My first attempt at refinishing a 'hawk

W

Willard P

Joined
Jun 6, 2004
Messages
42
A few months a go I won a tomahawk from Moose Traxx Forge on E-bay.
The blade came highly polished and in the white. The handle,curly maple, was finished in not very attractive mud colored stain. IMO it was diamond in the rough, so I decided to refinish it.

The head I decided to do a mustard finish. Used 220 sand paper to randomly roughen up the head. Then I washed the it and applied a thin coat of mustard for 2 hours. The head ended up with an attractive damascus look but left alot of shiny finish. So I let the the head soak in a thin coat of mustard over night. This gave the head the patina I was looking for. Washed the head and coated with 3 in 1 oil. I ended getting side tracked for a couple of days. When I got around to wiping off the oil. The head had a teflon feel to it and translucency the same color as the oil.

The handle I really wanted bring out grain pattern of the maple. So I sanded down to 220 and stained it in red oak, 2 coats. I Then hand rubbed 4 coats of tung oil into the handle I apologize that the pics are kinda crappy

Anyway hears the results:

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I was thinking about doing so sort of scroll work on the handle. But I don't have clue how approach that

Thank you for looking
 
That looks pretty sweet. I really like the head shape.
I have never heard of Moose Traxx forge. Im gonna look in to them now.

Great work!
 
Willard P,
Very nice job!!! I like the results... it has a look akin to one from the frontier days!!!
That is what I was looking for when I did mine recently...

ColdSteelFrontierHawk2.jpg


ColdSteelFrontierHawk3.jpg


ColdSteelFrontierHawkClose-upofHead.jpg
 
Willard P. Jack Harrill forges those MooseTrax hawks up in Maine. I'm about to order one of those from him. How does it feel? How does it chop? How does it throw? Please give me all you can. Many thanks brother! :thumbup:
 
Thanks all

CitizenQ This tomahawk isn't going to be a thrower, I have a couple of others for that. The piece is light, I don't have a postal scale so my guess it's a shade over 16 oz. It has a nice convex edge and is a fantastic chopper. The handle is a tear drop shape and i think is very comfortable to use. It'll make a nice trail 'hawk
You are going to be very happy with your purchase :thumbup:

Glock, what did you use to finish that handle? Have a couple of Cold Steel 'hawks I've been planning on redoing.
 
Willard P,
The haft finish was actually an accident...
I sanded the head with 600 grit paper and one of those 'sanding sponges'...
When I was done, there was a pile of 'dust' on my bench from the sanding...
Looked as dark and fine as graphite...
I rubbed my hands in it, and rubbed the haft with my hands...
That's all it is...
 
OFF TOPIC Hello all. CQ, just followed your link and joined up at PTL.org. Reason for that is that I had a very, VERY good friend growing up who shared my intrests in all things edged. Read your post here about Moose Traxx and saw you mention Jack Harrill. did a little research as I knew from Jacks brother Van, that Jack was in Maine and I also knew Jack has a son named Isaiah. Well didn't take long to figure out that the Moose Traxx Jack is the same Jack I grew up with and lived next too for 15 years of my childhood! Jack always wanted forge even back then. Man the tales we both could tell!

I found Jack's email and have sent him a message and plan to follow up with a phone call later this evening I hope. Man this is truley a small world we live in, and my day has definately been made!!:thumbup::thumbup:
 
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