#axemod

[ru-titley-knives]

Multi -cam kydex mask for my recycled Gerber / friskars axe .

 This is the axe I got over the summer from a tat shop clearance its been well used but plenty of life in it still .

After a quick clean up and a sharpen I wrapped the handle in nonslip grip tape which gives an amazing grip and just needed a mask to finish it off .

[ru-titley-knives]

@coldsteelknives trail hawk pimp .

part 4 .

In part 3 a follower inquired as to why I had put a level on an item in a vice .

The reason was two fold ,firstly one of my vice jaws is broken so putting a level on it ensures the handle was flat before drilling . Secondly the trail hawks handle was too long to fit under my pillar drill so it was going to have to be drilled by hand  .

Having the handle level in the vice with so much of the wood sticking up to drill into so that the drill bit isn’t pressured by the vice jaws meant I needed to make sure the drill was spot on level or risk possibly going off an an angle .

After the black leather dye on the handle was dry I rubbed it back with some wire wool to revel the grain . I then epoxied in the female end of the safety breakaway cord-lock flush to the end of the handle . It then fits the male cord-lock with the 6mm fire steel in like a glove and I can either add a tungsten carbide striker or small Photon freedom type flashlight to the technora cord .

As I hope to be sent another handle by @heinniehaynes who now stock them to also do a frontier style pimp to that one I can’t add any cord to the handle as will still need to remove the trail hawks head so opted for a series of large rubber O rings which work well to designate a specific grip area but are also easy to remove .

Between the O rings I wanted to add a bit of practical decoration in the form of some pyrography . The art of burning wood to create patterns is probably as old as history itself but it also indents into the wood leaving a grippy texture.

You can also see that I have sharpened and mirror polished the cutting edge after its stone-washing. 

 CS hawks in the UK via http://www.heinnie.com/cold-steel-trail-hawk

[ru-titley-knives]

Cold Steel Trail hawk Pimp .

Part 3 .

 Having sorted the head and then the kydex mask it was time to sort out the haft . I had decided to cut down the hickory haft to 16 inch’s (original is 22 inch’s ) as wanted the  CS hawk to fit in size between 2 of my Gransor’s Bruks axes depending on the cutting tool I required at the time .

After trimming down the hickory haft I had a plan to do something a little different involving a hidden fire steel into the end of the handle .

Making sure the cut off handle was level I used a specialized drill bit with counter sinker bit to drill down into the hickory handle to be able to sink in the female part of a safety break away cord lock . I then deeded to clean out the drilled channel to take the 6mm fire steel that fits snug into the male end of the safety break away cord lock .

 After drilling the handle was doubled coated with black leather dye and allowed to dry .

cs hawks in the UK via @heinniehaynes http://www.heinnie.com/cold-steel-trail-hawk