Hi Bobby. thanks for the interest. I will be donating that hawk to our club's state archery shoot this weekend to raise funds for the club so that is the only pic I have of it. I cut a piece of mild steel about 11" long, heated and folded back on itself. When I got the ends lined up I hammered it down on the drift to form the eye. When I was happy with that I forge welded the mild steel together starting at the eye and working forward. I had a little trouble keeping the bit in place so I mig welded it to one side then forge welded it in. Then drew out the bit a little and down to form the beard. Then after normalizing it I ground it to shape, heat treated it. I had hoped that the heat treat and temper would give it a nice even dark finish but it was more spotty that I liked to I went back to the grinder with a 220 belt and got it back to mostly clean metal then cold blued it. I did attack a 2x4 with it after sharpening and the 2x4 didn't have a chance!! The edge held pretty well considering the temper cycles. It was easy enough to resharpen with a file so I think maybe I'll lower the temper heat a little and get a harder bit on the next one. I'll have to keep playing with the process until I'm happy with the results and I have a tough edge that holds up and still be easy enough to sharpen.
Hope that helps!
Topic: My first hawk (Read 865 times)
