Cold steel Trail Tomahawk mods

[Martyn]

Whatever. It aint "injun".

[Jan Ververs]

I ordered three of these, one for me and two for others, and had some fun with the last two weeks.
Its a good throwing axe too, btw.

atb,

Jan

[ChrisR]

It looks great ... I want one ... I just don't have any reason to have one ... yet

EDIT: Out of interest, how do you get a really good edge on one of these? Sandpaper on a mouse-mat or flat Diamond stones?

[Martyn]

It looks great ... I want one ... I just don't have any reason to have one ... yet

EDIT: Out of interest, how do you get a really good edge on one of these? Sandpaper on a mouse-mat or flat Diamond stones?

I used a belt sander so it took about 3 minutes.

But failing that, I would have used sandpaper and put a series of angled flats on it to build up the profile, then go to mousemat to smooth it all in and put the final edge on it (which is what I did after the coarse grind on the belt). The stock edge on em is awful, they do need re-profiling so be warned. These axes need work to get em sweet.

[mojofilter]

mojo tempted

[Vonny]

Got mine last week and as Jan said a great thrower as well. I love the little hammer head on it, no need to take a hammer to whack in the tent pegs and gives nice wee anvil too boot. Got it shaving sharp like Martyn did as the edge was pants on it. HEAP big fun tool.

[ChrisR]

Ahh, sounds great but the job of reprofiling might be beyond me ... worth getting one though and giving it a try

[metalbudgie]

Martyn, what etching technique did you use on the head? I have stripped mine of the paint but the textured finish, although now well oiled, seems destined to take a fine sheen of rust.

[Martyn]

Martyn, what etching technique did you use on the head? I have stripped mine of the paint but the textured finish, although now well oiled, seems destined to take a fine sheen of rust.

Dipped it in ferric chloride untill it went black and then ren-wax.

The acid oxidises the surface of the steel and forms a thin barrier to further oxidation by creating a superficial layer of black iron oxide - it's a similar process to parkerizing or the bluing or browning of gun barrels. It's not a very effective barrier and needs oil to seal it, but it does stop that instant rusting you get on bare metal as soon as it's exposed to an electrolyte. You just dip the steel in an acid solution (I used ferric chloride but some use strong coffee, vinegar or mustard) until it gets a grey-black layer, rinse with clean water, dry it and oil it and that's it. You can buy commercial treatments that do a better job. This one (posted on bladeforums)....



...has been treated with plum brown barrel finish and looks very nice indeed. I've got some plum brown on the way and am going to give mine a shot.

[Stew]

I would be tempted to do J. Nielson's technique. It involves hot bleach though, so not the safest!

[Martyn]

linky?

[Stew]

Looks like this;



And this is how it's done:
"coat the blades with a mix of cold blue gun paste and yellow mustard, then leave them sit for a few days. Now the nasty part... I then boil them in bleach for 2-3 minutes 3-4 times scrubbing them with heavy steel wool. If you try this, make sure your protected, it's really bad for you & make sure to boil in baking soda and water after to neutralize everything."

[Martyn]

Thanks Stew, looks interesting if a little scarry with all those bleach fumes.


A little update on my mod, I have finished the edge profile on my hawk and I'm very happy with it - in fact I have a nice clean slice on my index finger to prove how sharp it is. I took it outside and whacked hell out of a stump, it didnt roll, chip or din k so I'll call that good and leave it alone now. Sanded the handle a bit to get it nice and remove some of the marks caused by getting the head off the first time. I decided to add a collar - not sure what function they have, maybe an over-strike protector? I dunno, but the one on the other pic looked good so i thought I'd give it a go. I prolly should have done a sheath first - maybe could have avoided the blood if I had.

Anyway....









I'm pretty pleased with that edge! It's mirror polished, but I cant seem to get a picture of it, it's like dark matter.

It's all raw at the moment, the leather has just been wetted to form it round the handle nice and will need a stain and some proper leather lace - just a bit of chainsaw starter cord in there for now. The handle will need a stain too and I might add a lanyard hole - dunno. Oh, and I need to make a sheath and belt hanger for it.

[andrew_cc]

Modding the Trailhawk is a lot of fun, I only just came across this thread but I thought Id throw in my mod as part of our little collection here







Yes Im aware that fire is wayyyy big, when I came back a buddy had built it up to an enormous size! but hey, why waste a photo oportunity...

[MeetTheGeeks]

Nice work!

The indians always said that they would gather fire wood, have a small fire and stay warm all night. The white man builds a fire and keeps warm fetching firewood all night..