Thanks for the nice compliments.
How?
Let's see ....First, I just let the forge burn off all the rust, then shaped the blade from the large ball, straightened it up, then shaped the blunt spike from the small ball. When finished with the forging, bring it back up to heat again, let it sit there for a little bit, then remove from the forge and let it air cool.
Next cleaned everything up on the grinder, then sanded to about 220 grit. Lots of hand sanding involved in these, as its hard to get any machine into all the nooks, crannies, and weird angles. Oh, I ground in the edge on a course belt at this stage too.
Then ready for heat treat. Warm the quench oil so it's all ready, then fired up the forge to as low as it will go and set the hawk head in the mouth of the forge on it's top with the blade vertical so that only the blade gets heated to hardening temps. Let it soak for anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes ...this one was about 15 minutes or so, then remove and quench in the oil (make sure a fire extinguisher is handy at this step ...not that I've needed it, but you never can tell). From the oil I let it air cool for a few minutes then finish the job with water so I can handle it. Quickly sand (220 grit) off as much of the burnt oil as I can within the 10 minutes I have to get it into the preheated oven. Tempered at 425 for two 1hr intervals, letting it air cool between each temper cycle.
From there it's more sanding, mostly by hand (220 grit, 400, 600, course steel wool, fine steel wool), and putting the final edge grind on it with a fine belt.
The haft was cut from a piece of 3/4" cherry stock, then sanded/shaped using a course (40 grit) disk on a palm sander. Check to fit as you go. Then it's the same sanding routine as above except skip the fine steel wool. Install*(see below) the hawk head on the haft, and wedge ...I used a copper band made from copper wire and peened it into position in the little groove that ran around the inside edge of the head with a punch, and a brass 1" screw in the center to spread the wood slightly but not split the narrow end of the cherry haft like a normal wedge would. Drill and install the thong sleeve, spread the ends with a punch. Sand everything flush and apply desired finish to haft ...this one got amber shellac.
Sounds simple enough ...but that's about 18 hours or so over three days time. This one was going to be for sale, but the wife saw it and claimed it for herself. Who am I to argue
* 'Install' is the technical term for positioning the head on the haft, then smacking the butt end of the haft vertically down onto smooth concrete (or other very hard surface) to drive the head fully down onto the haft ...without cracking the haft in the process.