Hand forging a hawk

Too bad about the crack Ray, I have one on a shelf that looks eerily similar to that one (including the same crack)..
 
That was a cool thread, I'd buy that hawk from you if you don't want it anymore, I really like the shape of it. I have a small collection of cheap ones just for show, it would be great to have a real one to go with them, even if I could never use it. (The spike end is still good though!:D)

Send me a pm if you want to part with it.:thumbup:
 
That sucks Ray, but thanks so much for the effort you put into this thread. I'm just getting back into making hawks after several years, and only having made three or four, every bit of info helps!!
 
Sorry about the crack Raymond. This was going to be nice one. If I would never hear that faint sound again I would be so happy. Sometimes when don't hear it you feel it in the tongs. So just grab up your Copenhagen can in the picture put in a pinch, start to empty out one of those brown bottles and go back at it. Thats what I always do,at least it gets my head back right.
 
BUMMER!

But wow, thanks for the awesome thread.


(BTW, there's a LOAD of knife blades hangin on your wall... can't wait to see those moving forward...)
 
Danged Ray...... Just when things were gettin' interesting. Don't you just hate it when that sh** happens?

Its all a part of the game...... You win some, you lose some, and some just get rained out.

Got a pile of "failures" that I'm gonna send in to the scrap yard some day. That is my second retirement money.

Robert
 
Stuart Willis said:
Sorry about the crack Raymond. This was going to be nice one. If I would never hear that faint sound again I would be so happy. Sometimes when don't hear it you feel it in the tongs. So just grab up your Copenhagen can in the picture put in a pinch, start to empty out one of those brown bottles and go back at it. Thats what I always do,at least it gets my head back right.
Click to expand...

The Copenhagen is in case of emergency's when I run out. I had to go back and see where spotted the brown bottle except I think it is root beer. :D Really, the beer bottles are on the south end. I was pretty excited about this hawk but it do happen. I may have had one other hawk crack and that was it. Sure wasn't expecting it today but its just a hawk.

There will be more hawks. I just took out my frustrations cutting down some good sized wild cherry trees. Feeling much better now........
 
Hello Ray

You can slice across the blade just above the crack then fire weld a new piece of 1080 for a cutting edge. At least you will be able to use it for yourself.

Stephen
 
Excellent thread Ray! :thumbup: Sorry to see it end with a crack but, this was a very valuable pictorial with great explanations throughout. Thanks!

Eric
 
stephen5 said:
Hello Ray

You can slice across the blade just above the crack then fire weld a new piece of 1080 for a cutting edge. At least you will be able to use it for yourself.

Stephen
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Stephen, I'm thinking pretty much along the same lines as you mentioned except I'll grind it off to just above the crack and forge out another bit. It won't be the same but I think it will still look fine. Its not like its an order. It will just be more custom. Here I am getting the cart before the horse. I wasn't going to mention my new plan until after I had it heat treated and in my hand in one piece.
 
Oh man Ray, I was just going to post on how awesome this thread is and then saw that crack shot.... bummer! :(

Even though that chapter of this story really blows, it's a great lesson to folks that you can put a crap load of work into something and have Murphy visit your shop right when things are really looking good and have a project turn to scrap in seconds.

I've found that crying, screaming, and throwing Chinese stars at people doesn't help (as much as it seems like it would) and there's nothing you can do but try again.

I'm excited to see the next one come out shining :) :thumbup:
 
i had a catastrophic failure this week too. But like you said thems the breaks..... Real nice thread though. Good luck on finishing it out.
 
Bummer ,Raymond. But,I bet you will re-forge it better than it was to start.

We all have felt the sinking feeling in the pit of the stomach when we hear CRINK!.
I guess I would rather it be a hawk, than a sword you spent many hours on. I have had folks ask why the Japanese smiths do very little shaping and such prior to HT? I say, If it survives the quench,they let the togishi deal with it. The failure rate on long blades in Brine is higher than many can take.
Stacy
 
Bummer on the hawk Raymond, but we all go though that at times, Just had a buffer take a almost finished fighter away from me (final buffing, handle and all were finished) complete loss of the knife, BUT !! it went into the floor instead of into me. Brown Bottles help to settle the nerves. keep up the good work. Think Safety First!
 
Good morning. The new hawk head spent the night in my heat treating oven. I did the grinding like I had mentioned. I took off almost 3/4" from the edge. Pryor to that I took a real good look at the crack.

IMG_0844.JPG


See the one little spot about 3/4" in from the edge? When I showed the picture of the crack yesterday the crack was more visible from the other side. Turns out that the crack on this side of the head stopped right at that spot. Before I started grinding yesterday I wasn't sure if I could remove that pit because it was so deep and as you can see I left that little freckle. Normally I will leave more meat before I quench but not this time.

After I removed the 3/4" I did re forge it so the 3/4" loss from grinding is down to only 3/8". The full beard is gone but it still has a goat t............. If you don't see a new picture within an hour or two it will mean the second time around was another failure.
 
I cannot begin to describe the feeling of longing in my heart to possess this piece of steel...or perhaps it's the fact that I quit smoking 33 days, 8 hours, and 22 minutes ago...either way...that is a beautiful piece of work brother...beautiful.
 
CitizenQ said:
I cannot begin to describe the feeling of longing in my heart to possess this piece of steel...or perhaps it's the fact that I quit smoking 33 days, 8 hours, and 22 minutes ago...either way...that is a beautiful piece of work brother...beautiful.
Click to expand...

How about a chew? Years ago when I smoked and wanted to quit I'd start chewing. The reverse if I wanted to stop chewing. Good luck with the quitting!
 
Nah...smoking ruined my teeth bro...I imagine chewing would do them worse...better to just suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune which I have brought upon myself. :(

But...please...more pictures! :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:
 
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