Description
The head on the Black Kite is cut through with an open bearded profile, and the Damascus runs right through the cutout, so you can read the layers on both the outside face and the inside of the window.
| Overall length | 18 inches |
| Steel | 1095 + 15N20 Damascus, 352 layers |
| Handle | Dark wood haft slabs pinned in brass |
| Hardness | 58–60 HRC, oil tempered |
| Pattern | Wind & Mix twist Fire pattern feather rain drop ladder Damascus Blade |
| Included | Hand-stitched leather sheath |
Its job: splitting kindling, limbing, camp chores and driving tent stakes with the flat poll on the back. At 18 inches it is a one-hand tool. You choke up near the head for controlled cuts and drop to the end of the haft when you want the weight to do the work.
The head is a working shape, not a display shape
The bit flares into a beard that hangs below the eye, which gives you a longer cutting edge without adding weight up top. Behind the eye sits a flat hammer poll. The open window through the head cuts mass out of the middle, where mass does nothing useful, and leaves it at the edge, where it does.
Pattern-welded, and you can see it
The layers here are a mix of twist, ladder and feather work rather than a single repeated motif, so the head reads differently along its length. Twist sections show tight circular eyes, ladder sections show straight rungs across the flat. That variety comes from folding and manipulating the billet in more than one direction before the head is drawn out, and it is why no two of these heads etch identically.
The butt end is a tool too
The haft runs to a flat steel end with a notch cut into it, so the bottom of the axe works as a small pry and nail puller. The dark handle slabs are pinned in brass down both sides.
Care: an axe lives outdoors and this one is high-carbon pattern-welded steel, which will surface-rust if you leave it in a wet pack. Dry the head first and sheathe it second, never the other way round. A rag with a film of oil over the head after each trip is enough. Check the wedge and the pins for movement at the start of every season and stop using it if the head shifts on the haft — a loose head is the only genuinely dangerous fault an axe develops.
Common questions
Is this a throwing axe? No. The Damascus head and the pinned handle are built for chopping, and repeated hard impacts into a target board will eventually loosen the assembly. Buy a dedicated throwing set if that is the plan.
How sharp does it arrive? Shaving sharp on the bit. An axe edge is ground more obtusely than a knife edge on purpose, because a thin edge chips on knots.
What does the layer count actually tell me? Less than people assume — we break the arithmetic down in what 352 layers actually means. If you want to understand why a forged head behaves differently from a stamped one, read hand-forged versus factory made. For the same silhouette in plain high-carbon steel at half the price, see the Anvil Oak hatchet.
Model: BMK-800
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