working on hawks

[dablacksmith]

ya the problem with hi carbon forge welding is overheating... it tends to crumble if you get it too hot that is why it us usually sanwiched between mild steel (it was also done when hi carbon steel was REALLY expencive) the mild welds at a higher temp but is a lot more forgiveing of overheating... good luck!

[steve sells]

then there are wacko's like me that use high carbon on the outside to cover the tool steel's like L6 on the inside.

Starting with mild IS a good idea, after you get that, the other stuff IS easier. and the mild is more forgiving of mistakes.

[A.S.T.]

Oops my bad looking good so far tomtw.
Aaron

[tompdw]

I ended up using my mig welder. I have the tomahawks done. I will get pictures and post them. I still wish to get some borax and learn to forge weld.

[julian]

I tried doing a hawk out of solid leaf spring once, but it didn't work out all that great; it worked, but didn't look very good and weighed a ton since the steel was so thick.

Forge welding those hawks that you posted pics of is going to be a lot harder than welding a mild steel/HC steel bit style because you've got that big eye for the handle to deal with; i tried doing that a couple times, and I always burned the eye steel up. I'd suggest trying to weld a HC steel bit into a mild steel body next, I think you'll find that you can heat up and weld the end part without too much trouble. With that method you can also make the bit stick out from the bottom a little more and give it that cool tomahawk shape.

[tompdw]

Here is what they look like finished.

[dablacksmith]

not bad for your first hawks! you might get a tommahawk handle to use in them ...they work better and last longer because they are tapered like a pick handle so as you throw they try to tighten themselves ..good luck!

[Don A]

Alan Longmire has a killer wrap & weld hawk tutorial over on Fogg's forum.

That's really worth checking out; Alan knows his hawks.

Don

[matt993fod]

Higher carbon steels weld at a lower temperature than mild steels, but burn at a lower temperature too...

Hence welding carbon steels could be easier in the sense that it can be done at an easier to reach temperature, with less chance of heavy scaling (due to having to use a strong air blast), but is harder in the sense that they are much easier to overdo, and burn. Many other things can go wrong. Most resources I have consulted state that welding carbon steels in the forge is not practical!? I can't agree with this, since many have actually achieved it just fine...

So that is why I always find it head-scratching how people are able to do pattern welding at all, since surely the carbon steel would have burned by the time the mild steel is hot enough to weld. Then again, I guess there must just be a really narrow temperature range where welding is actually possible.

[Tald the dead]

Higher carbon steels weld at a lower temperature than mild steels, but burn at a lower temperature too...

Hence welding carbon steels could be easier in the sense that it can be done at an easier to reach temperature, with less chance of heavy scaling (due to having to use a strong air blast), but is harder in the sense that they are much easier to overdo, and burn. Many other things can go wrong. Most resources I have consulted state that welding carbon steels in the forge is not practical!? I can't agree with this, since many have actually achieved it just fine...

I recently did a hatchet with a piece of 5160 in the tip. Went smooth and my tags have about disappeared.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...al/hatchet.jpg