There is a guy on Ebay that is selling all of his blanks (knives, Tomahawks) in 1/4" 4140 steel. Has anyone bought one and sharpened it? Is it hard to find someone to sharpen 4140 steel to a fine razor edge? How much would that cost? Is there a problem buying blanks beside all the work of sharpening them?
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Is it worth buying a blank Tomahawk in 1/4 4140 steel?
- Thread starter Evian
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I've seen those. It's not finished in any way, it's just a cut profile. You have to grind the edge profiles before you get send it out to get heat treated. After heat treating, you'll have to finish the edge profile and complete the surface finishing on the entire tool. Then you'll have to decide if you want to just cord wrap it or put hard handle material on it. It'll sharpen up to a fine edge, it's just not the best edge holding steel. It works good for that type of tool.
Those blanks are for do-it-yourself projects. If you're going to pay someone to do all the work, it's not really going to be cheaper than buying one already made.
Those blanks are for do-it-yourself projects. If you're going to pay someone to do all the work, it's not really going to be cheaper than buying one already made.
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I'd avoid it unless you know how to properly heat treat the steel for your application. That's the real trick, and most heat treat shops probably won't have a lot of experience in differential heat treat like you want on a hawk. You can put the bevels on and sharpen them with a bench grinder and belt sander if you wanted. The real hangup is going to be the heat treat.
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The material works well for a hawk as this is one that I like to use for the combat hawks.
It must be properly heat treated.
There...that said, you should have the material thicker than 1/4" but that will be fine if you are not trying to pry with it. Usually I use 3/8"
It must be properly heat treated.
There...that said, you should have the material thicker than 1/4" but that will be fine if you are not trying to pry with it. Usually I use 3/8"