Integral Tomahawk Tutorial

[sam salvati]

When i posted the first one of these, I got alot of "how the heck did you do that?!" responses, and while I explained it well enough I thought a picture is worth a thousand words, so here's a million.

I have thought and thought on how to do this for awhile, sketching out different ideas over and over on how maybe to split, cut, fuller and squeeze out one of these from a single piece of stock, and this is what I have settled on.

First, oil up the powerhammer


I start with new drops from a spring shop, spring steel made in USA. It is 3/8" thick by 3" wide




and here is my setup. I utilize the Swage block for the upsetting, my regular anvil, my NC forge for the long work, my Mankel for the wide work, and different hammers and tongs.


and of course sledgehammer

[sam salvati]

First step is to neck down the bar and begin to forge the handle, it was quick work on the Say Mak 110 but takes a few more heats on the Anyang hehe but it does surprisingly well on such wide stock.









And there we go, 1" wide by the orignal thickness 3/8".


And then cut off from the parent bar, making sort of a lolly pop. The dimensions of the end bit are 3" wide by 3 1/2" long


Grind the end clean


And switch over to the Mankel. I wish I had a coal forge setup for this then I wouldn't have to switch.

[sam salvati]

Now we start to upset the lollipop in the swedge block.


This makes for some nasty corners so grind them clean and resume upsetting






I begin also to come at an angle into one corner, to start pushing extra material to one side, as the blade needs more material then the spike. I do this coming in at an angle onto one side.




As I am upsetting I keep going under the powerhammer and flattening things out as it will bend and mushroom over, keep it clean and inline and upsetting need not be so upsetting


Also the swedge block has slightly radius inside corners, this prevents a shearing action and also from those inside corners from getting sharp and forming cold shuts, a nice radius is good

[sam salvati]

Now is the time I wish I had a striker. Once the Hawk head is upset sufficiently I flip it over and begin to work in the beard and angles in the "neck" area. I work in with the cross peen, then flattenm, then cross peen, then flatten, then cross peen, then flatten, and keep doing this until it's the shape I want.

[sam salvati]

Now is a series of photos, I took one every heat, scroll down very fast it's like a flip book .
























And tadah!

[sam salvati]

Next day (today), I did a bit of geometry refinement, to make it a nice tough chopper, and began filework.


I draw a chalk line up from the handle to use as a guide for an artistic break in the beveling I file all around. I do this all by hand with different files, it is not as quick as the grinder but FAR more controlled, I have alot of work into it up to this point and I do not want to risk ruining it on the grinder. I find it very peaceful to file all the bevels.


I file in to start the sharp corners, then begin beveling.










And filework is mostly done. I will continue it down the handle shaft about 1/3.


And now some fun photos
the integral battle playset

[Tom Allyn]

Really beautiful work, Sam. And I agree with you about the pleasure of hand filing.

[sam salvati]

Thanks Tom. The file work on these Hawks REALLY makes them look much better too, also, the breaking in of the corners reduces the cross section for better penetration, through doors or car hoods. There is the obvious military uses as shown by RMJ forge, the guy I get inspired to do these from, but there is also a market i think in fire and rescue.

[JNewman]

Looks good Sam. I have two suggestions. Before filing it pickling it overnight in vinegar will remove the scale. Scale really kills files, and they are not cheap. I don't know how much stroke you have with the Anyang but if you made a bolster and a U shaped block to go under it, you could bend the handle and then upset the head under the power hammer.

[sam salvati]

thanks John, I thought about that bit and other ways to do it under the hammer but I just don't have enough room under the dies. I'll have to try the pickle idea, I noticed my files lost that really nice "bite" by the end of this guy .