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 t\.VO 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-19thcentury 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.
