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High-Performance Blades Sharing ideas for getting the most out of our steel.

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  #1  
Old 04-13-2008, 03:36 PM
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Alan L Alan L is offline
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pouring pewter

Hey, guys!

Brent asked me to post my method of pouring pewter fittings for tomahawk handles over here in the liquid metal forum, since it does involve liquid metal after all. Sorry it's not hotter stuff, but we do what can.

This is a multi-part tutorial previously posted over at Donn Fogg's place, and there will be a lot of pictures, starting with the next post.
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Old 04-13-2008, 03:39 PM
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Alan L Alan L is offline
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Well, since I have four requests so far, here's an illustrated tutorial on how I do pipe hawk handles like this one:



First, you need a handle. I get mine from Dunlap Woodcrafts of Vienna and Chantilly, Virginia, USA. They offer preturned handle blanks in many North American hardwoods, and most importantly for my purposes they offer predrilled curly maple handles in three different grades. This one is the middle grade, if you're wondering what the presentation grade may look like. Call Wayne Dunlap at 703-734-2748 or look 'em up online. They don't list the hawk handles online, but they have them.

I use these handles because they are made to fit the taper formed by the malleable iron hawk drift offered by Blacksmiths Depot, among others. The one that has "TD-1" cast into it. Saves a LOT of work, and by paying the extra $15 to let them drill it you'll save much frustration. I used to drill my own, and still do if I absolutely have to, but I have about a 50% success rate doing it.

Anyway: You've got your handle and your hawk head, which you will have learned to forge by watching me demo at Batson's in two months. If it's a pipe hawk head, it helps to glue a thin scrap of leather into the back of the eye to act as a gasket in case your fit isn't perfect. You now need to fit the head to the handle. First, saw off about an eighth-inch of both ends to get rid of the lathe spur marks, then start your fitting. I do this by sliding the head on as far as it'll go, then use a soft mallet to tap the top of the handle until the head gouges or otherwise marks the wood to show you where you need to take a little off:



In this pic you can see the marks left by the head and the scraper I use to remove very fine shavings of wood. As you can see, this scraper shape can make flats and concavities, and is thus very useful. The bench is a Black and Decker Workmate 550, a wonderful invention for gunsmithing and hawk making. You can also see the thin leather gasket in the eye of the head, thinned down to nothing at the edges.

Keep scraping and fitting until the head is about 3/8 to 1/2 inch (about 1 cm) from the top of the handle. DO NOT drill the hole from the bowl to the smoke channel yet. The head will move up another little bit as you do the final finish sanding, which will destroy your hole alignment. That little hole is the very last thing you're gonna do.

Now that your head is fitted, lay out the lines for the pewter bands. I use a spring steel roll-up ruler to get the straight lines. I draw the lines about 1/4 inch apart, saw down about 3/16" (0.5 cm) all the way round, then use a 1/4" (0.6cm) chisel to remove the waste:







I use a coping saw to cut the lines, but any fine-tooth saw will work. Just be sure you go deep enough to hold the pewter, but not so deep you hit the smoke channel!

Next: Pewter work. Remember that lasagne box, it's important!
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Old 04-13-2008, 03:42 PM
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Alan L Alan L is offline
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What's the box for, you ask? It's the form material for casting pewter, that's what. Cut a strip of thin cardboard from the box, then use masking tape to attach it to the handle over your grooves. The pics below show the amount of clearance I allow for the main band and the sprue, both made from one layer of cardboard secured by four or five layers of masking tape. Note: the blue painter's tape is not strong enough, and duct tape melts. Don't use them.

Be sure your cardboard form is not too tight! You want a little overflow to ensure you fill the grooves all the way. Clean up the edges of the grooves before you're ready to pour, any chips will fill with pewter and show up later. You can use this effect to make sawtooth edges on your bands.





I use lead-free plumbing solder for my pewter. You can buy lead-free casting grains too, but they don't sell those at the corner hardware. Be sure you've got enough melted before you pour, because it's a pain to remove if you screw up. My channels are as deep as this solder wire is thick, and twice as wide. I used four turns of wire around the handle to estimate enough to fill the grooves and the sprues. You need a large sprue to avoid shrinkage cavities on cooling. It also provides a reservoir to help deal with any mistakes. If you look at that second picture you can see a thin thread of pewter running out of the right-hand mold. Luckily it hardened before the whole thing was lost, with about 1/4" of pewter left in the sprue. The other one had a full two inches left.

After it cools for 15 minutes or so, unwrap it, saw off the sprues with a coping saw, and use a medium doublecut file you don't like to clean it up. I have an 8" half-round file that is only used for this job. A small wire brush and a toothpick are needed to clear the pewter from the teeth. An auto body float file would be nice if you can find a small one. They don't load up.







Use a small fine file to do the final cleanup, starting just before you really chew up the wood with the bigger file. Sand to 220 and you're ready to start the mouthpiece.

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Old 04-13-2008, 03:44 PM
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Alan L Alan L is offline
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Oops, I didn't mention how I melted the pewter/solder wire.

I made a little ladle out of sheet steel with a long colonial-style handle, visible in the following out-of-focus picture:



I rub a tiny bit of beeswax into the ladle as flux, then add the rolled-up heavy wire solder and, later on, the sprues from earlier castings, then hold the whole thing over a standard plumber's propane torch until it melts. Don't get it so hot it turns gold-colored, that's some kind of oxide that has to be skimmed off.

BE CAREFUL with this stuff, it flows like water and will stick to your skin if it splashes. I have a nice scar on the back of my hand where I grabbed a handle before the mouthpiece pewter had solidified and some splashed out. It will bubble and spit when you pour it, so goggles and long handles on the ladle are important.
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Old 04-13-2008, 03:47 PM
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Alan L Alan L is offline
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Now it's time to do the mouthpiece. First, plug the hole with a little section of dowel. I've used tightly wadded aluminum foil, but it can leak and that's a mess you'll never, ever forget...

Lay out your carving and proceed. I like to use this sort of flattened hunter's star motif. I'm the only person I've seen to use this in pewter, so if you see one it's probably mine. Lots of them in sheet silver, though.





I also like to pour the band through the inside of the mouthpiece. That means I drill little holes connecting the star tips with the band under the surface of the wood, avoiding the smoke hole. DEEP carving is essential here to make sure you get pewter to the tips of the pointy bits. If you screw that up, it can be fixed with a soldering iron and extra solder, but it'll be visible.

Edited to add: the pencil marks inside the carved areas are something Hershel House showed me. He says that for some reason pewter will flow better if you draw all over the cutouts with a soft pencil first. Maybe it's the lubricity of graphite, maybe it's magic, but I do it for intricate stuff and it doesn't seem to hurt anything.

Wrap the cardboard here loose, we want the pewter to overflow.



Clean up as before, but this time a bigger file can help. I use a Farrier's hoof rasp to really hog off the pewter.



File the mouthpiece to a shape you like, sand, and we're done.



NOTE TO ALL: If you do the band and star in one piece, be sure the holes are big enough and the pewter is HOT. This one cooled on the surface before all the bubbles were gone. Unfortunate but historically correct casting flaws are the result.



This happened despite agitation during the pour. Bummer.
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Old 04-13-2008, 03:50 PM
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Alan L Alan L is offline
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I keep forgetting to mention little details, like "after casting the mouthpiece but before shaping it, drill out the plug and through the pewter with a long 3/16" or 1/4" bit" or "for added hold, and especially if you don't do the band and the mouthpiece as a single casting, drive a drywall screw or two into the end of the wood and cut off the heads so the pewter will have something to stick to."

Any other questions? I find that this pewter polishes up nicely if sanded to 400 grit and then burnished with #0000 steel wool.
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  #7  
Old 04-13-2008, 04:32 PM
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B.Finnigan B.Finnigan is offline
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Awsome tutorial Alan, thanks for posting! It's metal and it's liquid so it fits here perfect. I wish I saw it before I did my "plain jane" mouthpice on my hawk. Oh well, baby steps. A good reason to do another, and another.

Casting in place is such a unique twist on regular casting that it deserves far more exposure.
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Old 04-14-2008, 09:26 PM
Rocket_Jason Rocket_Jason is offline
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Nice one Alan! I like to use pewter too. I also like seeing pictures of peoples workbenches with pipe and tobacco in arms reach! What do you smoke?

-Jason


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Old 04-15-2008, 12:02 PM
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Alan L Alan L is offline
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Thanks, Jason!

That day I think it was Samuel Gawith's 1792 blend in a Peterson #309 (at least that's the yellowy-orange tin in the top pic and the pipe in the last one), but there's usually four or five blends and two corncob pipes out there at any given time. I can also see a tin of McClelland's Yenidje Supreme oriental blend and a corncob behind the lighter fluid, and I know there was some Prince Albert, some Sam Gawith Black Irish XX twist, and some of Chuck Patrick's homegrown burley twist around there too...
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Old 04-15-2008, 01:00 PM
Rocket_Jason Rocket_Jason is offline
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Ah yes. Oriental tobaccos in a corncob pipe are pretty good. I Like McClelland's Oriental #14 in mine. Right now I think I have that, Old Growie and Esoterica's Penzance in the shop.


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Old 04-15-2008, 07:04 PM
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Awsome Alan


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