Re: Spec Forces Tomahawk
Ryan is a great guy and he has worked hard at his trade.
From the files..
If anybody has an interest, I can post one of the first hawks off the line and a good deal more.
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LOCAL TOMAHAWKS GO TO TROOPS
BY JAN GALLETTA, STAFF WRITER
Chattanooga, TN, Sunday, October 7, 2001 - If members of America's military face combat in Afghanistan, some of them may be toting tomahawks custom-made by Ryan Johnson of Chattanooga.
The 28-year-old mechanical engineer and bladesmith recently received an online order from a group of Special Forces personnel to create a new kind of tactical ax "that will punch through Kevlar helmets," he said.
"They had been in the Persian Gulf but are now on the move, like all our military guys from Guam to Alaska," Mr. Johnson said. "I guarantee, they'll be carrying these tomahawks with them in the field."
Col. Stephen Bucci agreed. Stationed at the Pentagon as the personal assistant to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, he is also a member of the Special Forces and a customer of Mr. Johnson.
"Special Forces have always carried tomahawks as the sidearm of choice," Col. Bucci said in a telephone interview. "I'm guessing that any men in the field who see those guys carrying Ryan's tomahawks are going to want one, too. The craftsmanship is fantastic."
Mr. Johnson said the Special Forces customers had expressed their need for a weapon that would pierce the vests and body armor typically worn "by a lot of people they're coming across, like guards or sentries. They are calling the ax 'The Shamal,' which means 'hot desert wind,'" he said.
It's a common practice for American servicemen to supplement government-issued gear with such items for personal use, according to Col. Bucci.
"They're only authorized to use government-issue weapons. But this ax falls into the same category as a knife that's intended for personal use," he said.
A longtime history buff who began a blacksmithing apprenticeship when he was only 12, Mr. Johnson has been crafting frontier-era knives and cutting tools for more than a decade. He is one of more than 70 members in a local blacksmith club.
Since opening his R.M.J. Forge in Hixson two years ago, he said he has specialized in tomahawks that he sells exclusively on the Internet. Buyers have ranged from a Hong Kong aficionado of Lewis and Clark lore to racers in the Alaskan Iditarod and California camping enthusiasts.
Col. Bucci said he was just completing a yearlong assignment in Bosnia as a defense department attache to the American embassy when he saw Mr. Johnson's Web site and ordered a Spanish Cross tomahawk from the Chattanooga blacksmith.
"I collect knives and other things like that, and he had the particular model of tomahawk that I wanted," the colonel said.
"But because the circumstances made it so hard for us to get mail back and forth, Ryan just took me at my word that the check would come after I left Bosnia."
When Mr. Johnson learned that his handiwork -- a mid-19th-century pipe-style hand ax with a curly maple handle, iron blade and spring-steel cutting edge -- was hanging on Pentagon walls, he asked Col. Bucci to send him a photograph.
This week, the picture arrived with a timely letter from the colonel, who said his office isn't in the part of the Pentagon damaged in the Sept. 11 attack. "It's on the other side of the building, the side they (terrorists) really wanted to hit," he said.
In his letter to Mr. Johnson, Col. Bucci wrote that "when we watched the two airplanes hit the WTC (World Trade Center) on TV and realized it was a planned event, the vice admiral (three star) and I talked about what needed to be done.
"He said, 'It will take more than Tomahawk cruise missiles to beat these guys. It will take tomahawks like yours at the ends of the arms of soldiers.'
"Less than 10 minutes later, Flight 11 hit the (Pentagon) building."
Col. Bucci's letter continued, "My Spanish Cross Hawk has become a symbol of sorts. It is an emblem of the resolve we have to see 'Enduring Freedom' through to its conclusion."
Mr. Johnson said most of the tomahawks he makes are 18 to 20 inches long and weigh about 2 pounds. They vary in price from $150 to $1,200, with factors such as the amount of detail partly determining the cost, according to the blacksmith.
He said authentically reproducing a vintage tomahawk, such as the smokeable pipe hawks that expeditioners Lewis and Clark traded for corn, is an expensive undertaking. So is making an ax with a blade of multilayered, laminated Damascus steel, Mr. Johnson said.
Sometimes he designs machines to do laser-cutting duty and other precision tasks, a process that can send up the price but also allows for a high volume of replication, he said.
The machines Mr. Johnson fabricated to manufacture the Shamal tomahawks will make it possible for him to fill large orders for the axes, should demand increase, he said.
Col. Bucci said he wouldn't be surprised if Mr. Johnson finds himself on the cutting edge of an emerging market for age-old armaments.
"With the kind of conflict it looks like we may be having, it doesn't surprise me that the idea of carrying a tomahawk like that is being resurrected," he said.
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Lethal Weapon
Historic Tomahawk Returns to the Battlefield with Some U.S. Troops
By David Tillett
April 15— U.S. forces are using two types of tomahawks in Iraq: one, a high-tech cruise missile — the other, a bit more like the hatchet Mel Gibson used in the movie The Patriot.
Members of Air Force security groups, Army Rangers and special forces are some of the U.S. troops who have chosen to add tomahawks to their basic gear.
So why would a member of today's armed services want a relic of the American frontier? According to one modern tomahawk manufacturer, the reasons soldiers carried them in the Revolutionary War are still valid today — and it all comes down to science.
"The physics behind it make it an appropriate choice for any kind of battlefield conditions," said Ryan Johnson, owner of RMJ Forge.
"You take a knife, a knife has a certain amount of leverage that's given to you. The tomahawk can be used like a knife, but you also have that 18 inches of handle that gives you a huge amount of difference in power as far as the power of the cutting stroke. It's much more practical as a field tool because you can again use it like a knife or you can use it like an ax."
Tomahawks Also Used in Not-So-Distant History
The tomahawk was commonly carried by soldiers even prior to the Revolutionary War, but its use in modern times is not unprecedented.
According to Johnson, soldiers have used tomahawks in most of the major wars the United States has fought.
"In World War II, there were not only Native Americans using them, but also just your regular GI. A lot of these people were just carrying stuff from home, stuff that they used on the farm," Johnson said.
He added that an uncle who had served in the Korean War told him soldiers would take the standard hatchet that they were issued and grind the back down into a spike to make a "fighting hatchet."
World War II Marine veteran Peter LaGana was a pioneer in the modern military use of tomahawks. He created an updated tomahawk design and, from 1966 to 1970, sold about 4,000 of them to members of the armed forces serving in Vietnam before closing down his company.
From top right to lower left: American Tomahawk Co. founder Peter LaGana's original 1966 design for the "Vietnam Tomahawk," with drop-forged head and hickory handle; today's Vietnam Tactical Tomahawk with synthetic handle; LaGana Titanium Tactical Tomahawk. (
www.americantomahawk.com)
While tomahawks have historically been made in a variety of patterns, LaGana chose a "spike hawk" design — which has the cutting blade common to hatchets, but a sturdy penetrating spike on the opposite side.
In November 2000, professional knife and tomahawk thrower Andy Prisco approached LaGana and got his approval to license his design and restart the defunct firm, the American Tomahawk Co. — which Prisco did in January 2001.
Prisco's revitalized firm sells several different tomahawk designs, mainly to sportsmen and collectors. But he said that among members of the military, the top-selling product is the Vietnam Tactical Tomahawk, which uses LaGana's original head design and an updated synthetic handle. LaGana died in 2002 after a battle with cancer.
Johnson, who had a childhood interest in historical weapons, says he began hand-forging tomahawks at age 12. It became a way of life for him, as he put himself through college selling hand-forged tomahawks and knives, and made it his full-time occupation once he graduated.
RMJ Forge's version of a modern tactical tomahawk, the Eagle Talon Special Forces Tomahawk. (
www.rmjforge.com)
Originally, most of his customers were period re-enactors or people interested in early American history. He first made tomahawks specifically for members of the military in the spring of 2001.
The effort was sparked by a request from a friend in an Air Force security group who sent him an e-mail with a picture of an 18th-century spike tomahawk and asked if he could make an updated tactical version. Johnson's modern tomahawk is made from a single piece of steel, with synthetic scales on the grip.
It wasn't until after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and the United States began fighting in Afghanistan that he started making them in quantity. In fact, it dramatically changed the way he does business — Johnson says his time is now almost exclusively devoted to producing the modern tomahawks for military customers, and he makes only a few historical tomahawks a month.
While these modern tomahawks do everything their frontier counterparts did, their makers say theirs are uniquely suited to challenges U.S. forces may face in urban combat.
The Web sites for both RMJ Forge and ATC mention a variety of capabilities of their products, including breaching doors, smashing locks or tearing out windows to enter buildings, chopping holes in cinder block walls — and even punching through a standard Kevlar helmet.
A Slow Road to Acceptance
Prisco's tomahawk has been advanced for consideration under the Soldier Enhancement Program, a congressionally mandated program that allows the evaluation and adoption by the military of commercial, off-the-shelf items.
Soldiers from a platoon of the 101st Air Assault Division at Fort Campbell, Ky., were used to evaluate ways to enhance soldiers' sawing, cutting and chopping capabilities. The military's current standard-issue item is the improved entrenching tool, a compact folding shovel that is often used for chopping, hammering, etc.
The soldiers tested the entrenching tool against other tools, including the tomahawk, in a series of tasks, including digging fighting positions (known in previous wars as foxholes).
"When the program requested documentation, I received numerous e-mails from soldiers in the field talking about they liked this item [the tomahawk]," said Rochelle Bautista, combat developer with the United States Army Infantry School. While the test was completed in November 2001, no final decision has yet been made.
One e-mail sent to Bautista's office came from a 22-year veteran with service in the Rangers and special forces. Because he is currently serving in-theater, military officials requested he not be named.
He said that in his experience, the best use for the government-issue entrenching tool is to "keep it in its carrier and buried in your rucksack. However, an issue tomahawk ... would be the single most innovative and smart thing the Army has done for the soldier in years in terms of such a piece of equipment.
"As a close-quarters combat weapon — especially given our current operations and the evolving and necessary tactics for Advanced Urban Warfare ... the tomahawk, THIS tomahawk, cannot be improved upon."
Not Everyone’s Convinced
Not everyone is sold on the tomahawk's potential for widespread acceptance in the military.
Retired Army Maj. Gen. William Nash, an ABCNEWS military analyst, said the Army is not quick to add new items — and weight — to the list of gear that a soldier has to carry. Also, as a safety issue, commanders often have reservations about providing soldiers with untested items, or allowing them to carry one they purchased themselves.
"I've been in outfits where any private weapon — to include knives — were not permitted," Nash said. "But as the lethality of the weapon increases, the tolerance for its presence decreases. They become too unaccounted for."
Nash, who commanded the 1st Armored Division in Bosnia and was the commander of the 1st Brigade, 3rd Armored Division during Operation Desert Storm, offered a grim example. The first U.S. soldier to die in Bosnia was killed by a land mine. The soldier, who had no training in the handling of explosive ordnance, was experimenting with the mine using a Leatherman-style multitool.
"Now, if he hadn't had a Leatherman, he might have still screwed around with a mine. But it's that type of ad-hockery that commanders worry about," said Nash. "There's an ingrained discipline that comes with all of this that commanders don't want to lose."
As for testing a tomahawk against the entrenching tool, Nash remains skeptical.
"It's hard enough [to dig a fighting position] with an entrenching tool. The hatchet's a better hatchet than the entrenching tool is. But we didn't buy the entrenching tool for a hatchet. We bought it to dig holes."
Nash was not totally negative in his assessment. "Now ... at the same time, an innovative person comes up with something that may be useful, but it takes a long time for the Army to test it and get it in the field. That frustrates the soldier."
Does This Relic From the Past Have a Future?
Currently, service members are buying tomahawks individually or, in some cases, units are using operational funds to buy them for their group. But manufacturers would not be displeased if their products were adopted more widely in the armed services.
"This is not a standard-issue item per se — [but] are we moving that direction? Yes indeed, in my view we are," said ATC's Prisco. "The tomahawk's got a lot of versatility — soldiers don't have to carry seven or eight pieces of larger kit. They can carry a tomahawk and do the same thing."
RMJ Forge's Johnson said in his opinion, the tomahawk won't be a standard-issue item for all of the military, but "I think it will definitely be an issue item for a lot of the special forces eventually."
Prisco added that the appeal of tomahawks goes beyond the military. He said members of the Border Patrol and Department of Justice carry his products along the border, and members of the Drug Enforcement Administration use it when they conduct operations in forest environments.
"As far as firefighting and law enforcement, there are a lot of crossover applications of our products," Prisco said. One message on the forum of ATC's Web site written by a firefighter describes how he used his tomahawk to break a padlock off a gate, then hacked open a door to get access to a burning house.
Johnson said it was a conversation with a firefighter that gave him the idea for a modified tomahawk small enough for firefighters to carry, but big enough for them to cut or pry their way out of a dangerous situation.
"He said, 'I'd love to have one to carry on my personal gear. If you did this and this and this, that would eliminate three things that I'd have to carry — I could just have it all in this one tool.' So that's kinda the direction we've been going, to come up with a multipurpose tool."
Tomahawk Strikes a Balance Between Tool and Weapon
April 15 — Regardless of the tomahawk's historic combat uses, American Tomahawk Co.'s Andy Prisco said primarily he considers it to be a tool.
"There's no doubt [that a tomahawk is also a backup weapon], but the entrenching tool is also a backup weapon, so there is nothing new about the tomahawk's ability. It's extremely capable in this regard ... The Patriot and The Last of the Mohicans are well-known movies where a tomahawk is used combatively."
One e-mail sent to the U.S. Army Infantry School supporting adoption of tomahawks came from an instructor in the U.S. Air Force Special Operations School's International Terrorism Division.
He said that while he was deployed in Afghanistan, tomahawks were useful for tasks that field-issue bayonets and fighting knives were too delicate to accomplish. He said troops were constantly borrowing tomahawks from those who had them, and they were used for everything from cutting open foreign metal ammunition cans to ripping apart wooden pallets for construction to kitchen duty, when a cook used one to butcher a goat.
Both Prisco and Ryan Johnson of RMJ Forge say their tomahawks are being chosen by members of a broad spectrum of the military, including elite units from Air Force security groups, Navy SEALs, Army Rangers and special forces. In fact, one special forces team's new patch features an ATC tomahawk crossed with a bayonet and arrow, topped with a skull.
Prisco said that between purchases by individuals and some military units, his firm has sold several thousand tomahawks to armed services personnel.
Johnson said he wasn't at liberty to say how many tomahawks he's sold to members of the military. "It's been enough to keep us busy, let's put it that way."
U.S. forces have much more deadly items in the arsenal, and even bayonets are accepted as military weapons. But despite the tomahawk's dual role as a tool, the prospect of its use as a weapon makes some people uncomfortable.
Johnson said that during an interview at his shop, a reporter held one of his tomahawks. "Don't you think this is kind of vicious?" he was asked.
"And I told her, 'These guys aren't playing tag football out there.' This is serious business. The average person that carries our stuff, they're special forces, and these guys, this is the kind of stuff they need."
— David Tillett, ABCNEWS.com
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A piece I wrote for Precision Shooting
Since the birth of our nation, American fighting forces have been carrying an increasingly wide range of technically advanced weapons. Many of us have spent the last number of months carefully inspecting these remarkable weapons through the photos accompanying the articles of our troops fighting in Afghanistan. About a month ago, I became aware of something quite extraordinary. Although few weapons have remained essentially in their original form throughout the ages, it appears that the tomahawk, now some 250 years old, is alive and serving in Afghanistan.
The last time U.S. forces carried modernized tomahawk versions was in Vietnam, where some 4,000 tomahawks were issued to Army Rangers. Today, U.S. Special Forces in Afghanistan are carrying the latest version of this venerable weapon capable of remarkable performance on the 21st century battlefield.
What a weapon it is! An updated 1750 spike axe design is rendered in modern materials through the use of computer-aided lasers cutting tomahawks out of sheets of 1075 Spring Steel. 1430 degrees of heat provides selective hardening for a tough, carbonized 56-58 Rockwell hardness on the cutting and piercing edges, 44-46 slightly carbonized Rockwell readings on the head, and 24-26 carbonless hardening on the handle. Brutal battle toughness at the head, flexible toughness at the handle provides the ultimate in strength and survivability; a tomahawk that will not break under the heaviest possible use. The design requirements included the ability to pierce the newest issue Kevlar helmets, something these tomahawks do with surprising, silent ease.
“The design being employed is time and practice proven,” says Ryan Johnson, designer and maker of the Eagle Talon
Tomahawk, “The requirements call for a spike axe that weighs in at approximately two pounds. What RMJ Forge has done is take a field-proven design and made it stronger with modern materials, methods and design”
RMJ Forge has been shipping out Eagle Talons to the Ranger Training Brigade at Fort Benning, Ga. since October, earning some interesting accolades. "Special Forces have always carried tomahawks as the sidearm of choice," states Col. Bucci, assistant to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. "I'm guessing that any men in the field who see those guys carrying Ryan's tomahawks are going to want one too." Col. Bucci has a tomahawk hanging in his Pentagon office.
Eagle Talon tomahawks are bead-blasted and provided in a mil-spec parkerized finish. The handle is full tang construction, some 3/8” thick, and covered with two panels of 11” long Micarta. The scabbard supplied is made of Kydex, a thermo-formed plastic that is molded to the shape of each individual tomahawk. There are five rivets, three screws, and three large grommets providing almost unlimited tie-down options. The reverse of the scabbard sports a Tek-Lok belt clip adjustable to 2.5” belts. To remove the tomahawk simply pull up, to put it back, simply pull down and the weapon locks in place.
Interested parties should contact RMJ Forge in Hixson, TN at (423) 842-9323 or at
www.rmjforge.com. Note that military personnel receive priority…and a hefty discount. Civilians can also sponsor delivery of these tomahawks to troops overseas.
