Tomahawk

[lazyassforge]

I was experimenting with posting on the new forum(Thank You Papaw!) and decided I would post a couple pictures of some tomahawks I have made from farrier's hoof rasps.

Bill D.

[lazyassforge]

Ok! I got the pictures to load and tried resizing them 2 different ways. This isn't as hard as I was worried it might be!

BD

[lzenglish]

Beautiful Job Bill! I like the way you left the file teeth on around the neck! Ok, what is the proper name for "The Neck" Lol ? Also, those were some very large files, were they not?

edit: Would it be the "EYE"?

Wayne

[64longstep/Brian]

Nice Tomahawks... Glad you made it over to the new site...

[Papaw]

I don't know why, but suddenly I feel the need for one of those!
Any for sale?

[Nolatoolguy]

WELL BUILT, nice craftsmanship.

May I ask roughly how long it takes you to make one?

[rusty]

Yea ,I like the teeh also, gives it nice decoration..
Tho I can't imaging what a pain it must have been
to hammer out the teeth on the blade area...

Good file steel, well hammered...should be able to
split volkswagons in half with a single blow...


OK, so here's the chicken and the egg question.

Did you look at the rasps and go 'hmm what can I make out of those?'
Or decide to make a tomahawk and go 'What do I have lying around?'

[lazyassforge]

First of all thanks to all for the compliments!

Izenglish, Yes, it is the eye of the hawk.

Longstep, I have been out of pocket and a little under the weather. Glad to see the web site back up!

Papaw, Hmm?????

Nolatoolguy, About 45 minutes to an hour to hammer it out by hand (using the power hammer does shave a little time off that) Another 30 minutes or so to clean it up with the grinder and 1 to 3 days to get a good rust finish onto one.

Rusty, It makes a pretty tough little hawk! We were playing with making a hawk with some 1/4" X 1-1/2" flat stock and using a piece of file for the bit when we decided to use a rasp for all of the hawk. I had seen a hawk made from a rasp before then, so I didnt dream it up but I fooled around with some rasps until I had figured out a method that suited me!

[keykeeper]

Slick work there Bill. Those are purdy to look at.

I have the drift for the eye for those, just haven't made any yet.

Farrier's rasps are some nice stuff to work with. I made a smaller scale froe from one that turned out pretty nice. Stuck my first forge weld on the eye for that one!

Sure wish I had my shop up and running right now.....

[Dustin21]

I don't know why, but suddenly I feel the need for one of those!
Any for sale?

me and papaw are thinking alike  is that a bad thing ?

[RLT]

Very bad thing since I was thinking the same.

[scottg]

Nice work!
Would you care to elaborate on the finish?
yours Scott

[lazyassforge]

Scott,

All I do on the hawks is clean them with a grinder and flap wheel. Sometimes I will use vinegar to remove scale from pits and areas that I cant get to with the sander. Then I spray them with bleach and peroxide which will rust them fairly quickly depending on the temp. and the humidity. I may repeat several times depending on how I want them to come out. I brush off the surface rust to see how the steel itself looks. When it suits me I will rinse with plenty of water to stop the rust and oil or wax to protect.

Sometimes if it is really hot and low humidity I will put them in a "rust box", just a plastic box with a sealable lid half full of saw dust from the table saw or planer wet down with bleach and peroxide. cover the hawk with the wet sawdust. This makes a mottled finish that I like.

Hope this helps, Bill D.

[Branson]

Those 'hawks are really beautiful.  I love the finish on the blades -- thanks for explaining how you got it.  And the file teeth
around the eye!  Great detail!

[Neals]

A work of art.