Prepping for our Georgia trip. (Pic Heavy!)

[Thadbow]

  In a few weeks my youngest son and I will be heading to my Buddys place in Georgia for his 1st Hog hunt.
Mission 1- Make a special gift for my friend who has generously offered to take us out.
My son and I decided to spin and forge out a frying pan for him similar to the one I made for St. Judes last year.





Mission 2- Forge a pair of knives with with my son that we can carry on the trip.
This is something that we really enjoyed! We both agreed nothing fancy, just simple brut de forge and razor sharp!
When it came to making the sheaths, we decided we could get a little fancier...




Mission 3- Make my son some special broad heads for the trip!
The last time I was hunting down there I was lucky enough to take a hog with a homemade head and it meant so much to me.
For his heads I decided to forge out some low layer Damascus and press it with the chevron dies.


After a little grinding..



I was shooting for 250g and I knew I needed to put these on a diet, I decided to fuller them on the mill with a little jig I made before I ground the bevels.




Once I heat treated them, the pattern was revealed!



Then it was back to grinding to get to final weight.

Once hand sanding was completed it was time to etch and darken the 1084!

As soon as the heads were sharp, I heat them up to 170deg and apply carnauba wax to seal them up from the elements.



Then it is time to put them on the shafts and have my son give them a test run.
The coolest things I make are memories with my kids!
Have a great day!
Thad

[glenbo]

Wow, that is impressive. Beautiful work.

[Bigriver]

Thad , that is so cool! Hope you make lots of great memories.Just got back from my first Georgia hog hunt at Paradise, hog hunting is now in my blood. It will be so fun!

[evgb127]

Looking good Thad!  Good luck!  We need to get together and shoot soon.

[awry]

Looks good .. all of it
How are attaching the broadheads to the shafts?

[TooManyHobbies]

Wow, amazing work!

[Thadbow]

Thanks Guys,
Brian, I hope to see you at the PBS banquet next month!

Evan, yes that would be great!

Awry,
  I slit the shaft for the thickness of the head, then I use some big Jims hot glue (amazing stuff!) on the head and insert it into the shaft.  Once seated, I spin the shaft on my arrow straightener to make sure the head is true, I have a few seconds to straighten before the glue sets up.  Then it is just a matter of tapering the end of the shaft and serving with some bow string.  Once completed, the serving is sealed with CA glue. 
Thad
 

[Gib]

Those heads and pan look awesome!!! Safe travels and enjoy the hunt , good luck

[Bigriver]

Thad, we will be there Tuesday, gonna be a blowout! See you then.

[Pappy 1]

Beautiful work, love the heads, they should do the trick, good luck on the hunt, nothing like hunting with your son.
Pappy

[rastaman]

Awesome stuff right there! Good luck and have fun!

[Brockett]

That's true craftsmanship. Absolutely impressive.

[Wudstix]

Incredible work!!!

[Thadbow]

Thanks guys!

[kennym]

Thad, you do some awesome work Sir!!