Survivalist Gear

Off Topic
121

[quote]mbdix wrote:

[quote]SexMachine wrote:
These are pretty cool. I’ve got a few sand I use them. It’s called a “spork” - a spoon, knife and fork in one for eating with. Extremely light and strong plastic. It only weighs a couple of grams and is a few mm thick. Mine just sits in my mess container cover.[/quote]

I like those. A good tool/utensil [/quote]

I received a titanium spork exactly like that for Christmas several years ago. Works great, is indestructible and extremely lightweight.

I would like to get more titanium cookware for backpacking, but that stuff is expensive.

122

[quote]treco wrote:

[quote]thethirdruffian wrote:

[quote]treco wrote:
I can appreciate all of the ‘niceties’ being thrown out there, but for conversation sake - what 10-15 items would you absolutely take if you literally were on foot and trying to live?

[/quote]

Where? Desert? Plains? Woods? Island?

Is it necessary to be unseen? Etc.

Narrow the scenario.[/quote]

I was thinking whatever your own area happens to be. IE I live in N Texas and do not have the thermal requirements of the guys in Maine. Not necessarily thinking EOW scenario, but maybe more (Not)Naked and Afraid - where you are trying to survive. The tools should help you fare better than they. it seems they more or less try to find water and wait out the 3 weeks living on muscle tissue. Not a recipe for success in 6 months+ scenario.

  1. Tarp with cord - hopefully reflective one side
  2. Sleeping Bag
  3. Lined windproof jacket
  4. Fixed blade knife
  5. Hatchet - 1 side blade, other side hammer
  6. Collapsible container
  7. Water bladder
  8. Water purification
  9. Fire starter
  10. Mess kit
  11. First Aid kit
  12. Trap
  13. Fishing Throw Net
    [/quote]

Not exactly what you want, but I’ll tell you what’s really in my car: two bags: (A) auto-related bag and (B) a bug-out bag.

I work in a wide swath of West Texas and eastern New Mexico. So desert, mountains, from hot to cold.

The auto-related bag is what you would expect: basic tools (knife, plyers, wrenches, hammer, screw drivers), gorilla tape, flares, flashlights, headlamp, super glue, epoxy glue, tire patch kit, 2 cans tire goop, electric tire inflation pump, rope, jumper cables, old blanket, portable battery (stand alone in case there is no other car), mechanix work gloves, code reader and book on the codes meanings, various clips, washers, screws, some wire.

Also in the truck is two gallons of water and an AR-15 with 5 mags in a bag, two-point sling, and a .357 in the driver’s door. Maglight in the glove box, extra bullets.

The bug-out bag contains:

$3,000 cash US, about $500 (equivalent) cash Mexico, 5 gold coins (Canadian), 10 silver coins (Canadian), credit card, $1,000 pre-paid Visa card
Pre-paid cell phone (inactive), portable solar/handcrank charger,
Emergency radio
Old passport, color copy of current passport, DL (expired), birth certificate, copy of SS card
.357, box of extra ammo, box of .38s
Comfortable hiking shoes, two pairs of socks (hiking/wool with liner socks), pair of boxerbriefs, hiking shorts, ski-middle layer, windbreaker, baseball cap, sunglasses, wool cap
Leatherman, fixed blade knife, hatchet/hammer
Windproof matches, lighter, and some “kodiak fire stuff” (catches anything on fire)
Paracord,
plastic sheeting
gorilla tape
2 liter bags of water, 2 MRE
Cantene (with water), hiking cooking utinsels
iodine pills
tin foil
compass, hiking GPS unit
Various plastic bags (zip and trash)
3 emergency blanket
3 disposable rain ponchos
bear spray
mirror, whistle, flare gun, and 2 charges (on in chamber, one in handle), 2 smoke grenades (to be spotted)
light sticks, flashlight, head lamp
Meds: aspirin, benedryl, afrin, 2 packs of Z-pack (general anti-biotic), 500 mg
tooth brush/paste
hand sanitizer
sun screen
deep woods off
fish trap and fish line/hooks, small wire animal trap (these are portable and very easy to use/buy – called a
military can opener
First responder first aid kit, including small scissors and mole skin, wet wipes.
Needle & thread

I think there is other stuff in there, but can’t remember off the top of my head.

Long list, but it all fits in a very small bag.

123

Anyone ever used a folding solar oven?

Not up to the capabilities of the parabolic or tube, but is portable.
I could see slow cooking or perhaps water pasteurizing.

124

I grew up with a “survivalist” for a dad. The lessons I learned from him still hold with me today. I always carry a pocketknife and keep an emergency kit in the trunk of my car.

In that kit:
(I live in a very cold part of the country so my biggest worry is keeping warm.)

First aid kit
Axe
wool blanket
winter gloves
parka
extra pair of light weight athletic shoes
lighter
rope
flash light
headlamp
1 liter Sigg water btl

125

@thethirdruffian - Maglights are extremely outperformed by newer, lighter, smaller torches that utilise LED technology to get a much briter beam. They’re way more powerful than the standard incandescent bulbs that Maglights uses. You carry a lot of the same sort of stuff I carry in my car and pack.

I find aspirin pretty useless for real pain and it’s handy to have a few strong oxycodone/morphine etc. tablets in foil. If someone breaks a leg or something they’re really going to need some proper pain relief to get them out of there. I know the military used to issue morphine syrrettees to GIs but because of the addiction problems and restriction today only medics carry stuff like that and they use stuff like a synthetic heroin lollypop(fentanyl).

And yeah a multi-tool is very handy. I carry a leatherman in carbon steel with black matt finish to prevent corrosion. It still rusts up a bit along the bevel though because it’s high carbon steel. I only use stainless steel for fishing and kitchen prep/cleaning knives. I have done a bit of tanning of hides and skins and other leatherwork too.

I have a stag handled stainless steel drop point knife that skins well and has a serated section for cutting through bone; rib cage, cartilage etc. It’s a “high tech” steel made by Hitachi called ATS-34. It’s a bit better than ordinary stainless steel for edge retention but they’re a lot of trouble sharpening in the field unless you’re good with lining up angles on the bevel and pretty much grinding a new profile over the old with a course stone. You can get a decent edge for skinning but grinding a hollow point bevel. Hollow points can be stropped fine like a razor but they’re no where near as strong as the flat or convex grinds. It’s a good grind for a skinning knife I find.

126

[quote]SexMachine wrote:
@thethirdruffian - Maglights are extremely outperformed by newer, lighter, smaller torches that utilise LED technology to get a much briter beam.
[/quote]
It is LED.

[quote]
I find aspirin pretty useless for real pain and it’s handy to have a few strong oxycodone/morphine etc. tablets in foil. [/quote]

Yes, but it’s also a felony to get caught with that. So I don’t have it.

Having cash, travel docs, and guns is enough to get arrested for no reason in New Mexico. (On the advice of my lawyer, I actually have the withdrawal slip showing where I took the money out of the bank and the receipts for the coins with the coins, etc.)

[quote]
I have a stag handled stainless steel drop point knife [/quote]

Mine is a basic Army-issue bayonet, with a sharpening scabbard.

127

[quote]thethirdruffian wrote:

[quote]SexMachine wrote:
I find aspirin pretty useless for real pain and it’s handy to have a few strong oxycodone/morphine etc. tablets in foil. [/quote]

Yes, but it’s also a felony to get caught with that. So I don’t have it.

[/quote]

While you may be able to SURVIVE without keeping an extensive stash of guns, drugs and cash in your car, can you ever really LIVE?

128

^^^^^

This is the Cold Steel shovel from the OP. I can’t say enough good about this tool. It also hacks through bamboo and undergrowth as good as any machete type knife. You can use it as an axe. You can cut up small piles or single pieces of kindling and prep your fire wood or prep construction wood etc. The only thing I’d point out is anyone who’s done any digging knows that a shovel alone isn’t enough unless it’s sandy. You need some sort of pick to break up soil and get through roots and break up/separate rocks. Personally, I’ve found that any attempts to combine a pick and shovel in one tool are no good. A mattock and shovel or for a smaller, lighter pack a “pickaroon” and a smaller maybe entrenching shovel. I’ve also found that folding shovels are all crap. Even the ones that are used by the Chinese military are crap because they’re folding and don’t have the strength and stability needed to actually get serious work done. So the lightweight option is something like a “picaroon” which is a miniature pick. If you really want to lighten the load you could just carry the heads of your axe/hatchet/tomahawk/entrenching shovel/picaroon etc and make handles as needed in the field using your knife to cut down and craft and fit a hardwood handle and use some kind of binding to secure the heads. The heads of many good axes/hatchets are relatively light. This guy weighs some well known axe heads:

The Gransfors Bruks hatchet head weighs 1 pound. You can attach a relatively long handle to it at sight and have a very servicible axe for serious woodwork.

I mentioned the Cold Steel is good for machete-style hacking through undergrowth. A hacking tool is essential in certain terrains and you can make like much easier with a hacking tool of some sort. A nice tomahawk is good for hacking but the blade on a tomahawk is usually only three or four inches so it can’t get heavy duty hacking done as quickly. But tomahawks are nice “choppers” and can even take down small game like birds and squirrels. The Cold Steel shovel can also be used to fell small game pretty easily. It’s a very forgiving throwing tool because the four-sided edge on it allows you to overspin or underspin your throw and one of the blades makes contact and cuts in. Same as a tomahawk but larger blade area, more forging angle of throw etc, and an all around highly versatile tool - hacker, chopper, splitter etc, not to mention a formidable close quarters weapon. No wonder the storm troopers and Arditi and others utilised them to such effect in The Great War.

Attached is a picture of a few picaroons and an “axeroon”. I’m interested in taking the heads off a lot of these light weight tools so they can be carried easily and handles fashioned along the way as needed. Maybe being all your heads and one or two handles carried as needed/discarded if needed. Just a few extra pounds in your pack and you can carry some serious work tools to get the job done.

129

[quote]twojarslave wrote:

[quote]thethirdruffian wrote:

[quote]SexMachine wrote:
I find aspirin pretty useless for real pain and it’s handy to have a few strong oxycodone/morphine etc. tablets in foil. [/quote]

Yes, but it’s also a felony to get caught with that. So I don’t have it.

[/quote]

While you may be able to SURVIVE without keeping an extensive stash of guns, drugs and cash in your car, can you ever really LIVE?
[/quote]

Exactly. On my list of 15 essentials on a desert island I’d have to bring along at least a dozen cans of beer. I hope that doesn’t count for 12 items because I need some cigars too and a 250cc Yamaha WRX; maybe a porter to carry some of my stuff for me and I can ride up ahead on point; climb trees and spy out the path ahead and the terrain with binoculars. Take a bearing if needed and scout out and plan the path ahead. Of course with a motorcycle you’ll need a backup vehicle to carry fuel or one of those huge petrol tanks they use for the long distance desert motorcycle races. You can really cover a lot of ground on these Japanese pocket rockets today. You can cover hundreds of miles in a few hours and get to any place you want to go. My friend travelled right across Asia and across Brazil on a motorcycle. He did something similar to what varq mentioned early in the thread in Thailand. Beautiful country.

130

[quote]SexMachine wrote:

[quote]twojarslave wrote:

[quote]thethirdruffian wrote:

[quote]SexMachine wrote:
I find aspirin pretty useless for real pain and it’s handy to have a few strong oxycodone/morphine etc. tablets in foil. [/quote]

Yes, but it’s also a felony to get caught with that. So I don’t have it.

[/quote]

While you may be able to SURVIVE without keeping an extensive stash of guns, drugs and cash in your car, can you ever really LIVE?
[/quote]

Exactly. On my list of 15 essentials on a desert island I’d have to bring along at least a dozen cans of beer. I hope that doesn’t count for 12 items because I need some cigars too and a 250cc Yamaha WRX; maybe a porter to carry some of my stuff for me and I can ride up ahead on point; climb trees and spy out the path ahead and the terrain with binoculars. Take a bearing if needed and scout out and plan the path ahead. Of course with a motorcycle you’ll need a backup vehicle to carry fuel or one of those huge petrol tanks they use for the long distance desert motorcycle races. You can really cover a lot of ground on these Japanese pocket rockets today. You can cover hundreds of miles in a few hours and get to any place you want to go. My friend travelled right across Asia and across Brazil on a motorcycle. He did something similar to what varq mentioned early in the thread in Thailand. Beautiful country.
[/quote]

I’ll raise that and say you should be allowed your deadlift max in whiskey, only counts as one item. Works out to almost 400 750 ml bottles of Jack Daniels for me.

One item down, fourteen to go.

131

[quote]twojarslave wrote:

[quote]thethirdruffian wrote:

[quote]SexMachine wrote:
I find aspirin pretty useless for real pain and it’s handy to have a few strong oxycodone/morphine etc. tablets in foil. [/quote]

Yes, but it’s also a felony to get caught with that. So I don’t have it.

[/quote]

While you may be able to SURVIVE without keeping an extensive stash of guns, drugs and cash in your car, can you ever really LIVE?
[/quote]

True, but it’s a work truck.

On review of my list, I am going to add my old BP vest with pockets, take out the tactical vest, and probably sub out the .357 that is in the bug out bag (since I already have a .357) for a .22 pistol with a suppressor. (Yes, all legal. Will put a copy of the tax stamp for the suppressor in the bag.)

The vest isn’t very good, but I have ceramic front/back plate for it, so it would be better than nothing.

Also, on review, I also think I might still have PTSD. Ha.

Still a little hyper-vigilant.

132

Edited to fix quotes

[quote]thethirdruffian wrote:

It is LED.

[/quote]

I didn’t realise Maglight did LED torches. I see they do. I remember the big incandescent ones that took four D size batteries. Security guards used to carry them menacingly like a club.

Yes good point. I’ve got a few from my own prescription for legitimate purposes.

The police are a lot more layed back in Australia usually. I’ve not come into any contact with police in my life except for a few traffic offences over the years.

Utilitarian eh? I don’t like fancy stuff but traditional materials are nice. As I work with leather and wood and skins and so on I like to use such materials in my knifes and edged tools. Natural materials feel nice in the hand to me too. They grip well. Bone, ivory and horn all have a nice feel in the hand. Wood does too. All the stuff I use to survive is natural products such as timber, leather, skins, hides, pelts and fine steel tools. And it’s all maintained and cared for with natural products like dubbin, bees wax, boiled linseed oil, camellia oil etc. And so it feels comfortable to me to use all these natural resources in all my tools and clothing and lifestyle and so on. I just like leather/skins/fur, wood, steel and natural fibres like wool, oilskin, moleskin, buckskin, sheepskin - all that stuff.

133

[quote]SexMachine wrote:

The police are a lot more layed back in Australia usually. [/quote]

Probably. “Breaking Bad” was based in New Mexico for a reason. It’s a hotbed of drugs, human trafficking from Mexico, and the like.

In the USA, there are “civil forfeiture” laws where money, guns, things of value, etc. can be stolen by the police for no good reason, under the guise of “possibly connected to drugs.”

Hence, the receipt copies I keep with all such items to show proper purchase and flow of money.

I am a larger target because I am a successful guy and an Apache. A former reservation rat like myself driving a nice vehicle and having money is immediately suspect to the cops/feds, especially with my Anglo wife.

I’ve gotten pulled over and my car taken apart more times than I can remember, especially coming from El Paso.

134

[quote]SexMachine wrote:
Australia [/quote]

You need 5 or 6 types of anti-venom.

We have pit vipers (rattlers of various kinds), but they are shy and move if you give them any kind of warning.

135

[quote]twojarslave wrote:

[quote]SexMachine wrote:

[quote]twojarslave wrote:

[quote]thethirdruffian wrote:

[quote]SexMachine wrote:
I find aspirin pretty useless for real pain and it’s handy to have a few strong oxycodone/morphine etc. tablets in foil. [/quote]

Yes, but it’s also a felony to get caught with that. So I don’t have it.

[/quote]

While you may be able to SURVIVE without keeping an extensive stash of guns, drugs and cash in your car, can you ever really LIVE?
[/quote]

Exactly. On my list of 15 essentials on a desert island I’d have to bring along at least a dozen cans of beer. I hope that doesn’t count for 12 items because I need some cigars too and a 250cc Yamaha WRX; maybe a porter to carry some of my stuff for me and I can ride up ahead on point; climb trees and spy out the path ahead and the terrain with binoculars. Take a bearing if needed and scout out and plan the path ahead. Of course with a motorcycle you’ll need a backup vehicle to carry fuel or one of those huge petrol tanks they use for the long distance desert motorcycle races. You can really cover a lot of ground on these Japanese pocket rockets today. You can cover hundreds of miles in a few hours and get to any place you want to go. My friend travelled right across Asia and across Brazil on a motorcycle. He did something similar to what varq mentioned early in the thread in Thailand. Beautiful country.
[/quote]

I’ll raise that and say you should be allowed your deadlift max in whiskey, only counts as one item. Works out to almost 400 750 ml bottles of Jack Daniels for me.

One item down, fourteen to go.
[/quote]

Seriously though. In a post-apocalyptic environment you could run an alcohol still and trade in it like during prohibition. All those woodfire stills in the Appalachians. A post-apocalyptic environment would actually be an enormous business opportunity because just about every commodity is in high demand and the survivors are an untapped market desperate for commodities to survive and to live. Many survivors could actually do well out of an apocalyptic event. Being one of the lucky survivors of such an event is the hard part though.

136

One of the things I think is really important in a survival situation is morale and so I place a lot of emphasis on good food and cooking. I’m not into all these dehydrated instant meals and foods. I utilise everything I have and I also try to find natural sources of things like honey from native bee hives, fish, mushrooms and fungi - different types in different habitats and seasons.

In pine forests in the autumn you can find Swiss Brown mushrooms which are a world class eating mushroom with a nutty texture. In grassy fields most of the year you can find the big field mushrooms that go well with steak. Native limes to use with seafood and sea salt, salty sea weed and wild cress. But I’ll also take stuff along if I want too.

Like those little sachets of soy sauce or the little plastic fish shaped bottles of soy sauce and a whole lot of herbs and spices. Good food will keep you healthy and keep your morale high. I will bring anything that will make life easier including toilet paper. For me it’s not about surviving on the edge. I prefer to survive comfortably; sleep on a comfortable bed in front of a warm fire and eat tender roasted meat or seafood seasoned and spiced, Turkish coffee powder, maybe a couple of cigars, some whiskey, chocolate and a pack of cards; some books. This is what you need to live as opposed to just survive.

137

[quote]thethirdruffian wrote:

[quote]SexMachine wrote:
Australia [/quote]

You need 5 or 6 types of anti-venom.

We have pit vipers (rattlers of various kinds), but they are shy and move if you give them any kind of warning.[/quote]

Yes there are some nasty critters. But it’s still pretty rare to get bitten if you’re careful and stay away from fast venomous snakes. You can always be unlucky though. It’s pretty unusual that people die nowadays because they get them to antivenom 95% of the time. Brown snakes and tigger snakes are very active at certain times of the year and in rural/semi-rural areas where there’s a food source for them. For example, just on the edge of the urban area of Western Sydney there was a pet food company that attracted a rat population which in turn created a snake problem. People were finding them everywhere - in their cars, in the houses. This is not that uncommon. There are also certain places like the bush around Wollongong where there are huge colonies of funnel web spiders living in close proximity to each other. So in a football sized block of land in the bush around there you might have several thousand deadly venomous and aggressive spiders. My only advice is know the land and just stay away from habitats and habitats in certain season. For example, much of the beaches of Northern Queensland are infested with deadly box jelly fish including the irikanji. The tourism board advises people not to swim at all at these beaches for much of the year. And they turn up further South too. Then there’s other stuff like deadly blue ringed octopus that you see often in shallow waters and occasionally catch on your fishing line. Or there are European wasp colonies that have gone feral and become dangerously aggressive. There are warnings about them at certain times of the year and some suburban areas find themselves with infestations of them. The salt water croc too of course. Someone taken every summer nearly. More frequent shark attacks too. The majority of all shark attacks can be attributed to an aggressive species known as the bull shark. They’re often found deep inland in brackish and even fresh waterways. And they’re very territorial which is what makes them attack people. They’re not going for food. They’re fighting off a competitor. Yes, Australia has some nasty critters but if you know the land and you’re careful it’s fine.

138

800×293 12.4 KB

Anyone into tomahawks? They’re really nice, unique and versatile tools. There are many traditional designs but they generally fall into presentation/pipe tomahawks and the functional tools traded to the Indians by the British and French. The early British style was modelled after the British Navy Boarding Axe of the 17th Century with a shortened handle. A French company began to use a weeping heart shaped hole in the head and some of the French designs had a spike on the poll instead of a flat poll for hammering. The designs were copied and reprofiled by blacksmiths in the frontiers or sometimes by the owner themselves. Some of the designs in the 18th Century took on the look of a miniature Danish battle axe with the slim line of the head near the base to reduce weight that then fans out to a blade of four inches or so. Tomahawks have a lighter head than hatchets and it’s a more streamlined and efficient blade profile. The Indians used tomahawks for all the same bushcraft purposes that we do and it was a primary weapon that saw heavy use in close quarters combat.

Obviously I have a preference for the really high end, hand forged and well tempered blades of top end makers like Gransfors Bruks and there are many professional knife makers who do quality work. But for everyday camp stuff you can get by with a cheap Cold Steel tomahawk for around $22. It needs some work straight from the factory however. Unlike a hand forged and well tempered Gransfors Bruks’ axe heads which come razor sharp straight from the workshop. So I made a little project out of customising my tomahawk.

The steel is high carbon and well tempered. Nice and strong with good edge retention. The head is fixed with a set screw which I removed because it’s not the best method to attach the head to the handle. So I took the head off and set it aside. Then sawed about three inches off the handle to shorten it a bit. I sanded the handle down to get the clear lacquer off and get a nice clean surface. Then I gave it three coats of walnut oil that gives it a nice stain that brings out the grain in the wood nicely.

The head was put back on but without the set screw. The strongest attachment is based upon friction and you just push the head down till it can’t go any further. Using the axe will keep the head forced down tight. Some people like to bind the head for additional security but I don’t think it’s necessary. If you do decide to bind as well, it’s much better to use fresh/wet grissle that will tighten as it dries. Nothing beats animal grissle for any kind of tight binding like this. Primitive man used flint shards tied to a piece of wood and later bronze then iron. Today, we have superior heat treated high carbon steel and other high end steels and alloys.

Attached is a picture of a tomahawk(not mine) that has more of the Nordic battle axe shaped head. Anyone got a nice tomahawk?

139

[quote]SexMachine wrote:
Anyone into tomahawks? They’re really nice, unique and versatile tools. There are many traditional designs but they generally fall into presentation/pipe tomahawks and the functional tools traded to the Indians by the British and French. The early British style was modelled after the British Navy Boarding Axe of the 17th Century with a shortened handle. A French company began to use a weeping heart shaped hole in the head and some of the French designs had a spike on the poll instead of a flat poll for hammering. The designs were copied and reprofiled by blacksmiths in the frontiers or sometimes by the owner themselves. Some of the designs in the 18th Century took on the look of a miniature Danish battle axe with the slim line of the head near the base to reduce weight that then fans out to a blade of four inches or so. Tomahawks have a lighter head than hatchets and it’s a more streamlined and efficient blade profile. The Indians used tomahawks for all the same bushcraft purposes that we do and it was a primary weapon that saw heavy use in close quarters combat.

Obviously I have a preference for the really high end, hand forged and well tempered blades of top end makers like Gransfors Bruks and there are many professional knife makers who do quality work. But for everyday camp stuff you can get by with a cheap Cold Steel tomahawk for around $22. It needs some work straight from the factory however. Unlike a hand forged and well tempered Gransfors Bruks’ axe heads which come razor sharp straight from the workshop. So I made a little project out of customising my tomahawk.

The steel is high carbon and well tempered. Nice and strong with good edge retention. The head is fixed with a set screw which I removed because it’s not the best method to attach the head to the handle. So I took the head off and set it aside. Then sawed about three inches off the handle to shorten it a bit. I sanded the handle down to get the clear lacquer off and get a nice clean surface. Then I gave it three coats of walnut oil that gives it a nice stain that brings out the grain in the wood nicely.

The head was put back on but without the set screw. The strongest attachment is based upon friction and you just push the head down till it can’t go any further. Using the axe will keep the head forced down tight. Some people like to bind the head for additional security but I don’t think it’s necessary. If you do decide to bind as well, it’s much better to use fresh/wet grissle that will tighten as it dries. Nothing beats animal grissle for any kind of tight binding like this. Primitive man used flint shards tied to a piece of wood and later bronze then iron. Today, we have superior heat treated high carbon steel and other high end steels and alloys.

Attached is a picture of a tomahawk(not mine) that has more of the Nordic battle axe shaped head. Anyone got a nice tomahawk?[/quote]

There are a lot of guys making nice custom tactical and traditional tomahawks. You already touched on the difference between a hachet and a tomahawk. A tomahawk is made lighter and faster and is primarily a weapon that can be used as a tool. A hachet is a tool that can be used as a weapon. Until you get to the modern tactical Hawks. I’ll put up some picture of my favorites shortly.

140

[quote]Uncle Gabby wrote:

[quote]SexMachine wrote:
Anyone into tomahawks? They’re really nice, unique and versatile tools. There are many traditional designs but they generally fall into presentation/pipe tomahawks and the functional tools traded to the Indians by the British and French. The early British style was modelled after the British Navy Boarding Axe of the 17th Century with a shortened handle. A French company began to use a weeping heart shaped hole in the head and some of the French designs had a spike on the poll instead of a flat poll for hammering. The designs were copied and reprofiled by blacksmiths in the frontiers or sometimes by the owner themselves. Some of the designs in the 18th Century took on the look of a miniature Danish battle axe with the slim line of the head near the base to reduce weight that then fans out to a blade of four inches or so. Tomahawks have a lighter head than hatchets and it’s a more streamlined and efficient blade profile. The Indians used tomahawks for all the same bushcraft purposes that we do and it was a primary weapon that saw heavy use in close quarters combat.

Obviously I have a preference for the really high end, hand forged and well tempered blades of top end makers like Gransfors Bruks and there are many professional knife makers who do quality work. But for everyday camp stuff you can get by with a cheap Cold Steel tomahawk for around $22. It needs some work straight from the factory however. Unlike a hand forged and well tempered Gransfors Bruks’ axe heads which come razor sharp straight from the workshop. So I made a little project out of customising my tomahawk.

The steel is high carbon and well tempered. Nice and strong with good edge retention. The head is fixed with a set screw which I removed because it’s not the best method to attach the head to the handle. So I took the head off and set it aside. Then sawed about three inches off the handle to shorten it a bit. I sanded the handle down to get the clear lacquer off and get a nice clean surface. Then I gave it three coats of walnut oil that gives it a nice stain that brings out the grain in the wood nicely.

The head was put back on but without the set screw. The strongest attachment is based upon friction and you just push the head down till it can’t go any further. Using the axe will keep the head forced down tight. Some people like to bind the head for additional security but I don’t think it’s necessary. If you do decide to bind as well, it’s much better to use fresh/wet grissle that will tighten as it dries. Nothing beats animal grissle for any kind of tight binding like this. Primitive man used flint shards tied to a piece of wood and later bronze then iron. Today, we have superior heat treated high carbon steel and other high end steels and alloys.

Attached is a picture of a tomahawk(not mine) that has more of the Nordic battle axe shaped head. Anyone got a nice tomahawk?[/quote]

There are a lot of guys making nice custom tactical and traditional tomahawks. You already touched on the difference between a hachet and a tomahawk. A tomahawk is made lighter and faster and is primarily a weapon that can be used as a tool. A hachet is a tool that can be used as a weapon. Until you get to the modern tactical Hawks. I’ll put up some picture of my favorites shortly.[/quote]

Yes, tomahawks regained popularity in the Vietnam War as a breaching tool and is now a standard item in the breaching kit of many units. The old “Vietnam tomahawks” set the standard for the pattern with a very short handle and a spike on the poll instead of a hammer. I actually prefer the hammer polls but I’m sure a spike could be very useful. Personally, I think the entrenching shovel is a better close quarters weapon but they’re both formidable. I know there are a lot of forges in the US turning out high end, hand forged tomahawks and I’ve been looking at their stuff on the net. The maker I like is currently sold out and everything he makes has a waiting list. But there are plenty of other good forgers. This Mountain Man site has some good stuff including this nice, simple light tomahawk without a poll:

http://www.mtnmengifts.com/product/mens-gifts/1095-handforged-throwing-tomahawk/26852

Tomahawks without polls are significantly lighter and handle differently. I like tomahawks with the simple traditional patterns that the throwers use. I tend to favour hickory handles because hickory sustains shock so well.