Tomohawk technique?

[JimiRain]

My grandfather called me the other day and asked if i could make him a tomohawk. Can anyone give me some pointers on how to make a simple but nice looking tomohawk?

thank you
Jimi

[Pault17]

Jimi,
if you check out the Anvilfire site Link removed at the request of anvilfire its a neat and relatively simple hawk from a RR spike.

[Don A]

Here's some really good info:

Hawk tutorials / Fogg's forum

Don

[ThomasPowers]

Jimi: I take an old farriers rasp bend it over onto itself and weld up the seam leaving room to drift the eye with a hawk handle drift.

I find this very simple though it does require some good forge welding skills.

For "using" hawks I preger to drift with a hammer handle drift and use hammer handles. For "throwing" hawks I use the hawk drift and hawk handles


Another method is to take an old ballpeen hammer head and forge out the hammer face into the blade and the peen into a spike and drift out the handle eye for the handle. NB it's easier to drift out using a bullpin to get close to the size you want as you can do a lot of heavy side forging with it in place and use the more expensive and delicate hawk drifts to just do the final shaping.

[JPH]

Hello:

I do mine a bit differently (then again I do just about everything a bit differently..I am just plain odd I guess..) I do a "butterfly", fold it around..insert a chunk of file or leaf spring and weld it all solid then drift out the eye and finish it up..below are three of them, slow browned..man I love that finish for an axe..

JPH

[Tyler Murch]

All these were made by me using, for the most part, techniques already described here by others. JPH, if you're odd, I'm a freak.

[JimiRain]

Thankyou for all the ideas. I think ill try the ballpeen hammer though. It sounds like the easiest way for someone with little experiance.

[JPH]

App:

Well actually it IS rust..just a controled and then passivated process. The "fun" comes from what I use to get it to rust properly. Now I have tried I would say just about all of the "commercially available" "Browning reagents" and frankly none of them work as good as the organic stuff I am using albeit a bit fragrant to make but it does result in a very nice chocolate brown, much darker than the chemical stuff does..more dark brown and not as tawny red as the chemical mixes...

It does take a while..my last batch of tommy-hatchets took close to three weeks to get the browning right...Oh..if you boil these in distilled water for a couple of hours the brown turns to slow rust bluing...just an interesting side note...

JPH

[JPH]

App:

well......kinda/sorta...I was using horse urine up until about 6 months ago when my neighbors sold their horses so out of dire need I tried my "own domestic stuff"...as they say and the colour is eben more "chocolate" brown than the equine urine.

Methinks that may be from the fact that I am not a vegetarian (vegetables..what food eats...) but rather omnivorous so maybe the chemical make up of my urine is "different" enough to make the colouration change on the finished surface. The fun part is boiling it down but once you get it boiled it's not all that fragrant.. There is a very slight "chemical smell" but not all that strong nor unpleasant.

I like the colouration of the "home brew" better than the commercial reagents out there...They are a bit too red for me..whereas doing it this way results in a deep brown colour. I think it looks better than the "forge scale black" finish everyone sees on these things....

JPH

[ThomasPowers]

It would be sort of like telling folks how their medieval eating knife was hardened following the suggestions of Theophilus in 1120 CE...

[ThomasPowers]

Theophilus around 1120 CE wrote a book called "Divers Arts" that is probably our best reference to many metal working techniques of that time---how to make/harden files and gravers, cast bells, enamel metal, etc.

In his suggestions for hardening steel he advises you to use the urine of a small red headed boy or that of a goat fed ferns for 3 days. Unfortunately I'm probably closer to the latter than the former these days...

My wife did some traditional indigo dyeing once that required a 5 gallon crock of urine to reduce the indigo dye; I was the desiginated crock filler and after the dyerun I used the remanents to quench some blades in.

There are you happy?

(It had a most amusing smell when red hot steel hits it...)

[ThomasPowers]

"Divers Arts" is out in english translation---by C.S.Smith as a Dover publication it is cheap and easy to find, (I've found about 8 copies under US$10)

On Divers Arts (ISBN: 0486237842); Hawthorne, John G.; Smith, C. S.

Note that this is not a smithing book but covers the range of medieval Studio Crafts and so includes info on iron working as a natural part of that (also: how to dye ivory, polish bone with wool cloth and wood ashes, make the lead cames for stained glass work---as well as how to make the glass as well; making bellows for organs or for melting bronze, etc...)

Note that Cyril Stanley Smith is a big name in historical metallurgy so the translation does have a good solid background when it comes to metals techniques. (R.F.Tylecote and Alan Williams are a couple of more recent ones to watch for)

Now as urine as a quenchant: he suggested a rather concentrated urine---the ferns are full of oxylates IIRC. As such it works much like a brine quench.

If you want a long list of possible quenchants "Sources for the History of the Science of Steel 1532-1786" (ISBN: 0262190419) C.S.Smith; has a large list of early suggestions including snail water and radish juice. It's a bunch of early writings on steel in translation covering the search for what makes steel different from iron and ends with someone slapping their forehead and saying "It's *CARBON*"!

[the_sandy_creek_forge]

JIMI:
The ballpein should work fine. Just remember it used to be a hammer so harden and temper accordingly.

My personal method: Find an old disc blade. Cut into chunks with a gas-axe. Cut final shape on band saw. Fold over the eye and arc weld it shut. Forge and grind the weld smooth. Thats it. I've heated the edge up to a dull red and quenched it in water and it really didn't harden it any. Disc blades are good tough steel. They won't hold a sharp edge, but they will hold enough of a chisel edge to stick in a stump at 10 or 12 yards. And they will hold that dull edge for a long time. I don't use them for chopping anyways, so an fine edge isn't really that crucial to me.

-Aaron @ the SCF (who knows he cheats with the torch, bandsaw, and welder, but hey, who's countin??)

[easilyconfused]

Methinks that may be from the fact that I am not a vegetarian (vegetables..what food eats...) but rather omnivorous so maybe the chemical make up of my urine is "different" enough to make the colouration change on the finished surface. The fun part is boiling it down but once you get it boiled it's not all that fragrant.. There is a very slight "chemical smell" but not all that strong nor unpleasant.

It is likely due to that. Herbivores have a more alkaline urine than carnivores. As well, horses have mucus glands in the bladder so their urine has mucus in it which may affect the rusting.
And the chemical smell is urea and some free nitrogen.
Whew, who knew animal physiology in vet school would help here......;)