Dogsoldat Posted February 15, 2016 Share Posted February 15, 2016 Had seen a thread on IFI or maybe the Bladesmith's Forums. Anyways now I have a hankering to try one. Between working on my truck's brakes yesterday and stripping the washer and dryer down to fix some issues haven't had much time in my shop to play. Been digging everywhere I can to find info. Grabbed the kids play doh last night and sorta ran a test. Figure a 1/2-3/4x3x6" piece of steel should make the right sized starting stock. Tapers in my sketch aren't quite drawn right. Had a random thought before I fell asleep, the cutting edges are curved a little different than other axes and had thought that using the toe of the cutting edge might push the axe head on more during use. Anyways had enough time to take a scrap of 1/4x1" and just went through the motions to get an idea of things. I'll have to do a little digging and make up a socket drift. Along with a large pair of tongs than what I have http://www.miljolare.no/data/ut/album/?al_id=2085 http://forgedaxes.com/?p=851 http://forgedaxes.com/?p=1186 http://bladesandbushlore.com/index.php?topic=3441.0 http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/24315-information-on-socketed-axes/ http://northernwildernesskills.blogspot.ca/2013/08/all-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about.html http://www.bladesmithsforum.com/index.php?s=538b4f13e7b594c7fe24488ec6cd0285&showtopic=22090&page=2 http://vstr1.nebula.fi/?id=5790585-1252308059&w=640&h=476&fs=1&c=1&r=640&a=1&p=1 http://www.bladesmithsforum.com/index.php?showtopic=27499 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dogsoldat Posted February 21, 2016 Author Share Posted February 21, 2016 Made a drift for the axe along with a few side projects. Started out with a piece of 1 1/4" square and drew a taper on it. Took a handled fuller and set a shoulder and necked the handle part down. Big stock but didn't move to bad. Tapers Came out fairly close to what I had wanted, a little thin in one dimension but it's uniform. Almost need 1 1/2" sq to start with. Still need a set of bigger tongs. blanks on the left may be a little small for what I'm after yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickOHH Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 nice drift, im after an axe drift soon, what kind of steel did you use for it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dogsoldat Posted February 21, 2016 Author Share Posted February 21, 2016 A36 mild. was thinking of a S-cam or bit of axle but nothing quite the right size in the scrap pile. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Ling Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 theres a video of a fellow forging a colonial axe on here that might help with something, last weekend I forged an axe drift out of 4 RAILROAD SPIKES! what a project that was. a lot of forge welding! littleblacksmith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dogsoldat Posted February 22, 2016 Author Share Posted February 22, 2016 You bet, have that colonial axe video bookmarked for future reference. It's a nice well done video. That sounds like a little work getting that much nicely stuck together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Ling Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 yes, it took a little time (more like 41/2 hours) to forge it. John Rigoni (sorry if I spelled it wrong) does some really clean work. I watched him forge the same axe at steep hollow forge works in Bryan Texas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dogsoldat Posted February 25, 2016 Author Share Posted February 25, 2016 A video comparing different axes. First 15 min has several old hand forged axes. Can see the weld lines in a few of them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUXUJXJG4Fw Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.