Found another tomahawk to customize.

[Shiloh1944]

I ran across another brand of tomahawk to customize. For the past several years I have used Cold Steel hawks in my customizing projects but I ran across a new one to me. It is a Condor made in El Salvador. They are about twice as expensive as the Cold Steels but are supposed to be a little better steel (1060 vs. 1055) so I thought I would give one a try. When it arrived I discovered the company stamps their maker's mark very deeply right in the middle of the bit surface on both sides of the hawk. I will have to weld up the maker's marks before grinding and draw filing the hawk bits and if the welding causes the bit to get too hot I will have to re-temper it. Not sure I am going to like it as well as the Cold Steels.

In the photo the top hawk is one of my Cold Steel custom hawks and of course the new one is the plain one with the maker's mark right in the middle of the bit face. The last photo is the current progress on the new hawk. Ready to weld up the maker's marks in order to proceed.

[doc nock]

Wow...2X more expensive and twice the work...?

I do like the imported hammer head style and the curve of the blade and lack of adornments on the Condor, but Crikey..2x the $$? and then all that work to boot?!

Good luck with the covering the builder's mark, etc...

You obviously have metalurgical background and know about the difference in steel.  Beautiful work...

[Shiloh1944]

I finished up the Condor plus while waiting on getting the maker's marks welded up I did another Cold Steel that I had purchased last year but had never got around to customizing it. The first two photos are the Condor and the other three are the Cold Steel.