Tomahawks, axes (axs for the USAers)

Discussion in 'Weapons' started by Bozza Bostik, Apr 24, 2013.

  1. Guitar Nado

    Guitar Nado Valued Member

    When I was younger I thought the same thing about the SCA folks. The fighting parts looked cool, but all the other stuff that went with it turned me off.

    I've thought the same thing about cowboy action shooting as well.
     
  2. Bozza Bostik

    Bozza Bostik Antichrist on Button Moon

    Cheers Blindside.

    I contacted Cold Steel UK and they won't be getting them back in stock for a while. I'm in no real rush...but I want new toys!!! :mad:
     
  3. Bozza Bostik

    Bozza Bostik Antichrist on Button Moon

    I finally got my Cold Steel training tomahawks! Hurrah!!

    [​IMG]

    Tomahawks are now my weapon of choice. I really like them. Still a bit of a newb with 'em and I seem to stab myself with the spikey bit a bit too often, but they're tons of fun.

    I really like the way you can hook, control and "pass" limbs with them, (not sure what you other FMA guys call it - controlling and moving an arm out of the way) it gives you a lot of options to play with.

    Getting used to the weight and the momentum is interesting. You can't stop the weapon and change direction as easily with the 'hawks than sticks. So you really have to go with the flow, use footwork and angling and guide the thing along a new path or angle.

    It'll be interesting to see how this all develops!
     
  4. Unreal Combat

    Unreal Combat Valued Member

    You can use some axes as stabbing weapons as well to attack soft spots.
     
  5. Bozza Bostik

    Bozza Bostik Antichrist on Button Moon

    Yeah, there's a lot going on with them.

    Last lesson we were doing some moves where I was holding the axe near the head and stabbing, slashing and then striking with the handle.

    My instructor is hopefully bringing in a few axes with different designs, weight, size etc etc over the next couple of weeks and we'll mess around with them and compare how they can be used. Should be fun.
     
  6. matveimediaarts

    matveimediaarts Underappreciated genius

    That's a neat toy! :D I'll have to try it when I finish my kobudo studies.
     
  7. blindside

    blindside Valued Member

    My group spent a weekend out here playing with these trainers this past summer and had a ball. I brought a couple of instruction points, but much of it was just play with a new weapon and I agree, the trapping elements were great.

    We emphasized using power of the impact weapon as the main objective, and then all the "fun" stuff came in with the "what happens if he/we get inside" type scenarios. You could just see guys eyes light up.

    As a side note, the angle of the hooked edge beneath the axe head exactly matched that of a couple of claw hammers we had that weekend, so all hooking techniques directly translated to a more real world weapon. We had fun with that as well.
     
  8. blindside

    blindside Valued Member

    Oh, the other thing that came out of that weekend was that the Cold Steel hawks absolutely suck. I ordered 2 of their Trail Hawks and 2 Rifleman's Hawks, and one of the heads had already fallen off just from the action involved in shipping the box to me. The only thing holding the heads onto the handles was a small screw (which isn't how tomahawks are supposed to work.)

    I wound up doing a quick reshape on the handles to try to make them match the heads better, but even then the heads were popping off regularly. I actually like the feel of the trail hawk as a weapon, but I think I need to custom fit a handle for it. I would say steer away from these unless you want to do a lot of extra work. My 8 year old H&B Forge shawnee hawk is still going strong and I have neve lost a head even with a fair bit of throwing.
     
  9. Hannibal

    Hannibal Cry HAVOC and let slip the Dogs of War!!! Supporter

    My trail hawk is still going strong because I replaced the screw in it! The original one is pretty weedy
     
  10. blindside

    blindside Valued Member

    Did you have to refit the head? The heads on my hawks were held on by about 1/8 inch of pressure fitting and that stupid screw. When the head is rotating around the screw, thats a bad thing. :D
     
  11. Hannibal

    Hannibal Cry HAVOC and let slip the Dogs of War!!! Supporter

    No my actual handle/shaft was a pretty good fit
     
  12. PBridz

    PBridz New Member

    That Kalisong guy's approach is awesome, but Dwight McLemore, who was already mentioned, also has some cool videos too: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOeB2yMU_q8"]How to Use the Hanging Log for Tomahawk Training | THE FIGHTING TOMAHAWK - YouTube[/ame]

    Shows his more colonial era fighting style if you fancy mixing it up a bit - worth pointing out the Tomahawk design was partly influenced by Royal Navy boarding axes of the period. Also interesting training method with that log - wondering what other stuff that could be applied to?
     
  13. Ben Gash CLF

    Ben Gash CLF Valued Member

    Really? looks a lot like Kali TBH.
     
  14. Bozza Bostik

    Bozza Bostik Antichrist on Button Moon

    I can't get past the opening "action scene" to be honest.
     
  15. Ben Gash CLF

    Ben Gash CLF Valued Member

    That's it for me. I can accept that there are certain universal principles that mean stuff often looks similar. But if what you're doing is not distinctive in and of itself dressing up and creating a "lore" for it isn't going to change that.
     
  16. Mangosteen

    Mangosteen Hold strong not

    Aldi sells a trail axe for 10 quid, not a training one though
     
  17. Bozza Bostik

    Bozza Bostik Antichrist on Button Moon

    This?

    "That's the great thing about Aldi, you can do all your family shopping, then buy something to chop the family up with afterwards!"

    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT0l7V3xYYw"]Aldi Axe[/ame]
     
  18. PBridz

    PBridz New Member

    Fair enough, I thought it was just a bit of fun to be honest as after that they're just training in sweats - they don't seem to talk up the origin of it very much and I don't know what the guy's background is.
     
  19. Dead_pool

    Dead_pool Spes mea in nihil Deus MAP 2017 Moi Award

    The guys knees and toes point In different directions thats a bad sign no matter what art.
     
  20. blindside

    blindside Valued Member

    I am looking through McLemore's first book on the "Fightin Tomahawk" and I think what he is offering is fairly distinctive. The book belongs to one of my students and he got it for Christmas, his first comment was "I already knew the first two chapters" from his experience training in Kali. The basic angles of slashing and thrusting are certainly covered in our kali, but I thing he presents it well from a re-creation standpoint, much like most of the historical European martial arts out there. And certainly the main cutting lines can be referenced back to the saber material of the times. He also cites historical discussion of the 'hawk and warclub, as well as showing carry methods for militia that used the 'hawk as a sidearm.

    Now did I as an experienced kali practitioner learn a large amount about the application of the tomahawk as a martial art? No, not really, but it would certainly be useful to a beginner interested in the topic, and I did find the history of the weapon here in the US-to-be to be very interesting. I would recommend the book.
     

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