“Axe for the Woods”…finished
On February 20, 2014 by jaustinAbove is yesterday’s axe after grinding, heat treating and polishing. I think it’s a good effort in this direction but I would like to widen the poll a bit on the next version. I am pleased with the mandrel I made and am getting a better idea of how closely bound the shape of the
An Axe for the Woods?
On February 19, 2014 by jaustinI thought I’d try my hand at forging an axe with an asymmetrically welded eye which might be useful for work in the woods. I made a new mandrel which helped me give the axe a more wedge-like cross section – which I would expect to see on felling and limbing axes. This axe was
Refining Wrought Iron
On February 18, 2014 by jaustinHaving undertaken to forge a large Type M battle axe from wrought iron and shear steel, I’m now beginning to refine a quantity of wrought iron from large, rusty square bar that I acquired last year. In this case refining amounts to forge welding a stack of bars together into a single new bar, drawing
Two New Axes for Australia
On December 18, 2013 by jaustinA Collector in Australia contacted me about purchasing an axe and ended up buying two! He was quite pleased with what he received. In his words: “Hi Jim, The Axeheads arrived today without any delays. They are very high quality and I couldn’t be more pleased with them. They are excellent! The workmanship is truly
Forging Viking Style Hammers
On December 11, 2013 by jaustinI’ve been investigating traditional methods for forging hammers over the last few months. When tool steel was an expensive commodity, such as in the Viking era (and even right up to the mid-nineteenth century) hammers were not normally made of a solid billet of this costly material. Rather they had faces and peens of the