Raymond Sauvage

I guess fullering the area between the face part and the handle hole wil gives you more material to draw out wider cheeks. This enables increesed surface contact area between the handle and the shaft.

Did you shut of the main gas valve at the tank? For safety reasons you should always close the valve at the tank. The gas lines needle valve, magnethic valves and hoses may not be designed to take the full pressure over time, when a valve is closed upstrem from the regulator.

I have seen lots of viking spear in my job as an archaeologist. The museum i work for has all prehistoric and medieval finds from the middle part of norway, and I recently worked with the finds catalouge. My guess our collections contain 800-1000 viking era spearheads (along with 800 swords and 1200 axes). Most spearheads have forgewelded sockets. Maybe 5-10 % have none-forgewelded sockets, mainly throwing spears and simpler types.

I have seen many medieval and earlier tongs during my studies. The reins cross-section varies but most are sqareish with some chamfering of the corners for comfort. In others had rounded cross-section at the ends. No need to make the whole of the rains round when you only grip the ends.

Wrouht has a tendency to split along the grain. With wrought iron it was more usual to make the eye by folding and forgewelding. However wrought welds up nicely, and it should be no problem to forgeweld the crack back together.

The problem is not flux damaging the firebrick. The dense firebrick in the floor of the Diamondback forges stands up to the flux (the dense firebrick is used as a floor on top of the soft firebrick lining). So the problem is to avoid getting old flux stuck on workpiecec when not forgewelding. Igues i wil try to get some kind of sacrificial sheet.

Since i´m not alowed to burn coal where i live, i curently use a Diamondback two burner welding forge. I´m very satisfied with the performance of the forge. However after a while there is a buildup of slagg and old flux on the forge floor (dense firebrick), which sticks to everything i put inside the forge. I use some kind of scraper to scrape out most of the flux, but this do not remove everythng. My solution at the moment is to place some flat bar on the forge floor. Does anybody haver other solutions to this problem?

Just a not about the smiths using smaller hammers. I have written my MA in archaeology about viking age forging equipment fram the midle part of Norway. I have examined over 30 grave finds with forging tools. The heaviest hammer was 450 gram. Some heavier hammers exist from south of Norway (Bygland) and from Mästermyr. Most hammers for forging range from 300 gram to about 500. The lightest hammer i documented was 45 gram, which i do not think was intended for forging. Also evidence points to the smith working in a sitting possition, making it dificult to use larger hammers efficiently. Most forges was at ground/floor level, and in some ocation we find sunken pits in front of the forges, interpreted as "sitting-pits". The well known carving from the Hyllestad portal, shows the smith in a sitting working position. Earlier reserchers have questioned if the smalish hammers and anvils found in Scandinavian grave-finds could be used as blacksmithing tools, and most have belived theese tools was used to make smaler objects and for working non-ferous material. Observing welding seems in axes, show that the normal practise was to make the eye, and to bult up the body and edge using forgewelding. With this technique it is posible to use smaller hammers working in a sitting position to make larger objects like axes.

Thanks for the comments and compliments. I absolutly agrea that it's posible to use a smaler anvil to make an axe using sliting and drifting techniques. Hoever using a 450 gram (15-16 oz) hammer is quite dificult. Looking at the archaeological record, most iron and steel tools, weapons and objects fram the viking area was made using forgeweldin,g to build up larger dimensjons from smaler sections. The only weapons i know of, that was forged out of one piece is arowheads, which are quite small. Making axes by forgewelding the eye seems to be the most usual method up until the mechanization and larger equimpment that came with the industrial revolution. If you do not have a powerhammer or a striker, you used less energy and fuel using this method compared to starting with larger dimentions and drawing out, slitting and drifting. The shape of the axe is not my design, it's an exact copy of an original axe. I guess the old siths has to be credited for the nice lines and propotions. The main difference between theese axes and modern ones is the shape of the shafthole, which in the viking axes are more of a rounded rectangled cross section (see attached figure). The shaft had to be more narrow than the shape that is usual today. I'mn not shure if the "beard" part has any advantages compared to modern axes. I gus you can fit a wider edge to lighter axe. Also it is said that the part was used to grab the enemies shields when used as a weapon. Raymond Sauvage Trondheim Norway

This week having some time to spare, i did some work at the shop making a smal bearded axe, trying out athentic viking age techniques. The purpose of the forging was to try out some hypothesises i have made after examining and documenting several early vking age axes at the archeological museum where i work. Picture 1: The main body of the axe was made of two pieces 20x8 mm mild steel, the larger section (180 mm long) was folded to a U-shape. A smaler section was tapered to a chisel shape, folded onto iself and fagotwelded, making a wedge shaped piece. Picture 2: The wedge was placed into the U-shaped larger section and then everything was forgewelded, making up the main part of the body. Picture 3: The shaft hole was formed using a mandrel and the "cheeks" drawn out. Then i forged the front part into an axe shape. This first form actualy makes a small axe like the earlist viking age axes (Petersens type A). However, i was ging to make a bearded axe. To make the beard-part i took a piece of 20x3 mm mild steel and drew out a section of each side towards both ends. Picture 4: The beard-section was folded onto itself and placed into position and forged tight onto the main axe body. For the edge I also placed a section of high carbon steel (piece of an old file forged to a thin shape) into the beard part. Everything was forged tight together. Picture 5: The beard and carbon steel edge was forgewelded onto the main body. The profile was cleaned up usin files and a hot cut. Picture 6: Finished Doing this forging enabled me to test the hypothesises i made when documenting and studying the original axes. The main thing I noticed in the original axec was the weldingseams runing lengthwise in the small sides, and perpendikular on the main sides. Forging this axe reproduced similar weld seams as the original. When forging an axe in this type of technique, It is posible to use a minimum of work. There is no need to slit and drift, and the material is built up where it is needed, thus minimising heavy forging. Looking at original viking age blacksmithing tools, the anvils was small, and the hammers lighter than today (300-700 gram). Making an axe using slithing and drifting technique, and heavy forging was simply not possible. Also you do not need to have larger sections of steel to make an axe, you simply build up enough material to make a large enough body. I used metric measurements in this post - simply because it's what I know best. If i tried using the imperial system it wold simply be the wrong numbers. I hope those of you using imerial understand my measurements. Raymond Sauvage Trondheim Norway

Like Thomas Powers said, two two smaller bellows was propably in common use aroud the 10th century and prior. Several iconographic descriptions shows two smaler bellows used for forging, in addition to the carvings from Hyllestad (12th century), two single action bellows is shown the Sigurd runic inscriptions and pictures at Ramsundberg, Södermanland in Sweden, dating to the tenth century. There are almoust no finds of bellows and bellow parts from this period. We have several tuyeres made from sopestone from 7th-10th century graves together with other forging tools. Theese tuyeres have a funel shaped hole in the midle, and the smalest opening at the forge. The wider opening on the other side is large enough to acomodate two smaler bellows. (Like this: http://www.unimus.no...useumsnr=T10624 and http://www.unimus.no...museumsnr=T8505) Exactly when larger duble action bellows came in use, is uncertan, propably at diferent times in diferent places. In the county of Lima och Transtrand in Sweden larger, but still single action bellows, was used for forging until the midle of the 20th century.

A simple radiocarbon dating sample from the handle would easily tell the age. <0,1 grams is enough theese days. Of course creationists tend to dismiss radiocarbon dating ...

I have also experienced hard spots in hot rolled mild steel here in Norway. I gues the steel economy is international so we get the same steel all over the world. I have typical run in to problems when teaching students to forge arowheads. When finished forging they usualy quench the workpiece in the slack tube from yellow heat (eaven though I tell them to lett it air cool). Later when they grind and files the profile and bevels on the arow head blade, they run into hard spots that can't be filed. What hapends is that some spots in the steel hardens when quenching in the slack tube. This proves that the carbon content is not well distributet in the stock, and there are spots with high enough carbon content to harden when quenshed.

OK, I did not find a way to upload the file on to the downloads cathegory, so here is my MA thesis as an atachment. Raymond MA_thesis_Rsauvage.pdf

I have been puzzeled about axes with round shaft holes also. Many of the axes from the Migratonal period seems to have a round shaft hole. Round shaft holes should not be very stable without any form of eternal stropping or somthing. Anyway, archaeologists tend to interprete everything they don´t quite understand as symbolic, military or ritual ... Most of the axes with a wraped and welded shaft hole seems to have a more squareish shape, a much more practical shape for shafting. I have seen several axes using the same welding technique as in your picture. I have also seen examples where the poll is welded in seperatly after the shafthole has been made. What I could realy use is an Igor (if you are familiar with the Discworld series). In reality the employment situation for archaeologists here is not great. In the past seven yerars i have had over 50 employments with the same employer, working almoust continiusly. So i think employing a research assistant at the moment is sort of unimaginable ... I promise to post pictures of exiting welding seems as i come acros them ... Thanks! Glad we are severeal lonies out there trying to figure out the history and bringing back lost knowledge of the craft. I have a copy of my thesis as pdf. I will upload it on my profile as soon as possible. (It´s in norwegian - but it got som pictures ... ) Thanks! Yes, I wil try to share as much as possible, hopefully this wil give me great input in my research!

Thought it was tim to introduce myself. I live in Trondheim, Norway, and I´ve been doing balcksmithing for the past ten years or so, some periods more than others. Now i have finaly have a smal shop in my garage, where i can work on my projects. I do mainly knives, and reproduction arowheads, axes and other tools from viking and medieval time. In daytime i am an archaeologist, and i wrote my MA thesis about blacksmithing tools and techniques in the viking period in Norway. So you could say this is my speciality in blacksmithing also, using smithing as a way to gain knowledge about the craftmanship of the long time gone smiths of the viking and medieval times. Later this year i wil start a series of test forgings to replicate the techniques used for creating axes in the transition from the migration period to the viking period. The shaftholes in the migrational period seems to be made by punching and drifting, while in the viking period they seems to be made by folding around a mandril shaped like the shafthole. I wil start by studying some of the original axes at the museum here, propably doing x-ray and taking exact measurements. Later i wil try to replicate the observations in the forge. I have hung around iforgeiron for a while, and have found lots of great information. The acumulated knowledge here is huge! I hope I also my contribute to this huge pond of blacksmithing knowledge. I have attached a picture of my shop, and a picture of a viking age rattle i just made for my youngest son. Sincerly Raymond Sauvage