Integral Tomahawk Tutorial

[Sam Salvati]

When i posted the first one of these, I got alot of "how the heck did you do that?!" responses, and while I explained it well enough I thought a picture is worth a thousand words, so here's a million.

I have thought and thought on how to do this for awhile, sketching out different ideas over and over on how maybe to split, cut, fuller and squeeze out one of these from a single piece of stock, and this is what I have settled on.

First, oil up the powerhammer


I start with new drops from a spring shop, spring steel made in USA. It is 3/8" thick by 3" wide




and here is my setup. I utilize the Swage block for the upsetting, my regular anvil, my NC forge for the long work, my Mankel for the wide work, and different hammers and tongs.


and of course sledgehammer

[Sam Salvati]

First step is to neck down the bar and begin to forge the handle, it was quick work on the Say Mak 110 but takes a few more heats on the Anyang hehe but it does surprisingly well on such wide stock.









And there we go, 1" wide by the orignal thickness 3/8".


And then cut off from the parent bar, making sort of a lolly pop. The dimensions of the end bit are 3" wide by 3 1/2" long


Grind the end clean


And switch over to the Mankel. I wish I had a coal forge setup for this then I wouldn't have to switch.

[Sam Salvati]

Now we start to upset the lollipop in the swedge block.


This makes for some nasty corners so grind them clean and resume upsetting






I begin also to come at an angle into one corner, to start pushing extra material to one side, as the blade needs more material then the spike. I do this coming in at an angle onto one side.




As I am upsetting I keep going under the powerhammer and flattening things out as it will bend and mushroom over, keep it clean and inline and upsetting need not be so upsetting


Also the swedge block has slightly radius inside corners, this prevents a shearing action and also from those inside corners from getting sharp and forming cold shuts, a nice radius is good

[Sam Salvati]

Now is the time I wish I had a striker. Once the Hawk head is upset sufficiently I flip it over and begin to work in the beard and angles in the "neck" area. I work in with the cross peen, then flattenm, then cross peen, then flatten, then cross peen, then flatten, and keep doing this until it's the shape I want.

[Sam Salvati]

Now is a series of photos, I took one every heat, scroll down very fast it's like a flip book .
























And tadah!

[Sam Salvati]

Next day (today), I did a bit of geometry refinement, to make it a nice tough chopper, and began filework.


I draw a chalk line up from the handle to use as a guide for an artistic break in the beveling I file all around. I do this all by hand with different files, it is not as quick as the grinder but FAR more controlled, I have alot of work into it up to this point and I do not want to risk ruining it on the grinder. I find it very peaceful to file all the bevels.


I file in to start the sharp corners, then begin beveling.










And filework is mostly done. I will continue it down the handle shaft about 1/3.


And now some fun photos
the integral battle playset

[Adam2519]

Great post Sam
Well thought out and a good looking final product.


Adam

[doc]

hi Sam,
Great tutorial! Sam remember the side set I gave you, you may remember my showing you the double one made like a spring tool? If you take the time to make one of these up and use it to do your initial necking at the base of your lollipop it will help eliminate some of the burring and folding that occurs when you go to do your upset.

Great job, wonderful presentation speak to you soon.

Doc

[macbruce]

Well done Sam!

[Sam Salvati]

Thanks guys!

Dick, I totally flaked on that after the fact! I will have to make up a double spring setup.

I wish Grant coulda seen this :(

[S.Willis]

Very nice Sam. Thanks for sharing.

[HWooldridge]

Very cool. It has the general shape of an Estwing ax - but mo' better...keep up the good work.

[bigfootnampa]

It is very interesting to see how you approached this Sam! Thank you very much for taking the tme to share it with us! I am thinking that given the same stock I would likely try a different technique. I know that what you have done here will stick with me though and I'll use it somewhere! I am thinking that I'd make the stock end the cutting edge and chisel the spike out of the handle side of the stock and then upset and bend the blade around till it is perpendicular to the handle. THEN I would draw out my handle. That way the stock chiseled out of the handle for the spike would not be missed as I would just draw it out less in that area. I might have to give this a try! Whether I get to it or not though, thank you much for the inspiration and sharing your skills with us!

[Sam Salvati]

thanks guys! Hollis, sure wish I had a big old drop hammer to make these up hehe.

Bigfoot, that's the only other way I have seen these done, a knifemaker Jason Knight made one up like that and it was amazing.

[Gayle Brooks]

love this! good job!

[Robakyo]

Since you posted pics of your first Integral Tomahawk, I've spent many waking hours wondering how it was done. I thought maybe splitting off a small sliver to form the spike end, but that has proven to cause a stress crack that is hard to stop. At least it has in some of the cleavers I've made. But that's a different story.

Your tutorial shows why you are an excellent teacher. Thanks for sharing this knowledge! I really appreciate the efforts you took to present such a well documented, and clear presentation. The pictures are worth a million words.

Robert

[Dillon Sculpture]

Killer process pics! I need to make a few, for the Zombies ya know :P

[joshua.M]

i'll come strike!!!! just let me borrow that anyang for... as "short " while