First forged hawk and railroad spike knife.

Here is my first attempt at forging. Both of these were forged at the Hammer in Regina, but the hawk was cleaned up and drifted further once i got home to fit the haft better, and the knife had the bevels hammered a bit straighter. The hawk is forged from a 24oz ball pein hammer, and the knife is forged from a rail spike with the bevels hammered in and then just cleaned up with the grinder. The haft of the hawk is a pre made one i got when i bought my drift from blacksmith depot. I sanded the wax off, carved my name in the handle in Viking Runes (not sure why really but it seemed like a good idea, and adds something visual i guess), wrapped the grip area with leather lace, and finished both the wood and leather with boiled linseed oil. The knife was heat treated and actually seems to hold a decent edge, and the hawk was edge quenched about an inch back form the cutting edge, then full quench after about 2 seconds, then drawn back just past straw with a torch on the cutting edge. Both were taken to shaving sharp. I left a few hammer marks in when finishing it out so it still looks a bit hand forged. Comments, good or bad, always welcome. Planning to start a few more hawks after the long weekend. Or maybe tomorrow if i can get away from the honey do list long enough.









Sorry for the photo quality, its off a phone and it was getting dark. Time for a new camera but havent decided what i want yet.

 

Thanks Ich. I think getting into forging is like ripping off a bandaid, just jump in and get it over with lol. I went to try it out, and came home with a forge the same weekend. I also have about a dozen hammers and two anvils now. If you dont want to get into it dont even try it out, because it seems somewhat addictive according to most guys i know. I find that its hard, hot work forging, but is still strangely relaxing. There seems to be something more natural in watching the steel take shape this way. My neighbors however may not find my forging relaxing at all haha.

 

Great work man! Was there much cleanup to do on the hawk after you forged it? It looks very clean and smooth!

Icho, he's absolutely right about the addiction. There is an unusual reaction between the cold hammer and hot steel that actually produces an addiction stronger then most drugs.

 

There really was not a lot of cleanup to do on the hawk after forging, and really not much on my bevels on the knife either. I credit the smoother bevels on the knife to Mike the Viking, since he was working near me and gave me some pointers on hammer control and force that helped a lot. The hawk was fairly clean mostly because I was pretty unsure of what I was doing so I took my time and used fairly light hammer blows after getting the rough shape. It came out not needing too much grinding, but it was a pretty slow process. Being the first time I ever put hammer to steel I was mostly concerned with not screwing it up beyond repair rather than speed lol.

 

They turned out nice.

 

nice-love hawks-what do the runes say?

 

Very nice combo!!

 

very nicely done Brandon , I'm forgin jealous !!

 

The runes on this one say Brandon on one side and Gray on the other.

Thanks for all the comments guys.