Hawk handle material

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bjalongi

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Oct 23, 2006
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I'm working on my first hawk.

I have some nice ash that I'm probably going to work for the handle. My second choice is hickory, since that's what most hammer and axe handles are made from.

Is there a "best" handle material, or perhaps a type of wood that's traditional in hawk making?
 
I haven't made a lot of hawks, less than a dozen. What I've found is that while the curly maple is traditional and beutifull, it won't hold up to heavy use. I just about wont use it after burying the head in a block of wood and snapping the handles. From what I understand the majority of hawks came from england as forgings and the local gunmakers who were mainly using curly maple for stocks used the same material for the handles. Most of the hawks that were used out in the rough and tumble soon got hickory or ash handles. They'll hold up fairly well to light use, but for unbreakable, go with hickory. Ash should be nearly as tough as long as it's straight grained. I've got a supply of straight grained swamp hickory that I'm letting age just for hawk handles. I've heard of competion throwers carrying extra handles with them so when they break one they can just change it out, but if it's straight grained hickory I can't for the life of me figure out how there breaking them, running over it with a dozer maybe? Early American stain from minwax looks good on hickory also. Ash, hickory and curly maple are traditional, though I imagine that any and every thing was used at one point or the other.
 
Will, thank you very much. Very informative.

I don't like making anything that can't be used for it's intended purpose. So, maple probably won't work.

The ash I have has been sitting for over a year, and I have no idea when it was cut before that.
 
I use hickory as well... It is so tough that I have a hard time drilling a lanyard hole sometimes..
 
Yeah, there's a good reason why hickory is traditional for hammers, axes, etc. It has occurred to me to use figured maple with a mild steel rod through it for strength, but that's beyond my drilling capabilities.
 
Gibson fan, If you want to do that then buy a handle drilled for a pipe hawk...You can get curly maple handles in the 6-12 dollar range.. Then fill it with your choice of steel, fiberglass, epoxy, aluminum or used toenail clippings :p . Heck you can even fill it with a mosaic pin material.
 
After a lot of testing straight-grain hickory has withstood the most. For the pipe hawks we use drilled curly maple. We've had curly ash & curly maple for presentation hawks but hickory stands up to the most hard use.
 
rocketmann said:
Gibson fan, If you want to do that then buy a handle drilled for a pipe hawk...
Click to expand...

You are correct, in fact I have a handle like that. However, I intend to use it to finish a pipe tomahawk. :D

Still not sure it would be as strong as hickory; I guess there's only one way to find out. NorthStarXO, do you know of anyone who's done that?
 
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