The Swedish Carpenter’s Axe: Fixing a Poll for Forge Welding
I’ve let this website lay dormant for almost 2 years now while time has flown by in my shop – much of it spent on non-axe related work. But that doesn’t mean that I’ve neglected axe forging – actually far from it. I have forged a number of larger Norwegian style hewing axes that I am quite proud of – with edge lengths of about 7″ and weights of 5+ pounds. Some of these are even out for trial use and evaluation among the traditional house builders of Norway! I have also put a lot of effort on refining my techniques and tooling for forging Swedish style carpenters’ axes. This post deals with forge welding polls onto those axes, which can be a bit tricky if you decide to challenge yourself by not tacking them in place by modern, electric welding (to keep them securely in place for the forge weld).
I learned to forge this axe from the very excellent Mattias Helje in Sweden in 2015. When he got to the poll-welding stage he confidently gripped both the short poll and the axe body together with a pair of tongs and tacked the forge weld in a coke fire (which I also use). In the process the tongs reached a high, yellow heat on the tips but kept their grip long enough to get the tack finished in the upper corner. From there, the rest of the weld was carried out in the usual way – assured by Mattias’ expertise. I found this process to be a bit daunting, and, until recently, it didn’t always work for me – leaving me in the position of going back to tack the poll in place via TIG welding to complete the forge weld.
To work around the difficulties I had with the tong-hold, but also avoid the use of electrical welding, I decided to try a blind rivet to hold the poll and axe body together during the forge weld. It’s not hard to do and doesn’t take much time. However, it does take a certain feel to get it right during the two phases of blind riveting it. The trick is do the hot, blind riveting at the right tempo. If you do it too slowly the rivet can get too hot and bend (especially if the rivet is thinner). If you do it too fast the end of rivet may not heat up enough to upset within the poll or axe body and get a solid grip.
I would be happy if any of you could recount to me your experience with using this technique for welding axe polls, hammer faces and the like. I’m sure some of you have already thought of it or learned it and use it from time to time. I love discovering more about the vast array of techniques that traditional blacksmiths and other tradespeople use to solve problems by simple and elegant means. Finally, I wish you all safety and equanimity in these uncertain times of the covid-19. I feel lucky to be doing what I do and to get the chance to share it with you.
Yours, Jim.
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- Here are the fitted and marked pieces which will get welded together The axe body is of mild steel and the poll is of 1075 steel. The poll is bent very slightly concave where it fits to the axe body so that it sits solidly on its corners without rocking across the middle.
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- Another view of the fit-up.
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- Another-nother view of the fit-up.
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- Rounded stock for the blind rivet forged from W1 steel (1% carbon). The diameter is about 0.2″ (5mm) and it is marked for cutting at .75″ (19mm). Note: this was too long. I should have cut it at .55″ (14mm).
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- The first center-punch mark is enlarged in the poll so that the diameter of the conical impression is a little more than 0.2″ (the diameter of the blind rivet). This will give the rivet a bit of lead-in during the riveting operation, and make the punches job a little easier in the next operation.
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- This impression is immediately followed by sinking a very shallow (about 0.1″ / 2.5mm deep) hole into it with a slender punch. The punch face diameter is a little less than 0.2″ (i.e. a little smaller than the blind rivet diameter). Apologies for the blurred image.
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- The rivet is driven into the punched depression to a depth of about .25″ (6mm). This is done at a measure pace and with a lot of feeling to insure that the end of the rivet has a little time to heat up and upset into the hole as it is sunk in. This will insure a solid, blind connection. Apologies for the blur.
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- The rivet is straightened with a drift before the assembly is cool.
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- The rivet was a little too long so the exposed length was ground down to about 0.3″ (7.5mm).
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- Here is the riveted poll.
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- Checking the register of the poll to the body. Looks good!
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- The center-punch mark on the axe body is deepened as it was on the poll.
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- And likewise, a shallow hole is punched to receive the end of the rivet shank from the poll.
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- Heavier scale is chipped from the weld area of the axe body.
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- Appearance of the chipped poll area of he axe body.
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- The weld area is cleaned thoroughly with a bit of borax and brushing.
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- The dissolved scale is brushed away.
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- The poll is aligned over the axe body and VERY CAREFULLY driven down onto it. This is done at an unhurried tempo with a lot of control to make sure that the rivet has the right amount of time to heat on the end and upset into the hole for a solidly riveted bond.
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- Finishing the riveting.
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- The assembled poll and axe. They will be fluxed with anhydrous borax and welded in a coke fire. The blind rivet fixes the pieces very securely together during the weld. The tongs can now grip the axe on the socket under the blade, which will protect them from the extreme heat of the welding fire.
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- The finished poll.
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- The finished poll.
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- The finished poll.
Forging Study for a 5″ Norwegian Carpenter’s Axe
On my most recent trip to Norway in May, 2017 I got to meet with the eminent traditional house builder and author Henning Olstad. Besides visiting his beautiful farm I had the opportunity to study several of the axes that he uses everyday to build houses in the many traditions of Norway. One commonly used axe was simply designated as a “5 inch carpenter’s axe” and it seemed to me like a good model to learn more about Norwegian axe forging. I made tracings and took pictures of this axe, and asked Henning to explain some of the characteristics which were important to its performance. In addition to all this I had recorded the forging of an almost identical axe in Norway by the blacksmith Øystein Myhre 2015 at his beautiful smithy in Sandefjord.
Based on this information I began my first trial-forging of this axe in April. The goal was to record carefully the process of forging a fairly close rendition of Henning’s axe so that my follow-up versions could “hit the mark” – so to speak. It turns out that I got quite close with this first version, and I am very happy with it! If anything it came out a little bit larger than intended (5.75″ edge vs. the goal of 5.0″, and 1.8 kg. vs. the goal of about 1.65 kg.) I have already started another 5″ axe and downsized the starting materials for it about 10% to aim for the lower weight. Hopefully the next one will look as nice as I think this one does!
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- This is the starting piece for the axe body. It is mild steel and weighs 2.10 kg. The markings show its dimensions and the layout for fullering the eye.
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- The body of the axe has been fullered to divide and distribute its mass for the eye and blade.
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- I’ve hit my planned length- and width dimensions for the eye material and the body material is ready to fold.
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- Here the body has been folded in preparation for the first forge weld. A shim of 1075 steel has been inserted at the eye to secure the weld there as I feel that it improves the strength of the weld at this critical position. It will blend into the body during the weld and not be visible in the finished piece.
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- The body is now welded and drawn down a bit. I got it so hot for welding that I found some steel in my forge afterwards which had melted off of the body and cast itself into the tuyere. It was a very solid weld!
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- Here I have used a newly-forged and ground mandrel to shape the eye of the axe. Normally speaking, I would not shape the eye so close to finish at this stage, but I kept testing and modifying the mandrel during the process and went further than I had intended. Nevertheless, the eye turned out very well.
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- Here I have forged a plate of 1060 steel to add to the poll of the axe for toughness and balance. I cut the long sides of the plate with a round fuller so that fins on the edges are formed which I can bend forward to clasp the back of the axe.
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- Now the steel plate has been forge welded to the body. I really enjoy this process and it went very well!
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- In preparation for fitting a bit into the front of the axe I cut a slot into the body and forged the lips of the cleft to match the cross-section of the bit. You also see the traditional axe tongs which I learned about and copied from old examples which were collected and used by my friend Mattias Helje. They are eminently suited to their job and hold the work like a vise!
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- This picture shows the form of the steel bit and its fit-up to the cleft in the axe body. The steel is W1 (1% carbon) and most of it is in front of the axe, with a thin steel “fin” which is embedded in the body. In fact, the fin is quite a bit wider than it needs to be, but I had cut the slot for it too deep earlier in the forging process and I decided to fill it with steel.
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- A better view of the fit-up. The steel is about 1/2″ thick in front.
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- The steel is trimmed and ready to weld. This joint geometry was a joy to weld together – something about it just seemed to go better than usual. It was partly to do, perhaps, with the parts being heavier that I am used to, but I also think the stumpier, shorter taper on the lips was beneficial. The mild steel blended so easily into the W1, and I will soon try this approach again.
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- Here the steel has been welded in and the blade has been drawn close to its finished profile. All of the shaping of the axe to this point has been done entirely by forging, but there is still a detail I want that I will have to cut in. On future axes I plan to forge it too!
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- The finished axe.
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- Another view.
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- Another ‘nother view.
Axes for Sale
In 2016 I traveled to 3 places to teach or demonstrate traditional axe forging. They were: Ferndale, California (Spring Conference / California Blacksmith Association), Peters Valley, New Jersey (the PV school of crafts) and Salt Lake City, Utah (ABANA Conference). In each case I brushed up on my skills in the weeks leading up to the event, and ended up with about 15 unfinished axes at the end of the year. Now, in 2017, I am starting to finish them all and they will be available for sale! If you are interested in what you see here please PM me via Facebook or the message feature at Forgedaxes.com and I can quote you sizes and prices – and send you pictures of individual axes. The edge lengths on the pieces you see here range from 2.4″ (Swedish style felling axe) to 7.9″ (Viking style broad axe).
Making Viking Age Tool Steel
This year I will be teaching a class on the making and use of a common type of tool steel which was forged into tools and weapons in the Viking era. It is now often called “Shear Steel” to denote its high quality, i.e., suitable for demanding use in the blades of shears. The process will give the students a fascinating look into the relationship between heat, carbon, iron and steel, which is the fundamental basis for the Iron Age. The material we produce will have all of the characteristics we would want in a simple, modern carbon steel except one – boring homogeneity. It will be very close to the the tool steel a Viking blacksmith would have been familiar with. One of its remarkable and historic qualities will be its watery, layered structure – not seen in any modern steel. When welded into the blade of a tool or knife, then hardened and polished shear steel will have a beautiful grain like fine wood which is both decorative and evocative of the lively and earthy materials created and used by our ancestors.
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- An old bar of wrought iron (left) is forged into flat strips (middle) which are then cut to equal lengths and sandblasted free of scale (right).
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- The strips are tack welded to a base plate which is sized to fit into a metal box. This keeps the strips spaced apart for the packing of charcoal dust.
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- The wrought iron strip array, metal box, lid (front), and charcoal dust – ready for assembly.
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- The packed box which will be densely topped off with charcoal dust so that the wrought iron strips are completely covered.
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- The box has its lid tacked on and is ready to be loaded into the furnace. For safety’s sake the tacking is minimal so that the box cannot hold significant pressure.
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- The charge is fired in the furnace for a period of about 4.5 hours at a temperature of about 2000 degrees Fahrenheit. Higher temperatures and longer times both lead to greater carbon uptake in the charge. It is easily possible to over-carburize the metal – even to the point of creating cast iron.
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- The box is taken from the furnace and allowed to cool to room temperature for a day. It would be a huge mistake to open it while it was still warm since the charcoal dust would burst into flames – quite possibly creating a safety hazard and damaging the blister steel.
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- The box acquires a heavy crust of iron oxide in the furnace and can only be used a time or two – even if constructed of heavy steel. It is advisable to use tubing or plate steel which is 3/16″ thick for one use and 1/4″ thick or more for multiple uses. Thinner steel will oxidize completely through the wall and ruin the charge / create a fire hazard during the course of the severe firing conditions necessary to carburize the iron.
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- The blister steel and charcoal dust are retrieved from the box. Strangely, the charcoal dust seems hardly to be affected by the firing process, aside from being slightly lighter gray in appearance due to its mineral content (white oxides of calcium, potassium, etc.). The blister steel looks shiny and irregular on the surface, with the characteristic blisters which give it it’s name. In this case the metal looks a bit over-carburized with its melted appearance. It will have to be folded together with some un-carburized wrought iron to balance out the carbon content.
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- The charge of blister steel, along with the mild steel base plate. The base plate also gets a high carbon content during this process, and can be useful as such.
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- A small packet of blister steel is attached to a handle for welding and folding into shear steel.
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- The blister steel is re-heated for welding.
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- The first welding heat on the blister steel must be done very gently since the material has a very weak grain structure and is very brittle at first. On the plus side, it is Very easy to weld together – quite a joy to work with!
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- After some hand-welding the bar can be carefully worked on a power hammer.
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- The new, raw shear steel is drawn into a bar for folding and layering.
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- The bar is nicked for folding. This is actually best done with a narrow fuller to help keep the bar from breaking during folding.
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- Folding.
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- Folded.
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- The bar is re-welded, then drawn and folded several more times to get better grain structure and finer defect-distribution in the shear steel. This will give a higher-quality product.
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- As the forging process progresses the shear steel quickly begins to behave like nice, high-carbon steel. It becomes tough yet malleable and can be worked on the power hammer like modern steel.
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- Shear steel as the cutting edge (lower edge) in a Viking style knife blade forged of fine wrought iron and shear steel.
My First Go at a Horned Anvil in the Viking Style
Over the last couple of weeks I put some of my free time into forging a small, horned anvil with my friend Jonathan. I chose a simple form reminiscent of some of the horned anvils of the Viking era – basically a squarish anvil with a tapered base and a small, flush horn off of one face. The idea was to gain some skill with assembling an anvil body with a horn and to face both the body and the horn with one plate of steel. For the body and horn I chose mild steel and for the face I chose 1060 steel which withstands forge welding quite well and is nicely hardenable. To join the body and the horn so I could heat them together in a coke forge I borrowed an idea that I got from a random picture I saw on the internet. It was a copperplate engraving which showed the horn tenoned through the top of the anvil – probably from the Diderot encyclopedia. I scarfed the horn so that I could blend the seam of the weld to the body and it worked quite well. The steel face was tacked on with a few TIG welds to keep it on during its welding process. When it all survived the quench to harden the face I was very relieved! The anvil weighs 4.7 kg (10 lbs 6 oz) and is a little over 7 inches tall.
Below are pictures of the process and here is a LINK to video footage of welding the horn.
Shop Opening at Wrought Academy on Saturday, September 3rd
Date: September 3rd, 2016 (Saturday / 10am – 6pm)
Location: Wrought Academy / 2440 Adeline Street / Oakland CA 94607
Free Event / All are Welcome!
If you’re curious about the shop and the classes offered at Wrought Academy this is your chance to drop by and see what’s going on! We will be forging throughout the day to give you an idea of some of the skills taught here. Class projects will be on display as well as pieces from Jim Austin’s collection of forge work and tools. See you at the forge!
These pictures show the action at a recent blade-smithing class at Wrought Academy:
Forging Tour of Norway and Sweden / May 2016
This year in May I got the opportunity to return to the Hjerleid Craft School in Dovre, Norway to teach a one week class on forging hammers in the Viking tradition. The year before I had taught Viking era axe forging – also at Hjerleid. Benjamin Kjellman-Chabin, the regular instructor of these students during their one-year blacksmithing course, was gracious enough to open this possibility to me once again, and the director of the school, Helle Hundevat, was generous enough give it her blessing. The students were a fine, enthusiastic lot and all succeeded in forging hammers by a historical and fascinating set of techniques.
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- The blacksmithing, wood carving and joinery shops of Hjerleid.
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- Hjerleid student quarters.
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- Gudbrandsdal countryside near Dovre.
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- The students will forge this size and style of hammer. It is inspired by beautiful pieces from the Viking age.
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- Firing up the coke forge to get started.
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- Forge welding a high carbon steel face to a mild steel body – the first step of making a forge welded hammer.
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- A hammer billet with a forge welded face that has been squared and marked for punching.
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- Punching the hammer eye.
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- Driving in the drift to enlarge the eye.
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- Refiining the form.
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- Marcus and Magnus shape the hammer on a special bolster.
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- Using a 2″ fuller to shape the langets.
Simple Viking Style Anvils
I’ve been trying my hand at larger forge welding projects and decided to make some simple anvils in a style common to the Viking Age. The anvils were presumably mortised into stumps fairly deeply to give them good support for hammer work. The main challenge in anvil forging is to weld a high carbon steel face plate to a body of mild steel. The weights of the anvils shown range from 5 to 8 kilograms (11 to 18 pounds). The forge welding is done in a coke fire with the high carbon steel face tack-welded on the corners to the mild steel body. The most important thing is to be patient and get the pieces evenly heated to a very bright welding temperature without burning the steel face. Anhydrous borax is used as the flux. The welding is done with striking hammers wielded by two-man teams – usually myself and a friend. It typically requires 8 or 10 heats to finish welding and shaping a small anvil and the work is hot and strenuous. Nevertheless, we are gaining experience in heating larger masses of metal and learning different methods to get the welding done. The videos show short segments of the welding work. Someday I hope to turn out similar anvils with horns so I can forge Viking style axes with the proper tools!
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- Anvils with Freshly Welded Faces
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- Finished Anvils – Hardened, Tempered and Polished
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- Close-Up showing Finely Filed Finish of the Faces
Forging the Swedish Carpenter’s Axe
Since watching Mattias Helje forge a beautiful, traditional carpenter’s axe in Sweden in 2015 I have done several trials of forging this axe myself. At first I concentrated exclusively on the eye and socket – the hardest part of the axe to understand. Recently I began to forge and understand the axe as a whole. In the forging process all of the features of the axe are interrelated, and these relationships have to be understood just as well as the forging techniques. This takes a LOT of practice. Numerous axes were started to answer just a single question about a measurement or choice of technique, and there were many questions to answer. At last it looks like I’m getting close to my goal – there are only a few points to clear up about the forging of this piece before I get ready to demonstrate it in April for the California Blacksmith Association.
This axe is 7.25″ long, has an edge length of 4.75″ and weighs 1270 grams. The body is mild steel and the edge and poll are 1075 steel.
During the Summer
Here are a few pictures of axes I made in the last couple of months, as well as some pictures from the Sonoma Coast and an amazing sunset as seen at my shop in West Oakland. The customer for one of the axes requested that I overlay some silver runes onto the poll. It was a gift for one of his commanding officers in the Army.
