Pipe Tomahawk

[duca]

Hi guys, Happy New Year! Have a question. just ordered this Tomahawk,  (look below)  Whated to know if the Head on this Hawk needs to be Hardend? And if so what would be the best way to do this? I don't have access to a furnace.  

[duca]

http://www.trackofthewolf.com/Categories/PartDetail.aspx/473/2/TOMAHAWK-GOVE-M-D

[WadePatton]

do you have a torch? which fuel?

[duca]

Hey wade, Sure do. plumbers Touch...

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

There's one way to find out, if you don't know the steel alloy... run a file over the edge to see if it's soft or hard, then heat the edge red and quench it in oil.  Run a file over it again and see if there is a change.  If it's high carbon steel and can be hardened, the file will not bite into the steel.  If it did harden, you need to draw the temper to something around brown colour.  I'm not sure of the temper colour for an axe so someone else will chime in if I'm wrong.

[duca]

Hi Taylor, Trying a new project. It Say's investment cast head is 4140 steel. I also ordered the Book on making Tomahawks. Will see what info is in there. Would it be something like when I Hardend the turn screw on the Flint hammer?

[WadePatton]

4140 is excellent stuff (modern bbl steel), as Taylor says, heat red/oil quench and then polish it bright so you can follow the color changes, heat to the color the axe men tell you and allow to cool-that's your drawing temper-which reduces the brittleness brought on by the quench which is what gives you the hardness you seek.  A working edge will chip/crack out if you leave it full hard/brittle, plus would be awful to sharpen.

I've yet to do it, but an oven can be used for tempering too.  Others can tell you temps and durations.

Propane will work, might be easier to not overshoot draw temps with the ~3,600F Propane/air mixture vs. ~6,300F Oxy-acetylene yo.   You can get ~4,500 with oxy-propane also FTR.

Also, the great thing is that if you overshoot your temper color, you can just start over-red hot, quench, polish, draw...it's just fuel and time in the shop.

[Acer Saccharum]

I think 4140 is a medium carbon steel. Won't harden as high as 0-1 or 1095. But it won't chip, either.

[mjm46@bellsouth.net]

duca,
No offence intended, but why do you want to harden it, isn't it a cast steel head? Are you planning to throw you hollow handle pipe hawk? I may be wrong but I always considered pipe hawks as a showy toy and not a real throwing hawk. Throwing hawks have steel insert into a folded blade and solid handles. I've broken (usually split end to end) solid hickory hawk handles more than once. But they are not too expensive to replace. My advice is make up your pipe hawk really purty and keep it for peace  pipe cerimonies, and get a throwing hawk that will hold an edge and has cheap handles for throwing, and chopping, and is cheap to repair.

[duca]

Thanks Micah; No, i don't plan on throwing this Tomahawk! I just didn't know if it needed to be hardened to hold a good edge.

[Chuck Burrows]

Here's the skinny on heat treating 4140

For 4140 steel, the recommended heat treatment [1] consists of heating to austenitizing temperature, typically 1570°F (855°C), followed by oil quenching. Tempering (reheating after quenching) will achieve the desired hardness range. 

For tempering temperatures and hardness levels see the chart here
http://www.anvilfire.com/FAQs/heat-treating-4140.php
scroll down to the ASM chart if you're going to use it at all and to prevent chips I'd keep it around the 50RC level.

As for pipe hawks being just showy toys - history says they were used otherwise:
1) The Lewis & Clark Expedition issued 24 pipe hawks to the troops as well as taking 36 for trade
2) Can't find the source but IIRC it was Catlin who noted that pipe hawks were prized amongst the Upper Missouri natives for not only smoking, but chopping wood and for use in war

several more period references note similar usage and not just for display - including Alexander MacKenzie, who carried this one in his travels in the late 1700's:

[duca]

Awesome; Thanks Chuck. can't wait to start my pipe Tomahawk. Great info......

[g rummell]

From what I understand, the pipe hawk was produced as a trade item for the Eastern Indian tribes.
The pipe hawk managed to cover 2 of the greatest passions among the native Americans, the passion for a good smoke and the passion for war. So yes they were a prized possession but they were also used as a tool.

[duca]

Hi Gary; thanks for chiming in. I'm sure the Indians Prized their Tomahawks, And made use of them to...a good multi-purpose tool.

[Pete G.]

Back in the day when folks owned one gun and one hawk I'm sure almost any possesion was prized, but also put to good use. A brass headed hawk would do to cleave an enemy's head but I wouldn't want to rely on it to chop firewood on a freezing night.

In these times most pipe hawks are, in fact toys that could possibly be used as tools, but mostly collectibles.... but back to the original question : I'm not sure that a cast blade should be hardened. They are sharpened to a pretty blunt edge, but even so a hardened edge would be prone to chip on impact. Don't forget than an axe is sharpened with a file, so if a file will not cut the steel, then it is too hard.

[Ken Hodge]

For a good example of a period correct pipe tomahawk, look at this example on Contemporary Makers Blog Spot.

http://contemporarymakers.blogspot.com/2012/04/french-and-indian-war-pewter-pipe.html 

It is a completely original 1750's example that shows lots of use.  I wonder if the bent pipe is what developed from too much forward roll when thrown at a hard object.  It has been used as a hammer and has evidence of being used to drive home a tight ball.  Obviously it has been well and fully used.  Just not used up.

[duca]

Really Ken, That is an Awesome Tomahawk..............If it could only talk!

[Shreckmeister]

I think the bowl stem got bent when they hit Simon Kenton with it.

[hawknknife]

Gents,
this is the same head that was purchased from Track.
I found it to be a very mild steel and easy to work with.
It is a copy of a head made by Carlos Gove, I assume about 1830.
This is my rendition of a Plains Type pipe axe with the Gove head.
www.hawknknife.com
hawknknife@hotmail.com

[duca]

Awesome! Thanks for the info hawknknife....

[T.C.Albert]

Hawks were valuable items owned and used and by whites along the frontier as well.
I believe Squire Boone traded a hawk that he had made to his brother-in-law for a cow. That hawk was then carried by his nephew all the way to the "Battle of New Orleans". Tomahawks were still being carried by riflemen well into the Black Hawk war era, when a militia man made a claim to the U.S. government requesting reimbursement for a personal hawk he had lost while crossing a creek.

Also, doesnt Davis offer their hawk heads in 3 different steels? The 4140 and 6150 both being considered a tool steel suitable for hardening and holding an edge.
tca  

[B.Barker]

The pewter pipe ax on the blog has not been use for a hammer or thrown at hard objects. The bent bowl is probably  from being dropped on a hard surface. Pewter is not very strong and would not stick in a tree no matter how hard a person could trow it. Sharpen your pewter spoon and try to cut wood or leather with it.

[pathfinder]

Is it possable that the Hawk on the blog had a typo or miiss informed writer when stating the head was also pewter. Hard to say from the pic's,but it appears the head  has a slightly different look and patina. Would a pewter head have survived use on the frontier?