Mod'ing The CS Trail Hawk

first cold steel tomahawk and first mod...I'm pretty happy with the way it came out.

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Finished up the trail hawk for my neighbors son. Sure didn't take long to mod. Removed the set screw, stripped the head, ground the eye socket, sanded the handle, gave it some slight burn marks, a light coat of red mahogany stain, and a coat of danish oil. Only took a few hours. Crappy indoor photos. The lighting makes it look lighter than it really is:

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That looks great man! Been keeping an eye on them. The wife's gonna be pissed but they're $25 so....
I'll have one in time for a weekend mod project!
 
NCSlice said:
That looks great man! Been keeping an eye on them. The wife's gonna be pissed but they're $25 so....
I'll have one in time for a weekend mod project!
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Thanks man. So easy to do. I'm gonna get another in the very near future.
 
Okay folks, I may be joining this group soon. I just purchased a Cold Steel Frontier Hawk and should get it any day now. I've got ideas for the shaft, but when I strip the finish off the head, I'd like it to have that dull worn look. Any advice on how to go about getting it? Is it necessary to boil vinegar and let it cook? Or can I just leave it soaking in a tub of cold vinegar overnight and get the same results?
 
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Okay folks, so I've officially joined the club. Here's my Frontier Hawk, and what I did to it.





My skills at applying stain evenly over the length of the handle are abysmal. Two coats and neither one of them turned out any good, regardless of how many times I passed over them.
 
That is an attribute of wood grain, it's God's copyright, no two are ever alike.
They look great from here! :D
 
I've got two other hawks ordered and on the way. With them I'm thinking about drilling a lanyard hole, and sticking a copper insert in them. I've got a lot of narrow copper piping on hand for such a project.
 
As we speak the stain is drying on the next two hawks. They're definitely going to be a step above the frontier hawk.
 
Alright everyone. It's time for pictures!

I started off my restaining the handle on the frontier hawk.



It took some damage when chopping down a tree, because I missed the concrete just under the dirt.



Next is my favorite so far, the pipe hawk.



I don't know what this is, but this stain is on both sides of the hawk in the same place, and it withstood three applications of paint stripper.





And now the rifleman hawk.



All three together.



And some close ups of the handle work I've done.







I'm particularly proud of the inserts. I cut 3/8" OD copper pipe, polished it, sanded it, filed it, contoured it to the curves of the handle, reamed out the edges, and swaged the ends for a good solid fit.
 
Just starting to mod my CS Spike hawk handle and I have a quick question....after the stain dries, should I sand it before I introduce the boiled linseed oil?

Any help is appreciated!
 
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AR_Freak said:
Just starting to mod my CS Spike hawk handle and I have a quick question....after the stain dries, should I sand it before I introduce the boiled linseed oil?

Any help is appreciated!
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I use 0000 steel wool knocks off the burrs.
 
I actually got two hawks done. Nothing elaborate but I like 'em!

The Spike hawk. Stripped the head (It still has some darker spots....kinda like them too!) Vinegar patina. sanded the handle for fit and stained it in walnut and BLO.

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This one is the CS Pipe hawk. Just stripped the head and tried to patina with mustard and vinegar. Wish it had come out better. Sanded the handle and, since the hickory had a dark "stripe" that I liked I just used BLO on it. Also tried my hand at wrapping for the first time as well.

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Got one of these right when they came out.

Cold Steel viking hand axe, which I mounted on a shorter hickory hawk handle finished with Tung oil. Deer skin grip with a couple turks heads knots

The blade came pretty dull but has gotten to a almost hair popping edge with a little elbow grease.



 
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