- Joined
- Feb 13, 2000
- Messages
- 2,688
View attachment 233695View attachment 233696View attachment 233697View attachment 233698View attachment 233699All of the fine work you all have displayed on this forum inspired me to try my hand at pimping a couple of the Cold Steel hawks. I tend to mess with most things I get until they are exactly what I want them to be so this is a logical way to express myself with the hawks.
I did the standard stripping of the paint off of both hawk blades and then ground both of them down until I got below the porous outer layer of steel and then polished up through the grits of sandpaper until I reached my desired finish.
I sharpened the beard on both hawks and gave them a nice convex edge to the main edge and the beards. I ended up giving them both a Black Oxide (Tool Black) finish I had a bottle of laying around. I like the dark finish to the steel. I sanded the hafts down and then used a propane torch to stripe them and bring out the grain. I used a Birchwood Casey Stock finishing kit to stain the wood and then true oil it to a satin sheen. I finished the inside of the heads so they were fairly smooth and beveled at the openings. I mated the heads and hafts to a good tight fit.
I wanted a different type of overstrike guard then the standard cordwrap, so I wrapped a layer of suede around below the head and soaked it with epoxy. I thought it might be interesting to use copper couplings as the overstrike guards. I hacksawed a slot in both of them then torched them till they were red hot. This anealed them so they could be fitted around the hafts. I fitted the top of each to mate up with the bottom of the heads. Once all fitting was done I epoxied the guards on and used hose clamps to hold them tight over the suede. Once all epoxy was solid I cleaned off the excess epoxy, gave the copper a hammer finish and added upholstery nails here and there for grip and appearance. I love the final result as they feel like they are now mine.
I did the standard stripping of the paint off of both hawk blades and then ground both of them down until I got below the porous outer layer of steel and then polished up through the grits of sandpaper until I reached my desired finish.
I sharpened the beard on both hawks and gave them a nice convex edge to the main edge and the beards. I ended up giving them both a Black Oxide (Tool Black) finish I had a bottle of laying around. I like the dark finish to the steel. I sanded the hafts down and then used a propane torch to stripe them and bring out the grain. I used a Birchwood Casey Stock finishing kit to stain the wood and then true oil it to a satin sheen. I finished the inside of the heads so they were fairly smooth and beveled at the openings. I mated the heads and hafts to a good tight fit.
I wanted a different type of overstrike guard then the standard cordwrap, so I wrapped a layer of suede around below the head and soaked it with epoxy. I thought it might be interesting to use copper couplings as the overstrike guards. I hacksawed a slot in both of them then torched them till they were red hot. This anealed them so they could be fitted around the hafts. I fitted the top of each to mate up with the bottom of the heads. Once all fitting was done I epoxied the guards on and used hose clamps to hold them tight over the suede. Once all epoxy was solid I cleaned off the excess epoxy, gave the copper a hammer finish and added upholstery nails here and there for grip and appearance. I love the final result as they feel like they are now mine.
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