Nose to the grind stone. Well, 'hawks to the belt grinder.

Storm Crow

Storm Crow

Joined
Apr 12, 2006
Messages
2,506
I've finally got the ball rolling on everything and am working on the first batch of tomahawks since getting my new heat treatment furnace set up. I'm first working on taking care of military orders, then will work on the rest in order.

Here's the first batch of five. I plan on working on six at a time in the future, but I wanted to get these finished and to the customers ASAP.



All of them have sharpened inner beards except the second hammer poll from the left. I know some of them are hard to see in the pic. It was taken under fluorescent lights at night in my shop.

Here they are on the combination tempering/coating baking rack in the big 3 phase kiln that I use for such operations. At this point, they've been normalized, ground, and hardened.



And the two heat treatment devices side-by-side. The new furnace, dedicated to the hardening phase, is on the right. The 3 phase kiln, dedicated to tempering and baking on the finish, is on the left. The first tempering cycle is just starting and the kiln isn't up to temp yet.



The rack I use for normalizing is to the right of the furnace, with only one foot visible. The quench tank is just out of the shot on the right and forward.

Also, after wrestling with the idea for a while, I've decided to name my models. Model names for blades can get really gimmicky for some folks, but I wanted something straightforward that would be evocative of the intended use.

So, I chose War Chief, Wrecker, and Woodsman.

War Chief (combat spike) on the left, Wrecker (pry spike) on the right.



And Woodsman (hammer poll):



I have a pretty good handful of orders to get made, and should start putting up some finished pictures in the next few days, all going well. :)
 
James, those look awesome! Can't wait to see the final products. By the way, great names for the 'hawks.:thumbup:
 
Thank y'all!

I have a couple from an earlier batch that were waiting for me to build sheaths (another long, involved setup process building tooling and testing it out) that went out to customers this weekend. Once I hear back, I'll put pictures up here.
 
Niiiiiccceee!

Great job.

On the compact hawks I like the handle that goes up to the head. This is me coming from the Sayoc curriculum, where a high grip is used at times. Just make sure that undersharpened hook can't bite ya. This is a feature that some of your Navy customers will appreciate as well :)

I'm interested. What are we lookin' at for specs on the compact tac hawks and what are you doing for sheaths?

Hope all is well!
 
Thanks, Joe!

There's plenty of clearance for the hand from the sharpened inner beard. With the longer 'hawks, the tang above the handle slabs works for break 'n rake operations, or in combat would break a forearm when blocking and re-directing. It can be cord-wrapped if the customer is thinking of choking up a lot (not recommended if you're going to be breaking glass with it as tiny shards can imbed in the paracord and cause problems), or if left bare is substantial and comfortable enough to still be used just fine for a choked up grip.

I'm gonna wait until I hear back from the customers who just had the first sheaths mailed to them with their 'hawks to post pics, but they're Kydex, bottom-eject, ambidextrous, MOLLE-compatible, jump-ready, with multiple carry options.

You need to wander out this way again sometime, and bring some of that stack o' blade blanks I saw in the ShopTalk thread. :)
 
Got this batch Durabaked today.

I need to build a better spraying setup, but I rigged this up as a temporary solution and it did all right.



Everyone in this batch wanted black, except one.



About to bake in the kiln.



Cooling off afterwards on the normalizing rack.



And the whole heat treatment setup. Three phase kiln on the left used for tempering and baking on the finish, Evenheat used for hardening to the right of that, normalizing rack to the right of that, tomahawk quench oil in the black barrel, and canola oil for quenching bush swords in the square tube quench tank.



Tomorrow the plan is to get Micarta sheets sandblasted and cut up, and possibly shaped into slabs and on the 'hawks.

I also shot a little video showing durability in response to a handful of people who have asked me about if the top rivet hole on the short 'hawks is a weak spot. The video is uploading and I'll post it when finished.
 
Here we go, whacking on the handle with a six pound sledgehammer to check the strength of a spot a couple of folks had thought might be a weak point, then chopping a nail.

[video=youtube;S9DyU-W4tK0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9DyU-W4tK0[/video]

This isn't a demolition edge, either, it's a wood chopping edge. What can I say, I love 4140! :)
 
I got Micarta sheets sandblasted and cut into manageable sizes today. I also cut the slabs for this batch, though I haven't shaped them yet, and cut the stainless steel tube rivets. More pics tomorrow.
 
It was a short day, but I got some good things done.

Micarta sheets after sandblasting and before being cut up on my table saw. The bottom sheet with the cutouts is 1/4" mild steel, used to make some tooling.



After cutting into handle slabs, I used my handle template to drill the rivet holes.



There are always little tricks to any process. After a while, I figured out how to drill the holes without having to shift the C-clamps each time, and drilled two slabs at once.



Then I countersunk the holes.



Then I bolted the handle template to the individual slabs and used a trim bit on a router to trim, obviously. :)



Followed by a 45 degree bevel using the other router.





The handle template is built so that the Micarta is trimmed leaving the butt of the tang exposed, providing an extra impact surface and protecting the Micaarta from damage if someone should do something like, oh, throw the darn thing.



Tomorrow I'll round the edges of the bevels, rivet the handles on, and sharpen, all going well. If I pop my coat tails, I could probably do some sheaths too.
 
This batch has all been finished up and are on their way to their respective customers. Here's a brief glance as they were waiting for sheaths to be built:



I'll post the finished pics in their own threads. I don't plan to document all the batches of 'hawks like I did this one, but I wanted to show some of the steps along the way.

Now onto the next batch!



This is a big one as there are two double orders and one of the long Wreckers is going to be a demonstration model for myself. About half of the grinding is already done. This pic shows them all post-normalizing.
 
I like your wreckers but was wondering if you've experimented with a slimmer/skinnier spike similar to a Shrike or can your current Wrecker slip under and pry out boarded up windows or doors? One of our training sites is a condemned apartment complex that is boarded up. We have permission to access for training ops and my Shrikes spike is able to get in some tight spots and pry out screwed in boarded hatches without having to chop into them.
 
Hope the feedback on the sheaths is good, looks like a solid design so can't see any major complaints. Can't wait until I come up on the list.
 
ceptor781 said:
Hope the feedback on the sheaths is good, looks like a solid design so can't see any major complaints. Can't wait until I come up on the list.
Click to expand...

I have a "War Chief" model (12" version) and I absolutely love the sheath system. For the record, I'm not doing anything tactical with the 'hawk/sheath, but for hiking/backpacking/camping, the sheath system works perfectly for me. I can strap it to a pack or carry it on my person in several different configurations.
 
I have the wrecker 18 in and sheath. I love the system. I made a similar set up before, for the hawk but James' is nicer. I am currently working on a leather cover for the sheath. I love to use kydex and leather together for modern functionality, but with an old school look. Bottom line StormCrow makes the best hawk and sheath combo I have ever used. His hawks offer the most versatility out of all the full tang hawks available.
 
I'll take that feedback. :) Always glad to hear when my work is serving well.

Ceptor781 - Hopefully not too long, but definitely the other side of the new year.

WJC01 - That's part of the intended use. The end of the Wrecker spike narrows down to fit into tight spaces (or can be swung and driven in), the angle at the top of the spike helps give leverage for starting to wrench on it, then the curved top of the head acts like a rollerhead pry bar to finish the job.
 
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