Best production Tomahawk to modify?

[Armando]

I've seen some folks here do a great job buying a modern Tomahawk and then modifying it to personalize and make it more period/historically correct.

What are some good tomahawk candidates to do some work on? Cold Steel?

 

[Tom A Hawk]

I bought a CRKT Chogan and found it much too heavy for use as a weapon. Its more of a two handed camp axe in my opinion. Then obtained a Seneca style head from TOW and a curly Maple handle from Crazy Crow. This weight is much more to my liking.

 

[Armando]

I bought a CRKT Chogan and found it much too heavy for use as a weapon. Its more of a two handed camp axe in my opinion. Then obtained a Seneca style head from TOW and a curly Maple handle from Crazy Crow. This weight is much more to my liking.

View attachment 23550

Nice job!
What did you do to the handle to make it look so good? Brass tacks? Finish?

 

[Brokennock]

If I were to modify another production tomahawk it would be a Cold Steel "Trail Hawk." I want the hammer poll and it is the lightest option they make with one. I did my work on a "Pipe Hawk" as it is smaller and lighter than the "Rifleman's Hawk," and at the time I thought the cutting edge on the "Trail Hawk," to be too small.
I went with the Cold Steel as they have a great reputation for being very, very, tough, yet taking and holding a great edge, this has held to be true. The biggest wart to deal with, in my opinion, is the set screw they put through the side of the eyelet to "help" secure the head. I don't weld so I really don't have a good way to make this go away. The most obvious issue is that black coating, it is removable,,,,,, but not easily.
The "Pipe Hawk," is still too heavy. And, the pipe bowl shaped hammer poll is fully to use and makes sheath fabrication a little more tricky. I think if I can get access to a metal fabricating chop saw I am going to cut it off creating a thick flat at the back of the eyelet like this,
current configuration.
proposed cut line. Then some file work.
If I had access to a bench sander I would remove more of the rough surface and polish everything more. With just hand tools, I decided to leave it looking rough. The bench grinder does more harm than good.

 

[Tom A Hawk]

Nice job!
What did you do to the handle to make it look so good? Brass tacks? Finish?

Aqua Fortis and True Coat were used to finish the handle.

One should note that many of the commercially available hawks are made by casting and have been made to sell rather than to be used. The folks responsible have never actually used one themselves and therefore have no concept of what the end product should be.

 

[Ames]

Nicely said.

 

[Brokennock]

One should note that many of the commercially available hawks are made by casting and have been made to sell rather than to be used. The folks responsible have never actually used one themselves and therefore have no concept of what the end product should be.

Good point. I should have noted that part of what makes the Cold Steel hawks so tough is that they are forged.
Not hand forged one at a time, but some type of mass forging. And, obviously the steel they use is part of this.

 

[Rifleman1776]

One should note that many of the commercially available hawks are made by casting and have been made to sell rather than to be used.

True, casting is very common in recent years. A forged hawk is out of range for the budget of many. I have quite a few hawks and had more. My very old H&B has gone through many rough times and still is ready for another half, or more, century of similar use. But, I also have two cast models that have held up quite well. From arms length they can't be told from the H&B.
A member here once made me a riflemans hawk from a roofing hammer. Good looking weapon. Never used and a friend couldn't live without it so I sold to him.