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My youngest is now 5, and wanted a tomahawk like his brothers. The oldest one saved his money and bought one from Leninger Knife and Forge at a local rendezvous. The middle one I made a 'hawk for from a RR spike, so I thought I'd try it again. BUT, impatience got the better of me, and when I was drifting the hole, I got the steel white hot, just starting to spark. I stuck it in the vise, and gave it a good massive whack with the hammer. And tore it in half. I did that with the middle one's 'hawk, when I made it, too, so I decided to fix it the same way: I welded some good 'ol "Fluffy Special" (black iron pipe) in the middle. But the welds wouldn't hold, and after it broke the second time, I tossed it in the scrap heap, and started over. I had a small 3 oz. ball peen hammer I never use, and I've wanted to try this for awhile, so I threw it in the forge, burned the handle off, and started pounding. Flattening the head into a blade was a lot of work. I finally broke out Larry, and got it down to where I wanted it. Larry is my "git 'er done," a 5 bl. sledge hammer I cut the handle down on. I can't swing it for too long, but it DOES move metal. Sometimes even in the right direction. It turned out pretty small, even for a mouse 'hawk, which is why I called it a Hamster 'Hawk. Besides, it's just fun to say. Hammered out and ready for a lot of grinding. (Don't look in the background. My shop is a million half-finished projects) The hole was a little small, so I enlarged it with some careful chiseling, and a trusty assistant. Not everyone can have a supermomdel for a wife. (Supermomdel: noun. One of those stay-at-home mom's who manages the house, raises and schools the kids, cleans, cooks, babysits other people's kids, does the yard work, manages the husband, invests in minimal makeup, zero trips to the salon, no gym membership, never enough sleep, and still looks absolutely gorgeous! Why she chose me is beyond my understanding, but I sure count myself lucky! She even likes my blacksmithing, and is pretty darn good at holding red hot steel still on the anvil.) I couldn't have gotten this done without her. I made a handle from a scrap of maple, and put it in to see how it looked. Lots of polishing, engraving (he needs his name on it) and heat treating, and it will be ready for his birthday! I kept the ball peen on the backside, but squared it off some and flattened the end for hammering, since I know he'll use it camping. I usually do my hardening in peanut oil or water. Any suggestions here would be welcome.

This is my version of a tomahawk. the blade is 3 inches long and is based loosly on the dane axe. the spike is also meant to be used as a pickaroon. I want it to be useful as a small axe as well but this design itself would only be about .7 of a pound so I may go for a longer blade that gets thinner more gradually. the handle would be 1 inch by 18 inches probably round. I am currently working on forging a round drift from a 1.5 inch round bar which will take a large amount of fuel and time to finish forging. I am planning on using solid 1 inch barstock to make these becuase I don't think I could reliably forge weld a cutting edge on. I would like to know if there are any problems with my design. I would also like advice on how to make the eye, should I use a straight chisel to slit and drift or should I drill a hole in the material then drift?

This is my second RR spike hawk, this time using the head end of the spike for the cutting edge. The last one I mis-centered the punch, and though I did go through with it (due to time limits), I really wish I had more time to start over. Thanks Mr. Florianek- really should have listened and started over immediately. I have learned my lesson. Always listen to Petr . The blade took me about three days, and the handle only one. As I said, blade is HC RR spike- not sure about the handle. I recently watched the Ulfberht documentary and have been fascinated with Viking weaponry, so this has been patterned after one. With this make I think I'm feeling a few sparks about my chin (hint, hint!) The blade is normalized twice, edge hardened once, but I did not bother tempering. Am I supposed to? I secured the head by gradually tapering the handle, the hammering the head on using the hardie hole in my anvil (yes I have a real one now) to get a good fit, then secured with the tip of an old broken knife as a wedge. I used to do a lot of chisel carving, so I tried my hand here. Viking w' beard on one side, deer on the other. I took advantage of a knot in the wood and gave the Viking a knotty hat. I'm actually not quite finished yet; still going to rub in some oil to the wood as well as polish the blade a bit. I'll probably experiment with more carvings too. Anyway, comments and critiques welcome!

I was planning on just the spear, but I really personally hate it. So I'm also entering a hawk I've just barely finished in time. The hawk is from a RR spike: I totally messed up the punch, but we've been so busy lately I didn't think I'd manage to start over and finish in time, so I just ended up finishing the original. RR Spike Hawk: Steel is HC RR spike, wood is an interesting piece of oak. Normally oak would be a little brittle, but this stuff was so strong I decided to use it anyway. The wedge I used to secure it is actually from an unfinished dagger I finished a while back, but had broken. My family actually has an old, rotting tree in our backyard, so I got permission to test out the hawk on that. It took a while, but I got most of the job done, then just finished off the last few blows with my dad's axe. I'd like to say that the hawk would be best used as a throwing hawk, but I'm not sure if it's strong enough for that. OH, side note. I hardened just the edge of the hawk, and there was practically no sign of wear on the blade when I was done. Ewok throwing spear: I had a bad sense of design when I worked on the handle, and so I hate that part, but I think I did rather well-ish on the head. I made this spear at the starting of this year's KITH, and I can tell I've improved a lot since then. The head is from a car spring, most likely 5160. Hardened once, and tempered in my neighbor's sun oven thrice. It is a stick tang, so I'm not sure if it's the best for force, but it is firmly secured. I did a bit of creative grinding on the blade with a dremel, but I used a bit meant for stones and so it is a little rough. I've sanded as best as I can, but hard to get the rough out of the little cranny.

I've been inspired by the current KITH and am wanting to join it. I just wanna make sure I can do something like a hawk before I join. Anyway, so here's my problem. I'm making a tomahawk in the same style as one posted a little while ago, (it was one of the firebeard guys I'm pretty sure) and I've done everything, including wrapping it around the rod, and placing the ends together. file://localhost/Users/neetjeapple/Pictures/Photo%20Booth%20Library/Pictures/Photo%20on%205-28-13%20at%208.34%20PM.jpg Then I tried welding. I got the steel (5160) yellow-hot, and tried pounding it together, AKA I tried to weld it together. They do not join. I realize it's probably a variety of problems, so I just want a little list on the things I could be doing wrong. P.S., I am using Borax for flux.