W2 Forged Integral Hawk WIP (FINAL PICTURES)

Alright.. back in action.

First... the Horror, the Horror:

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That's what stainless san mai looks like when it fails. It fails utterly.

Rather than mess around with trying to re-weld another piece of stainless on, I just went ahead and removed the other side of stainless. Good thing I did... I smacked it off with a hammer. Not my day for stainless welding. So rather than give up, I cut some of my wrought iron plate out into two pieces for welding. This is some wrought I got from a local grain mill deconstruction and it patterns beautifully... more like damascus than any wrought I've worked with. So this will make for a beautiful, tribal style tac hawk if it all works out.

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You can see some of the wrought plate sitting next to the hawk.

Wrought sticks way easier than just about anything and all I had to do was rough grind the scale and do a couple of tack welds. This time it stuck like glue. I will show the weld lines tomorrow when I etch, but here is what I will now be working with:

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This will get another handle of the Lake Superior salvaged old growth maple.. but I don't think I will go as 'tribal' in the handle as the one I posted recently. This one will be going up for sale as my client is not interested in iron laminate (we are now discussing about where next to go on a similar project... L6 full tang??).

On the side I've been trying to figure out what to do in terms of a full tang hawk from my 1" square 5160. So I started forging out a head while the forge was heating up for welding to see where I could go with this.

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I didn't think I would get a heavy enough blade if I forged out the head and spike and then draw out the tang... so why not make a cut for the spike and the bend over the head and THEN draw out the tang???? Might look unconventional and maybe a bit 'artsy'... who knows.

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this wrought san mai hawk is gonna be cool. pictures later.


Changed my mind on the 5160 integral/bent over idea. Found a buyer for another riveted, two part hawk. This time I'm going to forge weld the rivets into place. That'll fix em.
 
Scott, MS Knight made a hawk like the drawing. I'll see if I can find a picture of the finished product.
 
We have two seasons here Randy.... Winter and Hot.

Sorry for the lapse on this folks. I've taken ill. The worst flu I've had in years. It's a struggle to even type.
 
Get well soon. Get fit so you can come back and do our axes!
But for now please let yourself rest.
 
Feeling better!

In my fevered state I had an idea regarding this thing. Since there is a lot of interest in reducing the weight of the handle on these things... why not do a hidden tang? I've been a little worried about a slight off-set in the center-line going from the tang to the head. This happened when using the press to forge weld the wrought iron to the head. The concern is that if I grind it to correct it.. I may end up with too thin of a tang. And forging it is awkward with the head in the way, etc. So... why not forge the tang down and do a morticed, hidden tang construction with split scales? I would make sure that the tang was the full length of the handle to dispell any fears of the wood breaking.. and I could even let it emerge as a glass breaker. This tapered tang would greatly reduce weight in the handle as well as provide great hand feel (should greatly reduce hand shock I would think).... and I don't think it would sacrifice strength because the wood scales would be pinned through the tang just like in a full tang. It is also a great savings in good tool steel.

Bad idea? Too late. It's done.. already forged the tang down. Pics later.
 
Winkler hawks are the only ones I've seen with a tapered tang. I think it's a great idea, for all the reasons you mentioned. Reducing overall weight is probably a good thing, but creating a certain balance in hand, and a lively feel is a seperate issue. I've never held a Winkler, or other tapered tang hawk, but I'm betting that tang style is the best when it comes to a balance of weight distribution, yet having a strong handle.
This fever you got is exciting! Neil Young wrote 3 of his biggest hit songs lying in a hospital bed with a fever. Just stop if/when you start having hallucinations, forging steel is a bit more dangerous than writing songs.;)
 
But his are still full tang right? But with distal taper? Mine will have distal taper... but it will also be tapered from the sides... coming down to a more of a point. The two scales of wood will be milled out so that tang sits inside of them and is completely hidden. I will check out the Sayocs again... I've only seen them from a front view so I assumed they were full tang.

No.. I tried to forge yesterday morning and had to quit almost immediately. But today I'm STRONG.
 
Scott, I wish you a full and speedy recovery. But, it's a good sign when your feel "STRONG"! Thanks for doing this WIP, it has been very interesting and informative. I liked the idea of the stainless laminated head.....sorry it didn't work out; however, I hope that you are able to make it happen becuase it is a great idea.

As for your tapered and hidden tang, I say go for it! I'm no 'hawk expert but I think it would work, especially for a fighting hawk or a more compact size. I have 3 of Daniel Winkler's hawks and the ones I have are tapered but not hidden tangs. I figure if a hidden tang works well on forged choppers and such, why wouldn't it work for a 'hawk. Just my non-educated 0.02 cents.

I look forward to see how it deveolps.
 
ScottRoush said:
But his are still full tang right? But with distal taper? Mine will have distal taper... but it will also be tapered from the sides... coming down to a more of a point. The two scales of wood will be milled out so that tang sits inside of them and is completely hidden. I will check out the Sayocs again... I've only seen them from a front view so I assumed they were full tang.

No.. I tried to forge yesterday morning and had to quit almost immediately. But today I'm STRONG.
Click to expand...

Yes Scott, you are correct, I misunderstood your plan. Mr. Winklers are full tang, distal tapered down to 1/8", so you can see steel sandwiched between the handle scales. Still, your hidden tang would be awesome. It's gotta be tried, if you need help testing, I'm at..:D

I'm still interested to see what ever you do. The other hawk idea with theforge welded rivets also sound like they would be strong enough to take a beating. Heck, I've been thinking about attaching your kiridashi to a handle, tomahawk style, just to see how it would chop, I just don't want to damage it. In an emergency, it may become a useful tool that way, or weapon.
 
376 said:
Scott, I wish you a full and speedy recovery. But, it's a good sign when your feel "STRONG"! Thanks for doing this WIP, it has been very interesting and informative. I liked the idea of the stainless laminated head.....sorry it didn't work out; however, I hope that you are able to make it happen becuase it is a great idea.

As for your tapered and hidden tang, I say go for it! I'm no 'hawk expert but I think it would work, especially for a fighting hawk or a more compact size. I have 3 of Daniel Winkler's hawks and the ones I have are tapered but not hidden tangs. I figure if a hidden tang works well on forged choppers and such, why wouldn't it work for a 'hawk. Just my non-educated 0.02 cents.


I look forward to see how it deveolps.
Click to expand...

Which Winkler's do you have and which is your favorite? If I may ask..I have a Sayoc RnD on order, it will be my first.
 
foxx said:
Which Winkler's do you have and which is your favorite? If I may ask..I have a Sayoc RnD on order, it will be my first.
Click to expand...

I have a boarding axe, battle axe, and a combat axe. I also have another combat axe on order. I gave one combat axe as a gift to my USMC bud....he's had it in Afghanistan twice. Personally, I like the battle axe best, but honestly I really like them all! You can't go wrong with any one of Mr. Winkler's axes. I'd say it all depends on if you want a pure fighter (Sayoc or Battle Axe) or one with more utility such as a boarding or breaching axe.

Sorry, Scott....I don't want to derail your thread. Foxx, if you want more info PM me so I don't take away from Scott's awesome WIP.
 
Yeah that riveted deal was kind of inspired by my kiridashis. That's really all it is. Go for it... Put my dashi on a stick. Sounds like something I should start offering 'Dashi-on-a-Stick'.

Thanks for the encouragement 376.... Maybe I should just break down and order one. Hell of lot easier than all of this!

Okay here is what I've done today.... which isn't much because I have a knife due by Christmas and I'm just squeezing work in on this.

But here is what I'm talking about.... tapered tang and you can see the outline in the wood where I will mill out a slot for the tang. I will probably have to narrow down the tang a bit towards the head to keep the wood from being hair thin up there. (you can also see a little bit of my W2 wakizashi I'm forging)

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I haven't settled on a final profile for the head yet. Still not sure what to with the spike. But here you can see the W2 peeking through..and a sneak preview as to the awesome etching pattern of this wrought iron.

Sorry for the poor quality of this image:

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Right now.. the midpoint of the head is just under 1/2" thick. I may wait until I put the wood handle scales on before I decided to thin that down. But it's nice right now to have some meat to work with in terms of balance. Here you can see the W2 layer sandwhiched between the wrought iron...

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More tomorrow....
 
Like I said... still working on the spike. :-) I had to grind off the very tip where there was some slight delamination.
 
So the technical term for my clipped point is a 'poon eh?? Well... I was thinking of keeping it because that's how I handle the really thin points I sometimes leave on the kiridashis I make as carpenter's scribes.... to give them strength. So scouter27... This thing may indeed sport a 'poon. Does that apostrophe indicate a clicking sound as in Kalahari bush tongue? A 'click' poon? Still fevered? maybe.

:-)
 
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