Introduction: How to Make a Forge Welded Tomahawk

By tinyurl.com/kt5pe45
About: I enjoy the outdoors. Camping, fishing, canoeing, all of it. I love working with my hands. I take on any project. I love to work on cars. I have been making knives since 2011. My skills slowly increase. Knife …

I made this out of an old horseshoe rasp.

I started my cutting both end pieces off in order to have a square section of material to work with. 

After that I used a wire wheel to get off all rust.

Then I found the center of the piece and marked it.

I did this in order to make on side of the tomahawk eye larger in order to properly fit a handle.

Next i worked on hammering one side of the center (all done with a forge)  in order to make the increase the length of the steel,  thus accomplishing an offset eye.

With that being finished, I folded the piece in the center and got the halves lined up. 

I sprinkled in a generous amount of flux in order to have the piece weld. The reason for this is that steel cannot forge weld together if there is air in between the pieces, so instead the flux takes the place. 

On the next heat (make sure it is white hot or so without burning) i started to hammer the halves together, starting with the tip of the soon to be ax.

As the the halves started to weld together I had to start using the handle blank. The handle blank ( I don't know the real name) is basically a tapered steel handle used to make eyes for tomahawks and axes. All I did with the blank was hammer on the sides of the piece into the blank, in order to refine the product.

When I was pleased with it, I cooled the piece and started to grind the 'hawk to my desired shape. I ground down the bevel instead of forging it. (just my preference)


Then for the handle.....

Handle take a while....

Okay first let me just say this is like the third one for this ax head...they break if not done well:P

I started off making the handle by splitting a generous amount of wood off of a hickory plank.

As soon as i had my piece, i used a draw-knife to whittle it down to a relatively straight piece.

After rough work with the draw-knife, i moved on to shaping with a utility knife. 

During this process you have to constantly check if the ax head will fit on the handle...always work with extra length and width on the piece    
 because if you go to far it can save you.

As soon as the head slide on nice with plenty of wood on top, its time for sanding

Sand the piece to perfection and lather it with linseed oil.

-Happy Crafting

BC