Personalized Cold Steel Tomahawks as groomsmen gifts *(Final update w/pics on pg 2!)*

Excellent idea! You have some very lucky groomsmen. Kukris for the bridesmaids?
 
Thanks all, I feel a lot more confident going forward with my little project now! I would match the bridesmaids with blades too, but I'm sure they wouldn't appreciate them at all. Women -- what can ya do? :D

Just a quick run down on what I'm planning:

1. Taking off the hawk heads from the shafts and stripping off the black coating; then clean
2. Getting stickers of my groomsmen's initials and adhering them to the stripped heads
3. Spray painting the heads with the initial stickers on
4. Removing the initial stickers so the bare metal underneath is exposed
5. Soaking the heads in Radio Shack etching acid for a few hours to get a good etch in the bare metal; then clean
6. Stripping the head again to get the spray paint off; then clean
7. Applying a patina with hot vinegar
8. Filling the screw hole with JB Weld (hopefully it will somewhat blend in)
9. Convexing the edge
10. Staining the haft
11. Refitting the head
12. Fitting a nice sinew wrap below the head for over strike protection

I'm ordering the hawks in a few days and Ill keep updating this thread. Thanks again!
 
I just realized that I never posted pictures of the final results! Well, I had 7 of these customized heads to prepare for my groomsmen gifts, so I got cracking exactly as I outlined in my last post a couple of years ago now. I (being the groom and all!) did the Warhammer for myself, my brother (best man) got the Spike Hawk, my four other groomsmen got a Norse Hawk, Pipe Hawk, Riflemen Hawk and Trail Hawk, and my other buddy (who professionally filmed my wedding for free!) got a Frontier Hawk. All in all, it was an easy, relatively inexpensive way of really personalizing my token of thanks to these guys.

I just so happen to have the Warhammer, my brother's Spike Hawk and my camera buddy's Frontier Hawk kicking around my house since I offered to put an edge on them as we're going camping in a couple of weeks. Here is how they turned out! The Warhammer, as you can imagine, was the trickiest and it came out the least well-defined because the etching was on the curved contour of the eye whereas all the rest were on the relatively flat cheeks of the blades. The curvature on the Warhammer also affected how the patina took to the metal, so the etching isn't as uniform as the rest. Enjoy the pics -- maybe this will inspire another young man to produce such unique gifts!

P.S. The dudes all went nuts for them and I'm still happily married to the old lady! :D







 
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