Axe steel ???

[Lysdexik]

What type of steel for axe/hatchet heads, If I don't have a project for this weekend I could end up - SHOPPING - I get the shivers just saying it.
Paul.

[CBrann]

I have used mild steel, wrapped around a drift, with a forge welded high carbon bit

also I have made an axe head from a large piece of leaf spring, punched and forged into a axe shape.....

[Pope686]

I did an axe with two RR spikes works great

[matt87]

Assuming you want a wood-cutting axe ideally you will want a steel which can hold a razor edge but tough enough not to deform. Many will suffice -- 1095, O1, D2, 1045 etc. so long as they are correctly heat-treated. Firewelding a tool steel bit to a mild, medium carbon or soft iron body is an ancient way of reducing carbon steel use and reducing the importance of the correct heat treatment, but is unnecessary. Of course even mild steel will hold a better edge than a bronze axe...

[ThomasPowers]

Actually the hardness of early low carbon wrought irons wasn't any better than that of a hammered bronze edge. It's real virture lay in that you can make iron almost anywhere and it was a lot harder to find tin for bronze.

Of course as soon as they figured out increasing the carbon content and proper heat treat then the vicker's hardness of a steel edge could be a couple of times that of a bronze one!

A classic material for axes would be 1070 not quite as brittle as higher carbon steels but quite enough carbon to harden nicely. Axes are often sharpened in the field with a file and so you want them to be a bit softer than a knife that takes a stone.