Head-Lock

If you have thrown tomahawks enough, you know that it doesn’t take long for the head to loosen up on the handle, sometimes sliding all the way off. The heavier the tomahawk head, the more of an issue this is. A few of my ‘hawks seem to have a tight grip on the handle and don’t slip much, but even these will come loose if subjected to an under rotation that causes the grip end of the handle to strike the target first. I have been testing a method that will lock the head on the handle much tighter than it was but any head will break loose, even with this method, if under rotated and the handle strikes first. What I do is simply take the head off and apply a thin squiggly line of hot-glue on the area of the handle where the head seats. I then slide the head back on and, with a hammer, drive the head on so it seats all the way back up the handle where it originally was. The hot glue forms an extremely tight gasket between the head and the handle greatly minimizing the amount of slipping the head will do. The best way to do this is to heat the head up in a toaster oven while the hot glue gun is warming. You want the tomahawk head hot enough to keep the glue soft while seating the head back on the handle. This way the glue fills in all the spaces between the head and handle creating a very tight fit. When the glue cools and hardens I trim off the excess with a razor knife.

Re-seat head all the way on the handle

In the picture above, the vise is not clamping the handle, just providing a solid surface for the head to rest on since you need too bang the handle pretty hard to re-seat it. Be careful because you will chip off the corner of your handle if you hit it on the edge. Try to hammer right in the middle or use another block of wood to protect the handle.

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