I have been wanting to make a falcon hood out of steel for awhile now. I worked on it a little yesterday and a little more today. The following is how I did it. The sheet metal is salvaged from a 1940's era sheet metal kitchen cabinet. The metal is very thin and I had a heck of a time welding it without burning the thing up, Oxy/Acetylene was the best method for me.

Why not braze it?

Interesting choice of something to make. Looks cool. "The falcon in the iron hood"  I thought they used leather.

going to make the rest of the falcon?

My first thought was a hood for a ford falcon; but this is neater.

Thomas, I will give that a try on similar sheet metal scrapes. I hope you have solved my concern.

Das, "going to make the rest of the falcon?" I don't know, I have given doing so some passing thought. I am going to finish the hood and see where it takes me. I will post on this thread.

Today I began building the topknot for the falcon hood. I used two nuts welded atop each other and the butt of a butter knife handle. I decided to bolt the topknot to the hood instead of welding as the sheet metal is so thin.

I still have a few feather tufts to add.

I like the progress. One possibility when dealing with a situation like that when you have access is to drill the hole in the hood then plug weld the piece on concentrating the welding to the center of the thicker piece then moving out. A lot of times I do a little start stop on the mig to control heat a bit. But honestly I've used bolting methods where I can and where is needed. Nice use of the butter knife handle. 

Excited to see the final piece. 

Today I installed two of the three feather tufts. I didn't have enough spoon handles so I'll have to wait to do the third.

Awe man, I got a whole box of em in my garage haha. Looking good. Hit up a goodwill or something. They should have lots. 

I'll stop by this afternoon or tomorrow. I live 30 miles from goodwill but I ran out of oxygen and need to replace that tank so I may end up in town.

 

Yes, those shops are great for cutlery supplies. You can buy bundles of knives, spoons etc for a couple of dollars. Here we call them 'op shops'.

Looks cold where you are, mate. If that's snow outside your window.

Hi ausfire, yes that's snow out the window but it's not as cold as it looks, about mid 40's f.

Today I was able to finish the falcon hood. I added the final feather tuft, the piping and the braces.

Very cool piece. Tho if your up for it I really could see a falcon sculpture there.  over all very cool idea and execution. 

I made a little more progress on the hood today...I gotta tell say, you folks who work metal cold are some kind of smart...gotta hand it to ya.

Wow Coldironkilz it's looking really cool. I'll be honest up till this point I hadn't really even looked up a falcon hood because I had a little image somewhere in the back of my mind of one.  Awesome job. On looking I noticed falcon beaks are a lil more curved at the end. I'm just saying, not nitpicking I think it's great and you should also make the whole bird. 

 

Daswulf, I am really glad you picked up on my error, in fact the bill looks more like the bill of a raven than a hawk. I am going to try a repair so to speak rather that a complete rebuild of the bill. The bill is not yet permanently installed (simply wedged into place) and the cere (a waxy, fleshy covering at the base of the upper beak in some birds) not yet applied.