Cold Steel 90TH Trail Hawk American Hickory Handle, One Size (Package May Vary)

*UPDATE* I’ve throw a lot more than the past me, and this is still a great hawk. I’m still on my first handle, although the key to not breaking handles is not missing. I’ve got other throwing axes to judge against now, and this is still a solid thrower. Just not super pretty *ORGINAL REVIEW* I bought the Cold Steel Norse Hawk as well as the Cold Steel Trail Hawk at the same time. Both of these were my first tomahawks ever, and I don't have that much tomahawk experience, or any experience with other brands of tomahawks to compare to. With that said, here is what I think: First Impression: This hawk looks okay, quality wise, but the edge was VERY DULL. The blade bounced off the stump on my first throw. I had to file it, but it did sharpen to a good edge (good enough for tomahawking). Biggest Flaw: This hawk (maybe all Cold Steel hawks) uses a set screw to tighten the axe head to the handle. Once you throw this hawk, depending on how it lands, that screw will scar up the handle as the axe head comes off. I would appreciate a friction fit much better. These are my first tomahawks, so I'm not sure how many other hawks are like this. The screw really gouges the handle though. How do they work: I am a novice at tomahawking, but I can sink this hawk into my stump target from three spins away, which I'd say is about 25 foot. It feels really natural to throw, and I pretty much started sinking this thing into the wood straight away. The handle feels a little long (I don't know for sure, because I have no experience to reference), but I've just been choking up when I throw, and that works great. I've probably thrown about 100 times, and I've only missed on a handful, mostly from the "three spin" distance. I'm not sure how good I am at throwing tomahawks, but I can say that these definitely work, anyone who knows how to tomahawk should be able to use these no problem, and if you can't make it work, then it's probably you, not the hawk. I think these would be good for any beginner. They're priced low, and they work. They would work better if you custom fitted the handle and didn't use the set screw, and sharpening the axe is probably a must. I'm going to get a nicer version when I get better, but these seem great to learn on.

The Trail Hawk arrived packaged well. Upon inspection I realized the head had been put on backwards. The eye of the head is actually egg shaped, not oval. The handle is egg shaped as well. I removed and ditched the set screw and swapped the head around. I have done some preliminary sanding of the handle and the head fits more snugly and no longer requires a set screw. The hickory handle seems nice and solid. It measures a full 22". The head is 7" from poll to bevel. I will update this review and add photos as I customize and use the hawk for various duties. This is going to be a fun project! I am completely pleased with this product and will be ordering more versions. Aside from the inept assembly this is an outstanding product. Order one! Update, six months after receiving: I have used my Trail Hawk countless times. I have processed wood, pounded tent stakes into hard earth, done some rough carving and even tested it with processing game. It has performed nicely. I still carry my Forest Axe on longer excursions, but the tomahawk has replaced it and a few other tools in my pack for lightweight or minimalist ventures. I have sanded and re-contoured the handle, as well as filed the eye of the head for a nearly perfect fit. I stripped the paint off of the head and at first tried to force a patina with mustard. It didn't take hardly at all. Right before applying a black oxide finish (rust-bluing), I polished the entire head. I as well slightly re-profiled the poll. With the application of mustard to the smooth, almost mirror finish steel the patina took beautifully. After several coats and a few hours I took the head back to the bench and re-polished the poll and the bevel and ran it over the water stones until it was shaving sharp. The handle got a nice coat of dark walnut stain and some Algonquin designs with a wood burner tip. I now have a beautiful tomahawk that if sold in this condition would be priced above a hundred dollars. It out performed my expectations and I regard it as an essential item when heading outdoors, even for a day-hike. You simply cannot go wrong with this product, especially at this price point!

Let’s start off with the bad. I have to knock one star off for the set screw. It’s in their very tight, and it strips easily. It felt like it had loctite on it. You need the correct size Allen wrench and it needs to be made well. My el cheapo harbor freight Allen wrench stripped the screw out. I used it with the screw for a few camping trips. The shaft cracked very quickly along the screw. Eventually I took the shaft out by knocking it on my concrete driveway and I took a Dremel to the tail of the screw. It took about 5 minutes to grind flush with hawk eye using a sanding drum. Now it’s a perfect hawk. Eventually I’ll replace the cracked shaft but it works now. EBay has them for 10 bucks. Onto the good. This is a great hawk. It has good edge retention. It comes sharp but not crazy sharp like most of Cold Steels stuff. For throwing: I’ve spent hours upon hours throwing it at dead trees. It sticks and it makes a nice loud thud when it hits. If you are between this one and a more tacitcal tomahawk like the SOG Tactical tomahawk, I’ll say the SOG throws easier. However, the handle on this one can be shortened or you can make one that’s longer. That means that it’s very easy to customize it for the right throwing balance. My cracked shaft shows some wear and tear from throwing but it’s held up well as could be expected. The head has a few scratches in the paint but there is 0 cracks or chips to the head itself. For chopping: As a chopper, this is good for light chopping. I had a hard time splitting firewood with it. The blade is very short in height so it’s hard to sink it into the end of wood. The head itself is very narrow so it doesn’t separate the wood as easily. However, it is great for gathering kindling sized wood. For the past few camping trips, I carried a small pocket chainsaw for cutting rounds of fuel to length. I carried a Condor Moonshiner Bowie knife for batoning rounds into fuel sized firewood. I carried this for handling kindling sized branches and such. The Moonshiner could do that work too but the trail hawk has a little more reach so it’s really handy for pulling dry kindling from trees when the ground is wet. That brings me to my next topic of focus. This is a true all-around woods tool: I’ve used the hammer for driving tent and rainfly stakes. I’ve taken the head off of the handle and used it to cut shavings from firewood to be used as tinder. I’ve stuck it into logs and used the handle to drag them out of the brush and back to camp. I’ve made usable handles for it from branches. You could literally carry only the head with you into woods and use it to make a handle. I own a lot of axes and tomahawks and this is my favorite woods tool. As a fighting tool: I’m not a tomahawk fighter but I’ve been trained in mixed martial arts. If you consider a tomahawk to be a viable defensive tool then you can rightfully consider this one to be useful for self defense. After you remove the set screw, the quality is there. I like the length and the plain jane handle but this hawk is very customizable. If you wanted to change the length of the handle or add features to make it better for defense, you certainly could.

Good hawk. I use this to blaze trails for marking boundary lines. Out of the box this thing in my opinion will not be functionally sturdy. It has a set screw to hold the head on and it does not fit tight to the shaft. Here's what I did to make a awesome hawk and it will take the abuse. 1.) remove the head 2.) sand the handle were the head slides on not to much just sand down enough on the high spots at the top that keeps the head from sliding off the the thick end. 3.) after sanding the handle to your liking stick the wood handle in the freezer for a few hours. 4.) remove the paint from the head with a paint stripper and if you have any burrs in the eye lightly sand or file them out 5.) after your handle has been in the freezer for a few hours, heat the head up in the oven at 200 degrees my oven is a bit off so I turned up to 220 degrees for 30-35 minutes 6.) after the head is heated and the handle is froze its ready take the handle from the freezer and place the heated head on and tap it on firmly I used the old set screw mark in the handle for a marking point after lining up the old set screw hole in the head with the mark on the handle I tapped mine just over that mark. Then I set it out in the garage to cool off. Now I have a really great hawk that is very sturdy and chops many branches and is light enough to travel many of miles while walking and marking lines. Now the head fits firmly and won't slide down and no need for a set screw that means no carting around Allen wrenches to remove the handle if it breaks in the field. My opinion is Over all for the price it's well worth it. I will purchase another for a spare. It may not be for everyone, but if your handy its a good price.

I like all forms of axe. This is a good hawk. Good wood, great metal in axe head, historical design. EdgesSharp...but not razor. Baked on and laqoured finish. Head and wood can be sanded, sharpened and adapted. These hawks are perfect as is..... or as a project. Take your pick. Just make sure you use a hawk as it's intended purpose. And the history of the hawk itself is really an recycled sailing tool. So it's kinda a custom tool/weapon of former sailors. Historically..... The tomahawk was formerly a "boarding axe" from ships during "the age of sail" . These "boarding axes" had a rear spike chopped down and the 3-4ft shaft shortened to a "hatchet" size. Normally because sailors returning to land have no need for extra pieces. These chopped variants were often given to natives and traded. And that's where the word "tomahawk" and "trade axe" comes in. Sooooo the concept of a tomahawk or "trade axe" as they were more often called , is actually a recycled boarding axe that was used by former sailors on land to do house chores and protect them during life. Since they used it for years as sailors it was muscle memory. This cold steel hawk is exactly the same concept, as these "trade hawks" so often used in the French, Caribbean, and American colonies during the "age of sail" (1500-1800). Its purpose is to have an easily removable head for smaller delicate chores such as whittling, sinyew scraping, meat cutting, etc. But placed on the handle it becomes a hammer and axe very quickly. With an easily replaced handle, if you need to carve one on excursion in the bush. Cold steel did an excellent job with the axe. And the wood. However the axes have different stickers, but cold steel hires these guys to make them. So no worries there. Some of the grain on the axe handle was off... but not terrible. Nothing thats gonna last 20 years but maybe 8-10. And really thats plenty more than most will use it. And some of the heads were near the top of the shaft too much. However not a big deal. It had a light shellac sanded off with 120 grit in about 2 mins per shaft. I coated in linseed oil like my logging axes and let them dry for a week. Good heads, chops and sharpens well. Bought 3 more this week at my local shop. Great tools!!!!

OK so this IS a great little hawk, just not right out of the box, it needs some minor fixes that aren't hard to do at all. The black coating on the head needs to go with a quickness , and so does the stupid sticker they put right on the face of the head. the inside edges that make contact with the handle need filed down to allow easy on-off and a solid friction fit without damaging the handle , the edge profile is so-so and mine came sharp but not nearly sharp enough to use efficiently and safely. The handle is OK but needs the lacquer stripped off, sanded and refinished. The set screw is NOT NECESSARY for a proper fitting head !! And once the handle is sanded/ resealed and the sharp edges on the head are finished with a round file, it can go in the trash since the head will lock into place like a proper hawk at that point. It sounds like its trash and im complaining since it needs that much work done right out of the box, but those things can be done in your basement and will turn it into a sweet little hawk for just a tiny bit of work. For $20, it can't be beat and is worth the time spent on modifications for sure.Just go on YouTube and you'll see some FINE examples that can be used as a guide for your own. Why they use the set screw, black coating, sticker on the head etc. is a mystery since ommiting all that would lower production cost and make it even less expensive yet higher quality potentially. Some people have had probs with the fit but mine was tight on the handle without any wiggle, and so much so that the head gouged into it at the top when it was assembled. So if you have the ability to do a few minor fixes then I would def recommend this hawk, it can be VERY nice once its been taken care of with a little bit of TLC and imagination.

If you're willing to put in the work, this can be a great little hawk. I knew this going into this purchase, so I wasn't disappointed. Just know that what you are getting here is a good quality tomahawk at a great price at the cost of an awful fit and finish. This product is not useable out of the box. In fact, I'd go as far to say that without at least removing the set screw, using this product could be dangerous to you due to handle failure. The first step in making this tool functional is to remove the set screw. It's terrible, throw it away and forget about it. Next, you'll need to fix the head fit to the handle. My handle was buried really badly and it took A LOT of filing and sanding to shape it properly. I also used a round file to smooth the inside of the eye (the hole in the head that the handle goes through) since it had a few sharp edges that were beating up the wooden handle pretty badly. The head has this really cheap looking black paint on it. I used a paint stripper to remove it, but I suppose you could leave it on if you wanted to. After fixing all these issues, I just sharpened it up a little, treated the handle with boiled linseed oil and the head with olive oil and the finished product looks nice and handles well. Overall I'm happy with this project, but I do think CS could put out a better product, or at least sell these explicitly as a project piece and not as a finished item. If you expect this product to do work out of the box you will be very disappointed.

before i talk about the good (and trust me, there's a lot), let's talk about the work that goes into making these 5 star hawks. firstly, with the edge that came on it it would cause more blunt force trauma than lacerations. the handle is about 4 inches too long, and is finished with a lacquer that would cause ocular cancer. oh yeah, thats basically all the bad. now the good. the wood handle, though atrocious, is SOLID. when i went to saw it, it took an ungodly amount of time with a hand saw to even cut off what i wanted. i tried to reshape it afterwards and almost gave up. this wood is as solid as can be, if you manage to snap it you're either stupid or doing it on purpose. next, the head. mine came with a beautiful 'forged' look that gave it character and aesthetic appeal. the edge (if you want to call it that) was basically redone and applied by me. i used a file until my fingers fell off, then ran it on a sharpening stone and rejoiced when i realized it was chopping better than most of my tools with only 3/4ths of the weight and all with a 100% higher cool factor. the hammer head is useful too. i use this tomahawk for mainly bushcraft, but i also throw it quite a bit. im absolutely horrendous at throwing and there were many times when it should have broken but instead just left a small mark or indent in the wood. the head is still sharp after splitting 5-6 inch logs like a fiend, throwing it at everything and leaving it chopped into a stump for nearly 3 days in the rain. overall this thing is a steal and i would recommend it to literally everyone, including your grandmother. mine thinks its cool.