just out of the forge hawk head

jiminy · May 6, 2005

Here's what I end up with out of the forge, with just a light sanding to remove the scale. Now the real work begins ...the blade profiled, the haft hole reamed, sanding, sanding, and more sanding, etc. This was an old 22 oz (flea market find) ball peen hammer ...and it was a bear to forge. This one features a round spike (as opposed to the last one which was square).

Just thought you'd like to take a peek at a 'before' shot

shappa · May 6, 2005

Cool...don't forget the after shot.

Keith Montgomery · May 8, 2005

Looks like a great start.

orion7 · May 8, 2005

i was just doing the same thing. found a small ball pien head and went after it to make a hatchetling.

as you said, it was hard to get going, but i finally got everything moving in the right direction. in fact, i was moving along at 10:15 PM when there was a knock on my garage door. the answer to "who is it" was metro police

one of my neighbors phoned in a noise complaint. anyway, the officer was really into weapons, especially jap. swords--of which i have none.

finally he asked me how i sharpened my knives. he said he sharpened his until it cut paper--i was thinkin' about those little-kids scissors with the rounded ends.

to make a long story short, i spent the next 20-30 minutes putting a sharp edge on his cold steel tanto.

i guess i can call this story "the edge of night"

peterson

jiminy · May 11, 2005

Ready for hardening.

jiminy · May 12, 2005

Clay hardened and tempered. Nice pale straw color on the blade edge area, and (hard to see) on the tip of the spike. I might be able to get a distinct hamon to appear on this one.

jiminy · May 12, 2005

No luck bringing out the hamon

Anyways ...hafted with a 24 1/2" piece of bubinga.

rebeltf · May 13, 2005

I like that ! Bubinga is my favorite wood lately and seeing all these 'Hawks being forged is making me itch hehe
Very nice

jiminy · May 14, 2005

Thanks for the encouraging words!

The only thing about bubinga is it's such a solid, heavy wood. In this case though it balances the 22 oz hawk head.

The haft was cut from a section of 2"(+) x 12" bubinga plank.

Now all I have to do is figure out how to finish it off

Peter La · May 16, 2005

I really like the traditional look.

jiminy · May 19, 2005

In this instance, basic is better

More photos and info can be found in this thread.

Thanks for looking