Cold Steel Trail or Rifleman's hawk?

B

borwish

Joined
Jun 26, 2006
Messages
2
Greetings folks. First time posting, but I've read here off and on for a few months. I'm about to order some stuff and thought about getting a CS hawk to experiment with. Which one do you guys perfer; the Trail hawk or the Rifleman's hawk. The Rifleman's is heavier with a larger blade, but does that make it too unwieldy? Does the Rifleman's extra weight and larger blade make it chop faster/better? Does it need a larger handle for better balance? Does the Trial hawk's light weight give it an advantage when carrying it, or does the weight difference only show on a long hike.

I most likely will not throw it any. I basically want to be able to cut down trees about 3-4 inches in diameter (anything bigger gets the axe) and also use it for rough wood removal when making wooden selfbows. Small log spliting will be done with wedges or I might give the Camillus BK7 a try. I understand that I will have to do some work to them to make them decent first.

Thanks,

borwish
 
I have a Rifleman's, but not Trail.

It chops okay for me, but I'm a big guy. It can be unwieldy at times, and I usually prefer a 'hawk that's more along the lines of CS's Frontiers 'hawk, lighter and more controlable.

Of course, I bought my Rifleman's hawk before the Trail hawk came along, otherwise I probably would have gone with the Trail hawk instead.

Good luck in your choice, Take care.
 
I believe the rifleman is also the heaviest of the cold steel line, but i could be wrong on that. I personally think that the norse hawk or the rifleman is the way to go. But then again you cant be disapointed with a product from cold steel. Right now i have a recon scout which is simpley just a short bowie blade and we recently had a storm in az the put a lot of good sized branches in our yard. The recon scout made short work of them and chopped them up all into small peices. But my person opinion is the rifleman.
 
I've owned both but given a 3rd choice I'd go for a Fort Turner from Dana Turner. Better steel, hand forged and excellent fit. These babies are sharp too. For around 50 bucks and you don't need to tune up anything. I put a cord wrap on mine for choking up for finer chopping and that was it.

The Rifleman is very heavy. A small axe would be more efficient IMO and the Trail Hawk has a blade edge that is too narrow for cutting anything but small branches. The Frontier Hawk is a better chopper.

The TH is a good one to customize. There are some threads with pics of what several members have done. Do a search on Cold Steel hawks or hawk mods to start.

Hope this helps.

hatchet-
 
I'll second the Ft. Turner. I've got a Buck Hawk from Dana and it's great!
Bob
 
I find the riflemans hawk to be a good chopper. The weight can get in the way sometimes but I don't find it unreasonably awkward. I find that the trail hawk to be not very good for cutting down trees past 3in. The frontier hawk I find to be decent for trees but I mainly just use them for throwing (cheap and last a long time).
 
Welcome borwish! You'll find a lot of good info here. I have a rifleman hawk and like it, because it simulates the weights of my heavier, all metal, tactical hawks. If you can weild a rifleman well, lighter hawks will become a pleasure.
 
Thanks for all the advice and info. I would have said "thanks" earlier, but I wanted to be able to say more. I ended up ordering both and they arrived today. The Rifleman's for my brother and the trail hawk for myself. I haven't tested chopping with either yet.

As far as feel the trail hawk feels really good. It's light and fast. The Rifleman's is heavy and probably be a better chopper as you guys stated, but it just feel unnatural somehow. I'm happy that I chose the trail hawk because it just feels much better. Such a small blade most likely won't be effective against trees, but I didn't want to use it for trees.

Next time I might give Fort Turner a try.

Thanks again guys
 
Hey dude, don't sell the trail hawk short, I have both a rifleman's and a trail hawk, and once properly sharpened (takes a little elbow grease but it's worth it) it will really cut. I have used mine in the course of some pretty heavy duty ground work on a tree job. It cut 8-9" logs very well for such a light tool. Granted, it's gonna be hard work, but the technique and a well sharpened blade make a lot of difference. The rifleman's hawk on the other hand throws like a dream and hits like a Peterbilt doing 120.
 
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