I finished this one up this weekend. Forged out of a piece of railroad anchor, the handle is made from an old baseball bat. It ended up kinda plain Jane but feels nice in the hand.

Nice lines all around, I like it. What is the handle length?

What is railroad anchor? How did you harden and temper? Symmetry is excellent. Did you use swage or die?

Railroad anchor is a piece of spring steel hammered onto the bottom of the rails. It is to keep the rail from sliding as it hits the railroad tie.

sort of 3 looking things here in the USA, usually about 1050 to 1060 steel (so about double the carbon content of a RR spike and I see them at the scrap yards with the spikes)

looks great, nice shape. good choice for the haft...all repurposed!

 my only concern would be the eye is round, would it be prone to turn on the haft when you start to use it.

Great looking photos by the way!

Be easy enough to squish the eye a bit on the next one...

That came out pretty darn sweet!  Love all of it except for that round eye.   

Much better choice than using a railroad spike, in my opinion.

There are two different types of rail anchors on the right hand side of this photo: the squiggly "3" shape and the fat "J" shape.

20 hours ago, TwistedCustoms said:

What is the handle length?

The handle is about 20 inches.

19 hours ago, David R. said:

What is railroad anchor? How did you harden and temper? Symmetry is excellent. Did you use swage or die?

As others have said rail anchors range from about 1040-1060 depending on the manufacturer. This one was triple normalized, hardened in canola oil, and triple tempered at 425. The body was drawn back to spring temper with a propane torch. No dies or swages used, just some grinding in between forging steps.

In defense of round eyes, viking axes were commonly made with round eyes, so were trade axes. They won't turn on the haft if you hang them right and they're strong and easy to rehang in the field. They're not great for splitting though.

Beautiful lines on both the axe and handle - I like the square poll on the back.

You did a very good job!

That definitely qualifies as beautiful work.  The symmetry is perfect and I like the size for general tinkering in the woods.  Maybe the handle another foot longer and you'd have a nice walking cane like they use in the Alps.

On November 13, 2015 at 4:36 PM, navasky said:

The handle is about 20 inches.

As others have said rail anchors range from about 1040-1060 depending on the manufacturer. This one was triple normalized, hardened in canola oil, and triple tempered at 425. The body was drawn back to spring temper with a propane torch. No dies or swages used, just some grinding in between forging steps.

In defense of round eyes, viking axes were commonly made with round eyes, so were trade axes. They won't turn on the haft if you hang them right and they're strong and easy to rehang in the field. They're not great for splitting though.

I make round eye all the time, they don`t spin or turn as you might expect. i have lots of these, I`ll be trying them, i love the simplicity

Some beautiful things are still make in Oakland! Very inspirational! Have you used it yet?

On 3/18/2016 at 10:14 AM, WAGONJON said:

Some beautiful things are still make in Oakland! Very inspirational! Have you used it yet?

Yup it's been on a couple backpacking trips with me. Works great and even splits wood a little better than expected.

Very nice hawk clean lines. Does it throw well?

On 4/15/2016 at 6:40 PM, Jonah k said:

Very nice hawk clean lines. Does it throw well?

Thanks. I don't plan to find out since I've spent too much time on the handle at this point to risk breaking it with a bad throw.

Fair enough. I need to replace my handle soon, I make lots of bad throws

On ‎4‎/‎20‎/‎2016 at 5:47 PM, navasky said:

Thanks. I don't plan to find out since I've spent too much time on the handle at this point to risk breaking it with a bad throw.

Your a wise man, very nice job.

 

Darrell