- Joined
- Dec 30, 2010
- Messages
- 78
My first post here Below is a pictorial tutorial on how I turned my $28 taiwanese drop-forged Cold Steel 'pipe hawk' into a smokeable, traditional looking hawk to rival hand-forged hawks costing 10x more.
First, I used paint stripper to strip off all the ugly black paint:
Which revealed a very rough, uneven and unfinished texture:
I then used an angle-grinder with an 80 grit sanding disc followed by a paint-removing wheel to smooth out the finish and some of the uneven areas from the forging process:
I then laid out the pattern for the filework with a sharpie:
I cheated by cutting out most of the filework with a dremel cutoff wheel, then I did the finish work with round and 90 degree files. I had to anneal the pipe head to make it soft enough to drill out - I step drilled it on a drill press. Unfortunately I broke off a 1/8" bit right as it drilled through, which took me about an hour using several punches to drift it out. I then polished the hawk using a dremel polishing wheel, followed by steel wool w/flitz polish and finally a rag w/flitz. Here is the finished product:
All that is left to do on the head is to weld-in the set screw hole. I plan to force a patina on the carbon steel, then fit a pre-drilled curly maple handle from RE davis: http://www.redaviscompany.com/0310.html
I haven't decided if I want to do silver wire inlay (which I've done before) or if I should try my hand at pewter inlay. The pewter would be cheaper.
First, I used paint stripper to strip off all the ugly black paint:
Which revealed a very rough, uneven and unfinished texture:
I then used an angle-grinder with an 80 grit sanding disc followed by a paint-removing wheel to smooth out the finish and some of the uneven areas from the forging process:
I then laid out the pattern for the filework with a sharpie:
I cheated by cutting out most of the filework with a dremel cutoff wheel, then I did the finish work with round and 90 degree files. I had to anneal the pipe head to make it soft enough to drill out - I step drilled it on a drill press. Unfortunately I broke off a 1/8" bit right as it drilled through, which took me about an hour using several punches to drift it out. I then polished the hawk using a dremel polishing wheel, followed by steel wool w/flitz polish and finally a rag w/flitz. Here is the finished product:
All that is left to do on the head is to weld-in the set screw hole. I plan to force a patina on the carbon steel, then fit a pre-drilled curly maple handle from RE davis: http://www.redaviscompany.com/0310.html
I haven't decided if I want to do silver wire inlay (which I've done before) or if I should try my hand at pewter inlay. The pewter would be cheaper.