I made an adze today and had a question. I see some fantastic axe and hawk work here so I figured that someone might be able to help.

Do you gents have any sugestions on how to draw the eye down more? I would drift a little, then hammer from the side with the drift still in. Then drift, hammer from the side, etc.... But I couldent seem to get thhe material to move down. This is my first time punching and drifting an eye into something. The stock started as 1x 1/2 and basicly stayed that size. Should I square it up before I punch and drift?

The materials used for the head were 1x 1/2" mild steel bar stock and 1x1x3/16 1084 for the bit. The 1084 was forge welded to the front edge of the steel stock, which became the bit. The bit was drawn out and shaped. After the cutting edge was forged to shape, the location of the eye was hot punched, then drifted using a series of three drifts that I had made earlier in the morning for this project. The eye measures 1/2" wide and 1" long, tapering to the lower section of the eye.

The handle material is oak, as ash or hickory is not available in my location and I do not keep a stock of seasoned wood. Although, I will in the future. The handle is secured to the head using three wedges -- two wooden and one steel. One wedge secures the head left to right, the other sets the angle of the head, and the third metal wedge secures the handle in the eye front to back.


Thank you,
Matt P

You might think of making a "preform" and upsetting the area you will punch the eye first and shifting the bulge to one side.

I save old broken axe and pickaxe handles to carve down into specialty handles---or find "seconds" at the fleamarket where the bad spot is somewhere I will be cutting off anyway!

Bealer gives a descripton of forging an adze in The Art of Blacksmithing, as I recall. I've never made one.

Another method of bulking up the eye would be to fold over the end and forge welding it to give you more metal to start with---if your welds are good. (Just to be obnoxious I once took a billet I had welded up and stood it on end and forged it into a disk about 1/8" thick. So good welds can take a LOT of deformation!)

You really need thicker material.
it is possible to pull material down from the eye but it takes an awful lot more work than working with a bigger starting block. I would start with material in the 1.5 x 1.5 range (or more) . with mild steel you should be able to forge that by hand I used to hand punch all my hammers!!
if your forge welding is good than piling is an option .
the deeper the socket the stronger the head to handle connection. A thin tool will easily work lose.

Basher, Are you suggesting that he start with a mild steel block and then forge weld a tool steel cutting edge on inorder to get a bigger mass for the eye or have I misunderstood your suggestion? I have made a couple of hammers in the past using this technique where I would just "steel" the face of the mild steel body of the hammer. It is also used by the hawk makers.

Basher, Are you suggesting that he start with a mild steel block and then forge weld a tool steel cutting edge on inorder to get a bigger mass for the eye or have I misunderstood your suggestion? I have made a couple of hammers in the past using this technique where I would just "steel" the face of the mild steel body of the hammer. It is also used by the hawk makers.

yup exactly that. I have big tools so would probably make an adze from 40 to 50mm square 1050 but by hand mild is a lot easier. the adze in 555mp"s post was steeled at the edge

Thomas - I would upset it first but I'm only working on a 55lb cast anvil so its a ton of work to upset material like that. I can do it but it takes a very long time. I'm thinking that your second sugestion will work much better for me, I'll stack the two 1/2x1 and forge weld them togeather. Next time I buy stock I'll buy some 1x1 or 7/8" square. Thank you sir.

Matt - I'll check that book out, thanks

basher - I'm not sure I could work 1.5 square to well on my setup. I just use a 2 brick forge and a small anvil. I'm thinking that I'll stack the next one, and after that buy some square stock. I cut the eye with a couple slitting chissels that I made. A thin eye working loose is exactly why I asked you pros how to fix it ;)

Bentiron - That's how I did the one in the picture brother. I actually made a hawk like that today. Nothing like the work that yall do, but it's a hawk no less.

I know you know this,,,forging on that anvil is like lrunning in flip flops......

Rich - That is an understatement. I'm hopeing in a couple weeks I'll have sold enough stuff to pick up a nice narrow horn Peter Wright 130lb Ive had my eye on.

It may not look pretty, but how about slitting and drifting it through from the narrow side, and twisting the blade end at 90 degrees to it,

If he slit it through the narrow side he wouldn't have to twist it, just work it out flat from where he formed his eye and then weld the steel onto the mild steel. That is what I did for my narrow faced planishing hammer.

Starting with 1"x.5" stock, I would have done a wrap-around eye and forge welded the to ends together, then shape the end to accept the tool steel bit. Half-inch stock is a bit thick for this application, in my opinion, but you have to work with what you've got.

If he slit it through the narrow side he wouldn't have to twist it, just work it out flat from where he formed his eye and then weld the steel onto the mild steel. That is what I did for my narrow faced planishing hammer.

I favoured twisting to reduce the amount of forging required particularly if doing it by hand

Splitting it and twisting would save me some time.

Wraping the 1/2" stock would not work for me too well. I'm working with a small, garbage, anvil. WQhen I get a chance I'll try wraping with some 3/16x 1.5" stock that I have.

Thin the stock before you wrap it. Spread the center section so that the sides of what will be the eye are drawn down into the ears like you want, say going from 1" wide parent stock to 1.5" wide, but only .250" thick. Then wrap around a mandrel and weld closed. Once you have the ends welded into one, you can work the eye a bit with the mandrel in place to shape it more to your liking, maybe drawing the ears down a bit more.

Did that make any sense?

556MP, I'm sorry but that excuse doesn't work---I could do a wrap and weld using a 9 pound sledge hammer head set in a stump as the anvil. I'd go for the "I'm not too sure of my welds" which works even with a 200KG peddinghaus anvil!

Thomas...
Your right. Lame excuse and making up reasons to not do it. I did however try it and it was a no go. I have had a 50/50 (more like 25/75) percentage of my welds take. But then again... I have no outside knowedge besides what Ive tried/done and the small amount of "Warm it up, put borax on it, white hot, and hit it" I do need to read some more about welding. We'll go with the - A majority of my welds don't take ;)

And Vaughn, I think I understand what you're saying.