Woods Chogan T-Hawk

I came across this Hawk researching axes for throwing. I’d recently made a target at home and was looking for some inexpensive axes to throw at it. I picked up a couple competition style axes and the woods kangee, i mean why not for the price. When it arrived I was instantly enamored with it. its a fearsome looking piece! ..But I couldn’t get this hawk to land on target. I had the competition style axes landing immediately. Admittedly i was frustrated throwing it, at one point I turned it around and gave a chop, spike first, at the target. That’s when I realized the woods kangee’s true talent. The solid spike hit went 2.5in into the punky log round and actually cracked the top 1/3 right off the target!! The blade arrives dull, that’s fine. You should want to put you own edge on it. -if you use a 1000/6000 whet stone you can put what looks like a sweet hamon on the machined edge. The stock handle is disposable. I only used it to throw, as throwing ruins handles. I was able to find a 3rd party curly maple handle which i hand sanded and fit to the head. That was fun to do. The blade is heavy but manageable. It will do campground duty if it must, but the kangee longs for guerilla shenanigans. With a $25 exhibition grade handle, a few hours of elbow grease (edge work and handle sanding) you can have a visually interesting, tactically functional, utterly devastating tomahawk for under $80.

Great tomahawk. Came sharp and the handle is great quality. Worth every cent.

Oh what fun. Solid. Well made and great quality. Pleased.

SO bear with me as I write this slightly annoyed, mostly because I cant find my sharpening stone, so onto the review. Nice handle, good steel, heavy for a tomahawk, good weight for a camp axe, and it even has a smash-y bit on the back to hammer in tent stakes. Having said that (Are you listening CKRT!) I've had butter knives that are sharper come on guys your a knife company you would think you could put an edge on the damn thing or at-least try. My cold Steel axe had more of an edge and that was still dull enough that you couldn't chop your way out of damp cardboard, and this edge is even worse. Sad just sad, and to think they put on all this protective covering making you think it may be sharp, or some reasonable facsimile thereof. #DisappointmentAbounds Well 4 hours later, with a WetStone, I have the Edge profiled, its not sharp but at-least it now can cut wet cardboard. I think I have another 2 hours to finish the edge to sharp and then another hour or so with the fine stone to polish it sharp. Good think I can hand hone in a proper Appleseed edge. When all is said and done my Coarse stone will be toast, CKRT you owe me a new stone for having to fix your sharpening failure. #SarpnessFail Once you get it sharp though, it should prove to be quite a handy camp axe. just be prepared to put in the time to do it. Otherwise it's a fine axe. So for all that you CKRT lose 1 star, and I get 10 for mad sharpening skills, and Gryffindor gets 100 points. Update to all following, I finally got the damn thing sharp. Once sharp it holds an edge (did I mention it's made of good steel.) Took it on a camping trip and use it to chop all the firewood, I love that you can simply knock the Axe head off the handle, This allowed me to use the AXE head ike an ULU for dealing with the fish I caught. (did I mention I have mad sharpening skills.) Filled them using it, then popped the handle back on to split some logs to make the fire for dinner. Later out in the field I cut a maple limb down knocked the head off the axe and used it to whittle a long 30 inch handle as I was needing some more firewood for later in the week. and chopping that with a 20" handle would be tougher than with a full size one so I made one. :-) Next day chopped up some logs and pretty much used the hatches in this fashion until weeks end. At which point I was sure the thing would need more sharpeinig but no, still sharp enough to shave the hair on my arms. So all in all be prepared to put in some time to properly sharpen it, once done it'll serve you for years to come.

This tomahawk is really a hatchet out of the box. It's mass is waaay too heavy to be practical for Self defense in the same way a normal hawk is (for Ex a cold Steel frontier, or pipe hawk). However, this hawk is FAR more useful as a woodsmans tool than the Cold Steel variety, or any of the Mall ninja tacticool breaching hawks out there. It could be a tad sharper as many of the negative reviews have mentioned, but as this thing barely qualifies as a hawk, a knife sharp edge is less important than durability and wood processing power. In that role, it does very well, and was a favorite splitting axe for small logs in the several times I have taken it out. The hammer is all but useless, even though I found uses for it, the geometry and design doesn't lend itself well to any real carpentry or camp chores. Even pounding tent stakes, while totally doable, was less optimal than with a hatchet. Really, the only thing that hammer adds, is mass. This helps with splitting, but gets in the way of every other task. As a lark I decided to totally mod mine, and try to turn it into something a bit more like a Hawk. Step one was to remove the hammer with a hacksaw. This alone was enough to bring the weight down to a manageable if still heavy tomahawk level of mass. Now when I compare it to a comparable Cold Steel hawk, it still outsplits (despite the reduced mass) and is a better tool, but is only marginally slower in hand as a weapon. As I am a collector, I have no shortage of hawks and axes, so I decided to go all out and create a new weapon for the ren faire, and as a fan of Vikings I decided to mod this thing into a viking axe, and now, It's my favorite tool/melee weapon in the house!

Best hatchet I ever used!! Never need to sharpen it and it cuts through both wet and dry wood like butter. Granted I have only used it on cedar, oak, pine, mahogany, amd maple. Definitely gonna buy an axe in the future and already bought the bushcraft knife for hunting. Definitely worth the money and never rusts. Been outside since the day I bought in and it rains constantly in TN.

* Worried the handle will break? Mine didn't and I put it through the wringer on a backpacking trip. Cut down dead and living 8" inch in diameter trees and made it earn its keep with the fire wood. * Afraid its too heavy? Its not. its actually surprisingly light in the hand. * Worried about the craftmanship of the handle, yeah do that. I mean its fine, but the oval of the handle is like, cut wrong at the edges. I don't really notice at all unless I look for it. But, who cares that's going to break over time and be replaced anyway. *Worried about the craftmanship of the head? Meh, its fine. Its uniform in shape but its like a B-. But, for the price this thing is a home run. the steel sharpens well enough too. You wont be shaving with it, but its plenty sharp for outdoorsy stuff. *Worried about the taper of the heads edge? You have the wrong product here. Its tapper is middle of the road. Its not supposed to be a throwing axe, or a cut down the redwood forest, either. Its about 20 degree angle. Worried that it might not be made in the usa? Its not. The handle is, so there's something. Got mine for $35 and I think its worth $50 but, if you're going higher you're in made in usa territory (this isnt) so just buy American and have better quality in Axe head so you can have just one hiking axe for ever since the steel will be higher quality, toughness, keep its edge longer, wear away less quickly while sharpening. all that.

This is an excellent hawk for the price, and better than others at a similar or higher price point. There's a reason the head doesn't fit on the handle the way some think it should: it is meant to be replaceable. With the design of the head you could fabricate a handle from wood in the field if you needed to, or just buy a few extras if you need them. It is meant to be friction fit, it doesn't have the set screw or wedge attachment because again, it's meant to be practical in the field. Once you have the head fit to the handle using the proper technique it's going to stay on there until you want it to come off. There's a few videos on YouTube on how to fit the head to the handle, and it isn't complex; in effect we are talking about 18th C tech and skills. All it takes is some sandpaper and possibly a few passes with a rasp or even a knife to knock down the high spots. The edge does need some work when you get it, but again that's really not hard to do. A simple puck or even files will get you a very good edge with little effort and again lots of YouTube videos on how to do this. CRKT did a great job with the hawk. If you want it for decorative purposes I think it will certainly fit that need and you can get a lot of ideas from YouTube on what people have done. If you want something that is going to be a good tool to take into the woods it will absolutely do that as well with very little effort.