WhaaaHOOOOOO.... Just ordered my first Vietnam Tactical!

Nobody

Nobody

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Dec 13, 2000
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Now I have to wait patiently to receive it... Yeah, right!
Seriously though, you all have been great answering my questions over the last year or so (very especially Andy). Thanks guys and gals!

It will get used at home, for recreation, and at work during particularly nasty site investigations (I work for an environmental regulatory agency). I'll write up my opinions when I get it and have an adequate chance to use it for a variety of activities. Oh, yeah, is the acetal handle a conductor of electricity or not? Is it fairly chemically resistant? I know you're thinking it, but really, don't ask, you really don't want to know the things I see.

I just read about the whole lanyard thing using the search engine but none of the pictures appear active now. Are those still available and are there any pictures? Any instructions on how to weave your own?

Man, oh man am I one excited pup!
 
Glad to hear of your purchase. As for the handle. No it will not conduct electricity I can't remember right off hand what load it will take but if you look up the specs on ACETAL GP you will be able to find it. As for chemicals it is resitent to most light acids and bases. It also does not start to deflect till well above 200 degrees. It will actually start to melt at around 475 degrees. Hope this helps.
 
The detachable tomahawk lanyards are still available. If Andy or Justin does not have the color you want, give Suzanne a call and I can make one up for you. We sold several at the show. Andy should have a couple left with the special pewter embellishments I added for the Blade Show specials.

I think you are really going to enjoy your new hawk. This one is great and the head/handle junction is stronger than ever. Talk to Andy or Suzanne about one of Robert's shoulder systems. He can match up one with any knife or a survival kit. Justin has a survival knife that he designed that is super.

I think you are going to be glad you have your new hawk with you when you are pushing your way down to a creek bank to set out a sampler.

We look forward to hearing from you, Melvin
 
LOL - And it didn't hurt at all, did it Bruce?

The lanyards are pre-tied with excellent instructions for attaching them. The lanyards are a big help if you're carrying it regularly and using it for chopping, etc.

Give me a call and I'll go over the colors with you if you're interested.
 
Man, oh man am I one excited pup!
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'Nobody', I'm in the very same wait as you. I put in my order at the Blade show. I'm definitely looking forward to that package :D. Are you planning to throw yours (i.e. target practice)? I'd like to give tomawawk throwing a try once I find a suitable location (safe, private).

I saw the detachable lanyards at Blade but I guess I wasn't paying enough attention. I remember them being fairly short, is that correct or were they just coiled up? What is the purpose of a lanyard on a tomahawk?
 
Good Lord, what a hawk geek I've become... staying up till midnight posting on this forum. :D

Yes, I intend to throw mine also. I've actually got a cheap hawk that I toss now, pretty effectively if I say so myself. I find tossing a hawk almost as relaxing as shooting my bow. My 6 year old loves both as well, though she can't toss a hawk very far. She has stuck it a few times though. I'm preparing her for the dating experience. :D

Now, I've got a friend who comes over on occassion and he's amazing with anything thrown. He's not into hunting or shooting but while I'm shooting my bow at the deer target, say, at 25 yards in the back yard, he can pick up a piece of gravel and throw it full force and generally hit the vitals. I let him toss my cheap hawk around one day and it was frightening. I handed it to him on the way down to the target (a sawed off dead tree in my back yard). Well, we were about 22 yards away and I thought we'd be walking on down a little closer to the target, but he thought I was handing it to him to throw there. He give it a hefty hurl and nails the tree dead square. He then procedes to do the same from different distances. I've only ever met one other person like him before.

Anyway, back to your post... The lanyard give you more security when you are doing chopping work. I suppose it would give you more security of grip in tactical applications, however, in playing around with some friends with some practice hand-to-hand hawks I made, I would rather keep my ability to shift my grip quickly in hand-to-hand. Yep, my wife gets a kick out of watching grown men play "cowboys and indians". Fortunately, she hasn't thought to snap any digital pictures of us when we're "playing".

Goodnight all!
 
Been away for awhile but I'd intended to respond to MTF3.
No stream samplers for me. I wish our job was as easy as those stream water quality boys. Nope, we get to investigate land based dumping complaints. Of course, people and business don't just dump stuff where you'll find it very easily... :( ... and of course, being with a state agency, we get very, very little equipment or support with which to do our jobs. Everyone's your adversary too. The public thinks you not effective enough, or they think you're meddling in their personal affairs, and business thinks you're costing their bottom line too much. This is usually while your own elected officials are either trying to squeeze more for less out of your agency or shut you down entirely.

Environmental laws are almost always civil law infractions, at first, which sometimes turn into criminal investigations if they're really, really bad (or rather if enough evidence actually exists to prove a criminal infraction...rarely). The bad part about investigating civil law infractions of large magnitude, like an environmental law being broken, is that you are sometimes dealing with people who are dangerous or have a criminal record but you don't know anything about what you're walking into because 99.9% the anonymous complainant has given you very little information with which to work. We don't have any tie into the law enforcement databases or much interaction with criminal enforcement agencies until we've gathered enough evidence for it to go that route. Most of the time we try to handle it under our civil penalties and laws. I've walked into some really, really bad situations but thank God I've always been able to talk my way out of them to get assistance or get the people to cooperate with me.

Edited to remove too many case details.

We get/carry few tools and almost always work alone within a 3.5 hour radius of our office. We definitely aren't allowed to carry weapons, that's bad for public image to have civil law investigators/enforcers with weapons. I've improvised so many tools to get to places and collect samples I can't even count the ways. Fortunately, like criminal law enforcement, our jobs are usually not this exciting but I've got way more than a few stories I'll be able to tell my grandkids someday. Building stream samplers... I don't think so! ;) When I get my tomahawk, it will definitely come in handy!

This post was not intended at all as a rant. I love my job and there are many cases where I actually get to help people prevent problems, or deal effectively with existing problems, or put someone's mind at ease. Helping and protecting people is what it's all about. I often find it interesting to hear about other folks' jobs and I've learned a lot from reading other folks experiences. I just thought I'd provide you with some of my experiences.
 
Sounds like a tough job!....Hope your Hawk serves you well for whatever use it may find!!Good Luck...:D
 
I was rather laughing to myself when I saw the thread about VT vs Masterlock. I've had to perform more lock breaks than I can remember. Sometimes we have a bolt cutter with us but there's only one in the whole building for us to share, not to mention that it's a bit difficult to hike out into the middle of nowhere with all the other sampling equipment. I saw those pictures and thought, hmmmm.... that could work, though I'd use leverage vs. beating the lock. I've used a hammer, large screwdriver, tire iron, etc. to break locks before. It's actually not very hard leverage them tight then just snap the hardened steel U.

Rog the caveman says ..."much better to have key or boltcutters, but Rog can improvise"... ;)
 
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