Question about forging hawks ?

K

Kevin the grey

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Aug 26, 2005
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I know this is about hawks and not knives I just figured some of you guys might forge hawks as well,This is a copy of a british infantry light tomahawk . In the advertisement it said it had a hammer back which just turned out to look like an ax head back . Not a biggy as I don,t plan on driving nails . It will be more for driving tent pegs or other like camp tasks . The question I have concerns the inside of the eye . This looks like a flat piece of hot metal was folded over a form to make the eye and the two sides were hammer forged together to form the blade . Inside the front of the eye you can tell two pieces of metal were sandwiched together and some hot metal flowed out of the two forged halves . I hope I am describing this correctly . This is the first time I have seen an eye formed in this manner . Is it a common practice to forge the blade and eye this way ? All my other tomahawks have an eye which looks like it was forged from one piece of metal . I realise there is more than one way to skin a cat so there must be more than one way to form an eye . The reason I question this is because I use my hawks for throwing and already had one split after an hours use . What do you think ?
 
On a wrapped welded eye, it should never split if it had a good forge weld. But I don't do hawks that way. I split and drift everything from a solid bar.

Bill
 
On this hawk it almost looks like hot steel was wrapped around the drift and molten steel was poured in between the two halves before they were hammered together . By this I mean that the hot metal that flowed back towards the eye looks like it is not so much part of the two halves as much as sandwiched between them , Of course this is a laymans view .
 
I will go read it in detail at a later date . It was interesting to note a length of file was used in the blade edge area presumably to supply a higher carbon edge .

Is it possible that the metal I see that has flowed back towards the eye could be a result of the same idea ? A piece of carbon steel sandwiched between two layers of mild steel ? The only question here being is that the blade is a long one in measurement between edge and eye . While this makes for a good sticker it would mean that a fairly long piece of carbon steel would have to be used for it to flow that far back . That is not evidenced in your site forging method as the file was paralell with the blade as opposed to intersecting it . Of course there may have been slightly different manufacturing methods . I guess the proof is in the pudding . If it takes a years throwing abuse from me I think we can say its a winner . Whatever the case . Thanks for the great post .
 
It sounds like what you're seeing is where flux and molten scale flowed out of the weld joint. It's heat and pressure that joins the steel in the weld. No molten metal is poured in, however, flux is applied to prevent oxidization and lower the melting point of any scale (oxidization) already there so it can flow out of the joint allowing for clean mating surfaces.
 
On many commercially made wrapped hawk/axe heads they run a line of weld inside the eye - could be that ...........

Wrapped hawk and axe heads have been around for centuries and was the primary method used throughout the 18th and early 19th Centuries. They will stand up to even rough usage just as well as those made with other methods when properely made - then of course being properly made is what separates the good and the bad not what method of manufacture was used...........If you're having heads split after just a couple hours of throwing then something is WRONG. My own throwing/using hawk was a wrapped one and it saw over 30 years of VERY hard usage before I retired it. Generally speaking the steel blades insert is only about an inch deep. They were originally made this way since steel was a VERY precious commodity and using a chunk bi genough to make a hawk or axe head was way too expensive. The main part of the head was generally made out of wrought iron.

PS IN the old days when the steel bit wore down they replaced it, often several times over the life of the axe/hawk.
 
With one post I have learned a great deal . This wrap around head is not the one that split . It is the first one where the eye did not appear solid all the way around . The only thing I see here holding me back is too many good responses . L:O:L I hope to have my own forge going by springtime and I get to meet a couple of you to learn even more and perhaps determine the method of forging that went into my hawk . I hope that the method of manufacture is representative of the period this hawk represents . Either way it will be a good camp hawk .
 
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