never had one...but want.. and don't want to break the bank..
thanks!


p.s.
or maybe even a kukri..

Eastwing makes a nice hawk, for a nice price.

This is very nice blade for the money, for the price you can get two.

for a kukri, look for the Condor heavy duty Kukri, runs around $60 on Amazon. My hawk tastes are too expensive for you.

Ok...i'll bite..lemme have it!!

2hawks Woodsman = $100
Mainline Forge hammer pole = $225
RMJ Jenny Wren = $400ish
RMJ S13 Shrike = $400ish
American Kami Micraxe = $450

yes sir...you were correct.. too "spensive" for me.. but the quality is something.. maybe when i've been into the hawk thing for a while i could see myself possibly picking one up.. i like the RMJ hawks..thanks for the info!

CRKT Chogan was designed by Ryan Johnson of RMJ and is a value priced hawk. I would try to find one to handle in person though, because grain direction is important in selecting the wood haft on any striking tool. Personally I don't like Ryans newer "Tactical" hawks and prefer the hand forged historical repros he did when he was a youngster.

The Mainline Forge hawk is a nice piece, based on traditional design, but made from a reforged ball pein hammer. The lines are all super clean, as he does some finish grinding after he reforges it. Comes on a wood haft, with replacements available.

i do love the old traditional look...but.. i think im wanting a full tang... i just for some reason..with the luck i've had with my axes..keep seeing myself having to replace the handle

The haft on any wooden handled striking tool has to have the grain running front to back. In other words, no arched grain on the front or back and the grain lines vertical and straight up and down arched grain only up the sides. Most tool and axe manufacturers no longer qc or turn hafts to be sure of this small but very important detail. Way back in the day hafts were "split" out of a round to be sure the grain was straight and stable for the length of the haft before it was patterned then shaped. It's kind of a lost bit of knowledge now but it makes the hafts pretty impervious to snapping unless it takes a heavy side strike.

My favorite Hawk is a Ranger Knives hand forged spike hawk, custom hook bill ground and polished by Justin Gingrich who founded Ranger Knives. It has a standard wooden haft that can be replaced with any throwing hawk haft. Sometimes I'll tie a 3 or 4 byte turk's head knot around the haft under the head to keep the head forward and to provide an overstrike guard on the haft.

Just dipping your toes? try a ColdSteel trail hawk and mod it to your liking. Go to bladefroums to see all the crazy things that can be done with one.
Actually taking the dive then get an RMJ tactical little bird it's the cheap way to lean into high end Hawks.

RMJ loggerhead is my favorite for hiking, camping & hunting

I carry my RMJ shrike on duty. It is great for popping master locks, windows and prying, also handy for downed tree limbs and small trees at car accidents. It's much more worn now but I don't have any fresh pictures.


I would also take a look at the RMJ Berserker.

If you remember next year, RMJ does releases of their Little Bird for black Friday.  They're not as much as the other 'hawks. It's my first RMJ and it lives in my car. I've used it for cutting downed trees out of the road and even cut a windshield out to get the driver out after a rollover.

Elmer roush hand forged



Rmj shrike that my wife got me before my last deployment

They have them for sale right now

removed - keeping my view of politics out of the thread to prevent derail

kinda want a trail hawk after checking out that forum.

I messed around with a CRKT Chonga the other day, and I really liked it very much. I'm going to add it to the camping kit.

Like knives and guns, hawks are built to do some things better than another.

Handles - full wood handles can and do break if struck under the tool head. If this hawk is for camp craft and use on wood alone, they are sufficient. If used on metal as a breaking bar then a full tang metal haft is required.

There are a variety of hawk faces and shapes, how blunt the overall thickness and the edge geometry tells you what it was intended to cut well. Typical convex edges are for chopping and splitting wood, the serrated faces tend to handle composites and metal better.

The angle of the cutting edge may be from 90 to the grip (not necessarily the haft, that's different) or alternately in line with the butt of the haft. That is where you see edges angled downward so the hawk resting on the edge has the butt also on the same plane. Some consider that more ergonomic than a parallel edge.

The reverse to the hawk face can be a poll, hammer, or spike, some are straight, or curved to allow levering under an object to lift or break it. In those cases the head has a rocking curve from the upper corner of the hawk face back to the tip of the spike to allow it to roll thru the motion and make leverage have more efficiency.

A spike can and will hit you in the head on the backstroke if you are experienced with shorter claw hammers. DO NOT ASSUME THEY A JUST THE SAME. Go ahead, ask me how I know. It was a just a friendly reminder at best, I don't want to be that guy in an xray avatar.

Condor makes a hawk with rolled handle welded but it offsets the axis of the head to one side so that every blow twists in your grip. The round profile doesn't help at all, and the overall size and weight is a hassle. It's ok for clearing up brush ( and I wear a bump cap using it.) A good tactical hawk has a oval shaped handle, doesn't need paracord to puff it up or soak up moisture, and will be free of friction points.

Multipiece handles with rivets can and will be a potential failure point that can happen when you least need it. Goes to full tang handles with scales, or wood handles used poorly, too. A wood handled hawk can fashion it's own new handle in the field, tho. A broken two piece handle hawk becomes a short hatchet at best. Hawks do what they do with a longer handle to get the head moving at a higher speed - same as trying to hit a golf ball with a driver vs a framing hammer. Handle length is power.

Materials ARE important but you can go too far. Its a blunt striking instrument that may be levered, for the most part high carbon steel does well and alloys are generally an expensive step up for an incremental improvement only. Same for scales or handles - wood does well at the low stress end, full tang ok as a levering tool. How that full tang is secured and what it's made up getting bent and stressed needs to match the tools operating envelope, not the markets cool factor.

Now you have the list of features you can build your hawk from. And yeah, those Shrikes are a holy grail, but I live on a CRKT budget.

Not to forget - if you decide on a bright color to be able to ID it laying on the forest floor, sky blue is better than dayglo or hunter orange. A fall forest floor covered with bright orange leaves doesn't help seeing a bright orange hawk. If you choose earth tones or camo then oh well.