CRKT Woods Chogan Review

The CRKT Woods Chogan is something that caught my eye on Amazon a while back and after some time I made the decision to purchase it. I was looking for something durable, since it would be my main yard/bush craft “hatchet”, but within my budget where I wouldn’t have to starve myself for a week just to afford it and the Chogan fit the bill. The Chogan is a tomahawk designed by RMJ tactical and produced by Columbia River Knife and Tool and the collaboration between these two companies has resulted in the Woods Chogan as well as its brothers the Woods Nobo and the Woods Kangee. Both companies are well known producers of tactical equipment such as tomahawks and knives. I had mixed feelings about the Chogan as the quality control seems to be questionable.

First off, the Chogan comes disassembled in a green cardboard box which differs from reviews I seen form others where the head was already attached to the handle. This didn’t bother me as some of those reviews had said that the head came off the handle in shipping. Which brings us to the main design feature of these tomahawks, which is that the heads can easily come off the handle with a few good taps to the base. This can make sharpening and packing the Chogan in a pack much easier than if it were permanently affixed to the handle like a traditional hatchet. The sandblast finish on the head is superb and is protected by a varnish so that the look will be clean for a long time and the eye is nice and smooth and also free of defects. The grind on the head seems OK at best and mine came very dull to the point where I think it almost wouldn’t be suitable even for throwing so expect to at least spend a few minutes on it with an axe file. Once sharpened properly the head has sufficient weight and cutting power to get through decently dense wood without showing any signs of dulling. The handle is also protected by a varnish which some may decide to remove but keeping it on will allow for much longer protection with little maintenance. The handle is also oval and just the right size for my hands even with the paracord I wrapped around it. Unfortunately the handle is also my biggest issue with the Chogan overall. The grain orientation is not acceptable at all and will make the handle much weaker and may decrease its usable lifespan. The other issue I had with it is that the handle had significant gaps when fitting it into the eye of the head but it hasn’t shown any signs of coming loose yet.

Since the Chogan doesn’t come with a sheath and only a flimsy rubber protector for shipping I will put a separate point here. The sheath is made of high quality leather and rivets/snaps. I find that it is too large to use practically even though it has a belt loop and I do wish that they sold just the portion that covers the edge which shouldn’t cost any more in manufacturing since they could just pull them off the production line before the handle and hammer head snap portion is attached. All in all it’s a decent sheath but I really wish is was included with the Chogan.

In conclusion I am content with my purchase of these two items. Obviously with me being me I’m going to at least modify the sheath right away because as it is there is too much bulk. I may eventually do something with the handle as well but that won’t be for a while. All in all I would definitely recommend this is someone is looking for a decent bush craft tool that can function as a hammer and an axe.