Mick Maxen

The hawk is approx 19" long x 8" with a 2" cutting edge. The main body is made from 8 bars of twisted pattern weld with approx 20 layers in each bar with a 400 layer cutting edge. The smoke bowl is made from 9 bars of twisted pattern weld arranged in a 3x3 cube and worked to shape then hard silver soldered to the main body. Many Thanks to Alan for supplying the Curly Maple haft which I have treated with Aqua Fortis to bring out the figure and banding. The wooden beads are Californian Buckeye and Redwood and the smoke hole stopper is Buffalo horn.

Nice.

Thanks for the kind words about the knife. Alan, I am well and hope you are all keeping healthy over there. Stay save my friend.

I have made a few of these recently with riveted pivots but getting the action right is very tricky, so I have used a threaded pivot pin and nylon washers which has made a world of difference. Smooth as silk now. The blade is approx 3" and about 6 1/2" overall.

Alan, I have run out of handles now and will need some more. James, the name is an inlay all the way through but has not been made by the canister/powder method. Just flat pieces of steel that we all use.

Cheers Alan. A different way of putting a makers mark in the work. The curly maple handle is one you gave me at Owen's a few years back.

A recent piece of work. A pattern welded tomahawk with a 5 bar construction with each bar having 14 layers. The cutting edge is approx 500 layers. The edge is 2 1/4" and the head is 6" long.

A few work in progress photos of the pattern welding. The first is a lay up of how the bars will match, Now welded up with the edge as well, This is a polished and etched spare piece with a view of the cross section through the blade,

Thanks for all the kind words about this piece. Alan, a teleport machine to catch up and have a few beers would be a very fine idea. Rob has sent me a few work in progress photos of the hilt fittings and wax carving,

This is a collaboration between Rob Miller of Castle Keep Swords on the Isle of Skye and myself. This is the 2nd one of these blades I have made for him. It has a 7 bar core of 14 layers in each bar and a 900 + layered edge. I supplied the sword blade as a forged to shape blank about 5 - 6mm thick. Rob did all the grinding, hilt work, fittings, scabbard and leather work to an exceptional standard.

Similar to these pieces,

Nice work James. A more irregular pattern will be achieved by forging your initial billet, the 1st photo you show, so that you have a combination of wide and narrow pieces. Always keep the height the same but try forging them so one bar is say 12mm wide and the other 6 or 8mm wide. This pushes the wave pattern higher up the bar in the narrow section and then stack them in alternating thin and thick sections.

Hello Alan, very well Thank you although I am another year older today. The name bar is from the stock I made years ago. I probably have about 20" of the stuff left. Matt, there are no twists in the ring other than the side pieces that were made with 28 layers and twisted. Think of the ring being just a square about 25mm by 11mm before it was ground to a ring. Mick.

Both rings are about 21mm diameter,

Michael, it sounds like the layers in question were never welded up if they keep coming apart. Experience has taught me that you usually cannot get flux into these areas to succesfully weld them up again as there is usually some crud in there from the failed weld. If its a blister then it can be ground out. I was teaching pattern welding to someone at the weekend and I had a billet seem to just jump apart about 5 layers in on a 14 layer billet. No real idea why so I just chucked it away and started a fresh and thats with 20 odd years pattern welding experience. Mick.