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Traditional Trade Axe "wrap & weld" construction WIP


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This is how they use to do it.No electricity..
*The Materials: A 9 1/2" long, 1 1/2" wide, 1/4" thick strap of 1018. or wrought iron of appx size..
* A 3/8" thick forged to wedge shaped piece of 1095
Thats it for the materials..Smiths of yesteryear kept the cost down as much as possible, hence the mild steel body and high carbon cutting edge. Good steel was scarce so as little of it was used as possible..
Well we are going ot use the coal forge with a hand cranked blower. Remember, no electricity ;)

We use a large deep fire to weld in and bank the coal up.
*Heres a pic of the axe head ready for its first welding pass. The eye roughly formed and the high carbon bit in place...
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*After the very first welding pass, as you can see it still needs a couple more before starting any other magor work..
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*Ok, at this point its been three welding heats and the drift as been used the first time to set the eye shape. It wll be used again in a step or two for the final shaping. You will see a pic of it there..
Here is where you see how good your weld is ;) We use a fuller to forge a notch in the bottom of the blade. The edge of the anvil can be used as well. If your welds not right here you'll bust the head apart!
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*Ok, now the head is ready for shaping. You know that funny looking thing on the back of your smithing hammer???? This is what its for, spreading the blade out wide :D
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*Here we have spread the blade out and am getting ready to square it up to profile..
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*Now we use the drift for final adjustments on the eye since about all the heavy forging is done. You can true it up again later if needed..
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*Alright, since your using mild steel for the body its going to forge at a differnt rate than the high carbon. It will spread out over the high carbon completely jacketing it. The edge of the blade needs to be trimmed up. Again since we dont know what a 2" x 72" grinder is ;) we are using a handled hot cut to trim it up..
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*Again no electricity so no grinder..We put it in the vise and hot rasp the head..
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*Here we have a close final shape, stamped with a touch mark. Any filework on the spine and stoning will be done cold..This is what it would pretty much look like as a trade axe. We did go ahead and hot rasp the edge and set the bevels but you cant tell it here..Here we would have brought the edge up to temp and quenched it in the slack tub. Then final sharpening and out to some lucky frontiersman to use..
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From what I have researched over the years I think this is a pretty close representation of how a traditional trade axe may have been made..Thanks
Please any questions or comments, fire away..

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There has been many groups that have traded with many other groups over time. You may want to narrow down trade axe to a time period and civilization. If you are going for a American made Indian trade axe for say the 1700 - 1800 you are somewhat off in you shape. And when I say off I just mean for the most common shape being made by Americans around that time period. There were many many different shapes made, but that is not the most common one of that time period.

What time are you portraying?

The small axe dose look vary useful in any regards. Not trying to be ugly, It just seams people always say they are reproducing something and don't give any specific context to when or ware the reproduction is to be from.

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I really enjoy welded steel bit tools. It did make me think when I was watching a video from perhaps the late 60s to mid 70s out of Colonial Williams Burg. The master smith was making a small belt axe, and he just pulled the wrought Iron body from the fire, forged and bent it. Then took a welding heat, I thought that maybe they had edited out the steel bit being placed in between. Nope. He welding the body, then took a second welding heat and used a drop tong weld and just welding the steel bit right on the side. He did not seem to be worried about the steel not being centered at all just plopped it right on there. When he was done the axe looked great. Since the steel hung out by about a inch I guess by the time some one had worn all the way through the steel bit to where it would be off center it would be worn out any way. Just a different way of doing things. I wish I could remember who the smith was, It was the master of the shop right before Peter Ross.

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Ive never heard of that method before, sounds cool. Id like to see that. I have seen a method where the HC steel is folded over the outside edge of the axe head instead of between like in the pics above.

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Over the years of watching demos I have seen it done with a single piece on the the out side, in the middle and as a "U" shaped over the outside of the welded body. I guess it just goes to show the ingenuity of the various smiths at how they thought it ought to be best. You have come a long way in smithing abilities, you done good. B)

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One of the methods used to come up with a typology of medieval knives is how the steel edge is applied, *all* those methods and even a simple but weld were used in Medieval European knifemaking.

When you have worn through the steel part you take it back to the smith and have him weld on a new piece.

"Knives and Scabbards", Museum of London, has information on how medieval knives were made---and out of over 300 medieval examples excavated in London I don't recall a single double edged one!

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Over the years of watching demos I have seen it done with a single piece on the the out side, in the middle and as a "U" shaped over the outside of the welded body. I guess it just goes to show the ingenuity of the various smiths at how they thought it ought to be best. You have come a long way in smithing abilities, you done good. B)

Thanks, there for a while (I taught my wife to make these) we were welding up about 1-2 of these a day. When you weld that much 4-5 days a week you get plenty of practice :lol: Most are more finished and all that but some folks like these with the forge finish..I enjoy welding, its probably my favorite part of smithing..
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Thanks, there for a while (I taught my wife to make these) we were welding up about 1-2 of these a day. When you weld that much 4-5 days a week you get plenty of practice :lol: Most are more finished and all that but some folks like these with the forge finish..I enjoy welding, its probably my favorite part of smithing..



Running a shop with your wife huuu..... Whats that like? Any tips or pointers, Do's & Don'ts? My Sweetheart is a smith also and there just may be a shop in out future.
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How'd you hold the bit in place for welding? I've had problems with them falling out or moving in the fire, on the way to the anvil, or when I start to weld. Last time I set the bit deep enough into the split that the sides stuck out proud of the bit, then folded them down in front of it to sort of encapsulate the bit. That held it in place for the welding heat.

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How'd you hold the bit in place for welding? I've had problems with them falling out or moving in the fire, on the way to the anvil, or when I start to weld. Last time I set the bit deep enough into the split that the sides stuck out proud of the bit, then folded them down in front of it to sort of encapsulate the bit. That held it in place for the welding heat.

to hold it in forge the high carbon peice to a diamond like <> and then clamp it in your vice hot, take a chisle and scarf the edge (cut notches and fold them to the outside) then heat the wrapped peice put the bit in and hit either side, this will set the folded out notches to sink into the body of the axe, then heat and weld there is alot of youtube videos on this topic
Josh
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to hold it in forge the high carbon peice to a diamond like <> and then clamp it in your vice hot, take a chisle and scarf the edge (cut notches and fold them to the outside) then heat the wrapped peice put the bit in and hit either side, this will set the folded out notches to sink into the body of the axe, then heat and weld there is alot of youtube videos on this topic
Josh


I've tried that technique and didn't have much luck with it. Later I was told that you really have to move fast to make it work; if the burrs have time to heat up, they just collapse when you try to embed them into the split. I haven't tried it since then, though. Obviously it can work, or it probably wouldn't be in all the books!

Thomas, the rivet idea did occur to me, but it seemed like so much trouble for what should be a simple thing . . . :blink: :lol:
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I've tried that technique and didn't have much luck with it. Later I was told that you really have to move fast to make it work; if the burrs have time to heat up, they just collapse when you try to embed them into the split. I haven't tried it since then, though. Obviously it can work, or it probably wouldn't be in all the books!

Thomas, the rivet idea did occur to me, but it seemed like so much trouble for what should be a simple thing . . . :blink::lol:

if you can put somthing in the hardie hole and press it up against it to weld
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  • 5 months later...

To hold the bit in place: Take the hawk out of the forge and place it on the step before the bick, placing the HC against the step, the eye 90 degrees or across the bick then place a few "lighter hits from the center of the HC end up the middle towards the eye and weld the rest. Weld again if needed. I don't have any pics of this process, it works for me and when I make my next hawk I will post pics.

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Take a look at the Mark Aspery YouTube video here:

http://www.youtube.c...e&v=LQaaS71yfvM

It is a 12 min video on the making of a viking bearded axe. Around the 8 minute mark, they show how to prep the bit for the forge weld. It is part of a longer video that James Austin sells but it has the pertinent highlights. The body of the axe is 1018 low carbon steel and the bit is 1075 high carbon steel. If you are a visual learner then it should help. It shows what you have read here and other places.

Hope this helps

Brian Pierson

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  • 1 month later...
There has been many groups that have traded with many other groups over time. You may want to narrow down trade axe to a time period and civilization. If you are going for a American made Indian trade axe for say the 1700 - 1800 you are somewhat off in you shape. And when I say off I just mean for the most common shape being made by Americans around that time period. There were many many different shapes made, but that is not the most common one of that time period. What time are you portraying? The small axe dose look vary useful in any regards. Not trying to be ugly, It just seams people always say they are reproducing something and don't give any specific context to when or ware the reproduction is to be from.


Actually this is a very good reproduction of a wrapped eye 'trade' axe from the Great Lakes fur trade. For the most part they were not American made but French and British. Here is a picture of three I have personally found the upper right one is early 18th century French.

Very nice KYBOY thanks for sharing.

post-23118-0-63364700-1326554463_thumb.j

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KYBOY et al. - fantastic series of posts and very timely for me. I am signed up to do a 2 day hawk class with Ryan Johnson at JCCFS in March and had been starting my homework to get the most of it. You guys have made my homework easy! The trip is my wedding anniversary so the project just has to be for my wife! Fortunately, she is the woodworker and does most of the wood splitting so I have a few ideas. :)

Any ideas for alternative sources for 1075 to 1095 stock? Admiral Steel seems to be the source for 1/4" to 1/2" bar and they have been good to deal with in the past. However, they don't have any eCommerce presence.

Many Thanks - Doug

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