Integral Tomahawk Tutorial

[Sam Salvati]

When i posted the first one of these, I got alot of "how the heck did you do that?!" responses, and while I explained it well enough I thought a picture is worth a thousand words, so here's a million.

I have thought and thought on how to do this for awhile, sketching out different ideas over and over on how maybe to split, cut, fuller and squeeze out one of these from a single piece of stock, and this is what I have settled on. Fairly basic blacksmithing operations, just very labor intensive.

First, oil up the powerhammer

I start with new drops from a spring shop, spring steel made in USA. It is 3/8" thick by 3" wide

and here is my setup. I utilize the Swage block for the upsetting, my regular anvil, my NC forge for the long work, my Mankel for the wide work, and different hammers and tongs.

and of course sledgehammer

 

[Sam Salvati]

First step is to neck down the bar and begin to forge the handle, it was quick work on the Say Mak 110 but takes a few more heats on the Anyang hehe but it does surprisingly well on such wide stock.

And there we go, 1" wide by the orignal thickness 3/8".

And then cut off from the parent bar, making sort of a lolly pop. The dimensions of the end bit are 3" wide by 3 1/2" long

Grind the end clean

And switch over to the Mankel. I wish I had a coal forge setup for this then I wouldn't have to switch.

 

[Sam Salvati]

Now we start to upset the lollipop in the swedge block.

This makes for some nasty corners so grind them clean and resume upsetting

I begin also to come at an angle into one corner, to start pushing extra material to one side, as the blade needs more material then the spike. I do this coming in at an angle onto one side.

As I am upsetting I keep going under the powerhammer and flattening things out as it will bend and mushroom over, keep it clean and inline and upsetting need not be so upsetting

Also the swedge block has slightly radius inside corners, this prevents a shearing action and also from those inside corners from getting sharp and forming cold shuts, a nice radius is good

 

[Sam Salvati]

Now is the time I wish I had a striker. Once the Hawk head is upset sufficiently I flip it over and begin to work in the beard and angles in the "neck" area. I work in with the cross peen, then flattenm, then cross peen, then flatten, then cross peen, then flatten, and keep doing this until it's the shape I want.

 

[Sam Salvati]

Now is a series of photos, I took one every heat, scroll down very fast it's like a flip book .

And tadah!

 

[Sam Salvati]

Next day (today), I did a bit of geometry refinement, to make it a nice tough chopper, and began filework.

I draw a chalk line up from the handle to use as a guide for an artistic break in the beveling I file all around. I do this all by hand with different files, it is not as quick as the grinder but FAR more controlled, I have alot of work into it up to this point and I do not want to risk ruining it on the grinder. I find it very peaceful to file all the bevels.

I file in to start the sharp corners, then begin beveling.

And filework is mostly done. I will continue it down the handle shaft about 1/3.

And now some fun photos
the integral battle playset

 

[AA Forge]

That has got to be one of the most impressive examples of forging I have ever seen. WOW!

Great work!

 

[SleepyBadger]

Great post! Well done tutorial and bad ass hawk!

 

[Mountain Wildman]

Pretty darn cool!!

 

[Salem Straub]

Very cool. You're giving that little Anyang quite a workout! Stylin' yet classic profile on that hawk. What do you do for the handle?

You made the ball end tongs- with the die you showed the other day. Also cool.

 

[Sam Salvati]

Thanks guys!

Salem, yes it's finally nice to put it to good use, the first year or so I barely used it more then once a month!! Now I use it almost everyday. HAHA no I didn't make those tongs, they are Tom Tongs, I bought them when I first started 7 years ago!

 

[jonnymac44]

Really cool, Sam! Loved seeing that hawk take shape. You are an artist with the hammer! One of these days you will teach me the way of the anvil

Very nice.

 

[Burton Harruff]

Very nice Sam! Thanks for taking the time to develop this wip.

 

[Robert Dark]

Great work Sam. I replied to your email on the Anyang. Hope it went through.

Thanks,

Robert

 

[Steinerj]

Nice Sam! How are placing the hawk on the anvil when forging out the spike?

 

[Dan Pierson]

Cool Sam! I never would have thought of a swedge block as basically an
anvil with a hole in it.

 

[Rick Marchand]

Sam, it is exactly how you drew it out for me on that napkin at the NJ show.

 

[mgysgthath]

Very nice! I am so envious of people with power hammers lol.

 

[Sam Salvati]

Thanks guys, this is intense work, 5 hours non stop forging all together.

Jon, this way:

Dan, they are very handy platforms for upsetting, I would not want to do this kind of work in my hardy hole, I would worry about an errant sledge blow doing damage to it

See Rick I TOLD you

MGYgath Except for the part where I draw down the handle (which I think could be cut in on the bandsaw) I use the powerhammer surpsisngly little, it could easily be done with a friend and sledge or with a hand hammer.

 

[Carl_First_Timer]

That looks like so much fun. Thanks for sharing.