Broad Axe

[Prokopto]

Does anyone know why the search feature on IFI is incapable of looking up terms fewer than 4 words? I wanted to look for information on forging a broad axe but turns out it's quite impossible on here.

Anyone ever done it. Can a newbie tackle it? What steel is best? I have an old wagon axle that is 2" square. I have a forklift fork that is 1.25" x 4". Should I cleft-weld a piece of the w1 that I have for the bit?

Any pics or info would be great. Thanks... Bill

[ThomasPowers]

It's a large job; how much of a newbie are you? Can you work large objects? Do you forge weld easily and regularly? Are you familiar with the form and the various variations of it? (will you want to make a canted eye or a bent handle version?) Do you intend to use it and if so for hewing hardwood or softwood timbers?

[Prokopto]

It's a large job; how much of a newbie are you? Can you work large objects? Do you forge weld easily and regularly? Are you familiar with the form and the various variations of it? (will you want to make a canted eye or a bent handle version?) Do you intend to use it and if so for hewing hardwood or softwood timbers?

I have been at this only a year and a half. I forge weld all the time as I have no electricity in my forge area. I have forge welded sucessfully over 200 times now. (I'm keeping count with punch marks on a piece of 20 guage sheet.)

I will likely cant the eye and carve out and steam-bend a handle from ash or hickory. I can handle larger pieces but I am looking for a 6-8 lb axe head when finished.

[jake pogrebinsky]

Prokopto,hi,

As far as finding a thread by someone who's forged one,can't help you,never seen one like that.

Nor,have i forged a broad axe myself(yet -i want to,though).

I've TALKED about forging one much,for a while with Alan Longmire,over on Don Fogg's forum(you'd have to search for it there,but it was mostly on the goosewing type).

Many of the old ones were forged rather crudely,it being an overbuilt kind of an object what with all the weight and area of joinery.

The eye was commonly wrapped(the type of wrap where a poll is fullered off to retain it's thickness).My friend has one that was simply made out of two pieces slapped together,you can see the weld-crack going both directions from the eye.
The eye was normally symmetrical,for the possibility of re-handling to reverse right/left orientation.

Then the eye was commonly skew-welded to a massive chunk forming the blade itself,with all it's mass.The eye piece was lapped onto the bevel-side of blade.

Then,in like manner,the steel for the edge was lapped onto the blade.(There's not much point in cleaving the steel into a single-bevel tool).One nice thing about all these lap-welds is possibility of a simple expediency of rivetting the parts together to hold them for welding.

So,again,the construction methods were very basic and crude,but the resulting tool was NOT!!!

There are some mind-bending,aero-foil-like declinations from plane that are complex,and critical to the tool's performance.
(Not too long ago i was contacted by a timber-framer,who asked wether i'd be willing to draw out his worn broadaxe,as it was getting too thick on the edge.He said that it was the best one that he ever used(for no apparent reason,it was just balanced just SO and handled better for it).He sent photos of it taken on a few different angles.The shape was wild,i refused flat out,not sure at all if i'd be able to restore those crazy bends).

But,yeah,the WI is fine,of course,and any carbon steel will do,it's not rocket science!

Best of luck!

[Prokopto]

Thanks a heap for the good info. I will post pictures when its done.

[ThomasPowers]

If your forge is big enough you seem to have a lot of the basic skills down, I'd say go for it---but don't bet on your first one being a success!

[thingmaker3]

Try putting the phrase "broad axe " in parentheses. It works.

[Frank Turley]

I made one with a student. We used a 1/2" x 4" wagon tire, kind of stringy wrought iron, but it was forgable at a bright heat. For the eye, we shouldered either side of a remaining poll, and we thinned the stock going both ways of the central poll. We left a little thickness at the end scarfs for a Tee weld. We pre-formed the eye by bending both wings AWAY from the shoulders and left it open somewhat so we could tee weld one of the wings to the back blade edge. Then the other was bent, folded over a homemade drift, and welded in the same place. We drifted the welded eye over the opened vise jaws, got a little distortion which was correctable.

Before tee welding, we forged the blade to shape with the typical large radii either end. After the eye was on, we fagot welded a strip of file steel on one side only, the flat business side of the tool. It was about 5/8" wide with a "simple scarf" (a short bevel) along its length. It took a number of heats to weld the steel in. We welded it in the center first, and worked both ways away from center. We used two coal forges to get our welding heats at the beginning. We were ha ha hollering at each other, "What color are ya'? When we were both ready, we ran to an anvil between the two forges and began to hammer.

Everyone has their own way of working. I dressed three broad axes for Peter Gott, a premier log house builder in North Carolina. Peter was an expert with the broad axe, and he wanted me to heat each blade and put a small camber in it along the length of the blade.When the blade was laid on a surface plate, there would be about a 1/8" rise on each extreme end of the cutting edge. When measuring, the arched "flat" of the cutting edge would be on the surface plate, not the bevel. We had only antifreeze to harden/quench, and it seemed to work OK without distortion. Copper is a good tempering color for many wood tools.

Peter Gott gave classes in log building. One student said, "Mr. Gott, we always say 'Hew to the mark or hew to the line." Are you hewing to the chalk line or to the center of the chalk line?" Gott replied, "I'm hewing to the center." When the lunch break came, we all went up to see whether he was kidding or not. He was not. The guy was good!

[jake pogrebinsky]

Frank,thank you so much.As usual,you've taken the time to write a most detailed,technical explanation.
Lots of times your description exhausts the subject,and i don't bother writing "thanks",as there's not much more than that left to say,but this time i just want to specifically express my gratitude for your sharing of the knowledge.

I'm not surprised to hear of someone working to less then a line with a broadaxe.
The word "axe" is decieving,it's actually a plane,that someone has left all the guides off of... :)