I have a person that I made  a hammer for. He also wants an Axe and I have never made an axe before so I have no idea what size stock to use but I know what type of steel I need. Do you guys have any pointers? Thanks in advance.

what steel do you think you need to use?

I will be using 4130 steel but I just don't know what size/dimensions to get.

That will be hard to answer, without knowing what style of axe you are planning to make.

Just a wall hanger if it doesnt have a bit inserted in that 4130

Take an axe head of the style you want to make and weigh it.  Add in the amount of steel you generally lose in working it in the forge and grinding/finishing.

Note that 4130 would not be my choice for a working axe; but would be fine for a wall hanger.

I'm sorry, forgot to say something like a throwing hatchet. Probably under 2lbs. I thought that Hoffman blacksmithing used that steel, any suggestions on the steel to use. I don't know what would hold the best edge.

"Holding the best edge" is not for a throwing hawk as "HTBE" is usually correlated with hardness and hardness is correlated with brittleness.  Have you made any hawks from old ballpeen hammers?  Good way to get practice in.  Then a 40 to 60 point alloy would be suggested by me, say 5160 if you will be using it as a hatchet as well.  Of course this is for MY values of "best" and may not align with your values of "best" or Steve's values of "best", etc.

Now that you say it, a throwing axe would need to be less brittle and tougher. Thanks for the info.

He says that 

Our axes are hand forged from a block of 4142 chrome/moly alloy steel, and heat treated to provide exceptional performance. The camp axe comes in 2.25 and 3 pound weights.

Stock size depends a lot on how large an axe you intend to forge as well as the style of manufacture and axe type.  How are you at forge welding?  For a primarily throwing axe I would recommend starting off making a tomahawk first, to get your feet wet as it were.  One of the advantages there is the typical material source for hawks (bar stock) is a lot easier to come by than larger belt axe stock.  Also the wrapped and welded eye is less work than punching and drifting medium or high carbon steel IMHO, unless you have a hydraulic press, treadle hammer or willing striker.  Here is an example of someone making a hawk from an old farrier's rasp with very minimal tooling:  

 

After you have a couple of those under your belt you could consider "moving up" to forging a small belt axe or hatchet which could also be used for other chores.  If you have interest in this, Butch Sheeley will be teaching a hawk and belt axe class at the Arc and Flame blacksmithing school in Rochester, NY next month.  I believe there are still spaces available.

I am not very good at forge welding although I would like to learn I am pretty good at the punching and drifting as i do it often with 2 inch round for making hammers. I would probably like to get two pieces of steel and practice on the one. I just don't know what size of stock. As I said above, it will be a throwing hatchet under 2lbs.

a 1.5"R x 4" Length of 4130 is almost 2 and a quarter lbs. A 4" length of the same material is 1.9 lbs. There are metal weight calculators on the internet. Just fill in the parameters. I use the one from the online metals store. Very useful when needing a finished weight and don't know what size stock to start with. Remember to factor in scale, grinding, plug if punched. I also have a weight calculator on my phone. When I've needed to match a historical piece I figure out the stock size then weigh the piece I'm matching then put the numbers into the calculator to find the stock dimensions. Remembering to account for wastage.

 

Thank you Rashelle, I will use the weight calculator to find the size I need.

I find leaf spring fairly good, I upset the area for the eye, also I found a little spring clamp to hold it when punching came in really handy. Especially when it can hold the axe with the beard over the edge of the anvil. 

Hmmm, I never considered upsetting the leaf spring like that to give me a spot to punch and drift a hole.  As most of us know, 5160 doesn't like to forge weld on its self so this is a great idea.  I just stopped by my favorite spring steel shop on Friday and he gave me some new 5160 drops that I'd planned on cutting and using to forge weld into mild steel bits.  Now you gave me another idea.  The drops are from huge truck leaf springs so there's plenty of material there to upset and work.  

i really like this way, if you make a small cut out first its very easy to isolate the area you are upsetting, and if you have a hardy block you can do double bit axes this way as well. but the main benefit is that you don't have very thick stock to draw out for the cutting edge and so less fish lipping etc.

Quite a handy idea.  I hadn't thought about the double bit axe either.  I bet you could also do a pipe tomahawk with the same method and a longer area that is upset.  Thanks for sharing!  

16 hours ago, Hephaestus Smith said:

I found a little spring clamp to hold it when punching came in really handy.

I really like your little spring clamp. SWEET tool! Thanks for the pics.

Frosty The Lucky.

Me too. That spring clamp looks like it would be very useful for many other things. I am borrowing the idea. 

Thanks for bumping this, DHarris; I missed the clamp thing first time around. That could come in pretty handy for punching the eyes in hammers and top tools as well.

This is the camp axe I forged with the help of Brent Bailey. It is pretty sweet. Edge stays sharp for a long time. Fairly light and easy to use. Only thing I wish I had done differently was make the handle about 2 inches shorter. 
 

it was made from a 5” piece of the thicker bottom spring from a set of springs from an old Ford F-250. I love it. I named it Rush Creek. It was built Ford Tough!
 

 

Looks good, well done. Bummer about not being able to shorten the handle to suit. I'm sure there's somebody here who can make suggestions.   

Frosty The Lucky.

If it has a terminal swell; shortening it will remove that; of course good wood glue can build a replacement on the sides...

Terminal swell. Otherwise I will shorten it. I may just do a new handle out of some bois d’arc I cut a month ago. Maybe next fall.