Vietnam Tomahawk ID needed

Dirtbiker

Dirtbiker

Joined
Jul 2, 2010
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I just picked up the black tomahawk you see here from that auction site. I've seen these before and by all accounts they are of Vietnam vintage but I'm not sure who made it as it is different than the confirmed Lagana hawk you see pictured with it. I don't think it's a Harold Hess hawk either. It seems well made and is basically brand new. It didn't come with a sheath. The head appears to be parkerized.

Here it is. All comments and suggestions are welcome.

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It is surprising how little is know about hawks from this time peroid. Even a soild search of the web reveals little.
 
Its for sure not a cold steel or UC made hawk. A search brings up photos of them and they are similar looking (all vietnam hawks are) they are very different in construction.

Again it is surprising with all the military collectors out there there is very little documented history and photos available.
 
Dirtbiker said:
It is surprising how little is know about hawks from this time peroid. Even a soild search of the web reveals little.
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I don't understand the fascination with this. Its an obvious casting and therefore of dubious metal quality. And instead of a slip fit handle (a distinctly useful safety feature) it was epoxied in place. Seems to me (seeing as I happened to be a kid during that 'era') hawks by and large were cowboys and indians toys in the 1960s which is probably why you won't find much information on them.
 
300Six said:
I don't understand the fascination with this. Its an obvious casting and therefore of dubious metal quality. And instead of a slip fit handle (a distinctly useful safety feature) it was epoxied in place. Seems to me (seeing as I happened to be a kid during that 'era') hawks by and large were cowboys and indians toys in the 1960s which is probably why you won't find much information on them.
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Thanks for taking the time for a completely useless comment. So what youre saying is you have no clue either but Id like to drop in a childish uninformed remark that helps no one but your own ego.

Mission accomplished 300
 
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I spent four tours in Vietnam, travel thru all four Corps (I, II, III, IV) multiple times and even then was a "Knife" person and I never saw a "Hawk" being carried by anyone. Randalls all over the place, Ben Hibben's, Drapper's even a Bill Moran Bowie knife, but no Hawks. To me there were so few of them actually carried that it is no wonder to me that so little is written about them. John
PS Never saw an EK either.
 
I'm no expert, but the biggest variation I've seen on the LaGana style 'hawks is the shape of the spike. That may help you narrow it down. Unfortunately, it looks a lot like the UC version's spike to me, but the handle is a different shape. I haven't seen any for sale (including a quick perusal of Google Images just now) with that Coke bottle handle shape. It could be a re-handling job, but the epoxy looks neatly done like you'd see from a factory.

The UC version is apparently 440 stainless, so you might see if the exposed edge will rust.

The flash line could be from a casting mold, or from the dies on a drop hammer.

John - Thank you for your service! Doing a quick bit of research shows me that over 2.7 million Americans served in Vietnam, and LaGana apparently sold 4000 'hawks. Wouldn't be too surprising that most folks never actually saw one, especially as acceptance of tactical 'hawks in the field was not what it is now (although there are still plenty of folks that look askance at them). 4000 tomahawks is not an insignificant number (it's many times the amount that I've made, and they're doing a good job of paying bills around here at the moment), but distributed among 2.7 million people, it's not going to be real obvious.
 
Storm Crow said:
I'm no expert, but the biggest variation I've seen on the LaGana style 'hawks is the shape of the spike. That may help you narrow it down. Unfortunately, it looks a lot like the UC version's spike to me, but the handle is a different shape. I haven't seen any for sale (including a quick perusal of Google Images just now) with that Coke bottle handle shape. It could be a re-handling job, but the epoxy looks neatly done like you'd see from a factory.

The UC version is apparently 440 stainless, so you might see if the exposed edge will rust.

The flash line could be from a casting mold, or from the dies on a drop hammer.
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Thank you for your input, you are a great asset to the forum.

I oiled the head so stop some surface rust that was starting so it's carbon steel for sure. The head is either as forged or a parkerized finished.
The handle finished is interesting as well. The handle was dip painted over bare wood and it look like it was after the head was fitted. It's a very think coating as well. Modern cheap Hawks are spray painted and very thinly at that.
 
Storm Crow, Thanks for your kind words, ironically I spent a good deal of time yesterday watching how you grind, heat treat and make the handle slabs for your Hawk. Now that would have been one worth carrying. John
 
just an afterthought you might try getting the rockwell tested on it, it might give you an insight on who makes it, most companies make to a specific rockwell hardness
 
Dirtbiker - Shucks, no hard data, just took a look at it and did some Google fu. :)

John - Thank you, sir! I appreciate that. There's a video on sheath making, too. :D
 
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