I was wondering if any of you carry or use a hawk/tomahawk (or small hatchet) while hunting?
I just discovered how efficient a hawk can be for chopping (building ground blinds or making a fire). And most hawks do not weight very much and can easily be carried.
What hawk/hatchet do you use? Manufacturer? Model?
What is your experience?
I often carry one with me as well as a pair of pruning scissors. I have a Marble Hatchet and love it.
I do not carry/use either one; however, as I am getting older and starting to hunt terra firma more the ground blind building idea appeals to me. Thanks for the idea.
I've gotta couple made by Craig Barr. Found him on *Bay. I got one made from Damascus, and one plain. He makes one with a blade and hammer ends, and one with a blade and point end. I went with the hammer ends on both.
They throw great, and are plenty hard. They work for clearing the brush, driving pegs, and whatever. Not to mention how good looking they are. Check him out, Deer Mountain Forge Damascus. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Have several and often carry one while hunting. Timberline makes a small "Bush Pilot" hatchet that is fantastic. Also have a couple of small older Marbles Safety axes, a Marbles Double Bit Hatchet, a small Ft Meigs style belt axe, and a couple of "Hawks". Can't replace a full size axe but if kept razor sharp it amazing what can be done with a small "belt axe/hatchet. I have made leather belt sheaths for all and have found them quite handy to carry.
I very often carry either a hawk (Shrew) or a Fiskars hatchet. Nothing about the Fiskars is trad, but it is light and works !
The hawk also doubles as a skwerl "bonker" if I am using nutters.
ChuckC
I carried a small hatchet for years, then a ESTWING hatchet, then my Ft.Miegs. I love em for dressing game and working on blinds. I hunt mostly the same spots any more and have quit packing on with me a few years ago. I will be putting together a new "Hunting belt" for next season and will resume my hatchet use. I thought santa was gonna give me a new shrew hawk but the elfs didn't make enough(or I was naughty,NAH!) Lets have a look at your choppers!
I carry one on every hunt. Look at my screen name and you will see who manufacturers them. I produce and sell a lot of hawks out of my forge. I love them. Splitting a breast bone, or pelvis is really easy, even on large animals like elk. With a hammer poll hawk pounding in stakes or making a blind is light work. I wouldn't be caught in the woods without one. I consider them to be as important as my knife.
I want to add here that I hike long distances and hunt far from my vehicle. I often end up camped next to a kill overnight, so the hawk is an important survival tool, and definately makes my life a lot easier when I have to put up a quick shelter or ground blind, gather firewood, clean an animal, etc...
QuoteOriginally posted by Ragnarok Forge:
I carry one on every hunt. Look at my screen name and you will see who manufacturers them. I produce and sell a lot of hawks out of my forge. I love them. Splitting a breast bone, or pelvis is really easy, even on large animals like elk. With a hammer poll hawk pounding in stakes or making a blind is light work. I wouldn't be caught in the woods without one. I consider them to be as important as my knife.
I want to add here that I hike long distances and hunt far from my vehicle. I often end up camped next to a kill overnight, so the hawk is an important survival tool, and definately makes my life a lot easier when I have to put up a quick shelter or ground blind, gather firewood, clean an animal, etc...
Do you have a website?
I use the Estwing campers, its great because of the opposite hammer head , but I am willing to give Ragnorok forge a look?
I have a Gransfors Hunters Axe. VERY nict tool for blinds and cleaning game or .......
Would love to find a better way to carry. Any ideas? Photos?
Saw a guy make a Posssibles bag with a spot for his axe on the back. Looked great and functional.
Tim
DEATHMASTER
I made a possidles bag for a hawk I bought at crazycrows. Ill try to get a pic on here later. Mark
I carry a mouse hawk. Its about 1/2 the size of a reg. hawk. comes in real handy when ground hunting.
great idea...usually have one along when camping, and always carried one trapping... never really thought to haul a small one on longer hunts--->i've always carried a folding saw in my pack, but a 'hawk seems better, especially since the idea of all the little shavings (after trimming with a toothed sawblade)always leaves me thinking about the concentration of the (new/unusual)odor in the area...Thanks!
I dont carry a hawk but I do carry a steadfast knife or my ka-bar they are both thick and heavy and can chop down a a 4-5" tree.
I carry one, a light hawk that Ron LaClair sells. I use it a lot, in treestands, and putting together ground blinds.
I got a pic of my hawk and sheath-bag. Mark markas4259.71420@uploads.photobucket.com
that didnt work, Ill be back.
(http://i1003.photobucket.com/albums/af158/markas4259/100_1332.jpg)
Gerardo,
Keep your eyes out on the knifemakers forum. I will post some of my work there for you to look at in the next day or two.
Clay
I sometimes carry a cheap one (model is 'Frontier Hawk'; maker - who knows) that I picked up at Smokey Mountain Knifeworks in TN a few years back. I'd carry it more often if I had a scabbard for the thing - don't like that sharp edge lurking out there just waiting to eat a bow string.
I used it earlier this year as a drag handle for a doe I killed...
(http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff187/GingivitisKahn/20090927_ac_02_jim_doe.jpg)
I carry a tomohawk, not sure of the make but it does not weigh a whole lot and it has a weeping heart in it!!
I have the little gerbers. Razor sharp. What a great tool. Never go hunting with out it. Nothing splits an elk any better. or makes a shelter, or a blind. Its just a great tool. Light and handy. Be a great weapon too but hope I never have to use it.
I've used my Shrew Hawk for years and wouldn't think of going to the woods without it.
http://www.shrewbows.com/shrewhawk/index.htm
http://shrewbows.com/Frontiersman/index.html
(http://www.shrewbows.com/rons_linkpics/1st%20with%20Shrew%20Scout.JPG)
Tenbrook and Gerardo,
I do not have a website. If you want to see some of my work check out the recent tomohawk posting on the Knifemakers forum. If you have any questions feel free to pm me.
Ragnarok,
For some reason the pm function isn't working for me. I am going to be in the Portland/Vancouver area later this month, is it possible to see some of your work?
I have a small marbles hatchet, I made a sling sheath to carry it.
Nah, knife on the belt & small folding saw in the pack serve me fine. I do prefer top end fixed blades, usually I carry a Randall Model 5 or Hattori Medium Fighting Bowie (Hattori's slightly larger clone of the Randall)..
I often carry a hatchet- I couldnt tell you who made it I have never liked the light wieght of a 'hawk for seroius chopping- for light chopping and trimming I just use my knife
I have a small hatchet head that I got from my grandfather. He used it working the Produce Markets of Sydney for years, opening and closing crates mostly. I need to find a good piece of wood for a handle and make a sheath for it. Is going into my "new" hunting kit for next year.
Used a Shrew hawk this past season. I just put it in my pack along with other needed gear. Used it for clearing grease wood durning the antelope season. Late elk season around camp very handy and will carry it from now on instead of clippers for ground blinds and a bone saw.
I carry my Shrew hawk on almost every hunt! Awesome tool!
I carry one in the truck does that count.
I use a Cold Steel hammer poll hawk in a leather sheath. Light & easy to use. Been tempered so it holds a really good edge. Hammer is nice for driving stakes & things around camp.
I carry a small hawk during our flintlock season here in PA. I wear it in the small of my back. It goes with the bag, horn, custom flintlock, etc.
Jethro1
I sent you a pm. We can definately meet up. If you have some time we should head out to the woods and do some stump shooting.
Clay Walker
Ragnarok Forge
QuoteOriginally posted by Butch Speer:
I use a Cold Steel hammer poll hawk in a leather sheath. Light & easy to use. Been tempered so it holds a really good edge. Hammer is nice for driving stakes & things around camp.
If that's the Trail Hawk, i just got one a few weeks ago. Got it shaving sharp pretty quick and then went and chopped up a load of 10 year seasoned yew to test it out. Still took hair off my arm after that - well impressed!
My friend and i even used it as a splitting wedge by beating down on the hammer pole with a really big sledge hammer. We really beat the hell out of it to get it through some really knotty yew and it still took hair off.
Only bad thing is that they don't do a belt sheath, or any kind of sheath, for it.
I have a Kershaw htachet my wife and daughter gave me for father's day. It works great.
I started carrying mine after encountering some pretty mean dogs while scouting.
I carry a hawk,I use it to cut through the pelvic bone of deer
Recently aquired a Vector Hawk. Will be useing from now on when I scout, will keep handy in the rig or in camp. Most of the farm land hunting I do won't require it each and every time I'm out hunting. Vec has a website mostly of older versions of his work, newer versions can be seen a dirttime dot com or hoodswoods dot com search for Hawks.
I am fortunate to have acquired a shrew hawk and it goes to the woods a lot.
I once saw a guy carrying a hatchet, a Samurai Sword and a bow while hunting pigs...brah
I tried it once, a Fiskar's hatchet. As a hatchet it works, but as a hunting tool where I am I felt I got farther with my collapsible Fiskars saw and a good 4" blade. Weighed less too...
I'll be carrying my new Bark River Scagel Camp Ax on my trips to the timber from now on.
Mine is the top one - Desert Ironwood scales.
My brothers is on the bottom - Bacote scales.
(http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s290/mjweste/Bark%20River/IMG_3447-1.jpg)
Great for building shelter, blinds, clearing shooting lanes, handling camp chores or hunting tasks. :D
Build my own, out of farrier's rasp. Do it right, and they'll last forever!
JAG/Johnny
Deathmaster,
This is how I carry mine when needed. I made the sheaths with a holster clip, to clip to belt or pack.
(http://i996.photobucket.com/albums/af81/CraigSchoneberg/DSC_00054x5-1.jpg)
Here's a couple of mine, a spike hawk and a hammer pole. Serious war hawks.
(http://www.shrewbows.com/rons_linkpics/Finished%20hawk.JPG)
Awesome tomahawks ya got there Ron :)
Here's my two.....
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/robtattoo/Hawks.jpg)
The top hawk was one I forged up a couple or three years ago. Nice & handy around the camp, but I don't carryit while I'm hunting. I could never get used to the handle constantly slapping aganst my leg/back/butt.
The smaller of the two I forged from a small (8oz?) ball pein hammer & hafted with a lump of osage. It's by far & away the sharpest piece of steel I've ever made! I've not sharpened it in 2 years & it sees a lot of use as a kindling splitter/rabbit de-foot & header/pelvis splitter & whittling axe & it still pops hair!
I think the forging & sharpening Gods were smiling on me when I made that one!
I carry a cheap hawk. I use it more than I thought I would--even for things like using it as a hook to help me up a steep hill. It does not have a sheath. I will try to make a simple one if I can scrounge up some leather. Track of the Wolf website sells a couple different sheaths at very reasonable prices. Right now, I am using a 4" length of garden hose split lengthwise and held on by a thick rubber band as a blade guard. It works, but it's not too traditional.
QuoteOriginally posted by Two Tracks:
I thought santa was gonna give me a new shrew hawk but the elfs didn't make enough(or I was naughty...
I also was hoping for a Shrew Hawk from Santa. I'm blaming its absence under the tree on the lower work ethic of today's elves too.
I'm just going to have to get one the "old fashioned way" and order it off Ron's website...
Until then I will keep using my little Gerber "backpacker.". It's a great little hatchet in its own right.
I've carried a hawk for several years. Use to compete in throwing competitions, I've used it to take quite a bit of game as well. I've gotten pretty good at taking rabbits on the run between 10-12yards-now if I can just hit them with the bow :knothead:
I usually have one along when camping, and always carry that saw with me.
The top one is an all-round axe by H. Roselli from Finland.
The bottom one is self-made.
(http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad132/yononindo/Axe.jpg)
Daniel