2 piece hawk

[farmrbrnboy]

I like the design of the integral handle with the hawk instead of a hawk attached to a wooden handle. I have a lot of different sizes of 5160 steel, but not one piece is big enough to make a one piece hawk. Would it be possible to forge the head, then weld a handle on the head and grind down the weld to look like it was made from 1 piece of steel without sacrificing strength at the weld?

 

[Gahagan]

I think if you have a good weld and make sure it is annealed then you should not have a problem.

 

[Brad Lilly]

I made a couple hatchets out of one piece by cutting my blank with a sharp curve in the handle close to the head. After that I forged the handle straight, it worked out pretty good.

 

[Diamond G Knives]

Farm,
I have made hawks like you are talking about. My suggestion is to create a cross or T shaped end on your handle then cut a female receiver into your head (this will provide a mechanical as well as w welded bond). Deeply bevel both mating surfaces then run your welds in a series of weld, not all at once, cleaning well with a wire wheel or brush between each weld. It takes a bit of time as I was using a mig not a stick to do this, but the results were good. I am an NDE inspector and we inspect welds quite often, I had these X rayed as well as Ultrasonic tested. All welds passed with flying colors. In theory, a proper weld should be as strong or stronger than the surrounding metal. As mentioned above, I did an annealing cycle 2 times, then HT, then temper 3 times. One point here, if you are planning on etching the weld will show up, I tried bluing and it did the same. I ended up with a parkerized finish I was happy with.

Good Luck and God Bless
Mike