Sorry to be slow getting back but I’ve been fighting with an allergy induced migraine and………
Anyway first thing is to answer some questions I’ve been asked:
How did you dye the rawhide?
Depends on several factors but I have used regular leather dye – when doing carving on the rawhide I put the hair/smooth side out so I start by dying the flesh side right after tempering the rawhide when using leather dye. Tempering = soaking the rawhide until completely saturated then laying it out flat on a smooth water proof surface and letting the extra water evaporate off. After the rawhide is attached and carved I dye the outside.
I also use natural dyes such as walnut hull, coffee, logwood, etc. When using these I soak the rawhide in them to temper and dye all in one.
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how are the rawhide and buckskin attached? Stitched?
They are both attached with a few spots of glue to hold them in place while stitching - real heated hide glue for the traditionalists, for the non-traditionalist white glue for the buckskin and super glue for the rawhide. The ends are butted together and sewn using the so-called baseball stitch (which can be documented long before the game) or the whip stitch.
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How is the bead work attached?
The beads are sewn on. For the first two rows on the outer edges I use the return or spot/appliqué stitch as shown below. The beads used on this piece are French Old Time colors from Crazy Crow in size 8/0 pound beads and size 10/0 seed beads. Nominally with size 8/0 there are 8 beads per inch and with 10/0 10 beads per inch.
For thread one can use
Traditional: real sinew, cotton thread, linen thread, or silk thread which is the best for strength
Non-Traditional: Cotton wrapped poly button thread, nylon carpet thread, Nymo bead thread, or split Imitation sinew.
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The upper stitch is the spot or appliqué stitch – the beads are strung on one thread and a second thread and needle tack them down every two or three beads.
The second stitch is the return stitch – go through four beads, back through the leather, and forward again through only two of the four beads, then pick up four more, etc.
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For the center rows I just wrap a whole row of beads on at once and go back through the first two or three beads and then tack down to the leather. Continue on.
For more info on beading see:
http://www.nativetech.org/glasbead/glasbead.html------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Do the tacks interfere with the smoke hole?
I trim the shank of each tack to length and pre-drill the hole with an an undersized bit to prevent splitting.
For those interested in pre-1870, solid brass,square shank tacks the only current supplier I am aware of is
www.thetrunkshoppe.com These are VERY nice but two caveats – they aren’t cheap and they are soft so one must be careful with them when setting them.
The tack used on this piece are the less expensive and more available steel shank, solid brass head tacks from Crazy Crow.
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The end cap, two pieces, one the wrap, is that one piece that is actually wrapped around the cap or one thick piece with a hole cut out to fit the handle?
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Here’s a close up of the two pieces – if you look close at the left side on tip of the wrap you can see the soldered scarf joint. I’ve also butt jointed the tip and then soldered it together. The cap is then soldered to the ring to make the finished cap. Some original caps have an over hang and others are filed flush with the wrap. With a die setup one could make the cap out of one piece.
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Here is the finished piece with some closeup shots. Some of the changes made from my original plan:
1)Rather than copper wrapping the handle next to the beaded sections I used 3/8” headed tacks.
2)I used ermine tails and buffalo hair tufts with tin cones on the drop rather than feathers.
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Wish I could have gotten a better picture of the wood – there is an original pipe hawk handle that I have often tried to emulate the color and this time I came REAL close………..
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For anyone interested in doing a pipe hawk I can highly recommend the following book available from TOTW
“Instructions & Hints for Assembling Pipe Tomahawks” by G. & A. Gutchess
http://www.trackofthewolf.com/Categories/partDetail.aspx?catId=4&subId=36&styleId=130&partNum=BOOK-IHAPT
