SOG Tactical Tomahawk Survival Review

Keep reading for metal destruction and Johns bloody arm!

Its really hard to find a good review online. So we did our own. Don’t Forget to read the “Before You Buy” tip at the bottom. Trust us its worth reading.

Most of the reviews we see don’t really appeal to us because we want to get down and dirty with the equipment. In this case I even got a bit bloody. So here is our review of the SOG tactical Tomahawk.

Its simple, we want to know how strong it is. So we hit it against metal really hard several times. The SOG Tactical Tomahawk comes ready for bloodshed.

Basic Hawk Stats

Packaged Effectively but still a pain in the butt to open



The SOG Tactical Tomahawk comes in a plastic bubble package. Included is a sheath with a belt strap built in. The sheath seems pretty rugged while still providing easy access. Also included is a small SOG sales booklet.

Lightweight and Heavy Just like a Tomahawk Should Be

My first impression after struggling to open the bubble packaging was that the weight was very close to perfect. I found that the hawk was just heavy enough to provide the force needed for chopping or killing, but also not so heavy as to tire my arm or hand out quickly. From my experience with hatchets and tomahawks this lighter weight is a serious advantage for a prepper. You may still want to consider a full size axe if you are going to be splitting a lot of wood.

Oiled Sharp and Hazardous to flesh

The blade comes sharpened and ready for instant bloodshed (see below). Since this was our first review we weren’t sure what tests a tactical tomahawk might need to be put through. Dads first instinct was to attack a big ice block on his back lawn. Needless to say the tomahawk smashed and sliced perfectly. We all know that slicing through ice chunks isn’t really one of the more common uses for your tomahawk. Lets look at the overall construction statistics.

HEAD: 420 Stainless Steel With Black Finish

HANDLE: Glass Reinforced Nylon With Hand Grooves

WEIGHT: 1.9 Pounds (.86 kg)

DIMENSIONS: 16.8 x 9.5 x 1.5 Inches

The Head: What’s the point of the spike thing?

The spike is part of the reason this thing is called “tactical”. Here is a quote from the official SOG description.

The SOG Specialty Knives & Tools F01TN-CP Tactical Tomahawk is a versatile tool for breaching operations, excavation, obstacle removal, extraction and other utility applications.

Ok so this thing is made to disturb flesh (see below) but it is also for digging, breaking, opening, and hammering. We all know that a metal spike can go through things but how tough is this spike? I doubted that the SHARP point on the spike would stand up to any real punishment. So we punished it. Dad grabbed some iron square tubing 1/8 in thick and proceeded to slam the spike into it as hard as he could. After seeing about six or seven great dents made in the metal tubing I asked him to stop so we could asses the damage. As you guys (or gals) probably know most of the goods mass produced these days aren’t up to the quality standards that we need as preppers and survivalists. If this hawk cant stand up to punishment then we need to move on to another tomahawk.

The Spike Punishment: IT HELD UP PERFECTLY! STILL SHARP

What’s the deal with the handle? Its not metal so its weak right?

From our tests we have seen that the handle is strong as heck. We scratched our heads for a while trying to think of a good way to test the handle without just putting it under the loader bucket and snapping it. We really wanted to show the readers how sophisticated we were. So what was our final test?



Beat the crap out of it to see if it breaks.

My thoughts were that if we hit the handle hard enough on some metal (big new idea) it would start to show signs of weakness. So I grabbed the tomahawk by the neck and started hitting the nylon reinforced handle. I really wanted this thing to break or start to crack or something but to my surprise my arm touched the blade……..

I know you have been reading for a while, but the blade is still sharp !

Anyway back to the handle. After beating it on some metal there was only a small amount of local denting. This glass reinforced nylon seems to be the perfect handle for a Survival Tomahawk. I suppose a solid metal handle would last a LOT longer, but in a survival situation you have to consider weight as well. We may be able to carry two or three hawks for the same weight value. And honestly it probably wont come to more Survival Tomahawks in your bag, it would end up being food, or other vital item. Either way we love the handle with one small exception (read before you buy: see below).

Tactical Tomahawk The last Major Component To the Survival orIs The Neck

I can hear the more experienced preppers and survivalists out there screaming for a test of the neck. Its pretty clear that where the metal meets the glass reinforced nylon handle should be the weakest part of the tomahawk. We thought so too, and let me tell you that we thought up the perfect way to test it. If you guys read this far and guessed it let me know in the comments. In fact in our survival packs we actively seek out items that have few joints and little moving parts. We recommend this as a rule, however this survival tomahawk is an exception. Dad (Tony in case you forgot) has already claimed this for himself, see his bag in the final picture.

Its simple, we want to know how strong it is. So we hit it against metal really hard several times.

To be even more simple we hit the neck against the edge of the same piece of square tubing. You may have even noticed the dents in the steel from the other photographs. The results were awesome! This thing never even flinched. The neck bolts stayed tight and sturdy. The metal sleeve covering the joint was dented a small amount but from what I can tell this part is cosmetic.

BONUS FEATURE: Side Hammer.

One of my main gripes with the tactical tomahawk is the lack of a hammer. Although I am in no way a fan of bear grylls, I do love my Bear Grylls Survival Hatchet . One of the things I really like about it is the ability to hammer stakes into random vampires. The SOG Tactical Tomahawk has it covered. Each side is equipped with a textured patch on each side of the head which is made for hammering. The balance is a bit off due to the blade weight being more than the spike, but it still works.

So what can this thing do other than cut Johns arm halfway off?

I wanted to make a chart to express some of the qualities of this Survival Tomahawk in number form. I will also color code it green yellow red. Green being excellent, red being buy something else. This might help some of the people who want good survival gear recommendation without reading the whole article.





Is there anything wrong with the SOG Tactical Tomahawk? Yes, sort of.

We did have one problem while we were chopping wood to test this thing out we noticed that our hand was slipping on the handle. It wasn’t bad but after a few logs it was becoming a bit annoying. This could be a pretty annoying problem if you were to use this to chop several large logs for a cabin or other shelter. We hope you won’t have to use this for that type of project but if you do buy this survival tomahawk we thought up an easy fix.

BEFORE YOU BUY!

The handle problem isn’t a big deal for most projects but we wanted to take this review to the next step and really do a good job for the FatherSonPrepper.com readers. Dad had the great idea to wrap the handle with paracord.

No really, lets wrap this bad boy up. Thanks to dad for figuring this out. Neither of us knew what we were doing and here are the results. (lower image quality due to dads camera is crap)

With all this data (blood and dented metal) we have concluded that the SOG Tactical Tomahawk is a solid buy . We love it. We think any bug out bag or shelter would be better off with one around.

Bonus Survival tomahawk info! Tony made a video.

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Anyone interested in tomahawk history check out the article at Wikipedia. Click Here