Seeing if I still can

Raymond Richard

Raymond Richard

Forum Owner & Moderator
Its been several years since I made a tomahawk and I used a tomahawk drift to establish the eye. Tomahawks and small axes are something that really bothers my old bones but I thought I'd give it a try and at the sametime set no time limits. I'd just forge when I felt like it. 4 days ago I started this project using simple hand held hammer's and my old stand by Godzilla. Later I did use my drill press to make a slot for the eye and I also used it to drill out the bowl since I'm making a spontone pipe tomahawk. I've taken a bunch of photo's and thought I would make a "WIP" out of it if there is any interest. Here's a few photo's I took along the way.

Several years ago I picked up an old octagon digging bar at a local military surplus store that turned out to be 1050 that was 1 1/4" in diameter. I wasn't sure about what I would need for a length so I cut it at 5 1/2" which turned out to be a good guess.
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The first heat I used Godzilla to segregate a 2 1/2" piece of steel that I would later forged into the bit or blade of this hawk.
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Just some banging going on in this photo.
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These next two photo's are what I came up with. I'd just established the eye.
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I went ahead and added a little corn with me holding my Dollar Store find of Old Man Cream.
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I'm going to start showing what I ended up with after I used Godzilla the first time. What I end up doing is once I have the first notch established is to start spinning the steel as I'm hammering it. I now have segregated this piece of steel and this will end up being the blade eventually.
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I went back into Godzilla and added a couple more notches but this time I did not spin the steel, I just kept it flat.
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The next step I do is to hammer these notches on the face of the anvil. The hammer I use for most the heaver forging is a 6 pound sledge.
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Here's a picture of what I ended up with.
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Now I'm back on Godzilla pretty much repeating what I just got done doing.
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After repeating the steps of my previous post 3 or 4 times I end up with the bar looking like this.
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From this rectangular shape I'll start shaping it to a spear shape without any bevels for now.
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I went and used Godzilla and put in another notch to segregate the bowl from the pole.
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Here's a vertical view of what I have done to this point.
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Next step will be making the slot for the eye and drilling out the bowl. I'll show that in another post.
 
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After I get to this stage of the forging I'll stop and do the machining work. I could also do it before the forging but I've found out over time that things like this get accidentally hit or moved when I'm doing the first amount of forging so I usually want before I do it. I'm using a floor mount $300.00 drill press I got from Lowes. Not the best but it feels my needs. I'm also using a cross vise I purchased from Harbor Freight. Again not the best but they do work for what I need them for. I'm basically using this set up now like you would use a milling machine even though you've probably heard not to do this. I'll talk more about that later. Its also the same procedure I use to rough slot my guards except I'm using smaller burrs.

I start out by drilling a series of 1/4" holes in line down the center of the steel. Don't forget to slow the drill press down to about half speed. In this case slower is better. After these holes are drilled I'll set the drill press to fast, chuck up a 1/4" solid carbide burr and start cleaning out the web that was left from drilling. While I'm doing that I'm adding very little pressure either forward or backwards and at the same time I'm working the burr up and down. With the shortness of the first bit I'll do one side and then turn it over and do the other side.
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Once I have the slot nice and clean I'll switch to a larger carbide bit and do pretty much the same thing until the sides are nice and even. I had mentioned earlier that I had wished I had made the slot longer. Pretty much the ideal slot size should be around 5/16" X 1 1/2" long.
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The main reason I didn't forge the bevels on the blade was I wanted it flat for when I start drilling out the bowl. I'll first drill a smoke and pilot hole. Now this hole has to end up in the slot I just made.
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Once I have the pilot hole drilled in this case I chucked up a 7/8" drill bit and set the speed to slow. This drill bit can be what ever size you want depending on the size of your steel. This will be a pretty good size bowl. A manly smoke.
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Once I have the machine work done I'll start forging in the bevels.
 
I'm going to start forging in the bevels now. What I will be doing is the same thing that you would for a dagger or a double beveled sword. To achieve a pronounced spine you forge only on half the blade at a time. In this first picture I am using the cross peen part of the hammer. Its going to produce a bunch of deep marks that will later be forged out with the flat part of the hammer in latter heats. I'll go ahead and do this half of the blade and when I'm done with that half I'll roll the blade over 180 degrees and do the same thing on the other half.
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In this photo I'm using the flat part of the hammer to smooth out the dents from the cross peen. Once that half is done I'll roll the blade over again and do the other side. I'll repeat this sequence several times.
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In this photo I'm standing on the other side of the anvil and I'm now hammering on the opposite side of the two halves that I started out hammering. Hope that makes sense to you.
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Here's what it looks like once I got done and the blade cooled off.
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The next step I do will be drifting the eye.
 
Wow Ray, I believe you still got it. Really appreciate you sharing this with us. Never having forged before I gotta believe, at our age, those hammers get real heavy after a while.
 
Denny Eller said:
Wow Ray, I believe you still got it. Really appreciate you sharing this with us. Never having forged before I gotta believe, at our age, those hammers get real heavy after a while.
Click to expand...

Denny, The main reason I'm doing this now is if I wait any longer there's a chance I can't do it. Even though there are mostly stock removal makers here on this forum there's a chance someday that they might want to start forging. I ground mostly when I first started making until I figured the hammers out. As far as I know there really isn't much information on doing tomahawks and when I get done there will be a little bit more. Maybe this will help someone in the future.
 
Thank you Ray for that that thought and WIP! I hope to resume forging sometime this
year or next and will look back at these picture when I get enough strength and control
to do a hawk.
 
This is going to be the section on drifting the eye. I do things quite a bit differently since I first started making tomahawks. It use to be I would always do the eye first and then do the rest of the forging. I have since learned to wait on the eye since it tends to get in the way of the hammer and usually has to be redone so I save doing the eye till the very last. Now remember I have got the slot for the eye already made. The only bad thing was with this hawk I went from memory and I made the slot a 1/4" shorter than I should have. For most per made hawk handles you want to start with a slot that is 1 3/8" X at least a 1/4" wide. Also when working on drifting the eye you want to have the steel close to welding heat. The first thing I will do when drifting the eye is I open up the slot so you can get the tomahawk drift in. In this case I'm using a round tapered drift. This usually takes a couple heats but if you make the slot the right size you should be able to do it in one heat.
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Once you have opened up the slot insert the drift. Now the drift is tear drop shaped and it is important that the pointed end of the drift goes to the front of the hawk. I usually start drifting from the top but at this stage it really doesn't matter cause your going to do this a few times before you have established the finished eye. Once you drift from the top reheat the steel and the next heat drift from the bottom. This helps to open up the eye when you do this. Also it is a good idea to oil the drift to prevent it from sticking. Old crank case oil will work fine.
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Remember you really need to smack the drift good. Also when you start getting the eye to its final size you want to finish by driving the drift from the top only. You can mark the drift where you want it to stop. Now in my case on this hawk I had to do the eye with 3 different forging sessions before I got the eye the right size. Now if I had made the slot right the right size from the start it should have been done with just one forging session.
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This is just a shot of the drift showing I need to go much deeper. Another thing I forgot to mention is its best to have some type of backer when you do the drifting. Something with a hole in it that is just a little bit larger than the finished eye.
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As far as determining how large to make the slot a good way to find out if your using pre made handles is to take a wire and wrap it around the handle where you want the eye to stop. Mark the wire and measure it and it will tell you how large to make the slot. Just make the slot a little under that measurement.
 
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I had taken a couple days off to head down to Placerville, California for a mini reunion and retirement celebration for a sister in law. Time to concentrate on getting this hawk done and also get things together for the OKCA Show this weekend. This will be the last progress bit on this hawk until I have it done.

The next thing I started working on is the bowl for the pipe part of this hawk. First thing I did was use chainsaw files to start a groove.
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After the groove was established the bulk of the shaping was done free hand on the grinder.
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Here's a shot of the bowl after using the grinder.
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After the bowl was roughed shaped on the grinder I used my Foredom and carbide burrs to do the final shaping.
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Hopefully in another day or two I'll have pictures of the final product.
 
Mr. Ray. Still Got It? It just lurks in there waiting, you can't kill it. Hammers get heavier, my forging hammer is now 3# instead of 4#, and I'm really liking a 32 oz. ball pein. I have to hit it more times but I call that refining the edge. And I also let the iron "soak" a little longer between beating spurts, good for it. Heatin' and Beatin' is in you blood. The best grinder or mill is still just a grinder or mill, no heart. Forged blades have souls, and I personally thank your aching shoulder for doing this......Randy
 
I goter done at least for now. I may add a few turks head knots eventually but for right now I'm feeling pretty burnt out. The haft measures 21" and it has stag mouth piece and also a piece of stag for the cleanout plug at the top of the haft. The head measures 10 1/2" form the tip to the end of the bowl. The blade is 6" and is 2 3/8" wide at its widest part.

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