Modifying the Cold Steel Trail Hawk, an instructional...

[Xunil]

I spent an hour or so on one of mine this morning:

Needs another dunk or two in browning solution to get it where I want it to be, but I wanted to see how the new, go-faster, thinner and polished convex edge handled and, well, it works very, very nicely thank you very much

I took a little meat off the top and bottom and I will do more to it in a week or two but I had a little time free this morning that wasn't enough to start a proper project, so...

 

[Biker]

There is nothing wrong with the axe heads at all, Good tough steel and good heat treat

Well I'll take your word for it, however I'm more than happy with my vintage "take down" style Goldenberg made tomahawk.

 

[Shinken]

I found ir hard to believe with the marketing they do as well. 9 times out of 10 stuff that is marketed like that is cheap rubbish

 

[Aragorn]

where is everyone buying there hawks from, the uk distributer or the bay of evil ?

 

[SteveW]

I got mine direct from Cold steel uk in the end, and have spent the last few days playing with it and doing some mods. So far I'm very impressed with it.

 

[Corso]

I've just sold two take down tomahawks that are far and away better than this any day of the week. IMO. (Let me know how get on with them chaps please.)

will do

No disrespect intended for the axes themselves, I was just disgusted by their OTT sales advert, but it does strike me as odd that you buy a tool from them and effectively have to "finish" it to make it good. That's sad. I'm also more than a little put off to read that the axe heads are made in Taiwan. Not a good origin for anything sold as a "quality tool".

Its just the Lynn's used car sales pitch - like the rather nasty coating they put on all their kit its for the US market, who on the whole seem afraid of carbon knives. They seem to respond to it.

I also see nothing wrong with Taiwan manufacture either, as long as a company is transparant about it, the fact that they marketing themselves as The American Tomahawk Company® is taking the pi$$ a tad though

 

[SteveW]

I thought I'd better show you what I have done with the Hawk so far... Handle stripped of varnish and then flame distressed before having a wipe over with boiled linseed and some wire wool. Black paint removed,blade profile changes slightly,and the edge profile changed and sharpened, some quick and admittedly sloppy file work on the top and then a Vinegar patina applied. I also polished the hammer poll a wee bit. I have done nothing with the hole in the head so far, just in case I think of a use for it later, and I am not planning anything that will make taking the head of difficult as that just defeats the advantages of the tool. I may drill a hole so a removable lanyard can be used though.

 

[Wayland]

Nice job, I like the file work.

I've used mine quite a bit now and I have to say I'm very impressed with it. It cuts and chops extremely well for it's weight.

Looking forward to any updates on the tutorial Martyn.

 

[MJM1]

I think they may be using a different paint on these now. The first clue was the label, it peeled off cleanly with no scraping needed. That was the good news. The bad news is that after three treatments with Nitromors the paint has hardly been touched. I've just given it a good going over with sandpaper to get the shine off and it's now having it's fourth soaking with the paint stripper. Fingers crossed.

 

[Totumpole]

Still waiting on updates Martyn! Mone arrived today but couldnt find paint stripper in town so will have to take a shopping trip to either B&Q or evil bay. So far just deheaded sanded and treated the shaft with linseed/bees wax. Will post a pic when its a bit more aesthetically pleasing!
Cheers again for the inspiration and know how to do it!

 

[Totumpole]

I cut it by hand with a tile saw blade in my hacksaw, (Useful tool, goes through hardened steel with no bother and very little heat.)

What kind of terminator tile saw did you use. The one i picked up out of B&Q today wussed out big time.

After almost a half hour at it, there is barely any cutting surface left on the £2.50 B&Q blade (not to mention the fact it cost another fiver for the handle, as they design them so they wont fit on a normal hacksaw!), and all its done is make something resembling a full scrotum in my hawk
Well, better get that aldi bench grinder thats been sitting in storage up and running!

 

[Wayland]

I used a 12" one that fitted into my normal hacksaw handle.

Pretty sure it came from B&Q but it was a while back now.

 

[Totumpole]

Was yours a round blade like this one. Unfortunately this was all they had. Never mind, I'm sure I'll use it to cut tiles one day!

 

[Wayland]

Yes, round blade.

I've used mine for all sorts of job and it still cuts well.

 

[Totumpole]

Well mine arrived at noon.

Cleaned off the paint, polished it up a bit, worked the handle a bit, drilled out the threading, made a symmetrical hole on the other side and then inlaid with some brass.

Phase one complete.

AGain, I seem to purchase completely inferior tools to you Wayland, do you shop at super B&Q? I have bought hawk no2 to modify as a gift for a friend. As it is a gift I was going to try the above and inlay some nice 6mm mosaic pin. My drill bit did fine at trimming the thread on the origional hole, but after getting half way through the other side the bit has now melted to 4 or 5mm at the tip and put enough vibration through my drill stand to make the initial hole slightly too big
At least if this doesnt work out too well I can learn and modify my approach to hawk no2 to keep it as pretty as possible.

Oh, and as I forgot to post a pic when I had finnished the intial mods here it is:

Also has a rudimentary cover (my first ever bit of leather work)

 

[Wayland]

I have to admit B&Q is my retailer of last resort.

I tend to use Screwfix most often.

 

[whats wrong with you all]

I don't suppose this mod is still going is it Martyn? I'd love to see the finished piece! [and especially the bluing/browning stage]

 

[bill lemon]

some nice looking mods there indeed,and im sure you,ll get a lot of enjoyment doing them.

but do yourselves a favour and hang them on the wall because they are the last thing you,ll want to be carrying once the novelty value has worn off.

sure, theyre fun to throw at trees,but for chopping wood for a fire or carving a bowl theyre rubbish!!!

i bought one months ago and reprofiled / reground it and polished it etc. then after about ten minutes in camp i put it down and picked up my USEFULL gransfors wildlife hatchet which performed beautifully and made the tomahawk just look silly.

if you want to spend £45.00 on a novelty you can dickie up then its just the ticket, but if you want a much more usefull tool then get a proper axe and a decent knife and leave the tomahawk in the display cabinet where it belongs.

 

[Wayland]

I took mine with me on my Arctic trip this year.

It was the only practical axe I could carry due to weight restrictions on aircraft but it performed very well under the circumstances and has now earned a permanent position on my equipment list.

It has been used many times before and since although I have never yet seen fit to throw it at a tree.

I wonder how much you have tested one?

 

[TurboGirl]

Look at that picture. Obviously completely useless. I'd suggest you just dispose of it safely to me to save me the hassle of modding mine as they're not as blingtastic as a GF proper tool.

BTW are you the Person Previously Known as Beenz, Mr Lemon?