1st try at camp hawk

[KHALVERSON]

i decided that i needed to try and make a small camp hawk for pounding tentstakes  spliting kindling and pelvic bones
so here is my first try at a hammer poll hawk
forged from a high carbon rail road spike
length is 7 1/2 from poll to edge
edge is right at 2.0 in
i hot cut and drifted out the handle hole
comments and critics are welcome
kevin
 
 
 

[wv lungbuster]

Thats awesome, does it have enough weight to split.

[kuch]

kevin ,that's a real good job.my first(and only i might and) was crooked and off center.I fiddled for an hour trying to true up the eye with the blade.lots of expletives. yours is very good.chad

[Scott Roush]

man I can't wait to do that kind of stuff. very nice. railroad spikes... So what is the deal with those? Are most high carbon? I'm going to the scrap yard next week to look for anvil material and was thinking about trying to get some rail road spikes too....  

I've been studying a tutorial on forging a hawk from ball peen hammers....

[kuch]

scott, the RR spike needs to have a "H C" onthe head.probably better to buy 'em...probably won't find many HC at junkyard ...but who knows.I've read..don't know if it's true.. the HC spikes were used primarily on turns where there was more stress on he track...therefore less HC made than regular.i split a keg with another knifemaker and there's a bunch in a 1/2 keg.good luck.

[Scott Roush]

thanks.... i will look into it..

[Kevin Evans]

Thats Cool Kevin!!!  

[Steve Nuckels]

Wow Kevin!  Great job!  I love it!  I was thinking I would find a Ball Pein hammer head and give it a try!  I'm inspired now!

I heard "Rail Yard" spikes are not worthy, but High use line spikes are!

Steve
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Potomac Forge
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IN GOD WE TRUST

[drewsbow]

very nice

[Ragnarok Forge]

Nice, particularly for your firsthawk.  It should definately do the job.  

I have to tell you guys, HC rail road spikes are equivalent to 1040 steel.  The High Carbon ( HC ) is a bit of a misnomer.  They have more carbon than normal spikes which are 1030 steel.  Even when quenched in superquench they dont hold an edge for very long, to low of a carbon content for that.  

I enjoy making rail road spike hawks and knives.  They are really cool and fun to make. Ball peen hammers tend to be high quality steel and if you hit garage sales and flea markets you can often get them real cheap.  

If you use superquench you can get rail road spikes a bit harder than quenching in oil or water.  Another trick is to get some case hardening powder from Brownells and follow the directions.  It hardens the surface of the steel by adding carbon to the surface under high heat in the forge.

[OconeeDan]

I like that.
On splitting pelvic bones, I'll never do it again, it is just not necessary for deer or hogs.  Maybe for other critters, but I doubt it.
Nice hawk!  Dan

[MYSTIKBOW]

Very cool Kevin!
 Damn, I worked for the railroad over 20yrs. ago. I had access to old rail spikes from the early 1900's. Wish I knew then that they were useful for more then just holding the rail down. LoL.  I'll have to see if any of my former coworkers are still on the job.  I might still be able to get a hold of a few.
 Nice job Kivin. I like it!

[LC]

Man that is really nice! Love it.

[madness522]

I really like that Karl!  But I do have a dump question....I understand about hot cutting the hole for the handle but what I would like to know is how you sized the hole to mate with the handle?  There looks to be a slight taper from top to bottom of the hole for a better lock up with the handle but it also looks like the hole was made to fit the handle.  I know you couldn't try the fit while the spike was hot or it would burn the handle so how is that done??

[KHALVERSON]

thanks for the good words guys
i have done some cutting with the hawk since i posted it
i chopped the living hell out of some seasoned red oak and elm and the edge held up real well and also split some small stuff
madness 522
i used a tapered drift and bumped the steel until it fit the drift then made the handle to fit
my drift is kinda makeshift but will be improving on that soon
kevin

[prarieboy]

Nice Kevin Nice!

[Irish Archer]

That's sweet for sure. Great work.

[Jmgcurve]

Man, that is fantastic work especially for a first!!!!!!!!!!