Steel bit in a brass tomahawk

[David Rase]

I am in the process of building a brass tomahawk.  I want to put a steel bit in it .  How do you guys fasten the steel bit to the brass? 
DMR

[bob in the woods]

I've made one. I got the parts , brass casting and the steel bit, from Davis. It took a lot of fitting. When finally fitted, I heat treated the edge . Then I clamped the edge/bit in the vise to act as a heat sink and silver soldered the joint. After cleanup, filed and emery paper, it looked like the steel grew out of the brass.
Couldn't use it for much cause the brass head was soft, and so the handle kept loosening . Lots of people admired it, one even had money, so I ended up selling it .Even with the steel bit, its for light work at best
IMO.  Still, I'll probably make another this winter. They sure do look good. Have fun fitting the bit. I cut out for it using a jeweller's saw.

[Ken G]

I've done mine the same way as Bob.  The better fit you get on the dovetail the stronger it will be.  I did reduce the size of the dovetail on the steel insert.  It seemed a little large as it comes for the small brass head Davis sells.  I tinned both parts and soldered them together.  Then filed the joint down for a smooth mating.  A fairly stronge joint but I wouldn't suggest chopping wood or anything like that with it.  I think a lot of originals had the brass poured around the steel bit and I'm sure that would have been much stronger.  
I saw one at the CLA show a couple of years back that had the dovetail milled into the blade on the vertical axis.  The bit and blade mated in a straight line and the bit slide down from the top and then was soldered in place.  Stronger but not very traditional. 

[jr]

Here's a little about it from Peterson's book "American Indian Tomahawks."

"The brass tomahawks with steel edges require careful joining. Normally the edge was formed with a dovetail projection in the center moulding, a like opening in the brass part. This prevented forward or back motion. To prevent movement from side to side, grooves were opened in the sides of the cut in the head, and the edges of the steel to be joined were tapered. These tapered edges were forced into the grooves in the head, and the brass was hammered down over them. To complete the joint, melted tin, solder or pewter was used as a seal. In some instances brass rivets were driven through the head above the joint for further strength. In rare instances the edge was simply riveted to the head without dovetailing; in late specimens the edge was simply inserted in a groove in the lower edge of the head, or even placed in a mold and the brass head cast around it."

[northup87]

I have done two brass tomahawks with close to the same style keystone insert that Ken made. On both of mine I brazed my keyed steel wedge in, and can assure you it was an absolutely fine line between having a puddle of brass for a tomahawk head and the braze taking. But that being said they turned out very nice with the key steel looking as close to growing out of the metal as physically possible... just another option and I'm sure later on the patina line wont show either...

[David Rase]

Thanks for the feed back.  I think I will fit the two pieces together as close as I can, peen the brass to the steel to get a tight close fit and silver solder the two pieces together.  I am going to use a piece of file for the bit.  I will post a picture of the results.
DMR