Anyone interested in a fairly cheap pipe hawk made from good steel?

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Hey there, guys. In this thread I was wondering about the steel used in several pipe hawks from RE Davis company.

Turns out they're made from 8620, which is a low carbon steel that can't be heat treated normally, or some are also made in 4140, which is used mainly for hammers. It could probably stand up to some amount of use, but wouldn't hold the best edge for woodwork.

But then, they emailed me back saying they could have a special run of heads made from 6150 steel if I order six at a time. This steel's performance characteristics are fairly close to 5160, and in fact I'm told leaf spring manufacturers often substitute the two steels without anybody knowing.

Would anybody here be interested in getting in on a group buy of such heads? I'm waiting to hear back from Tim on price & how long it would take, but I'm hoping they won't cost much more than their regular offerings. Probably in the $30-$40 range. (??)

I have been looking for something like this on and off for several years now. This is the first chance I've seen. With pipe 'hawks, it seems you either gotta pay several hundred bucks to get something worthwhile from a custom maker, or settle for a cheap decorator piece made from lower grade or pure junk steel.

You can see the styles offered by this company here. Personally, I like the looks & size of their "Fancy Pipe Tomahawk Head", item # 0317. But if the majority would prefer a different pattern, I'm flexible.

Any interest?

 

Brody-

I've never made a pipe hawk. I have rehandled and refinished lots of axes & hatchets though. In this case, they will come as cast, so you'll need a file or two (flat & curved/round) and some sandpaper in various grits, and a couple pieces of scrap wood for sanding blocks. A vise would be handy to hold things in, but if you don't have one I could give you some tips on improvised methods.

Basically you can sand things to polish it as much or little as you want. You can leave it shiny, or apply blueing or "aged" patinas for very cheap.

I plan to make my own handle (assuming this deal goes through) by using a long-assed drill bit to bore the hole through a block of osage orange or walnut, and then shape down the outside. But you can buy ready-drilled handles from several places, including the Davis company. The design of a tomahawk head gives you some leeway with the handle fitting, since it just tapers bigger towards the end. A scrap of iron or nail can be shaped to fit in from the bottom side to help lock it in place, if necessary. The handle can likewise be sanded smooth, carved, or decorated according to your tastes, and then sealed with commercial or traditional methods.

The head would need to be heat treated. Several smiths in the shoptalk section have offered to heat treat stuff for me in the past for a reasonable amount. And this steel is simple enough that it should be fairly easy/forgiving to do yourself if you want to learn how.

 

Just heard back from Tim at DE Davis. He says the heads would still cost $28 each, and would take about two months to make once the order is placed. Granted, if I gotta buy 6 heads & ship 'em out, I'd also like to have shipping costs covered, which might be a couple bucks. So, I guess I'll see where this goes.

 

Tim emailed me again about 20 minutes ago. I asked to double check whether we could pick any pattern on the site or if we were limited, and he replied:

"Yes, the other patterns [besides the Fancy Pipe Tomahawk Head] that can be cast in 6150 are #0305 (Faceted bowl) and #1011 (English Trade)."

So I guess we're limited to those 3 patterns if we want this steel.

If you'd prefer to deal directly with them, and that's also OK with them (don't know why there'd be any problem) then of course I have no problem with it either. It would be less hassle for me too. I'm only trying to organize this because this sounds like exactly what I've been looking for for years.

 

Well guys, it looks like we have enough serious interest to order a run of pipe hawk heads in 6150! Just so we're all clear here, this is for an unfinished head only. You'll have to make your own arrangements for getting a handle, and polishing the head & having it heat treated. I'm considering asking some of the guys in shop talk to do the heat treating on mine, and if so, maybe they'd be willing to do several of yours too. But no garantees there.

Those who have said they're definitely interested:
the possum
akmike
Redsnake1997
Gibsonfan
t1mpani
Nessmuke
Rocketmann (1 or 2 heads?)
Liam Ryan (2 heads)
HSS Forge (2 heads)

Others who have expressed interest, but I'm not sure if they want one:
Brody


I'm not gonna claim that 6150 is any kind of super steel. But, I consider it a big step up in quality for a cutting tool over the stuff that pipe tomahawk heads are usually made from, in this price range. Ragnar also had a small blurb on this at his site:

(of course, if you plan to throw it, you could just temper it down a little more than for a woodworking tool.)

Now, I suppose the next thing is decide for sure on which pattern we want to have made. I origionally started this thread liking the fancy head, but there have been concerns about the pipe stem breaking since it's so thin. I must agree, this does look like it could be a potential problem.

At least a couple guys have said they like the faceted bowl head, and I too like the curved line on the underside of the bit. (this is also one of the things I liked about the fancy head above.) However, I'm concerned that this head might be lighter than I was looking for, and I prefer having some sort of demarkation/transition lines where the bit meets the socket. I also don't care for a smooth profile line on the underside of the bit where it meets the socket. I'd like a notch there in case of bad aim (or trapping a blow from another blade), it will slide down the underside of the bit & catch on the steel notch rather than glancing straight into the wooden handle.

So, here's what I'm thinking now. How about we go with theEnglish pattern pipe tomahawk head? My reasons are, this one has a stouter stem on the pipe bowl, a bit more decoration, and it seems wider/beefier. This means that we would have more room/steel to customize the head. I would personally plan to grind or file the underside of the bit so it has that gently concave curving profile I like about the two heads above.

 

I edited my above post to move Nessmuke to the seriously interested category.

I sent off an email to Tim at the Davis co, to see how he would prefer us to handle the order. If it's OK with him, I'd just as soon have us all send in our money separately & have him ship them to us each individually. This would help save on the shipping costs, and then you could have him throw in a handle or something with your order if you want one.

However, this means we'd all have to send in our orders in a reasonable amount of time. If five of us send in our checks, we'll all be waiting on the sixth guy...

I'll post an update when I hear back from him.