Finally forging my own axe

[Dabberty]

Although I have a nice collection of axes, and modded dozens, I never forged one myself.

So on the 14th of December, together with a buddy of mine, we attended a 1 day workshop axe forging.
Half of the day went into manually punching in the eye, other half in shaping the head itself.
Working with the powerhammers during the shaping of the axe head was very awesome, something I was looking forward to a lot since I dont have one at home.
It was not dissapointing :-)
I wasn't paying attention for 1 minute and burned a good cm along the whole blade, so we had to cut off about 2cm.
With the guidence of the trainer we were able to make still something nice of it in the end.
At home I made a nice handle for, did some decorating as well, and I'm very pleased with it.
Already made a spoon blank with it.



For more pics of the forging and handle making, click the below link.
https://dabberty.com/?p=3011

[madmax]

Very cool.  Thanks.

[wolfy]

Even after losing a little material, that ended up being a real beauty!    I'm a little confused as to where the burned portion was removed and what you did to remedy the situation....was it at the tip of the 'wing' or along the whole length of the bit?  After the bad portion was removed, did you reheat & draw it out to get back to the shape that you originally intended it to be? 

NICE WORK, Dabbs......as always!

[wsdstan]

I thought I posted to this thread earlier but I must have typed it and forgot to hit Post.  Anyway, nice job Dabberty.  It is really a good design I think.  What kind of hardness do you try to get and is it just along  the blade portion or the whole axe?

[Dabberty]

@wolfy, it was along the hole edge. We fixed it by drawing out the cheeks a bit more, they where quite thick.
Since we where still finishing up the head, no additional heat treat was needed. When done, I nornalized it 3x, and then quenched it.
@wdstan, we used only a file that skated off the blade.
But good point, i will use my hr checker tonight and let you know.

[crashdive123]

That came out awesome.  Well done.

[pete28]

What a beauty! I love the handle on it. Well done.

[OutdoorEnvy]

That's very cool indeed!  That would be fun to do at some point.  Yours looks good and looks like a nice carver.

[Dabberty]

I hardened only the blade parts, not the eye.
With my Tsubosan hardness checker, the 50hrc file just slided of the bit.
The 55 as well but with a bit lower sound.
And the 60 made small scratches.
So the hardness of the bit is somewhere between 57 and 60.

[wsdstan]

Thanks Dabberty, I appreciate your doing that.

[Plumber]

You are a true artist.