First Forged Hawk - Feedback, guys ?

J

Jason Cutter

Joined
Oct 9, 2002
Messages
1,419
I need your help with this one. I forged this one out yesterday from an old garden pick. Its not meant to be pretty - just a toy for myself. Sort of my own XMas present...

The steel is some medium carbon steel which gets a bit red hard when forging - I'm guessing L6. Hardens water but not as hard as 1095. The head had to be twisted to forge out the head shape. Hence the impression of a twist you can see at the "neck." Whole head was forged to shape and only the very edge convex ground. Edge quenched in water, tempered at 410F. It will chop 6x 3/32inch thick mild steel nails in half before showing any tiny flat spots. Blued up with some gun blue paste. 15inch shaft is plain old hickory scorched with a pattern. I'm going to hammer in some thumb tacks to give it more texture.

I think the spike is a bit long. Almost stabbed myself in the forehead several times during testing.

What do you guys think ? Your ideas would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance. Jason.

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Forging anything is good Jason, but that looks great! :D

-Michael
 
That looks great Jason. Looks like pretty good forging. Did you drift the eye?

I wouldn't trust myself swinging that too hard...I'd end up with that spike sticking in my back ;).
 
I love it. I'm a sucker for semi-primitive looking pieces. This hawk looks very functional... devastating. I'm not 100% on the flame stripes but that's nit-picking. Very nice!
 
Very cool toy and the flame-stripes are a nice touch. That spike looks wicked - but yeah, you may be right about it being just a tad too long - you wanna be careful playing Last of the Mohicans with that :)

If you are planning on making more, you might want to check out Chris Crawford's hawk-forging DVD featuring Bruce Evan's method. I ordered one for myself for Christmas.

http://www.chriscrawfordknives.com/CCK/Tomahawk_Vid/

Andrew Lim
 
Jason Cutter said:
I think the spike is a bit long. Almost stabbed myself in the forehead several times during testing.

What do you guys think ?
Click to expand...

I think I wish I could have seen the look on your face when you were playing chicken with that spike :eek:! That would be a fun one to explain to the ER staff :p.

The twist is unusual and a nice touch.
 
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