COTS Project Thread

I have been trying to get a better understanding of handle shape myself. I just got home from my first forging session with a friend of mine and got a chance to swing some of my own handles. I might be misunderstanding the question but I think the upper half is tapered the way they typically are to create a springy section in the handle to absorb vibrations. I can only assume that people just don't care or have specific preferences for how the handle feels or how long it is. I have noticed anymore than when you go buy a 3 or 3-1/2lb sledge, they have short little handles. So it could also be that lots of people aren't skilled enough or strong enough to swing accurately or for any duration (or it just makes more sense to have a shorter handle for the intended purpose). For 12" blacksmith hammers I was putting swells in the handle because the user is probably just going to swing it the same way all the time, but there is no room for taper really. I'm far from expert on it though. Am I going the right direction here? I presume that for a hammer that you specifically want to be able to change hand positions, you just make it straight 2/3rds up, or even more. Like say you want to one hand swing a heavy hammer sometimes, but other times two handed - you'd probably just make it straight all the way. A light, fast hammer that you swing the exact same way all the time, you would put a drastic taper in it to help with hand fatigue. In my opinion, a ball peen probably delivers the most ringing vibrations and should have a longer handle with plenty of taper. No choking up on a ball peen. Same with a carpenter's hammer, etc.
 
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Oh man, I could ramble on and on. You know in an older post, those two custom blacksmith hammers - I now know those are called Hofi hammers (style - he didn't make them). I made those 12" with swells for hand comfort. The only thing they will ever be used for is moving hot metal, never striking cold, and always held the exact same way, so it made sense to me to make the handles for comfort above everything else.
 
Wow. That was a thoughtful and logical response COTS. I appreciate you taking time out to type that up.

In fact, that response reads much like having a conversation.

There are probably folks who will happen upon this thread and think, "Greenhorn" with my question but my hammer experience is primarily with basic clawed hammers of varying sizes to build things and larger sledges to break things.

This gives me something to think about as I work on my "club" here.:thumbup:
 
Nah, I think interest in hammer handles mostly lies somewhere between disinterested and indifferent. I don't use them enough to care as much as I seem to but I find the whole ordeal interesting which I am certain makes me boring company. For a hammer, particularly something multipurpose for around the house, you can pretty much get away with anything and I'd feel free to experiment. You said that hammer is 2lbs? 2-1/2lbs? Most likely you'll not need to choke up on it a lot so a typical handle with a tapered neck seems appropriate. It is a cross peen hammer, but I dunno if that means you are going to be forging or in my case, just beating on stuff. For blacksmithing a short handle on a heavier head makes sense, but for 2lbs (which is gonna get plenty tiring by itself) it seems like a lost opportunity for the power of a longer handle and the hopes for Popeye arms. And it looks like you've got a 16 or 18 inch handle going anyway, which makes sense to me.
 
cityofthesouth said:
No idea how I missed your comment, apologies. Yes these are first pass handles and that is my experience as well - the finished handles just don't have the swell they should have.


And this project seems to want to carry on. The setup on the mask just wasn't suiting me so I scrounged another piece of matching lace and altered the design a little.
plumb_jersey_project2 by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

plumb_jersey_project3 by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr
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This Plumb is gorgeous...love the custom swell. Outstanding work as always.
 
I just couldn't resist any longer. On the one hand I'm into tomahawks, but on the other hand I don't have any so I guess I can't really claim to be very into them. But I think it's probably because it needs to be a project and the Cold Steel hawks seem to be popular projects that turn into pretty nice looking implements so why not. I dig the pipe hawk the most and I like the idea that it has a hammer ... or is basically a hawk with a poll. It came blunt and loose so at least there was a couple things to "accomplish" with it. I aged the handle, pulled the grub screw, blued the head and improved the fit about as much as I could. It seems to be functional because after a little beating on it, it's still tight. I have to admit that I was/am tempted to hang it like an axe but I guess I won't.

coldsteel_pipehawk2 by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

coldsteel_pipehawk1 by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

coldsteel_pipehawk_texture by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

coldsteel_pipehawk_fit by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr
Nice fit, am I right! Well it's at least tight toward the top.

coldsteel_pipehawk_bend by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr
Hey Cold Steel, thanks for that super straight handle!


So the bit of oak I split up there was just to see what the edge would be like. I made it shaving sharp and it would still take hair (barely) after these handful of strikes so I guess I'm not sure I have an opinion on the edge holding. It seems acceptable but this wasn't much of a test.
 
cityofthesouth said:
coldsteel_pipehawk_bend by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr
Hey Cold Steel, thanks for that super straight handle!
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Pretty much anything you work on looks great COTS. I don't have any tomahawks (haven't really used one to be honest) but that one looks good - actually thought you could smoke out of a pipe hawk...

They could market those as "hewing hawks" with off-set handles? :)

As far as Cold Steel goes, I don't have too much bad to say about them. I have two older Carbon V models of their knives - a Recon Tanto that has never been used and and SRK. The SRK came used and after sharpening, it works quite well. It actually lives under the front seat of my truck and has cut a lot of stuff in a pinch. Nothing survival or batoning oriented but it seems to like moderate abuse and hasn't rusted from being but to bed wet. Blah blah, I know. Just figured if their tomahawks are of similar quality then I assume they work well.

Sorry for a pocket full of 2 cents. That Plumb certainly looks nice in those pictures btw. :thumbup:
 
Agent_H said:
Pretty much anything you work on looks great COTS. I don't have any tomahawks (haven't really used one to be honest) but that one looks good - actually thought you could smoke out of a pipe hawk...

They could market those as "hewing hawks" with off-set handles? :)

As far as Cold Steel goes, I don't have too much bad to say about them. I have two older Carbon V models of their knives - a Recon Tanto that has never been used and and SRK. The SRK came used and after sharpening, it works quite well. It actually lives under the front seat of my truck and has cut a lot of stuff in a pinch. Nothing survival or batoning oriented but it seems to like moderate abuse and hasn't rusted from being but to bed wet. Blah blah, I know. Just figured if their tomahawks are of similar quality then I assume they work well.

Sorry for a pocket full of 2 cents. That Plumb certainly looks nice in those pictures btw. :thumbup:
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Haha, hewing hawk.

This is pretty much my first experience with a hawk as well, and lots of folks seem to have good experiences with Cold Steel, and these hawks are really popular projects. I think lots of people like the idea of customizing their stuff so I often wonder why more products don't come finished in certain ways specifically for the customizers out there. Blah blah is ok with me. Beats talking to myself ... well, I dunno. I rarely get into disagreements with myself.


I still want to do some kind of custom handle and wedge it. Maybe I should just get another one. I actually didn't make the "pipe" connection at first. I guess I can picture smoking pipe hawks from images as a kid, but when I first saw the "pipe hawk" I was like, why is it called a pipe hawk? When I realized that it's just a hammer and looks like a pipe, I thought that was a pretty good idea on Cold Steel's part. I guess in my mind it just looks like a slightly fancy hammer head. Maybe the "pipe" image ruins it for some folks.
 
You've seen the big stack of oak in my wood pile in my pictures a number of times and a piece of it volunteered for parang handle duty. Split a chunk out and went at it with my little GB hatchet, then the belt sander and here we have the results. I wanted to go with a slightly more traditional looking handle this time. Also used an old nail for a pin (along with epoxy on the tang), peened it in, then wrapped it with jute. There is epoxy under the jute, then I singed off the fuzz and heated some wax into it. A little stain on the handle plus a good helping of BLO sealed the deal. The knot was hidden inside the wood and when I got to it, it was a hole. So I mixed some saw dust and epoxy, filled it in and now I'm actually kind of happy about it.

parang2_pin by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

parang2_bidor1 by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

parang2_bidor2 by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr
 
cityofthesouth said:
parang2_bidor2 by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr
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I have to ask, as your pictures are always so good and have a very distinct look with regards to color and contrast- are you using any kind of specific filter when shooting? A very nice camera? I'm just using a smartphone and I'm no photographer and I have noticed that while my pics are just fine, yours are always very nice looking. In addition to your handywork.

Also, best reuse of an old axe handle that I have seen yet.
 
Thanks guys.

I am sure in the world of photography it's not considered a very nice camera but I use a Sony NEX 5T. I got it because it is/was one of the most well liked entries into cameras with APSC sensors, which is sort of the dividing point into nicer cameras ... I guess. Essentially they are the larger sensors found in DSLR cameras. I actually got the older NEX model because I got the impression people liked them better than the Sony models that replaced them. So basically buying an older one means less money, plus it has a removable lens, manual focus, the better sensor, etc. I also run some minor Photoshop tweaks as well.

If you scroll up you can see big chunks of sawn lumber in my wood pile - that's what these handles started out as. All those wood chips in the picture are from roughing this one out with my GB hatchet.
 
Got ambitious today and busted out the third one. I tried to take a few pics along the way and got another set of hands in the shop to capture the giant plumes of smoke during the burn in process. Good times! I tried out my CS Pipe Hawk for carving duties this time. It's not bad, but the handle just doesn't compare to a hatchet handle. The bend in my little GB hatchet is just the cat's meow for this sort of thing. This time I took some liberties with the handle and now I want to do about a half dozen more of them. This handle with a little fat belly in it, nice. At first I thought it wouldn't work and wouldn't look right but I'm glad I went with it. Now, after a number of hours in the shop, the brain starts to wonder (it starts to wander too), and my plan was to pin and wrap the first one to finish it off. Well I just got busy carving the little track for the twine, slathered it in epoxy and wrapped it all up nice and neat and then ....... realized some idiot forgot to even put the pin in. So I guess it wasn't meant to be. PICS!

Get some!
burning_tang1 by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

burning_tang2 by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

Old Yank did splitting duty, Pipe Hawk did the fine work. One stop cut and it was time to start making chips.
parang_roughingout1 by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

parang_roughingout2 by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr
 
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jblyttle said:
The only think stopping me from trying to set up a trade of some sort with you is the fact that one of these days I'm going to try to forge my own machete. It won't be as pretty but it will be mine. Those are real beauties though.
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I bet it will be awesome. I'd love to make my own blades ... I just need to understand the heat treating process better. When I watch these blades being made in various youtube videos it seems that they are quenching and tempering all in one action. This whole process of normalizing and quenching and tempering and whatever else all in different processes just kinda scares me off with my limited understanding of the whole thing.
 
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cityofthesouth said:
I bet it will be awesome. I'd love to make my own blades ... I just need to understand the heat treating process better. When I watch these blades being made in various youtube videos it seems that they are quenching and tempering all in one action. This whole process of normalizing and quenching and tempering and whatever else all in different processes just kinda scares me off with my limited understanding of the whole thing.
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I am no expert, not even close- I have forged a decorative flint striker and watched a bunch of videos and read a lot. But unless I've missed something huge, quenching and tempering are two completely separate and totally different things. Quenching puts hardness in, tempering takes some of the hardness back out so that you don't have a pretty metal tool that acts like glass.
 
SC T100 said:
Those turned out fantastic. Beautiful work as always.
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Thanks SC!



jblyttle said:
I am no expert, not even close- I have forged a decorative flint striker and watched a bunch of videos and read a lot. But unless I've missed something huge, quenching and tempering are two completely separate and totally different things. Quenching puts hardness in, tempering takes some of the hardness back out so that you don't have a pretty metal tool that acts like glass.
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That was my understanding as well ... just wondering if there is like a slow quench process or something. I dunno.
 
Perfect heat treats are an art that only the best blacksmiths and bladesmiths ever master.

But 'good enough' heat treating can be done by almost anyone. Read Weygers 'The Complete Modern Blacksmith'. Print out a temper color chart. And keep a sharp file around for testing.
 
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