As most of you who've been victim to my social media spew of photos know, I stick to two styles: hawks from rail road spikes and hawks folded and wrapped with a carbon insert. I used to really prefer to make the hawks from rail road spikes... but not so much anymore. I'm hooked on these wrapped eye style tomahawks.
We have a lot of scrap floating around the shop right now from fence jobs, handrails, gates, and utility racks. We just happen to have a lot of 1x1/4 flat bar laying around which works pretty well for making wrapped eye hawks. I've also been lucky enough to be surrounded with wonderful people who have come across a lot of 5160 leaf springs and given them to me.
This style of hawk head can be made into a lot of different designs (I've got a few brewing in my head that I'm going to try this week hopefully... I think my hawks need a bit more bearded look). I had an English professor in college that always used to say "There's a hundred different ways to skin a cat" ... strange, I know, but I think it applies here. A folded hawk can be drawn out and hammered into a lot of different styles, or so I've found. Depending on how one use a rounding hammer or the peen side of a hammer, these can be made into a Norse or Dane style ax, French trade axes, or whatever style is needed. Some of these designs depend too on grinding ability but I think you get my drift.
I did another rail road spike project for a good friend of mine recently. My cousin James Poag told me "Well. Every knife or project you make, you won't want to get rid of." That's definitely true. I fell in love with this beast I made for Luke. I liked the texture that came out of it, the shape, and the handle. At first I mounted it on a hammer handle but the handle cracked during wedging, so I decided to carve a handle from red oak. A little draw knife therapy is never a bad thing. Here's some photos.
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