A friend asked me recently to forge a full tang Damascus tomahawk for him because he wants to use it as a throwing axe. Now trust and believe me that I have tried to tell him that a full tang tomahawk is going to eventually fail even if it's expertly heat treated. Forging a tomahawk head with a wooden handle that is easily replaced is the most economic and smart way to go. He doesn't care. I quoted him 1200$ for it and he isn't concerned about paying 1200$ and then 6 months or less from now the handle snapping. So I'm just trying to do my best to make his idea come to life. Does anyone have any experience with full tang tomahawks? From what I gather a full tang tomahawk is normally cut from a plate of steel and not forged to shape and the tomahawks that are forge are normally just the head with a wooden handle. Any guidance or information that would help me would be much appreciated. Thanks for taking time to read this. I think some people are going to tell me this was a bad deal to take on, but challenges are what build our skills
Having some custom made, large and flat plate dies for a forge press will probably help you out here. Will Stelter I believe won an ABS award for his integral tang "Integral Hatchet" and "Marshmallow Fork" that he did in Damascus on his youtube channel. The reason I bring up the flat die area is you are going to need to focus on making the (Flag pole shape) completely square and then trying to stock removal to keep it square from there. Basically you are going to need to make a 2-3" flat and squared box at the top of a letter "T" and then make sure you have the tang coming off that box is squared and also that it is perfectly flat to the rest of the shape. I believe this will be best in the press, and then you stock remove all the shapes. But I would completely heat treat the rough shape before you start rough grinding so that you don't have heat treat warp issues that will be extremely complex to fix once you start making more geometric shapes in an un square dimensional space thought problem.
Hatchet: https://youtu.be/owvJgTFe4_k?si=mpIKJS0Ik0Uog_yd
Marshmallow: https://youtu.be/2YDh1_Bnhww?si=ceaUl57TP9wVrhRh
Respectfully
Michael
Hello Nick, I make tomahawks and all steel hatchets fairly often. It would be hard to explain step by step process but I can give you my two cents. My hatchets start from large truck leaf spring( and does not forge out like 5160, I think it has some Nickle), dimensions 3"x6"x1/2". I forge almost to finish, with a polished edge and handle transition. This is kinda heavy for a throwing hawk, you may want to drill large holes in the handle.
-Since you're making the billit you can start with whatever shape. If it were me, I would start with a teardrop shape that was about 1 1/2" square at top, tapering to 5/8" and 8"-10" long or more depending on desired length.
-to help with the shock, the transition from handle to head should be large radius and smooth.
-drawing out the head from the handle would be the same process as making the ABANA Level 2 scroll fork. See the ABANA youtube video..
I'll continue this later, I have to go now.
Change that 1 1/2" square to 1 1/2" cube. The thickness will allow you to draw out the head. This is probably too much, but I assume since it's damascus you'll want to clean it up and etch it. I leave the forge marks in and finished head is 3/8"-1/2" thick.
-I use my press for 75% of the forging and have 3 hand held top tools for it. Two are just drawing dies but the third is a step die for a 3/8" step from the rear of the hatchet head to the rear of the handle.
Show the results and have fun while making it.
Dennis Tingle
I totally agree with doing heat treatment prior to removing much material. That is something I do with everything I make. Helps keep things straight and also leaves room for cleaning any warps that do occur. I currently have the tang forged out with some material isolated at the pommel end for the integral bolsters. What hardness should I HT this to whenever I get to that point? Throwing knives can be low to mid 50s but this thing is going to have more kinetic energy than a knife, so I'm guessing high 40s to low 50s?
