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| My Cold Steel Trail Hawk |
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I used to have a Cold Steel Trail Hawk Tomahawk in my bushcraft kit as a tertiary cutting tool, and as you have seen it is absent from my bushcraft kit. Why, you may ask? For me it was a failure. Tomahawks have been a tool/ weapon for Frontiersmen and Native Americans for many decades. They are characterized by light weight heads and longer shafts in relation to hatchets. They only Tomahawks I entertained thoughts on using were poleaxes. Poleaxes have a flat surface for hammering, or a hammer like projection opposite the axe head. The appeal of the Tomahawk proved more romantic than practical for me. I know know that a hatchet is the way to go.
Pros: romantic, historic, cool factor, hammering tool, chopping tool, and light weight.
Cons: insufficient mass for chopping efficiently, small cutting surface, and long handle was a little unwieldy.
I tested the Cold Steel Tomahawk in the freezing cold of the Maine winter and it did not even make more than superficial cuts in a two inch thick frozen pine tree. I was actually able to chop better batoning the Becker BK2 I had with me through the branch. Even chopping in a cleaver-like fashion I did better with the Becker BK2. Subsequent tests proved that a ten dollar Walmart hatchet outperformed it by a wide margin. So now I am looking for a hatchet with a forged high carbon head, leather sheath, and wooden handle. The Condor Knife and Tool Greenland Axe look good.
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| Batoning With Becker BK2 |
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| Greenland Pattern Axe |
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| Huqvarna Hatchet |
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| Longhunter | |
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| Voyager | |
I did luck out that day, because even thought Tomahawk was a failure it was not an epic one. Sean, my girlfriends son, got to learn to use a tomahawk and hatchet safely that day. I shorted the tomahawk handle with the laplander saw and let him use it to learn. Sean loves the current Assassin's Creed game and the main character uses a tomahawk, during the Revolutionary War period. Even though tomahawks were a failure for me, he still wants one so I am thinking the Voyager and Longhunter tomahawks by 2Hawks are the only viable options for tomahawks. They look like their heads have twice the mass of the cold steel tomahawk I had.
Remember to learn from your failures, and evolve your techniques and kit as a result. Until next time keep you knives sharp and your powder dry.
