A tomahawk/Camp axe with Curly Ash WIP

[Kentucky]

The body of this one will be 1045 but we will be adding a highr carbon steel cutting bit..The haft will probably be curly ash stained with Aqua Fortis..
First we will start with a 1" square piece of 1045..You can heat treat the poll just like you would a regular hammer head..
We mark the steel cold with a chisel first..Its very,very important that you get the marked line dead nuts straight and true..Any small error here will be magnified 10x when you start hot slitting..Mark both sides, thats also important..These two pics are actually from another piece used to make a hammer poll but the marks are made the same way..

After its marked its off to a hot fire..

here we go starting the cuts.very carefully with a homemade 1 1/4" hot cut..
One side.....

Then the other....

Here we are a little farther along...One heat later...Remember working from both sides at once..That way we can meet in the middle for a straight cut..

Here we are, right in the middle just like its suppose to be..When you get this close to punching thru make sure you have a cutting plate..Dont want to jack up the face of your anvil or the edge of your slitter..Notice that cup of water..its for cooling the slitter..Three licks then cool down..

Then we go to a simple small drift just to open up the eye..You see here how everything is nice even and straight? You would know if your line wasnt started straight..That hole would be all discombobulated..

A note about drifting before we go any further..You need something sturdy to drift over if your gonna do much of this..A post vice will work but it really needs to be a good sized vise..Better yet some kind of contraption made just for the job..
Here is ours..Its made from heavy walled 8" square tubing with a large heavy base plate and a 2" thick face plate..The holes in the face plate are cut large, then we have several cover plates with different sized holes to accomadate different jobs..

Well here we start with a larger homemade drift, shaped close to final eye size..We drive it thru to about the depth shown in the picture then we take it to the hammer..

Heres the hammer swage used for drawing down the ears..I alwys did this by hand, Lisa started out doing it by hand too..Last year she had enough(which means she finally saw why we needed a hammer) and we bought this #50LG..I thought about getting a #25 but she was insistant on spending the extra $$$ and getting this nice #50..I love my wife by the way

Lisa drawing out some W1 round for strikers..You can always work on something else while your waiting on a piece to cool down etc..Dont waste the fire..

Here we have the ears started..I just think ears look so much better on an axe, instead of a straight body,,

 

[Kentucky]

Another shot of the ears being forged down..

Here is the final drift ran thru the eye up to the correct depth..these drifts are manufactured and are very close to most produced tomahawk hafts out there..We use Dunlap woodcrafts fro blanks..I cant recommed them enough..

Here we swage the body down just in front of the eye..It makes controlling the blade are easier..When your forging it that is..It generally ends up straighter it seems..It also moves mass forward away from the eye where the blade needs to be...

Well remember I said it will have a high carbon bit..Here it is started..That happens to be 1086M..Forge down a wedge shape at least 1/4" thick..The wedge needs to be thin, like a knife edge..Too thick and you'll get the dreaded COLD SHUNT

Here we split the body to accept the high carbon cutting bit..I always used this hot cut and homemade anvil vise..Lisa uses the bandsaw This one was split with the bandsaw then opened up with the hot cut..

 

[Kentucky]

Well here we go...The high carbon bit has been added to the cleft and hammered shut..Brought up to red heat and fluxed..

Two welding heats later and a clean up..This is what we have..A good solid weld..You can also see where we ground some material away from the two lead edges..The softer 1045 will forge at a faster rate than the harder 1086m enveloping the bit and metting together causing a cold shunt..now it can be ground away but you loose a lot of material..This way its gone from the start and you done have to worry about the dofter steel rolling over the edge..Just the way I do it, Ive also used a hot cut and just cut it all away but this way is simpler in the end..

Back to the LG to get the blade started..

Ive learned the hard way dont try to do too much with the power hammer..Slow down about here and start moving letal with your hand hammer..Lots more control..

Now that we have the basic profile, you can refine it a bit more and get ready to anneal it for grinding..Right here check your blade straightness..Horizontally and vertically..This is the time to do major corrections to the head straigtness..

Right about here is where I taught Lisa the importance of forging as close to shape as possible...I let her do a few pieces "close enough" (her words, not mine)..then I handled her a file and said "Make it right" Thats why they say "10 minutes at the forge will save you an hour at the vise"..its very,very true..

 

[Kentucky]

Since this hawk has a poll(hammer) its gonna get heat treated too..The poll is brought up to heat and since it is 1045 its gonna get water quenched..then its tempered back just like a hmmer..Gold with just a hint of purple creeping in the edges..
The edge only is brought up to temp and quenched in fast oil..Since the cutting edge is 1086M its gonna get tempered back to purple with blue creeping in..Axe heads obviously need to be somewhat softer than a knife..Its tempered **Twice** very slowly.You can use a propane torch or a drift heated up to red heat and placed in the eye..Just let the colors run slowly to the edge..Too fast and only the outer skin will be tempered...All of our knives are temp controlled heat treats but the axes are done by eye..Ive did so many its second nature now..Lisa has it down pretty good too..

The edge is cleaned up to see the colors run smoothly..

Heres the head all cleaned up for the etch..No seams,cold shunts or bad weld spots..Good to go..:thumbup:

We added a bit of filework as well..

 

[Kentucky]

Ok, here we go witht he famous "Gun Blue & Bleach" patina..
This si what you need..Your work piece degreased, a bottle of cold blue and a bottle of cheap bleach..

Get it blued up and let it dry a minute or two..

Here is where people do things differently..Sme etch 5 minutes,some 20 minutes..I do for an hour
You dont have to have all the scratches removed down to 1000 grit or anything like that..This aggresive etch does it for you..LOL
Now after an hour your probably gonna start insulting my ancestors, cursing that Ive ruined your knife/hawk.....Just fill a container with belach and place the head in the bleach..It will start rusting in seconds..
Out of the bleach...Looks like its been in the creek for a month

Now all you have to do is take a wire brush to it..A wire brush on a angle grinder or drill press that is..

 

[Kentucky]

Lisa did the handle in front of the TV this evening..
This haft is curly ash..It came from dunlap woodcrafts..Waynes good people to buy from..
It has been hand sanded down to 220 grit...
Please remove the dog marks from the top and bottom of the haft :grumpy: Ive never understood why you would leave the chuck teeth holes in the end of a nice piece of wood
Anywa you need some #0000 steel wool, some demin or burlap and Aqua fortis..

Start in on the handle with steel wool..

It will start to shine a bit..

Then start burnishing it wiith the demin..Rub it hard, till you feel heat coming thru..Then it will really shine..

After burnishing use a cotton ball and appy the aqua fortis in a thin even coat..It goes on like water..

Aqua fortis is a acid based stain..It attacks the wood in different way..It must be heated to activate..You can use a heat gun(like we do here) or you can heat a piece of metal in the forge and use the heat of that..Be careful not to burn the wood..
When you start heating the wood it will go thru several color changes..From yellow, to almost green(you'll start cussing mat this point again) but then it starts to turn brown..let it get adark brown then stop..

 

[Kentucky]

Ok, your haft will look like this..Dark brown and kinda fuzzy.. When you wet down the handle with aqua fortis it will likely make all the tiny loose fibers stand up(whiskers)

..
Here you start back in with the steel wool..By this point you can see the curl standing out, darker than the rest of the wood..The steel wool will remove all those wiskers..

Same as before burnish it again with the denim..this will make it shine but the best is to come..

You need boiled linseed oil..Also some kind of good wax for a finish coat..My friend Stuart Willis put me onto Johnsons paste wax. I like it a lot..

Apply several coats of boiled linseed oil..let dry in between and buff..

After the linseed oil as dry apply a good coat of wax and buff...
Ok next post will be the final done pics..

 

[Kentucky]

Ok here it is..A camp style tomahawk forged from 1045 with a welded in 1086M cutting bit..The cutting edge is 2 3/4" wide and the head is about 6 3/4" long..Edge hardened, poll heat treated and double tempered..Aged patina, Curly ash haft..
More goes into making one of these than most would think..if you have any questions Ill try my best to answer them all..Thanks and I hope this helps someone

 

[Brad Lilly]

Great job! I like the finished product.

We will get you into the November draw

 

[KnivesEmporium]

Looks great, really enjoying these WIPs.

 

[Mark Behnke]

Very good step by step with excellent pics and descriptions, Thanks

 

[Shawn Hatcher]

Very impressive WIP and beautiful hawk! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Dan Pierson]

Great WIP! I really have to get me one of those hawks...

 

[Diamond G Knives]

Very Nice! Thank you for doing the work in progress. Seeing it step by step sure helps this old brain "Get it"!

God Bless
Mike

 

[Church & Son]

AWESOME!!!!! Thanks for sharing all those great tips......

 

[cougar337]

I love seeing how things like this are made. I personally have no idea what goes into such beautiful works of functional art, it really is a cross between science and art work. Thanks so much for sharing

 

[Lagrange]

Really enjoyed this wip! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Kentucky]

Great, glad you guys liked it..