Here are BLADE Magazine’s Featured Knives of the Week. Browse through these articles to find the best knives available from both custom knifemakers and factory knives.
As noted by Pat Covert in the April 2016 issue of BLADE®, there was a time in this great country when all men used straight razors to shave because, well, they had no other choice! Today, though, shaving with a straight razor has been experiencing a revival in an age when five-blade handhelds and multi-head electric shavers are the norm.
Two of the latest straight razors include Boker’s “The Celebrated Ebony” (left) and knifemaker Tom Krein’s model in orange-and-black-layered G-10.
According to Wikipedia, narrow-bladed folding straight razors were listed by a Sheffield, England, manufacturer in 1680. By 1740, Benjamin Huntsman was making straight razors complete with decorated handles and hollow-ground blades made from cast steel, using a process he himself invented. Think about that. Straight razors have been in use, uninterrupted, for nearly 350 years—and no doubt much longer in terms of those who made them earlier.
Larry “The Hammer” Harley forged the wootz damascus blade and handle of his straight razor. A special heat-bluing technique provides the color. A mammoth bone spacer adds the final touch. (SharpByCoop image)
Shaving with a straight razor takes both skill and time when most people get their news lightning-fast off a handheld device—and the rat race shows no sign of waning. So, why would you want to take the time to meticulously shave your face or trim your beard?
The BLADE Magazine 2021 American Made Knife Of The Year®, The Case Marilla More Than Pulls Its Weight.
The BLADE Magazine 2021 American Made Knife Of The Year®, the Marilla from W.R. Case & Sons is a drop-point-blade EDC folder made for slicing and fine work. Aluminum framelock construction and CPM S35VN stainless blade steel result in a lightweight folder that doesn’t weigh your pocket down.
The Marilla opens fluidly via a flipper and closes positively. I really like the fact that the knife does not interfere with your hand when you reach into your pocket. That said, the Marilla must slice and dice to be an effective EDC.
How Sharp Is The Case Marilla
First, I like to do a quick sharpness test with copy paper. In full blade-length slices, the Marilla zipped through the stationery smoothly and with nary a snag. I could have sliced faster if I could have moved my fingers faster. The edge cut in outstanding fashion!
Heavy Cutting With The Marilla
Next up: double-walled cardboard. I used a push cut for a full blade-length slice. The Marilla was very aggressive parting the medium. The handle shape was a plus in controlling cut widths. The minimum curl of the sliced pieces was great.
The Marilla bit very aggressively while skiving a scrap piece of 8-ounce leather. It was very controllable on the thinness of the slices.
The Marilla bit very aggressively while skiving a scrap piece of 8-ounce leather. I could hear the crunching sound as the blade cut away. It was very controllable on the thinness of the slices and experienced no issues at all.
From there it was on to whittling firesticks. The edge made smooth cuts in the pine with a tight curl in the curly-cue. Thin curly-cues or thick, the Marilla kept the curls clean. The handle was very comfortable while making the deeper cuts, exhibiting no sharp edges in the wrong places to hurt my hand.
Marilla Edge Retention
To test edge holding, I like to use sisal rope. The Marilla crunched to 189 cuts before I felt the edge sliding a bit. Performance: excellent! The thumb notches helped in controlling the cuts. Again, the Marilla handle was comfortable even when I applied hard pressure to it.
Batonning The Marilla
To check the lock, I locked the knife open and batonned the blade into a piece of half-inch pine to make kindling. I hit the blade spine opposite the tip and middle and directly on top of the lock multiple times. The wood split with no problem and the lock stayed tight very well, maintaining 100 percent lockup throughout. There were no blade wobbles or looseness during opening, lockup or closing.
The final hurdle was the antler whack—wrist snapping the blade into an old whitetail deer horn to see if the edge would chip or roll. Thirty whacks later and the edge survived with no damage, indicating excellent heat treatment of the S35VN blade steel.
The final hurdle was the antler whack—wrist snapping the blade into an old whitetail deer horn to see if the edge would chip or roll. Thirty whacks later and the edge survived with no damage, indicating excellent heat treatment of the S35VN blade steel.
Report On The Case Marilla
The Marilla is an excellent EDC knife. It’s comfortable in the hand as well as the pocket. The blade stays sharp longer than most. It is a great choice for EDC.
I WOULD …
… prefer a hollow blade grind for keener slicing, though such a grind might compromise the blade steel.
As long as its knives are not abused, Case warrants them against defects. For more information, contact Case, attn: F. Feightner, Dept. BL2, 50 Owens Way, Bradford, PA 16701 800-523-6350 or 888-442-1932 [email protected], www.wrcase.com.
Custom hawks and axes combine history, fantasy and imagination
From Danes to dragons, draft horses and drawing smoke, the axe and the hawk have become avenues of artistic expression for some of the most innovative artisans of sharp blades. Long a trusted and dependable companion on the trail, in the bush, around the camp and in the military, axes and hawks are utilitarian and versatile, both in form for their intended purposes and as striking examples of imagination, innovation and aesthetic appreciation.
Utilizing the best in materials and employing their long study of the axe and the hawk, several makers have produced notable works in recent years, among them Peter Pruyn, Tom Ward, Dave Armour and Bill Burke. Each has his own approach to the craft and adds perspective in producing works of incredible beauty.
“My motivation was to try something new,” related Armour, a knifemaker for about 12 years, fashioning hawks and axes for six years and turning his attention to full-time blade work only seven months ago. “In addition, a small, easy-to-carry axe can be a great complement to a hunting or other working knife. I call my style ‘sufficiently evil and deliberately casual.’ I take the function side of things—like heat treating and edge geometry—very seriously, but treat the rest of knifemaking as a chance to play and have some fun.”
With his Clydesdale Set, which includes both a 12.5-inch knife and a 17-inch axe, Dave Armour (inset) lets his ingenuity gallop through. The set is made with a single Clydesdale horseshoe that he obtained through his wife’s employment, involving a tour of Warm Springs Ranch in Missouri, home of the world famous Budweiser Clydesdales. (SharpByCoop axe image)
With his Clydesdale Set, which includes both a 12.5-inch knife and a 17-inch axe, Armour’s ingenuity gallops through. The set is made with a single Clydesdale horseshoe that he obtained through his wife’s employment, involving a tour of Warm Springs Ranch in Missouri, home of the world famous Budweiser Clydesdales.
“I used the sides of the shoe for the outer layers of the knife blade and the bottom for the body of the axe,” Dave said. “I wanted something rustic without looking primitive. So, I made choices like leaving the shoe nail holes unfilled and using a simple hardwood for the handles. I used W2 for the knife core steel and 80CrV2 for the axe bit. Anytime you’re using a unique material, it is stressful. If I messed this up, it wasn’t like I could just scrounge another Clydesdale shoe lying around somewhere.”
Armour, who plies his craft in Auburn, Illinois, uses the term “foundwood” for his handle material. Though he isn’t completely sure, he said he believes it is sassafras, liberated from the bottom of a box of cast-off exotic pieces in a local lumberyard.
The finished Clydesdale Set consists of the beautifully forged san-mai blades, foundwood handles, and a stainless steel bolster/guard. The blade measures 7.5 inches while the edged surface on the axe is 2.25 inches. Dave stated he would produce a similar set for $750 or the axe alone for $300—and he would enjoy the journey “tailoring my technique to the piece.”
MAGIC DRAGON
Forging knives since 1998, Burke received his ABS journeyman smith stamp at the 2003 BLADE Show. “I returned home, quit my job, and have been a full-time maker ever since,” he grinned. His Dragon Tomahawk is nothing short of breathtaking, and he acknowledges that the project was an investment of energy in his Boise, Idaho, shop. “This piece took three months of six- to eight-hour days, seven days a week for me to complete,” he noted. “I have a second piece flying around in my head now.”
The Dragon Tomahawk is 20.5 inches overall, with a 4-inch cutting surface of damascus and a curly maple handle. The head is wrought iron and 1018 mild steel forged into a “W’s” pattern, and the blade steel is 1080, 15N20 and 201 series nickel forged together to create Bill’s Dragon’s Breath pattern. (SharpByCoop image)
The second will be a show-stopper if it compares to the 20.5-inch masterpiece that sports a 4-inch cutting surface of damascus and handle of stout curly maple. “The head is wrought iron and 1018 mild steel forged into the ‘W’s’ pattern,” he commented. “The blade is 1080, 15N20 and 201 series nickel forged together to create my Dragon’s Breath pattern. The handle was first drawn and cut/carved from a piece of red fir, and then, after a few refinements, the pattern was drawn on the piece of maple and the handle made from that.”
Bill Burke lightly fire-etched the head of his Dragon Tomahawk, along with heat coloring the blade in niter salts to achieve a purple/blue-and-red coloration before it was welded to the dragon’s head. The teeth were raised from the steel of the head, and the tongue, inlaid into the blade, gleams in 24k gold. (SharpByCoop image)
Bill has been noted for his quality damascus, and with this piece took inspiration from the work of ABS master smith Joe Szilaski. “All my knives and hawks are forged by me in my shop,” Bill said. “I normally just get an idea of what I want to make and start forging. From almost the first moment that I made the Dragon’s Breath pattern, I knew I wanted to make a dragon-headed tomahawk, breathing fire down the blade of the hawk.”
The dazzling result includes a lightly fire-etched head “because dragons are born in fire and should look that way,” along with heat coloring the blade in niter salts to achieve a purple/blue-and-red coloration before it was welded to the dragon’s head. The teeth were raised from the steel of the head, and the tongue, inlaid into the blade, gleams in 24k gold. Bill indicated he would produce a similar piece for about $17,000, depending on embellishments.
NO PIPE DREAM
One of the most intriguing works by Peter Pruyn is his 15-inch Pipe Axe with ash handle, 4-inch blade and a bowl of hammered twist damascus. He forged the steel from layers of 1070, 15N20 and nickel. (SharpByCoop axe image)
Peter Pruyn was self-taught for quite a while after taking up knifemaking when he lost a valued knife he had carried for years. He later learned the stock removal method from Gene Martin and also attended an ABS bladesmithing class. “That definitely made me a more diverse maker, and it opened me up to forging different types of edged weapons and tools,” he said. From there, he worked with ABS master smith Red St. Cyr, who taught him to forge a tomahawk from a ball-peen hammer.
Through 14 years making knives—12 of those full time—Peter developed an interest in Viking blades, and he has sold a number of pieces on BladeGallery.com. One of his most intriguing works is his 15-inch Pipe Axe with ash handle and 4-inch blade and bowl of hammered twist damascus. He forged the steel from layers of 1070, 15N20 and nickel.
“I was forging an axe for the BLADE Show about seven or eight years ago when I had the idea of making it into a pipe axe, which is similar to a pipe tomahawk,” Peter remembered. “It really only has a larger blade.”
While working on the Pipe Axe, Peter greeted a friend who had come to his shop to work on the electrical setup. “He spotted the head when I removed it from the etchant,” Pruyn recalled, “and immediately claimed it. I was trying something different on this particular one. I did a very long etching process, and it gave a very deep, rough texture and an antiquated look to the steel. I did the Viking rings on the handle, but I also wanted to put some rings on the pipe bowl to give it a better look.”
The effect was certainly achieved, and Peter successfully tested it using cigar tobacco. “It worked quite well,” he concluded. He said a similar model would run $700.
HALVDAN SWUNG ME
Christened “Halvdan Swung Me,” the Dane Axe by Tom Ward is based on Viking lore and representative of the weapons Viking mercenaries may have wielded in the service of the emperor of Constantinople, today known as Istanbul. His list price for a similar axe: $3,200. (SharpByCoop axe image)
After recently relocating his enterprise, along with his wife’s furniture business, from Carbondale, Illinois, to Istanbul, Turkey, Tom Ward looks forward to future custom orders. Among these may well be a request for a piece similar to his hefty Dane Axe.
When in design school in Boston, Tom took an elective course on forging damascus and bladesmithing taught by ABS master smith J.D. Smith (see May and June issues of BLADE®). “I really fell in love with the process and the idea of making high-quality objects to last someone’s entire life or longer,” he related. “I also loved the history of it and what you could learn through those venues. J.D. was my mentor for about four years before I left school and Boston. My work was fairly independent until 2017, when I started my degree at Southern Illinois University and spent three years researching damascus steel with Richard Smith in Carbondale.”
One of the most significant results of Ward’s career in steel, the Dane Axe, christened “Halvdan Swung Me,” is based on Viking lore and representative of the weapons Viking mercenaries may have wielded in the service of the emperor of Constantinople, today known as Istanbul.
“The phrase ‘Halvdan was here’ is carved into the bannister of the balcony of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul,” Ward remarked. “So, he was the inspiration for the piece and the name. The shape is not exactly like any Dane axe but serves the same idea with an angled broad blade and beard, and a thin cross section as most war axes had. The angle of the blade is to deliver a deeper chopping or swinging cut, and it is the same cutting concept as the curve of a saber. The forward point is also hypothesized for stabbing, and the beard for hooking legs and shields.”
Damascus legend Daryl Meier sold the wrought iron, salvaged from a bridge that was torn down in Illinois, for inclusion in the Dane Axe steel combination, and encouraged Tom’s pursuit of pattern welding. The Dane Axe haft, fashioned from sturdy hickory and ash laminate, extends beyond 5 feet.
“The pattern welding on the blade is sort of an East meets West thing,” Tom commented, “with traditional wolf’s tooth from northern Europe and the Persian chain patterns, as well as the Byzantine tendency for geometric patterns with the chevrons.”
These exceptional craftsmen are among many who have explored the addition of hawks and axes to their repertoire. They set the bar high and bring additional interest to another creative frontier.
Above: Rudy Dean’s pipe hawk features a 4.5-inch blade of twist damascus and a handle of curly English walnut. The smoke hole plug is damascus and the mouthpiece and eye cap are ancient walrus ivory. (SharpByCoop image)
GiantMouse Has Taken A Big Step With Their New Fixed Blade. The GMF4 Is The Company’s Biggest Blade Ever And First Camp-Style Knife.
It’s a new era for GiantMouse. The company has stepped into the world of camp knives with the new GMF4. The knife is the company’s largest blade ever and comes in multiple finishes.
The star of the show is the blade. The N690 blade is 5.65 inches long, and the overall length is 10.45 inches. The steel has a flat grind and comes in two finishes: a traditional stonewash and a PVD stonewash. The PVD version is married to a Double Black Canvas Micarta handle, and the traditional blade is meted to a Double Red Canvas Micarta handle.
The handle is sturdy. The high flat saber grind is razor sharp, and the jimping helps stabilize it when cutting. There’s been a lot of thought put into the construction of this knife. A prime example of that is the lanyard hole.
Designed for outdoorsmen and campers, the lanyard hole is placed on the front of the knife so if a branch sneaks in there and pulls at the knife, it will be pulled forward and out of your hand rather than potentially snapping back and slicing you open.
No stone has been left unturned with this knife, and it will serve any and all campers well for a very long time.
The Informant By Greg Wesley Is Another Quality Fixed-Blade EDC. But Just How Good Is This Small Custom Knife?
The trend for smaller EDC knives is still going strong. Set up with a leather sheath for belt or pocket carry, the Informant from Wesley Custom Knives fits the bill perfectly. Greg Wesley grinds them all by hand. This one is lean and mean.
Testing The Wesley Informant
It was easy to control the width of cuts in the foam, all of which were straight without bending the medium.
I started with a piece of dense foam I use for making my Kydex sheaths. Manipulated with push and pull cuts, the knife started biting, slicing cleanly and quickly. It was easy to control the width of cuts, all of which were straight without bending the foam. Very nice.
One of my favorite tests,the 20-pound bond copy paper slice, provided little resistance. It puts a smile on my face when I hear every cut. I used a pull motion to shred the paper. The Informant came razor sharp. The balance of the blade made for a very quick test.
The knife had no challenges cutting through double-walled cardboard. I got carried away and pushed the blade too far into the cardboard, hitting the choil area and messing up the cut. The Informant is just fun to use. Cuts were mostly straight unless I took too big of a bite and the cardboard pinched the blade and slowed it down.
Plastic board was easy for the knife. It cut the plastic very quickly and I barely felt any resistance. Once I had the rhythm slicing, it was finished. This is a sharp little knife. Cuts were very controllable.
Pushing the Wesley Informant
The Informant crunched its way to 188 cuts on the sisal rope before the edge started to slide a bit.
I grabbed some 8-ounce leather for skiving (thin, tapered slices). With a louder crunching sound, the Informant bit quickly. The thinness of the knife made controlling the skiving simple—I just had to move my fingers faster to keep from losing DNA. The edge remained just as sharp as when I started.
I had to whittle to get a better feel of the little fixed blade. The cuts in the wood were extremely smooth. The Informant peeled large curly-cues one after another. The blade spine was somewhat sharp on my thumb but not too bad. The handle was a great fit to my hand—no hot spots at all. Nice job, Greg.
The Informant crunched its way to 188 cuts of sisal rope before the edge started to slide a bit. Impressive! The handle was still comfortable with the extra power added for the high number of cuts. The knife’s light weight didn’t impact its cutting ability.
The last test is a little destructive at times: the antler chop. I gave a whitetail antler 20 hard chops with the Informant. I rolled a thin wire edge in a few places but the blade was still very sharp, so the heat treatment is good.
Final Thoughts
I would soften the blade spine a tad more and maybe round the scales a bit, though that’s being picky. The Informant is a small, high-performing utility tool that can handle most any knife chore. It’s a great EDC choice.
Drawknives Are A Woodworker’s Best Friend And One Of Many Unique Knives Craftsmen Use Regularly
Knives take on many shapes and sizes. As tools, their designs sometimes focus on specific tasks. In the case of the drawknife, it is designed for woodworking. Drawknives have been found to date back to the Viking era more than a millennium ago.
The design itself takes many different shapes for a variety of purposes. At times, it is not referred to as a drawknife but, at first glance, you can see the relationship and how a number of tools can be considered part of the same family. As with any tool, different cultures have different interpretations of how the tool should be designed.
What Is A Drawknife?
A drawknife is a single-beveled blade placed between two handles. The tool gets its name from how it is used. You simply grab both handles and draw the knife towards you bevel up. Controlling the angle that the blade enters the wood will control the depth of cut. A steep angle will get you a deeper, more aggressive cut but will also require more effort.
Lowering the angle makes for a shallower cut and also gives you a finer finish as the material is removed less aggressively. Some designs have long handles on plane with the blade. Other designs have the handle tight in and below the plane of the blade. No matter where the handles are, the action is the same but the point of control changes.
Top row, from left: a German-style drawknife made in Western Germany, Mora push knife, English-style drawknife, Flexcut 5-inch drawknife and a cooper’s knife. Bottom row, same order: Round drawknife and a chair maker’s scorp.
How To Use A Drawknife
When working with a narrow stock up to two inches wide, it’s easy enough to draw the knife straight back toward you. On wider stock, it is better to skew the knife. Skewing the knife provides a leading edge and causes less resistance during the cut. When working with hardwoods you want to keep the cut light, as the dense grain provides more resistance and bogs the knife down.
If you skew the knife and work the corners it is easy to remove long curls.
Even when working a flat when skewing the drawknife blade you can get some beautiful shavings.
Learning to use a drawknife properly is a bit like working a puzzle. The easiest way to make a cut is to work the facets of the material. For instance, say we are working on a piece that is square. To shape the piece to the required size it is easier to work the corners down, creating more corners until you get to your desired shape. By working the flats, you must use more energy and struggle to make a cut.
When first using a drawknife, the tendency is to use your arms to power the tool. Instead, use your back muscles, which are larger and less likely to fatigue quickly. Draw the knife back as if you were using the same muscle for rowing. If done right, it should feel like your shoulder blades are trying to meet in the middle of your back. For safety’s sake, keep your elbows in tight. As you draw the knife back your elbows will hit your core acting as a safety stop, preventing you from slipping and cutting yourself.
Types Of Drawknifes
A debarking knife is usually a larger style of drawknife used for extracting bark from logs. They are larger and heavier than their woodworking counterparts so that you can blast through the bark.
It has been my experience that when working green wood, the knife doesn’t need to be kept as sharp. In fact, it is somewhat more helpful to keep the knife a bit dull when cutting green wood so as to avoid diving too deep into the wood itself. On seasoned logs, because of the lack of sap between the bark and sapwood, I find it better to have the knife a bit sharper.
Woodworking drawknives come in a variety of shapes and sizes. The two main types I have used: English and German. The English style has a blade that bares a slight arch and the handles are on the same plane as the blade. German-style knives have handles that sit lower than the blade and the blade tends to be straight. The knives’ handles can vary. Most of mine have a pear-like shape. There are other styles like a round knob style, which is a ball shape.
The English style drawknife has a small but thin bevel that makes for some beautiful curls.
The German knife has a steep angle to the bevel. If used straight across a narrow piece wood, it can remove large amounts of material. At the time of the photo, the author had not finished cleaning up the blade, ergo the hammer marks in it.
Specialty styles of knives include any drawknife that is shaped to obtain a specific result. A cooper’s knife is shaped to accommodate the making of barrel staves. I also have a handle-making knife. The handle-making knife is a tight arch designed to make handles for things like brooms or garden implements. The basic shape is a half circle, so instead of trying to round a piece off by angling a number of cuts, you get a piece of wood close to size and simply let the knife shape it.
The cooper’s shave is designed to hollow out the staves of a barrel.
Push Knife
The model uses the Mora push knife to clean up curls left at the bottom of a curve. With the push knife, you can work the wood in an opposite direction without repositioning the piece.
A Scandinavian invention, the push knife is similar to a drawknife in that it has a blade attached by two handles on either side. Using a push knife is different in the way that you are expected to force the edge away from your body instead of pulling it toward you. Unlike a drawknife, the handles come straight out from the sides, which allows you to either push or pull the knife. I normally use the knife in the manner that gets the job done—meaning on occasion I will draw the knife toward me rather than push.
What Is A Scorp?
Technically, scorps are not drawknives. However, in terms of looks and use you can’t help but lump them in the same family. I have a chair maker’s scorp that is designed to hollow out the seats of chairs. On older chairs is a slight depression where the person sits. A chair maker’s scorp was used to produce the shape. The tool operates just like a drawknife except it has a shorter blade with a more pronounced arch.
How To Sharpen A Drawknife
Like any other cutting tool, a drawknife must be sharpened. Perhaps the trickiest part of sharpening a drawknife is finding a way to brace it. I find dynamic sharpening the easiest way to sharpen a drawknife. I brace the knife and move the sharpening medium instead of the other way around. One way to brace the knife for sharpening is to put one handle in your armpit and hold the other handle in your off hand. Once the knife is braced this way, take a stone to it. Another way is to brace one handle on the bench, lean your chest on the other handle, and then begin sharpening. Keep in mind a drawknife must be sharp (except where noted previously) but since it is not necessarily a fine woodworking tool, don’t get carried away.
YouTuber James Wright shows you how to sharpen a drawknife using a set of sharpening stones in his shop.
Lastly, keep it oiled. Even the newer ones are not made from new high-tech steels. Most are from simple carbon stock and a light coat of oil goes a long way. Among others, Flexcut offers a contemporary drawknife.
Other Wood Carving Tools
Beyond drawknives and planes, there are many other types of wood carving knives out there that can help with some of the finer points of woodworker. Small, nimble wood carving knives like a sloyd knife or a spoon knife.
A sloyd knife is a short, sturdy blade good for small, finite carving tasks. A spoon knife, as the name suggests, is meant to carve out the concave scoop of a spoon but can be used for any other situation where you are trying to create a concave dip in the material.
There are certainly more than just these few tools to being a successful woodworker, but knowing how to use wood carving tools big or small can get you on the path to success.
Why To Use A Drawknife
Long before there was solar power, fossil fuel power, steam power, etc., there was muscle power. Humans developed the world using tools with muscle and sweat. There is something satisfying about making something by hand. The feel of a good day’s work is sometimes what the soul needs. A drawknife not only gets the job done but also gives you an accomplishment to savor.
Breaching tools are handy to have if you’re a firefighter, an EMT or in law enforcement. They can assist in gaining access to structures or vehicles in an emergency to help extract an accident victim, or to forcibly gain entry into a house or apartment to apprehend “the bad guys.”
There are differing varieties of breaching tools. Those in the story are tomahawk-based; they’re like standard tomahawks, but incorporate other features that make them more useful in emergency situations. Think tomahawks on steroids!
CRASH BROTHER
U.S. military veterans Jared Ogden and Grady Powell designed the Camillus CRASH breaching tool. Ogden served as a Navy SEAL and Powell as an Army Green Beret. Both have designed other knives and tools for Camillus, employing the expertise they gained from their years of service to create efficient tactical implements. One such design is the CRASH breaching tool.
At 21.75 inches overall, the CRASH features 3Cr13 stainless steel with a titanium-nitride coating for rust resistance. The cutting edge is 3.5 inches, long enough to be used effectively as an axe or tomahawk. A generous-sized cutout in the head allows for control and leverage when using the prybar/metal- cutting claw feature on the end of the tool.
A checkered-face hammering surface that measures about 1 inch wide by 2.3 inches long is on the head’s opposite end. The checkered face provides grip and won’t slip off the surface you’re hammering. The handle scales are molded Zytel for solid purchase. Molded-in texturing further enhances gripping ability. On the hawk side of the handle, two sets of machined- in finger grooves enable your fingers to settle in for a better grip.
Weighing 6 pounds, the CRASH can develop some serious momentum when swung as a tomahawk or hammer. In addition, the extra length and weight of the hammerhead make the CRASH a very effective axe. Moreover, the long handle allows for added leverage.
I hacked up and disassembled one wood pallet with the CRASH. It’s a powerful chopper and the edge bit into the wood aggressively. Using the hammer portion, I was able to knock the boards loose. It’s very convenient to have the two tools in one product for such a task.
Conversely, I dislike the prybar portion. Understand that the prybar isn’t the standard wedge-shaped tip found on so many commercially available models. The wedge tip allows for easy insertion under materials to initiate prying. However, while dismantling the pallet, I found myself wanting the traditional prybar wedge tip. Why? Because it would make the job easier to have three convenient tools in one rather than two. In fact, I found the prybar useless. It’s great to make use of the additional length of the tool, coupled with the integral handle grip in the head, but the C-shaped prybar tip wasn’t effective at all in getting in between the pallet boards.
AUTO SALVAGE SHAKEDOWN: I took the CRASH to a local auto salvage yard to test the axe head. After just a few swings, I drove the head into the door of a large pickup truck. Though the edge suffered some rolling, it wasn’t a big deal. When I tried to hack into the door of a second vehicle, about a quarter inch of the head’s edge broke off. Yes, it made it into the door but the CRASH was damaged. Nonetheless, the coating held up well, and, overall, the CRASH looked no worse for wear.
COMPACT HAMMER/PICK
Halfbreed Blades builds some of the most robust factory fixed blades and folders Down Under. It also has a line of rescue tools to augment its knife line. One such model is the IRT-01 (Incident Response Tool).
At a tad over 10 inches overall, it is one of the more compact of the test breaching tools. However, there’s a reason for its compact nature: It’s designed to carry via insertion into a single column row in a MOLLE plate. Neither a sheath nor a holster is included. At .32 inch thick, the IRT-01 can get the job done.
Steel is Bohler K110—basically, D2 tool steel. D2 is widely known for high impact resistance and toughness, as well as ease of working and resharpening. The tool is available in two colors of Teflon coating—black and flat dark earth (FDE). The entire length of the handle has a series of traction grooves machined into the flats, and there are traction notches on the handle edges. The two features work in conjunction for a secure, nonslip grip, even while wearing gloves.
A hammer and modified pick are on opposite ends of the head. The hammerhead is a bit over 1.5 inches wide and shares the same thickness as the handle—a generous .32 inch. There’s enough face to use it as a field- expedient hammer. On the opposite end is a modified pick with a rounded blunt end, which can be used as a glass breaker. The handle traction notches continue up under the pick so you can employ the “break-and-rake’’ method of glass breaking: After breaking the glass, the tool is used to rake and pull the glass shards out of a window frame.
Handle weight is optimized via the skeletonized design. It includes a built- in, multi-sized wrench for tightening nuts and bolts, as well as a quarter-inch drive hole that accommodates common hex bits. At the very end of the handle is a prybar/nail-puller. The single beveled side of the prybar allows for easy insertion between a wooden door and door jamb for forced entry/exit.
I was able to dismantle pallets with the IRT-01. I used my 32-ounce dead-blow hammer to pound the prybar end of the tool under the boards. I then grabbed the hammerhead and pulled to separate the boards. I also used the nail-puller to extract nails.
The tool has zero flex. You can whale on it as hard as you want without fear of bending it. Its short length might be a bit of a hindrance in tasks where leverage wins out.
AUTO SALVAGE SHAKEDOWN: I used the IRT-01 as a window breaker at the auto salvage yard. However, you can’t hit a window head on with the pick end. You have to catch the glass on the corner of the pick where there’s a point of contact on the window. I hit it in the lower corner of the window and, with one good, stinging pop, the glass shattered completely. I then used the underside of the pick to rake away the broken glass and knock away any that was still hanging on as if I were clearing the window out in order to gain access into a vehicle to rescue the occupants. Unfortunately, due to the IRT-01’s short length and lack of a cutting edge, that was the end of the salvage-yard test.
HACK ATTACK
DoubleStar’s Wrath crash hawk combines the best of a tomahawk and breaching tool all in one. Starting with .275-inch- thick 80CrV2 carbon steel, the 16.5-inch Wrath features a multifaceted face that simultaneously cuts as it penetrates. A scalloped spike on the opposite end penetrates wood and metal. The handle has a heavily checkered, machined-in texturing that bites comfortably, even when you’re wearing gloves.
The test version of the Wrath DoubleStar provided is a sample of the new model, which will be sold on the company’s website and not by dealers. It has a Parkerized coating as opposed to tan Cerakote®, and a green-and-black G-10 handle instead of the standard tan and black. Other than the cosmetic changes, the Wrath is similar to the original design. Each model comes with a heavy-duty, eighth-inch-thick Kydex sheath.
The quality is definitely there. All the grinds are even and the cutting edges are quite sharp. In fact, everything about the Wrath fits up well. Hacking up a pallet is just pure fun! Because of the V-shaped hatchet head, the cutting edges attack at an angle relative to the wood with each blow. It really made the wood chips fly.
The Wrath has an aggressive bite. It managed to hack through about half the width of the pallet boards. At about the halfway point, it broke the rest of the way through via sheer blunt force. The handle machining worked very well for the task. I wore latex-coated, cut-proof gloves during the test. The aggressive, checkered machining pattern on the G-10 worked efficiently to keep the tool from slipping from my grip during the powerful chopping blows.
If you use the Wrath without gloves on, you’ll probably find the machining pattern too aggressive. My recommendation: Always wear gloves while using this tool. Once you do, you’ll realize it makes sense. There were absolutely no issues with hand slippage.
AUTO SALVAGE SHAKEDOWN:
During my auto salvage yard visit, I was able to hack into a vehicle door but there was a bit of a price to pay: The tip of the hatchet head broke off. Nonetheless, the rest of the head escaped unscathed. The 80CrV2 steel is tough! When I got home, I used a regular metal file to touch up the edges and make it more serviceable.
Author’s note: Thanks to the good folks at Lewisville Motor Co., Inc., in Winston- Salem, North Carolina, for allowing me to test the breaching tools on vehicles destined for the crusher. An auto salvage yard specializing in parts for late-model cars and trucks, the company serves the Piedmont Triad metro area of North Carolina—and beyond—with fast and friendly personalized service. Visit lewisvillemotorcompany.com or e-mail [email protected].
