Similar topic: Cheapest functional pipe hawks

[Return of the J.D.]

On a similar topic, what does everybody out there know about the cheapest generally-available pipe 'hawk that actually can be used for both pipe and 'hawk functions? I know that pipe 'hawks generally aren't terribly durable, and I recognize that if one really wanted to re-fight the French & Indian war with a pipe 'hawk, one would be well-advised to stick to a high-end, hand-forged 'hawk that would surely set one back a couple hundred bucks. But for those of us for whom finances are more of a constraint, what's out there that could genuinely be used for both light-duty, occasional chopping, and for smoking, for the smallest amount of money? I see a bewildering array of cast heads, brass heads with steel cutting bit inset into a mostly-brass blade, etc. Any of these at all functional for chopping? I'm curious to know the good, the bad, and the ugly, from everybody's experience.

Another way of re-wording the question: what's the least-expensive pipe 'hawk anybody here knows about that actually can be used fairly well at occasional chopping tasks?

 

[the possum]

This is a question I'd like to find an answer to myself. I tried a cheapie some time ago, and got the bad. It was this one from Dixie Gun Works, or one very similar:

Got it for like 30 bucks, as I recall. DO NOT BE TEMPTED TO BUY IT. It's a toy to hang on the wall. The head fell off before I even got to use it, since it's not tapered to hold the shaft, the whole thing is way too small, the handle is some kind of softwood turned perfectly round, and then to top it all off, the first time I used mine, THE FRIGGIN' HEAD BROKE IN HALF. Sent it back to 'em. The end of the bit was very hard, but as the metal thickened, things got softer. The grain structure was horrible- more like cast iron than steel.

 

[Return of the J.D.]

I'm curious: how feasible might it be to take a hammer-poll 'hawk (say, for example, a CS Trail Hawk or Rifleman's Hawk), anneal the head to soften the steel, then drill into that to construct the pipe bowl--thereafter re-hardening the edge?

Just a wild idea. Thoughts?

 

[the possum]

I must admit I've thought about going that route myself. If anything, I figure it would be easier to just use a torch to heat up & anneal the hammer poll, while protecting the rest of the head from the heat so you don't have to re-harden it. I don't know what kind of steel they are though. (4140?) And I don't know what it would take to get it reasonably annealed. Some steels you can just heat up 'till they're glowing and let 'em cool back down on their own. Others need a very specific rate of cooling over several hours or you'll never scratch 'em with a bit. You could of course just try it out if you've got one of those 'hawks sitting around collecting dust. And then tell us how it went.

Ya might wanna check out the other thread I just started. If we get enough guys together (five plus me) we could have a special run of pipe hawks made from good steel, for about 30 bucks.

 

[Return of the J.D.]

Actually, maybe we're all making this much more difficult than it needs to be. How would it work if you just took a garden-variety forged 'hawk head, drilled a half-inch hole into the back of the socket, opposite the beak, took a one-inch length of half-inch-external-diameter mild steel pipe, used a Harbor-Freight-available tap-and-die set to thread both the inch of steel pipe and the hole, and just screwed the pipe into the back of the head? You could then work whatever esthetic magic you wanted on the outside of the pipe with a file--make it hexagonal, thin part of it out a little, etc.

This setup would be, comparatively, anyway, incredibly robust. I mean, sure, the half-inch hole would weaken the eye of the 'hawk--but it still wouldn't be nearly as weak as a lot of the cast heads or thin-necked pipes that most pipe 'hawks seem to have. As I think about it, you could even tighten the threaded pipe right down until it put pressure on the wooden handle, so it would function about like the screws they use in late-model Cold Steel 'hawks, helping hold the head on. (In fact, you could just start with a CS Frontier 'Hawk, and use its screw hole as a starter hole.) It might even make it easier to get a near-airtight seal between the pipe part of the head and the drilled handle. I bet that kind of rig would even stand up to a few direct blows with the poll end of the 'hawk head. The mild steel of a steel pipe probably isn't going to snap if struck, and the hardness of the bit isn't affected at all. You could probably even get away with throwing it once in a while.

You'd want to do something to narrow down the cylindrical pipe-"bowl", I suppose, but that shouldn't be hard to improvise. (Like, use a narrow steel washer, maybe.) All you need then, I would think, is a pre-drilled handle that fits your modified head. A little cold-blue solution from Wal-Mart's sporting goods department and you've got something that's pretty functional--and not all that different looking from the "pipe 'hawk" illustrations in Dwight McLemore's Fighting Tomahawk book (which, as I recall, had a pretty-cylindrical "bowl" that looked indistinguishable from a hammer-poll from the side--it didn't have the narrow bowl-stem that lots of pipe-hawks do.)

What do y'all think?