Matthew Paul

Yes sir there are two forge welds. I used some 1095 for the bits. Thank you!

Thank you. That means a lot coming from you basher. Your work is fantastic, especially your axe work.

Thank you. I made a second one today, non bearded. More of a corner axe.

Thank you fellas. The edge thickness was ~ 3/16" but the next one I'll cut it at around 1/4" I think.

This was my first go at both an asymmetrically wrapped and a bearded axe head. I started with way too small of stock as I did not want to wait for my steel shipment to arrive. So, I made a hatchet sized head. I started with a length of 1"x1/2" stock. I have been studying James Austin's work and wanted to give it a try. Here is the starting stock: The end upset and rough shaped. Eye formed. And wrapped Forge welded and shaped Split and bit shaped Forge welding. welded and ready to be hardened and tempered. All finished. Im not too happy with the look of the handle but I'm happy overall for a first try at this style. Thanks for looking! -Matt P.

What temp do you temper your O1 at? And, what size stock did you start with and how many of each? You can guess and get a good starting point... .9% and .75% Maybe start off with a temperature that you would use for 1080 on a test piece? It should be somewhere around .8% carbon.. This is no scientific method rather a semi educated guess and what i personally would do.

well I finished it. I ended up not using the pommel hardware or the handle that I had set up above... No less, I'm happy with the end result - somehow it stayed and ended up straight after all the forging heat treating etc... The handle is Hickory. I probably wont be selling this one as it's a little rough, probably take it out in the woods and see how it chops cuts etc...

Thanks fellas. I made a matching hammer but a bit smaller from a cut off section of a pick axe.

Very nice! I like that!

Yesterday I finished up a seax. I had intended for it to have a hand rubbed finish, but after the hardening and tempering I liked the look that it had, So I ran with that. It started out as 1/4"x 1 1/4" 1095. Forged to shape with a full height flat grind and hidden tang. I went with the typical ABS style for the Ricasso&Choil area, and the typical broken back seax tip. The blade has a slight reserve to it. I was contemplating having a guard and pommel but decided to go with a more simplistic handle. The blade has an 8" cutting edge, and is 1 1/2" tall. I’m happy with the outcome but am unsure of the handle design, as of now. I'll be taking it to the woods for some testing next week, using it for fire prep, food prep, and some camp crafts such as making pot hangers, chairs, etc. I'm curious as to how strong the tip will be. The blade was edge quenched and draw tempered, leaving the tip a bit softer than the rest at a purplish/brown range. Any feedback would be great. Next up is a 5 1/4" bladed general use woods knife that I forged. It is a full tang and made from 3/16" 1095 stock. The blade is 1 1/2" tall, and has a full height convex "grind" The handle material is stabilized maple burl with black liners and mosaic pins. The spine of the knife has decorative vine file work in which the voids are filled black. This knife was a joy to make. Cooking knives were very popular this Christmas season. I ended up doing 8 total, 6 - 8" Chef's knives, a paring knife, and a Santoku style blade of 5 1/2" Here is a matching set of a Chef's knife and Forged paring knife, both of 1095 with matching Desert ironwood scales. And the Santoku And finally here is the first of a new model - I call it the Dire Wolf after the largest wolf known to ever live. It has a 6" blade and is forged from 1/4" x 1 1/2" 1095. The handle is stabilized and black dyed box elder burl. I have done many more in the past few months but these are a nice sampling of the work. Thank you for looking and I would appreciate any feedback on them. -Matthew Paul

That hunter is amazing. Great work!

Thanks fellas! Ive been using it daily. I actually stopped using the 3 1/2# except for heavy work. I really like it.

I forged a claw hammer for my father for Christmas. I hope that he likes it! It started out as a broken leaf spring out of the front of a Peterbuilt rig. I cut the section off with a chop saw and then squared and upset the stock. the whole thing was shaped by hand, no electric used besides the initial cut with the saw. I did not feel like hot cutting that sucker. Anyway, enough chat, here are some pics: This shows the starting material and the tools used, all hand forged by myself. The stock was upset to give a larger cross section and a shorter length. The eye was punched with the wooden handled punch and drift that are shown in the first picture and the claw area is beginning to get forged into shape. Some more work on what will become the claw. The claw shaped before being hot cut down the middle. The head finish forged and heating up for some heat treating. The head hardened and ready to be tempered I'll add more pics once I carve a hickory handle and get it all hung. Thanks for looking, Matt P

Alright, exit 15 is only an hour from me. have a look at the 4x4 from old world if you want to stay simple and cheep.

Good point Frosty. And thanks Andrew!

I started on a 4" diamiter round slug of mild sunk into a stump, then I used a $50 Harbor freight junker, and after that I graduated to a 90# fisher. I have since moved on to a 150# finsher with a few anvils in between. When I first started I thought that the face of the anvil had to be like glass but it does not. I love that my anvil has a nice grove worn into it. It actually helps with forging a convex blade. You don't need anything fancy really, although that is never a bad thing to have. Some people say that the horn does not get used by a knife maker, but i use the horn when forging the rough bevel on my knives and then smooth it out on the face. Really, anything will do though. I have a new 150# Emerson sitting in the shop that i never use, I forge on the old fisher instead. I just like it better. I'm not sure if you have any experience forging but old work anvils offers a 4x4x4 chunk of steel, which would be a decent start if you are totally new to this. I'm not sure how far into the Adirondacks you are but if you don't mind driving you are welcome to stop over at my shop sometime, in Orange County.

I wanted a nice Cross Pein hammer besides the 3 1/2# that I use, but did not have the money to buy a big dollar hammer and wanted to make my own. I was looking for something just under 2#. I happened to have a spare/junk 2# Engineer hammer laying around from harbor freight. So I cut some steel off of the one face so that I would be a little under 2# and be able to forge the cross pein without it being too long. Next time I'll use some known steel and make it from bar stock. But for a first hammer, I was fine with using what I had around, it works very well. Not sure what kind of steel they use but I'm guessing that the carbon content is very low. I did a water quench and did not need to temper it. It's a little softer than the J Sharp hammer that my buddy loaned me. This was a fun project for a day off of knife making and well worth the few lbs of propane. Here are some photos of how it started and how it finished up. I love it! Thanks for lookin! Matt P

Thanks. Thomas, it should be around 2lb with the hardware. I did a bunch more of file work:

I'm in the process of making a 13 1/2 bladed single edged short "sword" from 5160. It started out as 1/4" x 1.5" x 17" flat stock. I forged the blade to shape and gave it an even distal taper. I left it a little thick so that it could be used to process wood if someone felt the desire. I have done no reasearch on traditional oe historical methods, and this is not intended to be a historical reproduction of any kind. Here is a photograph of it just after the blade was forged. You can see that the tang has not been forged into shape yet. This is a photo after the tang was forged. This is the raw material which will become the guard and pommel (mild steel) Here is a shot of the sword and sketch of what the handle layout might be. And finally, the guard forged and fit. The guard was polished I roughed out the handle. It's maple burl, not sure if I'll go with this material or not. And I forged and fit the first piece of the pommel. I got the jelly bean forged. It's the counter weight/cap for the pommel.

I had forged some pattern welded stuff before, but never finished the knives as I was always short on steel for what I wanted to do. Well, just before the Hurricane, I had forged a billet of random pattern, 55 layer, 1095 and 15 N 20. It was forged by hand with the help of another person operating a sledge hammer acting as a striker. I forged this billet into a knife that is based off of my "Drifter" model. I'll list some specs below. Pattern Welded "Drifter" Blade Steel: 1095 & 15 N 20, 55 Layers Thickness: 5/32" Height: 1 3/16" Length: 4" Grind: Convex Rounded Spine Handle Material: Purpleheart Hardware: Brass Widest Point: 15/16" Narrowest Point: 3/4" Tallest Point: 1 1/8" Shortest Point: 15/16" Length: 4" Largest (comfortable) Hand Size: 4 3/4" across palm, measure 1" below knuckles It was a blast to make. I think that the next one I will fold a few more times. Thanks, Matt P

Thomas, At the time that I posted this, I had not found any writings about any axes being made this way. A couple of you guys enlightened me ;) Thanks, Matt

Jon, Ive updated since then ;) but it worked for what it was worth.

I just purchased and watched the DVD. Words can't descibe how awesome and amazing that was.

Have a look at the craftsman 2x42. It's no KMG, but better than what you are using. I believe that the cost is about $200