Howdy,

I'm new to forging, just played around some but I already love it. I'd really like to try and make a hawk. Does anyone have a good beginner tutorial that they would share?

Ricky a hawk or any other item you wish to forge is a forging exercise. All of the skill you will need to make it are the ones you should b e working on now. drawing out metal forming it forge weld, maybe even slitting and drifting and heat treating knowledge are required. Work on those. There is a lot of information on getting started on this site. To start with an advanced project is to slow the learning down. May seem odd but it will help anything you do in the future to get started right now.

I agree with what Mr Hale has said,EMPHATICALLY.All forging consists of a very few,really,operations,but it's best to learn them sequentially.

A tutorial on making an object is only a guide to how to apply the skills already aquired,and practiced.

Having said that,here's a link to a bunch of info on the subject,by one of my favorite makers:Yet another hawk important thing to keep in mind,is that it's not a recipe,but just some,partial logic,to help one to think about it all.Thinking,however,never produced any ironwork,it must come from practicing the technique.

Best of luck,Jake.

Edited July 25, 200916 yr by mod07

Thanks for the good solid advice. I have a copy of "New Edge of the Anvil". I'll start working some of the basics there first. Thanks again.

You could try the Controlled Hand Forging lessons from ABANA:

[ABANA] Controlled Hand Forging

It covers almost all the forging basics except for the most important; practice

And here a basic, one piece tomahawk.

Tomahawk

Hope it helps

Rub

heres a good one
Forging an axe

Edited July 25, 200916 yr by mod07

The diamond on the back of pipe hawks seems to be pretty common. (see the "yet another hawk" link above.)

Is that forged as the end of the bowl and brazed or welded to the hawk, or is it imprinted in before forging out the axe head? It would seem to be very difficult to get it even and keep it even if it were done as part of the axe head.

I'm picturing making the bowl as a separate piece from the head; fullering down the middle of a pipe, leaving material above the fuller for the bowl and below the fuller to make the diamond-shaped base. Is that how these are done? I'm just guessing at the construction here, I'd love some input from someone that actually knows or has done it.

Thanks,

--TMIB

the easiest way to make i hawk (I believe) is to flatten out the head of a railroad spike. It's almost perfect, as my brother and I (and many other people) discovered.

But you should definitely practice on drawing out/flattening other metals before you try anything too fancy. Best of luck!