Momatt

Yes poorly worded. I finished it up off to the post tomorrow to my nephew. He is grown and when his mom asked what he wanted for his birthday he said, “Viking axe from uncle Matt’s forge”

Ha ha frosty. I Guess I posted in wrong area and got the title changed as lesson, lol. I did think the original title of well time phot applied to the flux shot.

Very nice pictures and axe! I am still trying to get a wrought wrapped eye to turn out that nice. I find with wrought that I need to use a 1/4 inch round bar fuller on the step downs before using the anvil edges. Even though my anvil has nice radiuses if I go straight to the anvil it shears enough when I wrap the eye breaks. I’ve also discovered that the cheeks can’t be as thin as in mild before the bend. I bend at white heat and still the eye tears half the time.

Forge welding in a piece of sway bar from an old cutlass into an iron wrapped eye axe.

Thomas I will look forward to pictures of your oldest hammers. awrksmokey, my first hammer looks like yours. Is says made in Mexico. I drifted the eye larger and left it soft and use it for beating drifts. iron dragon that is an interesting hammer. Looks like it would move some metal.

Did you ever put handles on all of them? Nice looking hammers

Looks great how does it feel to forge with it?

Thanks latticino, I am working on a bigger drift, I like a bigger handle hole. I just used it to rough forge a drift from a section of jackhammer bit and also used the peen to spread a rr spike as wide as I could. The peen is aggressive. I punched the hole where the hammer tongs balanced. Not sure if I like a balanced hammer. I think most of mine are a little toward the point. This was some gooD wrought very little delamination while forging even when it hit a little colder

First successful welded face hammer I like it a lot. I started with a 3.5 pound church of wrought iron anchor chain and forge welded on a 1/2 inch face and a little wedge for the peen. I put it back in hot vinegar for a little more etch before I handle it.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts makes sense. I hope I have some thin w1 that might be better than 15n20. I have a horizontal bandsaw sawmill. Blades are very dark in an etch and I think just simple steel. That might be good too. I always have a ton of those as they are 12 foot long and I saw my stops and clamps far too often.

I was looking at him Austin’s website as I admire his work. I noticed something interesting, he mentions forge welding in a thin piece of high carbon right in front of the eye to make the eye less likely to separate while drifting. This surprised me, the mild always seems to weld better To itself than the carbon to mild does. I would be interested in your thoughts. I intend to try a thin piece of 15n20 I use for Damascus as an experiment in the eye of one and then drift the heck out of it and a mild piece at same time from same bar and see how they do.

I wanted to share pictures of a drift I bought from Brent Bailey. It’s really helped my axe making. I think the best feature is the knife like front edge. It’s a pretty crisp edge. It’s easy to started straight and you hardly have to worry about the point of the teardrop pointing at the bit. He makes nice stuff.

It’s going to be a bigger welded face Viking hammer. The piece weighs about 3.5 pounds now. Going to use 1/2 inch thick face. I tried to forge an axle once about the same size probably 4140. It laughed at me! This stuff is sooo soft when it’s white.

So this is 2.25 inch diameter wrought anchor chain. Three heats hand hammer to get to square. A mild steel bar hardly looks like I hit it after three heats. I am using a heavy hammer but one hand no striker.

Enjoying making these wrapped eye axes. After about 10 the eyes are coming out pretty good. I like this old wrought I have been trying. Once I learned it basically likes to be forged at the temperature of the sun they are coming out good. This one was neat as you can see the martinisite on the bit a lovely gray.

I also enjoyed this video made my wife and daughter watch it with me on fathers day. I’ve never seen wrought iron look so wet as that stuff. I don’t think any of that was flux. His forge welds sure were fun to watch. I’d never seen filler pieces welded into gaps before

Thanks. This is my biggest to date the head came out to just under 3.5 pounds. A lot of hammering and heats to go from my starting stock of anchor chain

Turned out nice Jon. Usually we hate fish mouth, but yours is cool !! Lol

Iron body punched this time not wrapped. I folded in half and fire welded a piece of 1/4 inch 1080. I liked the thickness of a full half inch high carbon bit when welding it in. Nice having enough meat to blend in the weld scarfs. Surprising how hard it is to move a half inch of high carbon with a 2 pound hammer. First weld

Enjoyed the videos Joe. You got some pretty good rebar! Skillfully welded. I enjoy watching metal move with a stiker. A smith with a good striker isn't too far off from a smith with a smaller power hammer.

Thomas, your question is what I ask myself all the time. Same reason that awful looking billet is held together with a hose clamp!!! I need to go buy a welder! benona, I will post the link. Would love to hear yours and others thoughts on the forge weld tack. It looks about 300 degrees below welding temp!!! Please watch the first 39 seconds of this video. How on earth did he get it to stick? moderators I apologize if I’m not supposed to post a link. I know there is a heat reserve in larger stock but man, I never get anything to stick if I don’t hit as soon as it kisses the anvil. I rarely waste the time even to brush before the initial weld. Never seen such a relaxed approach to a forge weld. My welds even if it’s just an axe bit always look like drop tong welds on skinny stock where you move like a mad man moving as fast as you can and it’s too cold a few seconds out of the forge.

Thanks David my tabs were way to small I think. Probably 1/8 inch. Gonna try this again shoot for half inch.

I want to try a welded face wrought hammer. I scrounged up some wrought, mostly half inch round bar and forge welded it up. I thought that would be the tricky part but I have a very nice solid 1.4 pound billet about an 1-3/8 square. Should not have punched the eye yet but at least I remembered that before I drifted it. Can’t get a piece of 1084 to stick to the face. My forge door isn’t wide enough to get it in there vertical with the steel face sitting on top. I tried to make the little chiseled tabs on the face but it’s not working. I’m going to try getting the hammer piece white hot quick Setting on the anvil vertically then going back to the forge for the face and quickly setting it on and tapping next. Fun project but not very successful yet. There is a YouTube video of a guy doing that and I looks way to cold but sticks like magic.