A friend brought me an adze forged from wrought iron that had surfaced on the agricultural land that his family has owned since 1845. He asked me to re-steel it so, …after overcoming my reluctance to risk a historical artifact on my first attempt at re-steeling, I set a piece of 1075 onto it. I did this in the same fire that I used to weld the bits into two axes. Though they will all be edge-ground and heat treated, I am very pleased that the axe on the left is solely forged to shape without any grinding at this stage.
Adze and Axes Ready for Bit Welding
An adze and two axes are ready to have their 1075 bits welded.
Adze and Axes with Welded Bits
Here are those same tools with the bits welded. The blades of the axes are “as-forged” with no grinding. The axe on the left is completely hammer-formed whereas the axe on the right had some grinding done to refine the langets. Now to finish-grind the blades and heat treat them all!
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