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tomahawk

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I own the Cold Steel in the first link. Takes & holds a great edge. Haven't really thrown it much yet. Was going to ding it up just a little so it wouldn't look completely new. Beat on the top of my bench vise & all it did was dent the vise. Tuff stuff. It's a one piece head. The set screw is for the handle. Took it out & spot welded over it.
 
Just bought a hand-forged 'hawk from coalcreekforge off of EBAY. It's a Roger's Rangers style with a patina and some nice filework on the head. The haft is a premium curly maple with a LOT of stripe. Got it for $100. He also makes other styles.
 
A tomahawk is a TOOL. If you use that tool, it will develope wear, dings, dull the edge, and the handle will loosen up. It just happens when you use a tool hard. And if you throw it, that puts a lot of hard SHOCK into the junction of the wood handle and the metal head. That "shock" will loosen up any handle over time. It just happens.

The handles on my blacksmithing hammers loosen up all the time. It's just a fact of life. Like any well-used tool, it needs occasional repair and/or tweaking.

Soaking your hawk (or hammer) in water will tighten it up at that moment. It swells up the wood. But it also crushes some of the wood cell structure. So when it dries out and the wood shrinks, it will be looser than before. Then next time you soak it in water to tighten it back up, it will not swell up as much as before. And it will be a little looser when it dries back out. Something of a vicious circle.

So if you throw your hawk, just expect the handle to loosen up occasionally, and possibly break. It's a known condition. You just have to learn to deal with it.

And most people are better served by buying one of the lower priced hawks out there. They will do most of what people require of them. Once you have some experience using a hawk, then is the time to search out one that may better fit your needs.

Just my humble thoughts to share. Take them as such.

Mikey - yee ol' grumpy German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands
 
-----isn't soaking the head of an ax or hammer in kerosean the way to keep handles tight?-----
 
The proper way to deal with this is either replace the handle or put in a wedge. Messing with soaking in this or that is merely an duct-tape fix - temporary at best to get you through until you can fix it. Unfortunately, many people go for the duct-tape fix as the permanent solution...
 
-----I didn't mean soak it to fix a loose handle--in the old days they were stored in kero until the next use,keeping the handle tight while being used-----something like some soak ramrods in kero to keep them flexible-----
 
What happened when the kerosene evaporated? The head was loose again.

I understand the mentality of the time as my grandfather was the same. In many cases people couldn't afford to fix it, so the stop-gap measures were used. Wood dries out and shrinks, it also wears in the eye and both end up loosening the head. Soaking it in anything was still a temporary fix.
 
-----when you are finished using it for the day you put it back in the bucket---don't let it dry out-----
 
-----you are not fixing a loose head this way--you are preventing getting a loose head-----didn't anyone ever hear of doing this?-----
 
If it ain't broke, don't fix it?

I'm not trying to be difficult, however I am trying to understand why.....
 
-----if a tool with a wooden handle is used, the handle will eventually come loose, so why wait until it comes loose when it can be prevented?????-----
 
OK, just my 2 cents. Growing up, my Father would take all of our hand tools, shovels, picks, cultivators and such and drill a hole in the handle. Nothing fancy, maybe 3/16 or 1/4 inch diameter and we would fill with kerosene. After filling it, we would make a plug and plug it. The oil in the kerosene{coal oil} kept the handle from drying out and getting brittle. We did this once a year. He was a stickler on taking care of tools. As a side note, he had a bucket inside the door of the tool shed filled with sand. We put put old engine oil in the sand and before you put a tool away, you scraped it with a putty knife to clean it, then worked it throught the sand/oil bucket to finish cleaning it and to oil it at the same time. I never remember my Father having to replace a tool ,and Lord help you if you put a tool away dirty!
Jon
 
As mentioned soaking in water is a BAD idea. However, soaking in antifreeze or linseed oil works great and will not evaporate or damage the wood fibers.
 
Black Hand said:
If it ain't broke, don't fix it?

I'm not trying to be difficult, however I am trying to understand why.....

I'm with you. I guess these preventions would work, but it seems like a lot of effort to save yourself 2 minutes work maybe twice a year. :confused:
 
I guess all this "soaking" is for "axes" with a straight eye?

All my tomahawk eyes and handles are tapered. The handle cannot slip off and it is very simple to tighten, should it become loose.

Example:

CheapHawk.jpg
 

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