Hey Guys!
New to this forum here, and have never posted. I know nothing about these at all. I have a room full of HI khukuris, whose forum (The Cantina) is where I usually hang out.
I wanted to try these out and the only hits I saw offhand was this "new" Lagana Vietnam tactical hawk, a wood handled "Vietnam" hawk for only about $30 from Cold Steel, and a really nice looking hawk for $275 from Emerson I think (?) had rubber rings on the handles and a very nice looking blade, but a bit out of my league right now.
I ordered two of these from Botach for my son and myself (I have heard horror stories about Botach but they were fine for me) at just $85 each and they came in only 3 days.
The cast head looks just like the advertised pic, and seems strong and well made. I saw a beef about the blade grind on the spike, but can't see that if the grind on that was slightly more to one side than the other that it would make any difference at all. No rust at all on mine.
I'm not sure how these should balance. I know the handle is probably indestructible, but wish it had the oval shape and feel and weight of hickory, mostly so I could orient the direction of it in my hand. So, head is perfect, but handle just slightly heavier, slightly more oval, and slightly "tackier"? If that makes sense. However, ATC must know what their customers want and has a proven reason for this design. Again, I may be talking nonsense, so feel free to set me straight. I haven't thrown it yet but it seems to me it will turn very fast with such a light handle. Are lighter handles better in a 'hawk? This one balances about 2" behind the head.
The handle also seems very slick feeling to me, so the raised ribs don't really do a lot for me, and has what looks like small embedded scratches in the "plastic" down towards the lanyard hole, but they both have that so I'm sure it's just from the molding process. They are not that noticeable in any case.
I have some 3M grip tape that was a product that was discontinued a couple of years ago for putting on hammer handles and other impact tools, and intend to wrap the handle with a piece of this just above the ATC logo. This is good stuff and I use it on all my hand sledge hammers, and also have made a couple of Assegai spears and wrapped those shafts with this as well. As a final touch I have some military OD spray paint and thought I might randomize it a bit with that just for looks.
Final thought is that the sheath is nice, but don't know why there is so much play in the sheath for the head. I would prefer it kind of lock in the head more, but maybe there is a reason for that. Come to think of it, if it's lashed to your LBE you would want some play so you could fish it out, so that's probably why.
I can only relate this to larger knives, so it seems to me to be a very good value for the price, but if I had paid full retail for it which I take is quite a bit more, I don't know if I would still feel that way, but of course that is the case with many knives. I plan on sharpening it up just a little bit (as from the grind I don't think it is intended to slice paper and I don't want that fine of an edge anyway) and seeing how it throws.
I didn't want to come across as critical, those are just my impressions. It seems strong as hell; I don't see how you could break it even chopping concrete. And it obviously has some good thought behind it. I can see that it could be a formidable weapon in the right hands. I was thinking the grip tape and a small lanyard, and I'll probably be set.
I can tell you for sure that I would not want to be in the way of this thing in the hands of someone who really knew how to use it, especially the spike on the back side of the head. It looks painful!
Thanks,
Norm
