Post by Razor on Sept 11, 2015 6:42:38 GMT
Olde Town Smithy
By Ray Harrington
Introduction
I'm not really into telling stories on reviews, I just like to get to the point. I found out about Roy Dunn, on SBG FG group when someone was looking for a cutlass. Roy posted pictures of one of his and I went on his site Olde Town Smithy. I saw that he made axes and I message him about making a tomahawk for me.
OTS, as two options for making axes. One is made of high carbon steel with a nice clean finish. The other is forge welded, with mild steel forge over high carbon steel center and it comes with a rough forge finish. I really like the look of the forge finish plus it was cheaper too.
Full Disclosure
I paid full price for this hawk, which was $75. I've have been doing martial arts for 24 years and I've had formal training with a hawk from an instructor.
Initial Impressions
When I got box in the mail, I was very excited, and when I opened it, The hawk was well packaged. After I took off all the packaging, I was very happy with the look and feel of the hawk. The hawk was light, fast, agile, and sturdy. The head wasn't loose on the haft and I could tell this hawk was very well made. But with the hawk feeling so light in my hands, in the back of my mind, I thought what kind of damage could this really do?
Statistics
Weight 1lbs 2 1/4 ounces
Beak Length 3 5/8"
Overall Head Length 5 1/4"
Edge Length 3"
Haft Length 18 1/4"
The Head
The eye and body is 1018 mild steel with a full insert of 1095 forge welded in the center. The spine of the head is alignment with the shape of the haft, so there can be true edge alignment with cuts and chops. I also like how Roy, blends the eye and body together to make a nice wedge shape spine.
Having the wedge shape spine helps splits the target apart, it also puts more weight towards the haft for better handling and all that weight will transfer to the edge on every blow. I wanted the hawk to have a hook edge, so it would have a longer edge, so it could be used to cut and chop with. Plus I like the hook so I can hook weapons and arms to trap and redirect them. The edge came paper shaving sharp.
The Haft
The haft is made out of hickory that Is lightly oiled with linseedoil. The haft is tear shape to make it easier for edge alignment and is wider towards the head and tappers down to the bottom end. Like I said before, the head is secure to the haft with no movement at all.
Handling and Test Cutting
This hawk handles like a dream, it's light, fast, and can recover easier than any of my other hawks and axes. But the big question is, what can this thing do? All weapons have a give or take thing going on. In this case, if it's to light it won't hit with authority but if it's to heavy it will be sluggish and wouldn't be that useful as a weapon. There has to be a perfect balance, that's light but still hits hard, and that's easier said than done.
For the target in my test cutting video, I got a freshly killed pig head. This pig was raise for food and when it was his time, the owner didn't want the head and was going to throw it away if I didn't want it. There's is light targets and there's heavy targets, but a pig head is extreme target and shouldn't be used as a everyday target , because of the abuse it does to the weapons.
WARNING GRAPHIC VIDEO!!!!!!
This hawk hits harder than I thought it would. I'm really impressed on how hard this thing hits, I was thinking that it might bounce off or not go in so deep. This hawk really held up to the punishment that I put it through. The edge did get damage from cutting the head, but I knew it would of from cutting the thick skull and teeth, but it didn't get as much damage as I thought it would. The hawk's head didn't loosen up or twist around at all.
Conclusion
I did all my communication with Roy on FB messages. Roy was easy to talk to and answered every question I asked him and he showed me pictures of his other hawks and axes he did before. I got the feeling that Roy wants his costumers taken care of.
I'm really happy with the hawk, and as soon as I first held this hawk, it became my favorite hawk and after the test cutting, I know for sure that's it's 100% combat ready. This hawk is fast, hits hard, takes a beating and ask for seconds.
I don't know were I can get a custom hawk Like this for $75? It's historically accurate, light like a weapon should be and still hits with authority, and durable. I will definitely be doing more business with Olde Town Smithy, and I would recommend OTS to anyone who wants a axe or hawk.
Thank you for reading my review.