Pault17 Posted August 16, 2009 Share Posted August 16, 2009 Mind you now, I am a bit long winded, so be patient. I have been prowling the forums and have been seeing more and more and more "first spike hawk" or "first hawk" posts (and all of the ones I have seen set the bar so high that I figured I would go in the opposite direction and set the lower end of "the bar". It is a work in progress, but I started tonite and put about three shared hours into it (I shared it with straigtening a half piece of an 5/8 x 5/8 inch, 6 inch diameter ring of H13 a friend gave me - very hard to work below orange:o, working on a set of 10 key hoolder hook things, and an attempt at a small patch knife made from a scrap of 52100 another friend gave me) As I don't have any proper slitting chisels or drifts yet, the going was a bit rough but doable and educatoinal. As the hawk was made from a spike, I decided to keep the head "spikey" for recognition. I have not done any filing or finishing as yet. OAL 5.75 inches. cutting edge 2.5 inches thanks for looking, and comments of all kinds are welcome. paul (the pics are in my gallery as well.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longfletch27 Posted August 16, 2009 Share Posted August 16, 2009 thats a good looking hawk, you got the eye really even, great job! what did you drift it with? it look almost like a perfect circle. bryan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pault17 Posted August 16, 2009 Author Share Posted August 16, 2009 guilty as charged on the circle. I have a great big drift/punch that I picked up at northern tool that is a 1 inch hex at the handle, then I used a short piece of 1 inch 4140 that was in my scrap pile. Once I i opened the hole up enough, I just hammered the slug into the hole and forged around the sides. I would prefer a more pear shaped hole, but I haven't made one of those yet. the spike is an HC one that yet another friend picked up for me (he gave me 20 or so:D ). if this one works out well, maybe I will make more. paul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuckster2.0 Posted August 24, 2009 Share Posted August 24, 2009 Is their a blue print for that? I have nineteen railroad spikes that I need to use up. Since they are for practice I would like to make a tomahawk out of one. Since you have I would like to know where you learned (websites?) it from so that I can make one as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pault17 Posted August 25, 2009 Author Share Posted August 25, 2009 Chuckster, One of the smiths from our local abana chapter showed me one he had just finished. Mind you, he did not use a spike to make his, but it was doable. I saw what he did and tried to make mine look like his. The method I generally used was found here: Link removed at the request of anvilfire As for learning how to do it, my ignorance of most things blacksmithing has helped me tremendously by not letting me know the things that can't be done. I am working with an almost clean mental slate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuckster2.0 Posted August 26, 2009 Share Posted August 26, 2009 Hey thanks. I may not have some of the tools that he has but I can probably improvise. I think that a spike hawk will be the last rail road spike project for awhile. But that is after 18 more knives. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
outsider Posted August 28, 2009 Share Posted August 28, 2009 i had the same problems with the slitting and expanding of the hole on the one i made, though in the end your handle hole looks way better than mine and couldnt you just heat it up again and forge the hole from the front to get the oval hole your lookin to get? for mine i used a concrete cold chisel with sharp edges and almost ruined as i hit it deeper through but i saved it just in time and then tried to find a circular or oval punch but no luck in my tools but kayne and sons supposedly has a great punch for this job for $25 as seen in the link below, so i guess i'll be driving over there this weekend...lol well in all thats a great looking Hawk you got there, good job! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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