Hawk Handle Ideas

[Turtle2]

I just got two hawks and am starting to ponder ideas for the handles. One will remain with me while the other I plan to put on my trade blanket when I attend my first rendezvous hopefully next summer.
Any ideas or pictures of what you've done or seen?
Good things, bad things, things to watch our for, etc.

-Turtle2-

 

[djnye]

just a thought--ironwood(hop-hornbeam) split green, roughed in and dried a couple months with the ends sealed, cut to length and finished. then you got a handle--or ten--that will take some real abuse. could do the same thing with hickory, ash, maple, yellow birch, red oak, tamarack, etc. processed materials, like roughed in and dried straight-grained handle blanks, go well on trade blankets, also. nice giveaways also.

take care, daniel

 

[bnail]

just a thought--ironwood(hop-hornbeam) split green, roughed in and dried a couple months with the ends sealed, cut to length and finished. then you got a handle--or ten--that will take some real abuse. could do the same thing with hickory, ash, maple, yellow birch, red oak, tamarack, etc. processed materials, like roughed in and dried straight-grained handle blanks, go well on trade blankets, also. nice giveaways also.

take care, daniel

Daniel, can you explain that process again? I'm not quite following. with the iron wood, would you turn the handle first? My brother has a bunch of iron wood saplings on his property and I''m sure I could harvestone vor the handles.
wouldsn't cutting on it be a bear?

 

[Packdog]

Here's a few pics to look at. Hawk Pictures
Click on the folder names in the window that opens.

 

[rich pierce]

Generally you want to use splits not whole rounds for hawks. What I mean is if you use a branch or small trunk and use the whole thing, it's more likely to warp, shake, and give problems than splits that are then shaped. I make hawk handles from ash, first splitting lengths to about 1.5" wide by 2" and 20" long. Let these season then straigthen them, reduce size, and shape. It's better to use planes and drawknives than turning because you want the handles oval and the head will be oval.

Maple, ash, dogwood, ironwood, hickory, locust, osage orange all make good handles. Osage orange is the hardest but dogwood and ironwood are not that far behind.

 

[dlemaster]

Turtle2
Here is one I made some time ago that has resulted in several orders. If I would make them up ahead of time I'm sure I'd have no problem selling them.
A nice curly maple haft with a horn mouthpiece

Regards, Dave

 

[djnye]

skagan,

rich pierce has got the idea. take a desireable bolt of the trunk, probably 9-10" diam. and two feet long. practice your splitting and come up with blanks abouut 1-1 1/2" square or thereabouts.
seal the endgrain if you like with latex primer, wax, etc. after a couple months take it down to size. there are many ways to do this, of which using a lath is not the most desireable. staying with the grain as long as possible leads to the strongest handles and cutting tools like draawknives, spokeshaves, crook'd knives ad the like work best here. by following the grain makes them both light and tough. using branches and whole saplings will only lead to trouble and will include the pith which is very weak and leave the most radical shrinkage around the tangential surface to cause splitting problems. they really need to be riven in 1/2, then 1/4, then split with the growthrings and reduced to dimension.

hope that helps, take care, daniel