Frozenthunderbolt Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 One of my fun little side projects has been playing with making a couple of light little frontier style hawks with a wrapped tapered eye.I know that there are those that will say that the wrapped eye isn't as strong as a forge welded or drifted one. They are right, but sadly forge-welding is currently beyond the capabilities of my current forge, and my current skill level. Thankfully, frontier style hawk is made with a tapered eye so it slides up the handle from the bottom, and locks in place as the handle swells towards the head.My concept is that with a wrapped eye, spring tempered, this increases the adaptability to different handle sizes anyway by my way of thinking. I started by cutting some rough bits of leaf-spring (hence my disinclination to put a finer finish on these two pieces). I then tried two different tacks with the two pieces;1. I tried wrapping the eye first and then disrupting the steel to thicken up the steel.2. I reversed the order - this lead to a better blade, though I achieved a better eye on the first one. I tried differential quenching on these blades - dipped 2-3 cm of the edge in my oil quench until it stopped bubbling, pulled from the oil until the heat crept in and blackened the oil and then re-dipped the entire head until cool.Result? Sharpened the better head (than I put a 45cmish handle on) cut through 15 cm of seasoned, sound olive wood without chipping, rolling or appreciably blunting. Happy with that. Here are the pictures of the rough forged bits: Shined up a bit on the angle grinder: Handle (hand cut hickory) on the more robust of the two heads (Note: Not yet finished with boiled linseed oil, but it will be). In the end I'm pretty happy with the second more robust one that I have hafted; reminds me a bit of a franchiska but lacking the up-swept tip.I cut through about 15cm of 5 year seasoned olive with this one with no blade damage.I worked on another two of these yesterday with square ends on the wrap and drawn out (not quite enough - eyes are a shade to small) from shorter stock.Interestingly, I experimented with water quenching the blade edge on one and succeed in getting my first ever crack! Now I know with my eyes as well as my brain why you only quench leaf-sping in oil! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dickb Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 Never had a crack on anything I quenched in oil (just plain used engine oil) . I am using 1084, 1095 , automobile leaf and coil springs.But I did crack a couple of pieces edge quenching in water. It's disappointing to crack a piece after putting a lot of work into it so I am sticking to oil quenching. I have read a few articles about using clay or Rutland black furnace cement to differential heat treat a blade. I am going to try that on some blades where I am not satisfied with the shape as forged. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Worshipdrummer Posted December 1, 2015 Share Posted December 1, 2015 I have thought of trying something like this because I lack a hawk drift right now. I wondered about the wrapped handle eye but I had a thought to punch a small hole in the wrapped section and install a nail into the handle to "set" it firmly on the handle. You have inspired me I think I will give it a try this weekend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frozenthunderbolt Posted December 2, 2015 Author Share Posted December 2, 2015 Glad to hear it Worshipdrummer got a few more I've made since, just need a new digital camera to take photos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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