Nose to the grindstone. Well, 'hawks to the belt grinder. :)

[Stormcrow]

I've finally got the ball rolling on everything and am working on the first batch of tomahawks since getting my new heat treatment furnace set up.  I'm first working on taking care of military orders, then will work on the rest in order.

 

Here's the first batch of five.  I plan on working on six at a time in the future, but I wanted to get these finished and to the customers ASAP.

 

 

All of them have sharpened inner beards except the second hammer poll from the left.  I know some of them are hard to see in the pic.  It was taken under fluorescent lights at night in my shop.

 

Here they are on the combination tempering/coating baking rack in the big 3 phase kiln that I use for such operations.  At this point, they've been normalized, ground, and hardened.

 

 

And the two heat treatment devices side-by-side.  The new furnace, dedicated to the hardening phase, is on the right.  The 3 phase kiln, dedicated to tempering and baking on the finish, is on the left.  The first tempering cycle is just starting and the kiln isn't up to temp yet.

 

 

The rack I use for normalizing is to the right of the furnace, with only one foot visible.  The quench tank is just out of the shot on the right and forward.

 

Also, after wrestling with the idea for a while, I've decided to name my models.  Model names for blades can get really gimmicky for some folks, but I wanted something straightforward that would be evocative of the intended use.

 

So, I chose War Chief, Wrecker, and Woodsman.

 

War Chief (combat spike) on the left, Wrecker (pry spike) on the right.

 

 

And Woodsman (hammer poll):

 

 

I have a pretty good handful of orders to get made, and should start putting up some finished pictures in the next few days, all going well.  :)

[macbruce]

Looks like you have it down to a science. Nice looking bit of kit, how much do they cost?.......... B)

[Stormcrow]

Thanks, MacBruce.  It's taken me a long time to get here.  I spent much of the summer and fall trying to convert an old kiln from knob controls to digital before finally throwing in the towel and laying down the money on the Evenheat.  And after that, a lot of time, effort, and more money building tooling to make Kydex sheaths for these suckers.  More pics soon!

 

 

off site sale links and post removed

[Frosty]

Going well?! After ONE production run you're upping the runs by 20% that's more than "going well" in my book. <grin>

 

Good looking hawks and it looks like you have the tricky part handled. What's the production time per unit? What's the coating, phosphate?

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Stormcrow]

Frosty - The production is broken up enough it's hard to put a time to it.  The individual operations move fairly quickly, though there are several points such as normalizing and tempering where there's minimal involvement on my end and I can be working on another project of the next batch.  The coating is Durabake, a gun coating product. 

 

Got this batch Durabaked today.

 

I need to build a better spraying setup, but I rigged this up as a temporary solution and it did all right.

 

 

Everyone in this batch wanted black, except one.

 

 

About to bake in the kiln.

 

 

Cooling off afterwards on the normalizing rack.

 

 

And the whole heat treatment setup.  Three phase kiln on the left used for tempering and baking on the finish, Evenheat used for hardening to the right of that, normalizing rack to the right of that, tomahawk quench oil in the black barrel, and canola oil for quenching bush swords in the square tube quench tank.

 

 

Tomorrow the plan is to get Micarta sheets sandblasted and cut up, and possibly shaped into slabs and on the 'hawks.

 

I also shot a little video showing durability in response to a handful of people who have asked me about if the top rivet hole on the short 'hawks is a weak spot.  The video is uploading and I'll post it when finished.

[Stormcrow]

Here we go, whacking on the handle with a six pound sledgehammer to check the strength of a spot a couple of folks had thought might be a weak point, then chopping a nail.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9DyU-W4tK0

 

This isn't a demolition edge, either, it's a wood chopping edge.  What can I say, I love 4140!  :)

[Stormcrow]

I got Micarta sheets sandblasted and cut into manageable sizes today. I also cut the slabs for this batch, though I haven't shaped them yet, and cut the stainless steel tube rivets. More pics tomorrow.

[Steve Sells]

these are looking top of the line,  very pro hatchets.

[Frosty]

I understand it's not much of a priority to figure production times at this stage but it's a MUST if you want a successful business. Just keeping the doors open is all about cash in cash out, only after that stage is met can you even consider YOUR wages. Unless you're doing this as a charity, you have to run it as a business.

 

I'm FAR less concerned with the rivet holes than the long open space down the center of the handle. so long as you leave the radius of the hole in solid metal around it, holes do not weaken the structural strength and round holes don't even effect the crush strength significantly. Chamfering them is an excellent move. You can buy drill bits with a counter sink and they will eliminate an operation. You'll still need to flip the blank to chamfer the opposite side but you won't be moving to another drill press or changing bits.

 

The long open space on the other hand does effect strength, especially crush strength. If these are being used in combat situations times WILL come where the guys are going to put a cheater pipe on the handle and two guys are going to use it to rip door posts off a truck or similar. If you run a row of round holes following the radius of solid meat between and around each "rule" you can lighten the hawk without compromising strength.

 

Your stress test with the sledge is a little disappointing, I expected at least one HARD blow, as in full swing two handed smackdown blow. Have you ever seen the old Buck Knife commercial where they drive a Buck sheath knife through a 1/2" bolt? I haven't seen it in several decades, Buck only made TV commercials very briefly but cutting a bolt is their trademark and was the commercial. I don't think the demonstrator used a 6lb hammer but it was certainly a single jack sledge and probably at least 4lb. More significantly he hit it HARD full over the shoulder swing and two blows to sever the bolt. THEN he cut a piece of paper with it without a catch or tear.

 

I'm not being picky but our boys are going to take these into combat and they need the best equipment we can give them. Sure nobody's going to open a tank or APC with a hawk but don't bet they aren't going to be cutting, padlocks, chains, bars, opening truck doors through the post, hacking through bricks and mortar, or who knows what. It's combat, it's test to destruction time.

 

Again, I'm not being picky I just want our boys to have the best available. You're doing an excellent thing, I think the overall design is top shelf and will serve very well indeed. The mid east is amongst other things a blade culture so having a BAD AXE blade means more than just how well it works. Both is best.

 

Your spray booth raises a thought or two. Do or can you use charged spray? I don't remember what it's called but you put a positive charge on the target and a negative charge on the paint and paint booth. The sprayed paint is drawn to the target and repelled by everything else. I wish I remember what it's called but it's industry standard in most large scale operations and many small ones. The whole target gets the same amount of spray coating, the spray doesn't cover other stuff and all the special equipment you need is ventilation.

 

It's just a thought and when you get to the point you're mass producing hawks you can put them on a conveyor line that  passes through a spray and on to the drying and curing stations without stopping.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[bikecopXXX]

Hey storm crow
Nice hawks as I have commented before...
In your video you were hoarse, which reminded me of when I made my one & only kydex sheath. I used a belt sander to shape the sheath and the stink made my eyes burn and throat raw with coughing for days. If you are doing the same, be careful of that kydex dust.

[Stormcrow]

Thanks, Steve!

 

Bikecopxxx - Nah, this is some kind of cold or allergies.  I never used to have allergies, but San Antonio has a whole bunch of mountain cedar in the hills to its north, so when the wind is right it wreaks havoc.  I've heard that a lot of folks that move to the area develop allergies they didn't have before.  So, not sure what it is on my end, but it started the day of the last cold front sweeping in from the north.  :)

 

Frosty - I don't have it down to the minute (this is the first batch with all of the major equipment set up) but I figured out what I wanted to be able to do per week and am on schedule in spite of a few short days and spending time on material processing that won't be a factor every time.

 

I noticed after putting the video together that it didn't look like I was hitting as hard as it felt like I was hitting.  I'll probably do some more with it, and will definitely be shooting video of the finalized 'hawks being thoroughly tested.  I did it before with my nylon-handled prototypes, though it was not a public video.

 

The weight reduction slots have been something of a question in my mind, and I'll likely add some cross bracing on the next batch I have cut.  It hasn't been any sort of issue with the testing I've put it through, but I don't plan on stopping testing, either.  SOG's tomahawk came out with a rabbet tang on a wooden handle, and the first time I saw it I knew it would be breaking at the their rivet holes on the first or second hard swing.  Sure enough, they had a major recall.  They still use the rabbet tang design and get away with it by using fiberglass-reinforced nylon handles, but it's still a bad design and will still break at the same point with enough force (there's YouTube video of this happening).  Yet it's the most commonly carried 'hawk by our servicemen because it's cheap and available and looks kewl.  SOG didn't do the kind of testing they needed to in order to sell a product with a soldier's life in the balance, in my opinion.  I feel like I have or I wouldn't be selling it, but I will continue to seek improvements.

 

You're talking about powdercoating.  The finish is an area where I will be continuing to look into if it can be improved.  The Durabake has done well, but I'll see what else is on the market that might do better.  There's a big sandblasting and coating business just down the road from me and they do powdercoating, I think.  I'll do a little research and see if it makes sense for this application.  Any coating will take damage with the kind of usage these 'hawks are intended to withstand.  I was surprised at how well the Krylon on a couple of the prototypes held up.

[Stormcrow]

It was a short day, but I got some good things done.

 

Micarta sheets after sandblasting and before being cut up on my table saw.  The bottom sheet with the cutouts is 1/4" mild steel, used to make some tooling.

 

 

After cutting into handle slabs, I used my handle template to drill the rivet holes.

 

 

There are always little tricks to any process.  After a while, I figured out how to drill the holes without having to shift the C-clamps each time, and drilled two slabs at once.

 

 

Then I countersunk the holes.

 

 

Then I bolted the handle template to the individual slabs and used a trim bit on a router to trim, obviously.  :)

 

 

Followed by a 45 degree bevel using the other router.

 

 

 

The handle template is built so that the Micarta is trimmed leaving the butt of the tang exposed, providing an extra impact surface and protecting the Micaarta from damage if someone should do something like, oh, throw the darn thing.

 

 

Tomorrow I'll round the edges of the bevels, rivet the handles on, and sharpen, all going well.  If I pop my coat tails, I could probably do some sheaths too.

[Stormcrow]

This batch has all been finished up and are on their way to their respective customers.  Here's a brief glance as they were waiting for sheaths to be built:

 

 

I'll post the finished pics in their own threads.  I don't plan to document all the batches of 'hawks like I did this one, but I wanted to show some of the steps along the way.

 

Now onto the next batch!

 

 

This is a big one as there are two double orders and one of the long Wreckers is going to be a demonstration model for myself.  About half of the grinding is already done.  This pic shows them all post-normalizing.

[Elemental Metal Creations]

Stormcrow, these are awesome! When I showed my wife she said make me one, OK if I borrow the basic design? 

[petere76]

Storm Crow,

 

A great design, strong follow through and an excellent product. You honor the trade.

 

Peter  

[Stormcrow]

Elemental Ironworks - There's only so much you can do with a tomahawk design.  That being said, I'd rather you took it for inspiration rather than do a direct copy.  Which sounds like that's what you're wanting to do anyway.  :)  Take a crack at it.

 

Peter - Thanks!

[Elemental Metal Creations]

I will take pictures and document it. I am waiting for her to draw up just what she wants and then get started on it.