Stophel
75 Cal.
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2005
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In the interests of seeing what I could come up with to make a reasonable facsimile of the common wrap-eye, poll-less, "tomahawk" type 18th century belt axe, for minimal cash outlay, I did this little project.
There is NOTHING out there readily available that really looks like an 18th century axe as-is. Some come sort of close, but require modification (and cost considerably more). My H&B Forge throwing hawk makes a fine reproduction.. once the flare is cut off the top of the bit and other work done to it. The "throwing hawks" are designed to "stick" in every direction as much as possible, so the bits flare out quite a lot, which just isn't seen on period axes. 18th century bits are long, straight, with very little flare. One can take one of the cheap India/Pakistan hand forged "tomahawks", and grind it to a better shape, but the supply of these seems to be drying up. I also have no idea as to their quality.
Enter the Cold Steel Frontier Hawk. This thing is $35. Available virtually everywhere. They sell zillions of 'em. They're drop forged (meaning forged in one stroke in a set of dies) in Taiwan (anti-communist, nationalist China), 1055 steel. This is a medium carbon steel, tough, but won't ever get super hard. By filing the edge, I'll guess that the hardness of the bit is about Rc50, more or less. It ain't a Kelly Flint Edge, but it doesn't need to be.
Now, right off, there's a couple things that you'll never be able to fix about it. The eye height is pretty narrow. If it was about a quarter inch taller, that would be great. Also, the eye shape. It's a long oval teardrop-ish shape. Which makes for a nicer shaped handle, but 250 years ago, the common eye for this type of axe was nearly round. But, nothing you can do about that, unless you forge it out to a different shape, but if you can do that, you don't need me telling you how to modify a cheap Cold Steel axe.
Ok, first is the stupid set screw. Take it out and toss it away. It's metric, of course... ugh. The thread is close enough to a 12-28 that I was able to thread a screw in. The object is to make a plug. I fitted the plug, and silver soldered (meaning real silver solder.. not that "silver bearing" solder) in place on the inside, and peened it out on the outside and filed it all flush. It now is nearly invisible. If you can weld (I CANNOT, no matter how much I have tried), plugging the hole would be an even easier task.
The handle also has to be properly fitted. The one that came on this particular axe was rather undersized. I had another one from another project, and that's what's on it now. I could have fitted the head a bit further up on the flare, which would have filled up the eye better, but, doing so would have exposed the hole in the wood made where the factory cranked down the stupid set screw. If starting with a new handle, you could do a better job. But, even with a couple small gaps, it's TIGHT, and it ain't goin' nowhere.
Now the head shape. Some of the flare on the bottom of the bit was cut off with a Dremel tool (get you some of the cut off wheels that use the snap-lock mandrel. Those things are freakin' awesome! Much better than the standard type). Then I ground and filed it all smooth, and reshaped the "notch" on the bottom of the bit and filed a little bead shape, just because. The "fillet" area where the bit joins the eye needs attention. It's too full, and needs to be ground down thinner to make it look at least a little more like a hand forged axe. Just grind the sides down and file it up. This makes a world of difference in how it looks. You can see in the above picture the difference from the original shape. That's about it. I evened up the finish by wrapping the head with a paper towel and soaking it with bleach, so now there is an overall etchy surface, followed by cold blueing.
It actually came out better than I expected, and I really like the thing. Does it really look like a hand forged 18th century axe? No, of course not. But it works like one, and looks good enough from 20 feet away, and I think it makes a good reasonable facsimile for those not able to spend $100 or more on a real hand forged axe.
There is NOTHING out there readily available that really looks like an 18th century axe as-is. Some come sort of close, but require modification (and cost considerably more). My H&B Forge throwing hawk makes a fine reproduction.. once the flare is cut off the top of the bit and other work done to it. The "throwing hawks" are designed to "stick" in every direction as much as possible, so the bits flare out quite a lot, which just isn't seen on period axes. 18th century bits are long, straight, with very little flare. One can take one of the cheap India/Pakistan hand forged "tomahawks", and grind it to a better shape, but the supply of these seems to be drying up. I also have no idea as to their quality.
Enter the Cold Steel Frontier Hawk. This thing is $35. Available virtually everywhere. They sell zillions of 'em. They're drop forged (meaning forged in one stroke in a set of dies) in Taiwan (anti-communist, nationalist China), 1055 steel. This is a medium carbon steel, tough, but won't ever get super hard. By filing the edge, I'll guess that the hardness of the bit is about Rc50, more or less. It ain't a Kelly Flint Edge, but it doesn't need to be.
Now, right off, there's a couple things that you'll never be able to fix about it. The eye height is pretty narrow. If it was about a quarter inch taller, that would be great. Also, the eye shape. It's a long oval teardrop-ish shape. Which makes for a nicer shaped handle, but 250 years ago, the common eye for this type of axe was nearly round. But, nothing you can do about that, unless you forge it out to a different shape, but if you can do that, you don't need me telling you how to modify a cheap Cold Steel axe.
Ok, first is the stupid set screw. Take it out and toss it away. It's metric, of course... ugh. The thread is close enough to a 12-28 that I was able to thread a screw in. The object is to make a plug. I fitted the plug, and silver soldered (meaning real silver solder.. not that "silver bearing" solder) in place on the inside, and peened it out on the outside and filed it all flush. It now is nearly invisible. If you can weld (I CANNOT, no matter how much I have tried), plugging the hole would be an even easier task.
The handle also has to be properly fitted. The one that came on this particular axe was rather undersized. I had another one from another project, and that's what's on it now. I could have fitted the head a bit further up on the flare, which would have filled up the eye better, but, doing so would have exposed the hole in the wood made where the factory cranked down the stupid set screw. If starting with a new handle, you could do a better job. But, even with a couple small gaps, it's TIGHT, and it ain't goin' nowhere.
Now the head shape. Some of the flare on the bottom of the bit was cut off with a Dremel tool (get you some of the cut off wheels that use the snap-lock mandrel. Those things are freakin' awesome! Much better than the standard type). Then I ground and filed it all smooth, and reshaped the "notch" on the bottom of the bit and filed a little bead shape, just because. The "fillet" area where the bit joins the eye needs attention. It's too full, and needs to be ground down thinner to make it look at least a little more like a hand forged axe. Just grind the sides down and file it up. This makes a world of difference in how it looks. You can see in the above picture the difference from the original shape. That's about it. I evened up the finish by wrapping the head with a paper towel and soaking it with bleach, so now there is an overall etchy surface, followed by cold blueing.
It actually came out better than I expected, and I really like the thing. Does it really look like a hand forged 18th century axe? No, of course not. But it works like one, and looks good enough from 20 feet away, and I think it makes a good reasonable facsimile for those not able to spend $100 or more on a real hand forged axe.
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