Minihawka and friends......

Raymond Richard

Raymond Richard

Joined
Jun 17, 2001
Messages
5,705
Even though I finished off the one knife last week I'm still fighting the hawk bug. It has got a good bite and won't let go. Yesterday I got the idea for a mini and I was wanting to use small hex or octagone shaped steel so I went to a second hand tool store and found what I was looking for. I found various pry bars and nail pullers that were exactly what I was looking for. Grand total of 8 bucks for 6 pieces. One I even paid 3 for but it was twice as long as the others and thats what I used to forge the mini out of. The mini is 5 1/2" total with a cutting edge of 1 3/4".
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IG, I actually had one more bar but the owner of the store said he wanted to hold onto the one. I asked him why since one ear had a broken ear. He said it was the brand he carried and he could get 9 bucks for it. I still feel I did ok on the deal....
 
I couldn't believe how fast this one got burried. It didn't even last a day before it made it on the second page. Not sure if anyone noticed that two of the pieces are rebar. I've got the 3 in the center finished but the first thing I worked on was the two rebar ones. After heat treating the one on the left didn't feel as hard as I was wanting so I did a chopping test with it. Believe me it makes me appreciate having a couple chainsaws. I chopped threw a 9" maple log after taking several breaks and the edge held up fine. I'm not saying it was as sharp as when I started but it still held a good edge. My arm is still suffering from the test.
 
I was just wondering where the pattern came from around the eyes on those two :) Pretty cool, I didn't know rebar would harden that good.
They all look great, I don't know how you do it time and time again. Thats some serious choppin with a hawk to go through a 9" log. I'd need a break doing that with a full size axe :D
 
Ray , I had a piece of rebar rockwell tested by a friend and it came back as 60. This is the big 1 1/2 inch stuff.
 
Mark Williams said:
Ray , I had a piece of rebar rockwell tested by a friend and it came back as 60. This is the big 1 1/2 inch stuff.
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I have like 10 feet of that from Cheesel. He said they use it alot in bridge consturction and they call it Dewedag(sp?) I wonder if Mete would know what is is????
 
Mark, The 60 Rc really doesn't surprize me. I have made many knives out of the rebar. I have a friend that has a tool and die shop and had him rockwell the first few I made and I was surprized at how hard it would get. I also got specks on the rebar from a few jobs and they'd list the carbon content at around .3%. That to me has never made sense to me. The one on the left is 1 1/4" in diameter and the smaller is 1".

IG, I've never heard it called what you wrote down. The couple bridge jobs I worked in the past the rebar was epoxy coated and they were a light green color. Even the wire that was used to tie that type of rebar was epoxy coated. I believe the rebar that was used was still 60 grade which is the same as what the 2 axes were forged out of.

Matt, There are actully a few people around that enjoy chopping wood with an ax. I don't include myself with this group...... :D
 
Ray, those are pretty nice! With all the forging and chopping you do, you ought to have arms like Popeye. I notice your patterns vary a lot, but every one of your hawks look really great. You da hawk man, for sure!
 
John, The only thing Popeye and I have in common is the baldhead. My arm works fine for forging but I find the chopping real simular to work.

Here's a picture of a blade I did about 4 years ago. Its was also forged out of 60 grade rebar, if I remember it was 3/4" bar. I did a cutting test with it just using the tang as the handle. The wood in the picture is birch that seasoned for a year. This blade was razor sharp when I started and it was sharp enough to remove hair after the test. The largest piece was 4 to 5" in diameter.....
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WOW! That's some blade, Ray! I believe you about that mean looking feller there. Nice pic, too. That's some serious chopping. Rebar. That's some good stuff. Thanks for sharing, fella.
 
Well I'll be damned, guess I oughta try and scrounge up some grade 60 rebar :)
As far as the choppin goes, I like to play lumberjack from time to time, but once the limbs are gone the chainsaw comes out. Havin something take more than one swing hurts my he-man self image ;)
 
There's usually a 60 marked on the bar. There's several different grades of rebar. No grade, 40 grade, 60 grade, and I've heard there is also an 80 grade but I have never see it. Most all I have used is the 60 grade but I have do a few blades out of the no grade. Judging by the spark it looked like it had a higher carbon content than some of the 60 that I've used. Leave the stuff alone that you can get at Home Depot since its all made overseas. Its been about 3 years since I worked construction and I'm assumming the rebar on the major jobs is still 60 grade and made in the US but I know things have changed.
 
Man Ray I love the mini hawk! I like em all but that mini is just cooler'n hell. Way to go!

A while back J Neilson sent me a nice piece of Deweydag rebar - I'm just waiting to get around a powerhammer to make it into knives. :D I don't think I have enough oomph to do anything to it with a hammer! That sucker is Big.

Ray that's a beautiful blade you cut those logs with! You really must have that HT down pat to get cutting like that. I don't think anything I've made would shave after cutting a single log let alone all that wood. Nice work.
 
IG you know me well enough by now to know I'll happily trumpet my own horn at any opportunity. :D To make a knife out of something like that - particularly if it cuts decently at all - I'd be bragging till you could hear me on your porch. :D
 
I have never heard of the Deweydag rebar untill IG mentioned it. As for the rebar I'd say I made just under 100 knives out of it. Its the only steel I ever worked with that would work with any quench I tried. Very little warping and I can never remember getting any cracks. Actualy the rebar that I used to make the two axes came from Bruce Evans. It was stuff his dad had held onto. Bruce's dad was an inspector on alot of major construction jobs around my area including the Samuel Jackson Bridge that was openned about 20 years ago and I'm thinking the bar could have come from there. I'd like to hear if and when you get to try the Deweydag rebar. If you take a look here at the knives that have sold there's 3 out of rebar and I think one or two others. One is forge finished. http://www.bladegallery.com/knives/maker.asp?code=358&display=Raymond+Richard
I've about got the mini hawk done. I've spent more time working on the haft than what it took me to forge and finish the head.
 
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