting. Right? LOL. Two 4" rounds, 18" long, were used. First swing, I held the hawk 3/4 of the way down the haft, and gave a moderate swing. The bit sunk right in to the eye flare. Picking the piece and hawk up together and bringing it down, like you would an axe, split the round.
Second round, I gauged the distance, held the hawk at the end of the haft and went for it. The handle is indeed strong, and the paracord held in place just fine. Lesson: when gauging distance for a hard swing, I have to line up 1 1/2 widths of the cutting edge short to land on target. Next try, same deal, full-on swing, the round popped right in half. So much for hawks sucking at splitting.
Giving it a go at bucking, and the hawk bit in about 1/4" and no more. Tried several hard hacks at it, and no real progress. but like I said earlier, this stuff has been impervious to everything but a chainsaw. That's one reason I keep it around, if a knife or other tool can't baton/split it, then said tool isn't worth using.
On to lighter subjects.
I had a birch branch, about 6" in diameter overhanging the power line running to the house. Fortunately, it partially hung over another branch. So I lopped it off with the hawk. I found it easier to cut a line with the hawk, and then pop out the chips from the opposite side of the angle. How to explain? OK, picture the long cut an axe swing will leave, then you pop it out from the opposite side of the included angle. Well, with a hawk, it's easier to chop along that first line, across the width of what you're cutting off, and then chip it out later, than try to run chipped out sections right next to each other. Don't know if ya know what I mean, but anyway. . .
I'd say it took the same amount of time as a good hatchet would have. The hawk made narrower cuts, but cut deeper, so it balanced out. Limbing the branch once it had fallen was an easy, one or two shots per limb deal. No real surprises there. I wanted to give something a try. So I cut a section about 4 feet long towards the middle of the branch, it was about 4" in diameter at either end. I stood it up and let loose with the hawk. The head sunk until the eye was about halfway in, and the branch split about 12" below where the head stopped. Replace "branch" with "cranium" or "spine". Ahhhh, yes.
Looking at the very acute angle the edge has due to the way hawks are constructed, i wanted to see how it does on vines and palmetto stalks. As expected it cut through them with almost no effort. It does extremely well provided you can hit the thing. Worse comes to worst, you can hold one end of the vine and lop it off with the hawk. No biggie, we carry other tools better suited to such cutting, but it's nice to know the hawk can perform if pressed.
Bushcraft tasks: it was not so good at. it did OK at sharpening stakes/trap parts and v-notches. Buit more intricate work, not so much. For this stuff a hawk with a longer cutting edge, like a French hawk, Hudson Bay, or some of the larger Iroquois or Norse hawks would be better for such. Or just use a flippin knife like we all carry anyway.
And the hammer Poll: yeah, I had to try. Only thing I could think of is hitting one of my spare cement blocks. So, standing it on end, and without further ado, I hammered it. First blow shattered the top portion of the block, second blow did the same to the bottom. Again, think skulls and kneecaps.
After use impressions:
1.) The light weight makes it easy to get going, however, don't try to pull it up short, it doesn't stop well once it's moving. IMO a good design, it balances nimble usage with enough momentum to get the job done. When the bit hits, it sinks deep.
2.) The light weight means you can swing it for protracted periods without getting tired.
3.) The "snakeskin" coating on the haft is very grippy and works well.
4.) The haft is tough. My overstrike probably would have cracked or broken a wooden haft.
5.) It's easy to adjust where you hold the haft quickly, on the fly, by letting it slide in your hand. Very versatile.
6.) I'll have to be careful on the WS&S forum, because someone is bound to say that they won't carry something like this because it "weighs too much", at which time I will be sorely temped to hit them with the hammer poll. This is too light to NOT take.
7.) No matter what part of this you use to hit a bad guy, it's going to hurt, BAD.
8.) Vec is a rotten bastard for making such a good hawk, because I now have two more hawks and a warhammer sketched up in my caveman brain.
In particular, the Black Mamba he had for sale here: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=644463
I did some testing yesterday with it and figured I'd write up a quick review. Unfortunately, we've been undergoing a deludge here for the last week, and my pics didn't come out well enough to bother posting (damn cheap cameras). Here's a couple for those too lazy to go to the sale thread linked above:
First impressions upon opening the box and having a look-see:
1.) It's light. Lighter than I thought it'd be. Not a bad thing.
2.) The size of the haft is right. A tad narrow for my monkey claws, but no problem.
3.) The paracord wrap is TIGHT, which is good, it's not going to ride up and down or spread out when you whack the hell out of it on a missed swing
.4.) The head is a little smaller than I thought it'd be. not a criticism, I'm just not that good looking at a tape measure and figuring out how big something is from dimensions.
5.) It's one sexy looking piece of symphonious destruction (I don't know what the hell that means, but it sounded good).
Use:
Since there is a shortage of zombies, and we aren't allowed to use the corner dope pusher as a practice target, I could not really test this thing's weapon capabilities on it's intend fleshly targets, which is the primary purpose for this. So, I had to go kill some vegetation. I guess this kind of determines the whole "woods tool" capabilities as well.
I went out to my stack of cut up birch and oak rounds that are severely seasoned (and kept out of the rain). Just so you know, this wood is so hard, that when I tried a 20" kukri, a 18" S&N Pen Bay hatchet, and a 36" Jersey pattern axe -- all of which can be shaved with -- they all split it OK, but as far as bucking it goes, the felling axe only made it in 1/2", the others less than that, at an angle. Straight on, they literally bounced off. So while the hawk's performance will look dismal here, it's not.
OK, first task: splitting. Yeah, hawks suck at splitting. Right? LOL. Two 4" rounds, 18" long, were used. First swing, I held the hawk 3/4 of the way down the haft, and gave a moderate swing. The bit sunk right in to the eye flare. Picking the piece and hawk up together and bringing it down, like you would an axe, split the round.
Second round, I gauged the distance, held the hawk at the end of the haft and went for it. The handle is indeed strong, and the paracord held in place just fine.
Lesson: when gauging distance for a hard swing, I have to line up 1 1/2 widths of the cutting edge short to land on target. Next try, same deal, full-on swing, the round popped right in half. So much for hawks sucking at splitting.Giving it a go at bucking, and the hawk bit in about 1/4" and no more. Tried several hard hacks at it, and no real progress. but like I said earlier, this stuff has been impervious to everything but a chainsaw. That's one reason I keep it around, if a knife or other tool can't baton/split it, then said tool isn't worth using.
On to lighter subjects.
I had a birch branch, about 6" in diameter overhanging the power line running to the house. Fortunately, it partially hung over another branch. So I lopped it off with the hawk. I found it easier to cut a line with the hawk, and then pop out the chips from the opposite side of the angle. How to explain? OK, picture the long cut an axe swing will leave, then you pop it out from the opposite side of the included angle. Well, with a hawk, it's easier to chop along that first line, across the width of what you're cutting off, and then chip it out later, than try to run chipped out sections right next to each other. Don't know if ya know what I mean, but anyway. . .
I'd say it took the same amount of time as a good hatchet would have. The hawk made narrower cuts, but cut deeper, so it balanced out. Limbing the branch once it had fallen was an easy, one or two shots per limb deal. No real surprises there. I wanted to give something a try. So I cut a section about 4 feet long towards the middle of the branch, it was about 4" in diameter at either end. I stood it up and let loose with the hawk. The head sunk until the eye was about halfway in, and the branch split about 12" below where the head stopped. Replace "branch" with "cranium" or "spine". Ahhhh, yes.
Looking at the very acute angle the edge has due to the way hawks are constructed, i wanted to see how it does on vines and palmetto stalks. As expected it cut through them with almost no effort. It does extremely well provided you can hit the thing. Worse comes to worst, you can hold one end of the vine and lop it off with the hawk. No biggie, we carry other tools better suited to such cutting, but it's nice to know the hawk can perform if pressed.
Bushcraft tasks: it was not so good at. it did OK at sharpening stakes/trap parts and v-notches. Buit more intricate work, not so much. For this stuff a hawk with a longer cutting edge, like a French hawk, Hudson Bay, or some of the larger Iroquois or Norse hawks would be better for such. Or just use a flippin knife like we all carry anyway.
And the hammer Poll: yeah, I had to try. Only thing I could think of is hitting one of my spare cement blocks. So, standing it on end, and without further ado, I hammered it. First blow shattered the top portion of the block, second blow did the same to the bottom. Again, think skulls and kneecaps.
After use impressions:
1.) The light weight makes it easy to get going, however, don't try to pull it up short, it doesn't stop well once it's moving. IMO a good design, it balances nimble usage with enough momentum to get the job done. When the bit hits, it sinks deep.
2.) The light weight means you can swing it for protracted periods without getting tired.
3.) The "snakeskin" coating on the haft is very grippy and works well.
4.) The haft is tough. My overstrike probably would have cracked or broken a wooden haft.
5.) It's easy to adjust where you hold the haft quickly, on the fly, by letting it slide in your hand. Very versatile.
6.) I'll have to be careful on the WS&S forum, because someone is bound to say that they won't carry something like this because it "weighs too much", at which time I will be sorely temped to hit them with the hammer poll. This is too light to NOT take.
7.) No matter what part of this you use to hit a bad guy, it's going to hurt, BAD.
8.) Vec is a rotten bastard for making such a good hawk, because I now have two more hawks and a warhammer sketched up in my caveman brain.
