Forge a Spike Tomahawk
Forging a spike tomahawk with decorative file work. I am using 1/14" round 5160 for this unique little axe.
Sponsored by Blacksmith Supply the new home of the Steele 2 X 48" belt grinder www.blacksmithsupply.com/ use code: bear5
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Links for products, suppliers - solo.to/blackbearforge
#blacksmithing #forged #blacksmith
Blacksmithing and related activities can be hazardous. These videos are not a substitute for competent professional instruction. Your safety is your sole responsibility. Always use appropriate safety equipment including eye and ear protection when working in the shop. Follow manufactures safety guidelines for the use of all equipment. In the event something shown in one of these videos seems unsafe, it is up to you to make the appropriate changes to protect yourself.
On the Steele Grinder, Blacksmith Supply says it will fit an 8" contact wheel. www.blacksmithsupply.com/84-Engineering-Alec-Steel-Grinders_c_104.html use code: bear5
Thanks for leaving the overheating part in the video. It helps keep beginners like me from getting discouraged by our mistakes because it shows that even experienced smiths make mistakes and that just because a error was made, it doesn’t mean the project isn’t able to be saved.
Glad it was helpful!
When I saw the little bit of sparking and fumes on the blade I thought, "oh dang, that doesn't look good." It reminded me of my first blacksmithing session in my dad's coal forge when I learned that you can burn steel if you don't pay attention.
Very nice work John, even with the "oops", thanks for leaving those in there. Helps me feel better knowing even masters make mistakes.
I agree with you totally. It shows no matter how long you do something you can still mess up and when you do it is not as big as you think it is
My dad and I have been watching your channel for a while now and its been really nice to bond with him over this. He told me his great grandfather was a blacksmith, and we've been thinking about getting into it and your channel has been a great starting place. Thank you. 😊
That is awesome!
My grandfather was a blacksmith. Spent a lot of time growing up in his shop on the farm,so I really appreciate watching videos like this. Would love to have my own little shop to do this sort of craft.
Great looking Spike Tomahawk you made John. Thanks to Blacksmith's Supply for sponsoring this video and sending you the Steele 2X48" belt grinder, that's going to be an awesome seller I think. It is such a room saver and so usable in a smaller shop. Really enjoyed watching you fabricate this Spike Tomahawk and saving the project . Thanks for sharing with us, stay safe around there. Fred.
Nice to see the ol’ coal forge up and running during this brisker time of year. I like seeing these mono-steel tomahawk/tool videos, as I’m not a very good welder yet. Another excellent video sir.
I wonder why no blacksmith is using a spokeshave to create the handle. It is very fast and creates lovely shavings instead of all the dust and noise. Very nice Tomahawk though 😊
I use a spoke shave for handles fairly often. But the belt grinder is a bit faster and doesn't care about grain direction in the curved areas.
That handle size is perfect for adding a leather or other material wrap.😎👍🏻
Agreed!
Could watch a hundred videos of you making axes john I just can’t get enough I try to do each one myself I’ve done the hammer into blacksmith axe with the cross peen on back and today did 90% of the railroad spike axe done and once that’s done gonna try the one you posted with the 01 tool steel with no weld next will be the wrapped eye as I’m getting pretty confident with my forge welds your a amazing teacher and being part of the new generation of blacksmith appreciate each and every one of these videos, also love your tool making videos,and every other type of videos.. I’m on my second to third time watching most of your videos
As usual a good video. It is showing the real way the things are happening. Sometimes not as attractive, sometimes with mistakes. All good things require patience, skills and hard work. We can always learn something. Thank you!
Greetings from Ireland. I love your videos, you have a great way of explaining things that is easy to follow. Could you perhaps do a video sometime about all the different steel's and their uses and go through their tempering properties such as oil hardening, air hardening ect.
Great suggestion!
Turned out beautiful. Looking forward to that special chisel build. We shared this video on our homemade tools forum last week 😎
It sucks that the material got over heated, but it's refreshing to us beginners that it can happen to anyone. Thank you for the transparency and the amazing videos!
I've yet to make a handle from a wood blank. I think I'll add it to the bucket list. Thanks for taking us along 👍.
Wonderful for kindling next to a little woodstove, great work love your transparency 👍
I'm leaving this comment to enhance your KZhead algorithms. Hope it helps.
What a great little project/piece John! Thanks for sharing!
You are very welcome
84 Engineering do some great grinders. One of these days, I might actually be able to afford one.
Love the look John. That is a cool grinder for sure.
Very pretty. I'm a woodworker but I enjoy watching blacksmithing. that is a good looking belt grinder. I think it would do as well in a wood shop. It's a bit pricey at $1685 though. Thank you for sharing. Have a great day and stay safe.🙂🙂
Thanks 👍
I have a knifemakers grinder in my woodshop. With variable speed and the ability to tilt it for edge work, I don't know how I got by without it
Love your videos ! I have learned alot from you ! Keep making more videos please !
This is generally known as a boarding axe, commonly used back in the tall ship Era used to help sailors board other ships, by using the spike end to dig into the wood.
I enjoy watching you work. Thanks for sharing
That’s a handsome little tomahawk! The return of the Steele belt grinders is timed just right to give me buyers remorse on pulling the trigger on the Grizzly 2x42. Especially because the Grizzly was DOA, and I’m still waiting on the replacement. Sure, the Steele is 4x more expensive, but it has *way* nicer features, and the build is clearly beefier. Wishing I’d saved up and got that, I just didn’t know they were still making them!
Very nice video! Thanks also for showing the grinder, it seems handy. 👍
Mate, that is one sweet little axe. Nice job.
Thanks 👍
Love the tomahawk! Great work as always. Really like the remote start dust collector too! That sounds like a good video subject too!😁👍
I do have plans to talk about that system, but it will likely be on my personal channel @JohnSwitzer
Very nice work. Thí looks beautiful 😍😍
World’s biggest clinker 12:12
Great project and video, good advice in the video, I really like the part where you had the overheat accident and showed how to take care of the problem. I've seen people that would have trashed the whole project and started over but you showed that even when a person makes a mistake they can repair it, modify the project and still have a good tool or wall hanger either one. I also really liked the way you showed how to shape the head at the handle and the advice about using the vise. Thanks for all your hard work and the information you put into your videos.
Great job. Thank you
Thanks for watching!
You’re a little bit good at this! Would love to see some collabs with British and German smiths. Obv very hard to realise, but you’re really good!
You could also use a curved platen in leu of a larger diameter contact wheel. Thank you for sharing!
As always great content!
Glad you enjoyed it
It's good to see some quality hand work where just about every other video out there makes it seem like you can't do good work without a giant power hammer
Love the videos. Always enjoy getting notifications when you upload
Looks great. I have yet to make one but. Coming soon. Now i have the how too video
This would be very nice to be enlarged slightly for actual use on a battle belt. Excellent work once again brother! Happy resurrection day! God bless~
Excellent
Great video and sweat hawk, John. I love this voiceover style video, the crisp sound quality of your voice makes it easy to listen to and follow along. I look forward to more axe builds from you. And congrats on the mini Alec Steele grinder. When I was shoping for one, that little 2X48" caught my eye because of how affordable it is. I ended up going with the full-size 2X72" Steele ginder and have been very happy with it, especially after I wired my shop for 220 to get full power out of the motor and built a custom bench and tilting stand for it. The big one comes with a third, 5" contact wheel on the flat platen. Either way, you are getting a solidly built grinder with a lot of functionality for a great price compared to other grinders out there.
I picked up an old 2x48 a couple years ago, and love it. Hands down, it's proven to be the go-to grinder for the shop and my 2x72 can only look on forlornly. I probably do 50/50 wood and iron work with it. You can't have too many belt grinders in the smithy. One trick I developed over the years to save a whole slew of time on the handles of tools is to take them down to 120-grit.... and then run them through the wire wheel on the bench grinder. There is simply no better finish, imo, and how it feels in the hand is something you just have to try for yourself. Even on store-bought tool handles, the wire wheel makes quick work of getting rid of that nasty plastic finish they put on them, and leaves you with a texture that's second to none. Add two coats of pine tar thinned down with turpentine, and you've got a tool that looks good and feels fantastic!
Nice Tomahawk 👍
It really looks good. Glad you left the oops in the video, still shows good smith's make mistakes. I think the handle fits this better after the oops, the handle looks like ut would have been alittle small if all the mass was still in the piece
If the axe had ended up larger I probably would have left the handle larger as well.
I've just made my first proper steel order and have some stock coming that's perfect for a project like this! No more being beholden to box store dross steel and the pitted scrap that's buried around the smallholding
Thanks!
Thank you for the support
Great looking tomahawk.
Looks great , thanks for sharing . I need a better grinder and my shop is small so I will have to look into this one
I like that grinder I have a propeller repair shop here in Alaska and beat on props with pitch blocks and then weld up damages areas and grind down. That belt grinder looks perfect for doing the hard to reach weird design areas on props. Please send me the one they sent you asap!!
I've found that a hardwood block shaped to hold the hatchet head, or workpiece in general, with neodymium magnets mounted flush with epoxy to hold them in place works really well. Of course it's not practical for a one off, but if you find a style you want to repeat... A thin leather cover glued to the block to finish it off adds traction and protects the surface while you work.
Sounds like a great idea
Linda peça!❤❤❤❤❤
Nice hatchet , might wrap the handle with leather.
Great video! I've got the 84 engineering surface grinder attachment and its a game changer
Nice one John!!
Great job, and nice tomahawk
Happy Easter!
Great video.
That axe model is called "Fire mans axe" here in Norway😊
Bravo 👏
I run a 8" contact wheel on my Steele 2x48. its definitely worth getting.
John, appreciate you mentioning how long you had been forging when you cleaned out the forge clinker. As a beginner it helps set realistic time lines for the work I do. And as always, thank you for the educational videos keep them coming.
Great teaching!!
Thank you!
Very nice
Very nice tomahawk!
really nice
That is about the size of the pocket ax of that era. Don't know if they had spikes but from all accounts they were handy. Nice work.
Great looking tomahawk, if the handle is a little small a tight leather wrap will fix that
Absolutely beautiful project! And if the handle feels a little small, might be a great time to try a leather wrap around that portion, although it looks great as-is!
Thanks for the tip!
Nice
Good tempo to the video
There are 10.000 ways to make a handle .I dont use steel wedges to secure wooden ones or the glue i like to use a small flat head wood screw -i drill a hole for the root of the screw just on a split line between wood wedge and a handle -screw in the screw and it will never come out.Its the same techniqe that is used in securing shaft and pulley on machines.Or when you want to stop something from rotating .Works great. Also i soak the wood in linseed oil and apply it once a year.Its great for wood and it keeps the wood from swelling in moisture or drying during summer. If you dont have the scraper(i know they are cheap but maybe amazon asks 2x the price of scraper for shipping and customs alone)you can use japanese body kit spatulas that you can get in most hardware stores for dirt cheap -you dont even have to sharpen them and they are made out of high carbon steel.Plus you can use angle grinder or a file and make any profile you want .
I delayed it for many years. But... Finally, I have the time now to get a forge up. Anyone have recommendations for a "budget" coal forge set up? The propane budget video is great and probably what I will first start working at home. But my heart lies with old school forging.
Very nice axe, glad you are still at it, up date on the cabin would be nice.
I should be back to the cabin this summer
Happt Easter
Great video. I wonder if you could use a 12” contact wheel, just running it on a longer arm, and using 2x72 belts. It should work, provided the tool arm doesn’t get any vibrations/harmonics. I bought a Vevor (Chinese) 2x82 ( good luck getting those belts, but 5 minutes measuring and one with the grinder had the extra arm length cut off to run 2x72s). It runs great, and I still can’t figure why other brands are 3-5 times the price. The biggest issue was the unsealed electronic control box (the motor is sealed). I just drilled a few holes in a click-lock food container, stuck the controller in it, and sealed it up with copious amounts of hot-glue. Worked a treat. Cheers from Tassie.
The 2 x 72 uses a larger motor, so it might not work. Plus the cost of a 12: wheel would be quite high
Do you think thread cutting oil would work for quenching? I have like 5 gallons of it already in a metal bucket. It's Ridgid threat cutting oil
I really can't say for sure, but my guess is that it would work. May be more expensive than regular quenching oil though.
Yeah. I definitely wouldn't buy it. when I first started forging a guy at work gave it to me saying he thinks it would be a good quenching oil. Right now I'm not trying to put too much money into my smithing hobby. Since I'm not making any money from it. So when somebody's willing to give me free stuff or stuff or stuff really cheap. i have been taking it Thanks you
@@lev53420 Now its a cutting oil which is not cheap by all means so if i were you i would use a small quantity and try it out .If its not working you can always use it as a cutting oil or sell it and buy a real thing.If price is right a small hobby guys might be interested in it as long as its not contaminated.
A simple swinging treadle hammer would be a great addition for the primitive workshop.
I would like to add one, but I'm already running out of room
John, love watching your videos. I have learned so much from your easy teaching style. May I ask what the radius on your top fuller used in this video is? Thank you for sharing your wealth of knowledge!
I think that was 1/2". But a little larger would work as well
Hello from Maine
Morning!
Great vid are there any tricks when working with thick metal in the coal forge
Just a good fire, deep and clean
Awesome work as always! I was curious though as to what you put on the blade edge around the 18:00 mark while you were making the handle 🤔
Thats a hot melt coating made for protecting tools. Most industrial suppliers will have some version available
Hello sir Switzer. Just wanted to thank you a lot for your great work. I was wondering if letting the punch/chisel was removing the tempered of the tool's steel? Isn't it softened after using it like this? Or is that ok and don t need to re-tempered it after use? Anyway, excuse my poor english, i'm a french aspiring blacksmith, so it's quite difficult to me to express correctly what i've got in mind. Thanks again, u can't imagine how much you help me. Best regards.
They do soften with the heat, but unless they get red hot in use it is still harder than if it hadn't been hardened. I don't re harden and temper unless they get to a point they no longer hold up.
@@BlackBearForgeOk thanks. I was often worried about it when i was using my tools, but it is definately making sense. Thanks for your answer. Have a nice day!
Suppose you can make a peace pipe?
#BlackBearForge Where do you get the steel you use?
Do you have a video on making punches and drifts? I’m really looking to see what the shape and profile looks like so I can try to re-create it.
Quite a few actually. If you use the KZhead search bar and type "black bear forge punch" or "black bear forge drift" you should have several options to chose from
@@BlackBearForge perfect. Thank you. And thank you for the invaluable amount of knowledge. I have learned from you so far. I started doing this just because I wanted to make knives, I have found that decorative and functional blacksmithing is incredibly entertaining, and honestly honestly a whole lot less grinding. 😂
I was hoping. Somebody asked in the comment section.But what did you protect the sharp edge withanks again
I use a hot melt coating made for tool edges.
Great video John! Hey, I assume that the transparent brownish stuff I saw in a couple views is a protective plastic dip? Who makes it and where can I get some? Happy Easter!
The coating is a hot melt tool protector www.mcmaster.com/products/hot-melt-coatings/
Great video. Would oak be ok for a handle?
It would be OK for a shorter handle such as this has. Probably not very good for a big felling axe.
What's wrong with using used motor oil? It does works just fine for me.
Just wondering would used motor oil be good for Harding ???
Its generally discouraged due to the additives and impurities in the oil.
Hey John I’ve got a question with wood frame in your shop how do you keep your belt grinder from putting hot sparks on your wood or is a problem at all
It doesn't seem to be a problem,most of the sparks go down and i keep a bucket of water in front of the grind that catches them and gives me a place to cool the piece as I grind
What did you use to coat the tomahawk blade while you were working on the handle? It looked almost like some sort of resin. And how is it removed for the finished piece?
It's a hot melt coating designed for protecting tools. Most industrial suppliers carry something similar
Hi John, would the file work cause stress fractures at all? It looks awesome.
It is something to consider. I keep the file work away from the thinner areas and don't quench the entire head right away when hardening to help prevent stress in that area. I also don't think is much of a problem on smaller lighter duty pieces like this.
Do you need to quench the drifts?
If they get too hot I do, but a small axe like this generally doesn't heat them that much. They can be too hot to hold onto though.
I am a starting blacksmith and one of the biggest things I’m struggling with is getting steel, so what are some places that you would know that which ship high carbon steel? Happy Easter
The high carbon stuff I mostly buy from McMaster Carr. But any of the industrial suppliers should have a variety.
Hey John, what's the stuff you put on the blade to prevent cutting yourself?
It's a hot melt coating for tool edges. Most industrial suppliers have a version of it.
@@BlackBearForge awesome, thank you sir!
For $2,000 that belt sander better be good!!! Lol
Is that hot glue on the edge while you were working on the handle?
Similar, it's a hot melt coating meant for tool edges
👍✌️⚒️
Fantastic work sir! It's so refreshing to see a forging video with a real blacksmith actually FORGING and shaping the metal, and with a hammer no less. 95% of these kinds of videos that I've seen are just some A-hole using a powerhammer to make a flat bar of steel and cutting out the shape of a knive, or whatever. You are a true craftsmans!
A power hammer still takes a considerable amount of skill and is very much "real blacksmithing"