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Mike's Flintknapping, Blacksmithing, & Primitive Crafts

Blade-meister said:
Got to move these tomahawks closer to the finish line this weekend. Here's a picture of them after sanding and some period correct polishing on the heads

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The picture makes the top tomahawk's soldering job look weird, but it was a good solid job, just looks weird in that picture. Wow, the tiger striping in these handles is really premium. When it looks this good sanded you know it's going to be beautiful after the finish is applied.

Here's a picture of the handles after the final application of aqua fortis. This is a rather nasty chemical that reacts with the sugars in the different density woods that you find in a maple handle with figuring like these. The more applications you do, the darker things become. What's great about this treatment is that it goes deep into the wood. Stains do not penetrate this far and color can fade with handling and use. You apply this chemical and then heat the handle which causes the reaction. There's iron in the chemical mixture so that's where the deep reds come from. This was made historically with rust and nitric acid. The nitric acid was derived from salt peter which was used in the production of gun powder. The solution also raises the grain of the wood so you have to hit it with 0000 steel wool in between applications. You are rewarded with this after about an hour of work.

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That's the finish before even putting anything on it in the way of poly or whatever top coat you choose. I normally choose something tame, but this customer wanted shiny so I'm going with a high gloss polyurethane. I put two coats on it yesterday after this picture was taken and a final third coat this afternoon. In between each coat I polished the surface to get a final finish that's smooth and shiny. I didn't go with blinding high gloss because in my opinion the handle polish needs to be equal to the head's polish or it will look funny. I'm on the home stretch with this one, just have to fit the heads, polish the pewter mouth pieces, and drill the hole from the pipe bowl into the wooden handle/ draw shaft that goes through the middle of the handle so it can be smoked if desired.
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Beautiful!!!
 
Here's pictures of the finished pipe tomahawks. They are fully functionable and can be smoked if someone so desires. Customers have reported using pipe tobacco with success. I was super happy with how they turned out with the exception of a small area on one where I couldn't polish the silver solder where the steel blade was soldered to the brass head. It's a solid "weld", but I just didn't get enough solder into it to fill it completely. It didn't bother the customer and he ordered another 3 tomahawks immediately! We worked out another trade. I have a bunch of stuff I don't really need. Anyone in the market for some kangaroo hides? Seriously, I have two I don't need that were part of the trade. Send me a personal message if interested in the kangaroo hides.

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Here's a picture of the two of them together. They were so shiny I had a hard time getting a clear picture so this was the best I could do.

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If anyone is interested in a tomahawk like this or one like something else you've seen, send me a personal message. TSC members get a friends and family discount of 20% on tomahawks!
 
NurseDave said:
Dang, don't I wish I was able to do something with a kangaroo hide other than lay it on the back of my wine chair and say "Hey, guess that that is".
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My first thought was making some Strops but beyond that it'd just sit around. and if it has fur on that's out too.
 
uacowboy said:
Those came out great! How did that guy end up with Kangaroo hides!?
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The guy who picked up the tomahawks loved them so much that he ordered 3 more. He also brought 2 bins of stuff to trade to lower the price some. Like before, I only wanted a few items but he was insistent on getting rid of all his stuff so we worked something out and the kangaroo hides were part of that. I also have these huge turtle shell tops, various claws and teeth, beads, pictures and a nice Indian flute made of cedar.
 
Wow! Great Pipes and a great score! Kangaroo leather make incredible leather products! I had a baseball glove that was made of kangaroo leather. Was pretty much broken in from the get go. Super soft stuff!
 
Blade-meister said:
Real men have ferns :LOL: One event I set up at has a fellow dressed in traditional Indian clothing and he wears the long "loin cloth". We thought surly he's got something on under that, but a windy day showed us otherwise :oops: Luckily he was walking away from my group of guys!
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Yeah, but you know how our Canadian brothers are with their maple syrup and everything maple stereotype. So I figured he would have a maple leaf instead of something more typical to the rest of the world.🤣
 
dangerousdon said:
Wow! Great Pipes and a great score! Kangaroo leather make incredible leather products! I had a baseball glove that was made of kangaroo leather. Was pretty much broken in from the get go. Super soft stuff!
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It's one of the few leathers I've not worked with, but yeah it's really soft and the fur is soft too. Looking a kangaroos, you'd think the fur was like a deer but it's really more like an otter or mountain lion.
 
Blade-meister said:
It's one of the few leathers I've not worked with, but yeah it's really soft and the fur is soft too. Looking a kangaroos, you'd think the fur was like a deer but it's really more like an otter or mountain lion.
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Didn't know that about the fur...very interesting!
 
FYI there's only one kangaroo fur left, so if anyone is seriously interested in the last one send me a PM for pricing and a picture of it.
 
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