Pipe Tomahawk Bands?

[crockett]

We were talking a while back on the strength of the handle on a pipe hawk- since it has a hole in the middle. I noticed some handles had bands. I was wondering if they were purely for appearance or whether the bands actually had a function- prevent the handle from splitting. How were such bands put on the handle and did they add anything to the strength?

 

[LaBonte]

As far as I can tell from the originals I've examined they were purely decorative. Some were cast pewter others were of thin brass or silver flat stock and were wrapped and either pinned in place when inlet as done on a gunstock or sometimes pre-soldered and slipped on over the handle and pinned to hold in place.
This book explains the how-to of poured pewter bands and much more:
Instructions & Hints for Assembling Pipe Tomahawks, Including: Secrets of Drilling Handles, Pouring Pewter Inlays, Filing & Finishing, Etc by Gerald and Alan Gutchess

While there were many fancy handles of woods such as maple (the Hawken shop in St Louis even made some) with a drilled holes of 1.8-3/16", but many if not most used handles made from woods such as ash which has a pithy core that was either drilled or burned out and usually around 1/8" diameter. The wood grain is thus in the round and makes for a very strong handle despite the small hole up the middle. Also handle and head sizes could vary from the early French smoak axes with small light weight heads of often no more than 1 lb and with handles in the .75" range up to the later English and American made ones with heads that weighed from 1.5 to 2.5 pounds and with handles 1" to 1.5" in diameter

 

[matt denison]

Chuck, you are a wealth of knowledge and useful information.

I have tried pouring pewter bands and failed miserably. Anybody care to share how it's done?

 

[LaBonte]

Get the Gutchess book - it explains it in detail R.E Davis has it and it's not expensive. There is also a video by Gutchess on Pipe hawks that's a good one for the history.

One trick when pouring pewter is to coat the are with graphite - I use soft art pencils. When pouring around the head warm it some with - I heat the blade and let the heat flow into the eye area.

Making bands and caps is also pretty easy if you are good at soldering. Somewhere I have pics of how-to make the cap. Also I generally use brass, copper, or Sterling - nickel aka German Silver was used in the later periods but I hate working with it since even when annealed it's much stiffer than the other appropriate metals - love Sterling but at todays prices..... :shocked2:
If interested I'll look them up and make a thread - I also have some pics on how I put in the leather gasket for the head.

 

[LaBonte]

Matt - since you live in the west and if you want to use native woods look for vine maple and willow. Both are springy even when dry and have somewhat of a pithy center so the hole can be burnt (tedious!) or drilled and the drill "usually" follows the pith.

For simplicities sale I usually get my handles from Dunlaps - fancy maple and curly ash are both available and the hole is pre-drilled.

 

[LRB]

Chuck, or any that are interested, check here for silver. With most offerings, they will sell you only the amount you need. Very little waste.

http://hauserandmiller.com/fab/index.html

 

[crockett]

Thanks on the bands. I always figured they were decorative but that was an assumption, then when the strength issue on pipe hawks came up- I got to wondering on it.

 

[LaBonte]

Chuck, or any that are interested, check here for silver. With most offerings, they will sell you only the amount you need. Very little waste.

http://hauserandmiller.com/fab/index.html[/quote]

Thanks for the link Wick - I generally get mine from Indian Jewelry Supply in Gallup, NM - minimum orders are about the right amount and I usually get the next day and shipping is usually cheaper - goo folks to work with.