Forge welding my first axe head

[Caleb]

I have the privilege of apprenticing under Rashelle a local blacksmith/instructor with Trackers Earth.  During our forge day on May 12 she wanted to teach us how to forge weld a traditional belt axe head by forge welding a section of 1080 into the folded flat stock of mild steel.  I'm excited about the options that the knowledge of forge welding is going to open up for me and hopefully this first project turns out.  By the end of the day we had our axe heads shaped and annealing.  This coming Thursday we'll start the grinding and clean up process and hopefully get them pretty close to finished.  I'll keep the post updated with shots of the work in progress.  

Thanks a ton to Rashelle for all the knowledge she has been willing to share with me!

[Mark Ling]

looks like it was fun. that last picture could hang on my wall! pretty cool.

                                                                                          Littleblacksmith

[Rashelle]

It is fun. Caleb is a good student as well as being a good assistant and person. Now if only we'd of gotten pics of him working on his axe rather then me demoing. I'm really thinking it's time to re-dye my hair now.

[SpankySmith]

Rashelle, resist the dark side!   Problem with hair dye is once you start down that road you can't come back (not easily, anyway).  Stay with the gray!  I consider every gray hair on my head as EARNED - wear them in pride!

[Daswulf]

Sounds like good fun and a great learning experience Caleb. Think you have a good teacher there to learn from. Great pictures.  

[Rashelle]

Here is the axe head I was demoing along with a couple other things done in about the same time period. Caleb should be done with his soon to put in here also.