longhunter Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 I made this hawk my first and its not finished of course It's a work in progress made of a wrought iron support strap 1-1/2" wide and 5/16" thick that was salvaged with a cutting bit of 5160 cutting edge is 2-1/2" length is 7". I have used no powers tools to work this so far Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don A Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 That looks realy good for a first go. Your eye and the weld look good from here, and that's the hard part (to me, anyway). I would suggest that you next work on getting more spread across the edge end and establish a more "hawk-like"profile. It helps to start with the iron body forged to look like a flat-topped bow tie before you wrap it. Then, you leave plenty of meat at the edge for welding and after your weld is set, you can use your cross pien parallel to the body of the axe and then flatten the ridges smooth. Your looking to make it kinda like a fan with a circular spread. And keep it flat across the top of the profile. Did you have any trouble getting the 5160 to weld? I've heard it can be rough. Good work. Stay at it. Don Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OzMatt Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 I certainly hope my first attempt goes as well as yours did. Hope you post some pics of it when finished. Cheers, Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longhunter Posted March 9, 2012 Author Share Posted March 9, 2012 Yes I need to improve how I move metal with my hammer also I looked at the strap I used its more 1/4" so thicker material would be of some help to provide some mass in the cutting edge area. I have done some reading a smith that does a lot of hawks says to use 3/8"x2" and fuller the area down that wraps around the handle to 1/4" then the thicker area gives you the mass you need. I didnt real have a welding problem but I did have a problem with the 5160 wanting to slide out when I started to tap the side around to hold it in place to start the welding need to cut the some barbs out of it or use a rough rasp . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longhunter Posted March 25, 2012 Author Share Posted March 25, 2012 Here is a pic after I used a wire wheel on and cleaned it up some more Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshua.M Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 very nice for a first! from what I understand, ones that were used in the fur trade were very crude.... it should work very well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim McCoy Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 Great for your first trip out - looks older than it is, but should work well! Tim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmccustomknives Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 Did you get that out of my shop, it looks just like the one I made. LOL. Got my hands on some old wrought iron (200 year old ax heads included) and wanted to try to make one after studying the axes. Good work. Real wrought iron is interesting to work with isn't it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ironclad Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 nice hawk! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longhunter Posted April 6, 2012 Author Share Posted April 6, 2012 Yes wrought is a little different buddy told me to work it at a very high heat if wanting to shape and moving a lot of metal or he said it can come apart so he has more experience at this then me so I worked like he said . Just kinda wanted to do a as forged type look I like the rustic look dont know how highly polished the furtrade hawks and axes would have really been but they would have functioned just fine. I had found a website with viking artifacts and they had some different axes a few looking close to what ive forged Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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