Spyderco Forums

Hi Maad,

Welcome to the Spyderco for foum. Your English is just fine. Hope you enjoy your time here.

We'd love to move forward on this project, but Eric and I have just been snowed under with design work. We thought about the possibility of working with a collaborator on the design. Maybe Ookami or ?

sal

I'd be honored to be part of the team.


Ookami

Hi Ookami,

Why don't you email me and let's see if we can get something going? I will warn you that these projects often take a long time :o

sal

Every time this thread gets bumped (particularly when it gets bumped by no less than Sal), I start salivating a little... :p

Ditto to that!

Can anybody please explain the difference between a utility tomahawk and a hatchet?

chuck_roxas45 wrote:Can anybody please explain the difference between a utility tomahawk and a hatchet?

I'm sure others can give you more details but a utility/tactical tomahawk is going to have a smaller head and an obtuse grind, assuming it's gonna be banged into car doors and used for breach/impact situations. A hatchet is almost entirely designed for woodcraft.

Blerv wrote:I'm sure others can give you more details but a utility/tactical tomahawk is going to have a smaller head and an obtuse grind, assuming it's gonna be banged into car doors and used for breach/impact situations. A hatchet is almost entirely designed for woodcraft.

Thanks Blerv. I mean I'm kinda with doc snubnose on this since I don't really do a lot of woodcraft, I'm for a "tactical" hawk(for the zombie apocalypse) instead of a mostly utility hawk but I'm taking what I can gets. :D

Jordan wrote:Every time this thread gets bumped (particularly when it gets bumped by no less than Sal), I start salivating a little... :p

+1 Let it take as long as it takes, , but I know when it finally comes to fruition I will be 1st in line to pick one up.

cant wait for this to happen!

The difference between a tomahawk and a hatchet is simply that where a hatchet is designed to chop, a tomahawk is designed to cut. The former tends to have a bulky haft in order to hold up to the tremendous pressure applied by repeated chopping and the head tends to have a robust grind and a fair amount of blade mass to facilitate splitting. Hatchets also tend to have a flat back end so that they can double as hammers or splitting wedges. A tomahawk, on the other hand, is primarily a weapon. They tend to have leaner hafts that facilitate speed, but sacrifice longevity. Their heads tend to be lighter and ground in a similar way to a knife so that a keener edge can be obtained. You are likely to see the rear of the head either simply encircle the haft or hold a spike (something I'd rather not see in a spyderco hawk... in my mind, the dangerous parts of your weapon should face AWAY from your face :p ). In my rather unqualified opinion, that is what differentiates the two types of hand axes.

In my perfect world... a Spyderco hawk would bridge the gap between the two. If a spikeless one piece tactical hawk was the end result of all this... I'd be in serious danger of buying the entire first production run :p . Ok, maybe not... but as many as I could afford! :D

I have read this thread a few times since joining here...and I have always been intrigued, and done some searching online for designs I like. I would hope for something...heavy (and by that I mean that it can deliver heavy blows, not that it necessarily weighs a lot), but still fairly fast (I'm a decently large and strong guy so something that is a little heavy, I can still move fast and so would gladly take a bit more weight) that is robustly built, but not overbuilt. And I too would prefer to not have a spike on the non bladed side. A flat surface, more like a war hammer though, I could be happy with. And an edge that was angled ever so slightly down would be nice too, and rounded a bit too...I dislike the flat blade of the SOG Tactical tomahawk for example.

chuck_roxas45 wrote:thanks blerv. I mean i'm kinda with doc snubnose on this since i don't really do a lot of woodcraft, i'm for a "tactical" hawk(for the zombie apocalypse) instead of a mostly utility hawk but i'm taking what i can gets. :d

+1

As someone who uses hatchets and axes on an (at least) weekly basis, I would want something spydered out with a 14-16" low weight but tough(cf please!!!!) handle with a good traction plan (perhaps a choil )

The perfect hatchet/ hawk blade for my use would have:

- A ton of belly
- Relatively narrow cheeks on a high hollow grind (of course)
- Thickness of around .6 -.63 (perhaps a little less if the steel is right, stay tuned)
-a flat "hammer" back (spikes are for mall ninjas, and firemen. no offense to firemen)
- A tang stamp that reads CPM M4

DCDesigns wrote: -a flat "hammer" back (spikes are for mall ninjas, and firemen. no offense to firemen)

What's wrong with being a mall ninja? :confused:

I'm also geting input from Kristi that the Miliary has been asking for a tactical hawk as well. So we'll add Mike (Janich) and Kristi to the team. Although it's possible that we may end up with two hawks. Two's better'n none :)

sal

Well now...this could be very interesting.

Maybe one more traditional, and one more tactical...could be very sweet.

As the thread is 6 yrs old, a sketch would be cool...... or something.

sal wrote:I'm also geting input from Kristi that the Miliary has been asking for a tactical hawk as well. So we'll add Mike (Janich) and Kristi to the team. Although it's possible that we may end up with two hawks. Two's better'n none :)

sal

Oooooh boy! This just gets better and better. :D :D :D

This thread makes me happy. My interest is certainly on the "woods" tomahawk rather than the tactical, but if Mr Janich is involved (and Kristi) then no doubt I will want the "tactical" one too.

But oh my my....please don't forget about us backwoods types! A smaller, lighter alternative to a Gransfors Small Forest Axe, that I can carve with, split with, chop with, and make feather sticks with, would be great. Add a friction-fit head that I can pop off to use as a wedge or convert into an adze, and square off a spot that I can use for a firesteel, and I'll be in heaven.