Gun barrel pipe hawk

B

B Finnigan

Joined
Jan 16, 2006
Messages
1,246
I got ahold of a bent .50 cal black powder barrel from a gunsmith friend and hammered out a hawk. The steel is 4140/4142 and I forge welded an insert of 0-1 into the barrel so the edge is high carbon. I turned the handle out of red oak and added a brass reducer to hold the mule deer antler mouth piece. The cincher button was hand carved from a small scrap of maple burl and the copper jingles I cold hammered out of copper.

pipehawk001-web.jpg

The hawk head is all hammer forged and left primitive. I did stone file the sides of the edge to clean it up a little. It was coated with beeswax and then baked and buffed lightly.

pipehawk003-web.jpg

This one was fun but very challenging, just boring the hole through the handle was a PITA!
 
Are the photo's not showing up? They are on my computer.

I uploaded them to photobucket.com, hopefully they will post now.
 
They were not there to begin with . That is a great job . Is the spine that runs along the hawk one of the original spines on the octagonal barrel ? I like the handle art .
 
I mostly forge knives, hawks are just a way of taking a break and clearing the creative blockages. I live in Yelm but I am not sure where Winlock is, I have heard of it. Then again you may not know where Yelm is. Shoot me an email and we can chat.

Your email is locked so I can not email you or PM.
 
I like it. Of course I am a little twisted like some forged damascus I have seen and know how they are used in combat as well as 'real life'. You can use water as a quench for the 4140 if brought to flame hardness and it works very well. The O-1 was a good idea though. I get old hammers for the ones I make for forged heads. Keep up the good work. Brad Roe, Guild Knives & Tools


http://stores.ebay.com/RoeKnivesNGifts
 
Thanks for the kind words and taking time to post them. This was one of those projects that got into my head and I had to try it. When I get another piece of gun barrel I want to try forging another one. I was not even sure I could bore a straight hole throught the handle.

If anyone else is going to try to do one drop me a line. I can save you some grief and cussing.
 
What process did you use for drilling the handle hole? that can be a frustrating job.
 
I milled a 1/4" wide slit 3/4" long then hot drifted it out. The handle tapers from 3/4" down to 5/8" and the head was slide up from the bottom and swaged on.

Update: I test fired the pipe with a blend of home grown Havana 142 and Kentucky burly, it works great and the long handle cools the smoke down just rigt.
 
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