A friend asked me to make a small hand axe for his son to carry at SCA events. Being the kind soul that I am, I agreed that I would make one.
Ok, so that was back in June, and I finally got around to it last weekend.
I based the axe off of a design I saw at the Viking exhibit over at the Smithsonian this summer. Fairly small head -- body was a bit over an inch wide, the edge was a bit over 2".
I must say, this was a lot more fun than I expected. I used some of the wrought iron plate I bought a while ago, folding it once and hammering it out to get rid of the surface rust and to get rid of as many voids and cold shuts in the iron as I could. Wrought certainly moves a lot more easily than high carbon, or even a36.
After the 1st forging, I shaped it to sort of a butterfly shape, then bent it double, formed the eye on the horn of the anvil, and welded it. Again, I was astounded by how easily it welded -- it literally welded together while I was just tapping it to do some adjustments, no flux. After staring at it a bit in confusion, I accepted the situation and reforged the axehead to shape.
To make the eye the shape I wanted it, I took a 1.25" dia. round chunk of A36 and shaped out a drift. Ugh. Moving that kind of metal with a 2kg hammer sucks, but my elbow was acting up and that's all I could readily swing. Still searching for a power hammer.
Last bit of hot work was to weld on the steel edge. Again, wrought is wonderful at this sort of thing. A little flux, a little heat, and it just sticks.
For surface finish, just wire brushed off the loose scale and oiled. As this was going to a child not yet trusted with sharp things, I left the edge blunted, and rounded off some of the corners.
The handle was just oak, split out of a log that had been on the woodpile for a year or so, shaped and smoothed and soaked in linseed oil overnight. The head is held on with friction.
A sweet little axe. Only took maybe 2-3 hours of work.
Moral of the story? Sometimes, it's best to just try something new and see what happens..
Cheers
Doug Ayen
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