re-profiled Craig Barr damascus hawk

R

rlcanon

Joined
Jun 26, 1999
Messages
109
The Craig Barr hawk heads are a smoking deal if you're patient, but I've never been overly fond of the edge design. Here is one I re-profiled to meet my taste in head shape. You can see where my finish sanding has taken off the etching to a great extent. I may experiment with re-etching it once I beat on it awhile. I'm going to re-haft it with a CS battle axe handle cut down some from it's 30" length, but longer than the usual 19" shown here.

I took off a little of the flair at the top, and a LOT of the flare at the bottom.
cbhawk2.jpg


You can still see some of the layers.
cbhawk3.jpg


I also thinned down the eye significantly, although it's still pretty beefy.
cbhawk1.jpg


Here are some pics from Craigs ebay store for comparison.
cb.jpg
 
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What's your edge length now?

There's still a lot of steel there you can play with.
 
Looks good. Etching is easy just go to radio shack and ask for pcb board enchant and have fun. I have one of his heads on the way.
 
The cutting edge is exactly 2.25", which is a nice round number considering I was just eyeballing it.


I was able to google up a couple of damascus etching primers, one that mentioned the Radio Shack ferric chloride and one that suggests muriatic acid commonly used to clean concrete pools and brick.
 
question..... Wouldn't re profiling the hawk take away some of the hardness on the edge?


EDIT: I only say this because Craig told me that only the very very edge gets hard and the thicker steel cools slower... etc...
 
petah said:
question..... Wouldn't re profiling the hawk take away some of the hardness on the edge?
Click to expand...

The remaining edge is all original, with it's original properties. The parts I took off were pie shaped pieces from the top and bottom (see pic below). I was especially careful when grinding/cutting near the edge to prevent over heating it. It never got too warm to comfortably touch with my bare hand.
cbpieslices.jpg
 
Ah... Still wouldn't areas that you cut still be softer than an un profiled? ( I"m considering re profiling mine... )
 
petah said:
Ah... Still wouldn't areas that you cut still be softer than an un profiled? ( I"m considering re profiling mine... )
Click to expand...

that would depend on the alloy, i reckon - all other things equal, for the sake of discussion.

if it was case-hardened, yes - except in the edge region.

if it was zone hardened, not necessarily - a variety of outcomes, all acceptable to me, could occur.

i think any buddy who wants to, should go for it cautiously.

vec
 
petah said:
Ah... Still wouldn't areas that you cut still be softer than an un profiled? ( I"m considering re profiling mine... )
Click to expand...

The actual area of the cuts, or material from the kerf, is on my garage floor as metal/abrasive dust. Are you thinking of the edge immediately adjacent to the cuts? In my mind the only thing that could affect the metal in that area would be excessive heat. Sitting in the sun in the Texas summer would heat the head substantially more than carefully removing material with a grinder. The remainder of the edge is completely untouched and so isn't affected. I'm assuming that the edge is differential hardened instead of case hardened as the case hardened edge would soon be lost to sharpening.

From a practical perspective, I've been banging on mine pretty hard and it holds an edge well, all along the edge, including adjacent to the area that was removed.
 
ahh, That's exactly what I wanted to hear.

I will give it a try later this week.

Thank you rlcanon. (Vec I have a new S7 head coming in that I'm getting made for a friend. I was wondering if you have ever heard of machining the head to reduce weight. A fuller Tomahawk style...)
 
is the S7 head a Craig Barr, brother...?

there are a lot of good hatchets out there that could be outstanding as hawk/hatchet hybrids with a little fuller work.

i haven't seen much of it done (yet).

i have a bunch of unknown maker heads in the cue right now that look like they have been re-ground around the polls, etc., for better characteristics. - i will show pictures when i haft 'em.

vec



vec
 
Thank you!


and this hawk once done will get a little write up on here... Mr.Barr has outstanding hawks... and charges next to nothing for a custom "IF" he is interested in making it....


but this s7 is from a form member...

I hate to say this but I'm so interested in hawks... I'm on auto cad all the time making head designs...

I may send you a email in the next month asking about getting something (s)hafted.
 
petah said:
Thank you!


and this hawk once done will get a little write up on here... Mr.Barr has outstanding hawks... and charges next to nothing for a custom "IF" he is interested in making it....


but this s7 is from a form member...

I hate to say this but I'm so interested in hawks... I'm on auto cad all the time making head designs...
Click to expand...

i hear ya. Solidworks here.

they are just handy as heck.

I may send you a email in the next month asking about getting something (s)hafted.
Click to expand...

i think we are going to have to stop doing customs indefinitely in the new year.

we have to get back on top of our customs orders and satisfy some folks who have been waiting too long.

we also might be doing some regular work for a couple manufacturers - we'll have to see after the SHOT Show.

definitely drop us an e-mail though, so that if we are not immediately available to be of service, we can contact you when we clear things up.

vec
 
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