Beginner's Guide to Forging Axes: A Step-by-Step Guide

in this video I'm going to show you how I forged this ax completely by hand that means no power hammer no hydraulic press no grinder let's go I start out with a rectangular Billet of c45 now I chose c45 because I think it's a good steal for beginners it's fairly easy to move under the hammer and it's quite easy to heat treat I make a mark at about 35 millimeters from the back this is where we will begin to punch the eye of the ax it's time to start punching the eye of the ax and I am using what is commonly known as a hammer eye punch to do the job I take my time in the beginning making sure that everything is relatively straight before I apply more Force [Music] the way I like to do this is to go about three quarters of the way through and then I flip it and start punching from the other side adding some crushed charcoal can help get the punch out if it gets stuck [Music] you can also hit the back of the ax to release the tool I make a mark on the other side of the Billet so that I know where to start punching [Music] [Music] [Music] if all goes well you will eventually have a little plug come out and hopefully a hole straight through the Billet it's now time to start drifting the eye and we do this to make the eye larger and also to shape it now you will see me using several different grips but most drifts that you can buy have a long taper so that you can use it for all stages of shaping the eye [Music] I like to try and Forge the eye section of the ax to about 90 done before I start forging the blade of the ax it's much easier to do it now since there is no blade in the way of our forging when I'm happy with the eye section I make a mark at about 10 to 13 millimeters in front of the eye this is where I will begin making a set down to make the set down I am using a set down tool now you could do this with a 7 to 10 millimeters round bar as well you could even use the edge of the Anvil [Music] it's now time to start forging the blade and I begin by spreading the material with the pin section of my hammer than to never lose track of the design while forging you will see me going back and forth between spreading the material and making sure it is in line and true to the design I have in mind [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] when I am happy with the blade section of the ax I go back once again to the eye section to forge it into its final shape [Music] [Music] it's now time to prep the ax for heat treatment and that means that we're going to clean up the profile and establish a rough Edge and since we're doing it all completely by hand this is what we're going to use the way I like to think about grinding is not to reshape but rather to refine what I did not manage to do with my hammer ha foreign [Music] The Edge I start by establishing an edge line that's about one to two millimeters thick and then I work my way back to create a nice apple seed shaped Edge [Music] the next step is to put my Maker's Mark in the ax before I quench the blade I need to let it rest and I do that by heating it up and letting it cool by air this step is usually called normalizing it's now time to harden the blade and I do that by heating the blade up and quenching it in water remember that different steel types are heat treated in different ways so make sure you look up how to heat treat the steel that you are using to temper the blade I first used some sandpaper on the edge so that I can see the steel properly after that take it back to the fire carefully watching The Temper colors to test the hardness of the ax I use these Rockwell testers if the ax is too hard there is a risk that it might break and it won't be easy for the user to sharpen but if it's too soft it won't hold an edge at all so depending on what it's going to be used for you have to balance hardness and toughness to sharpen the ax I start out with a really hard fire slowly working my way down until it's almost Sharp I then switch over to fine grit sandpaper until I can see some Burr on the edge of the ax to hone The Edge I take some leather and apply polishing compound and then I pull the edge towards me to remove the Burr making the ax quite Sharp [Music] so now that the head is completed it's time to move over to the handle as a beginner my suggestion is that you buy a store-bought handle and what we are going to do first is that we are going to remove a little bit of material at the top here so that we can fit the head and then we're going to apply just a little bit of force and try to set the head down just a little bit and we're going to remove material until we can get the head in a position of our liking so let's begin in this case I am using a carving knife to remove the material after I have tried to fit the head I can see where it made contact with the wood I then carefully remove material in the spots where it made contact and I keep going back and forth until the head is in a position I am happy with and it has contact all around the handle that means it's a good fit and the head is seated well I then cut a slot in the handle for the wedge to sit in and I do this to lock the head to the handle doing all in my power to make sure the head won't come off [Music] foreign [Music] I use a rasp and some sandpaper to shape the handle to my liking [Music] and then I apply linseed oil to protect the handle from the elements thank you so much for watching the video I really hope you enjoyed it so in today's video we made this ax and I'm also giving it away so please subscribe and leave a comment and I'll pick one out at random that will receive this ax so I've been getting a lot of questions from people that want to know more about x-making so I thought hey why not make a video about it and this is the video I really hope this video was helpful that it could inspire you or it could help you in your forging Journey that's really what I hope with this video I would also like to take a moment to thank Weaver who sponsored this video with an anvil they contacted me a while back asking me if I could do an anvil review at first I was skeptical about it but then I accepted but only if I could be 100 honest and they said that was okay so I tried the Anvil out in this video and I must say I was surprised it was a decent Anvil actually I really like that shape with the wider face and the nice big fat horn that's how I like them it's good for ax making in my opinion there were some flaws there were some casting flaws on the sides they tried to paint it over but hey I could spot them pretty easily but nothing on the face and nothing on the horn they were in good condition the corners of the Anvil were very sharp so those need to be dressed with an angle grinder to round them off a little bit and the horn was not dressed at all for uh it was straight from the casting with all the paint over so I have to go over the horn as well to smooth everything out there was one thing that I really didn't like about it and that's the milled surface on the Anvil it left horrible marks in the workpiece so important if you buy this and we'll go over it with sandpaper until you're happy with the texture and I mean the more you use it the the nicer the surface will become eventually but other than that it's a great Anvil and depending on where you live in the world I think the price is pretty decent as well depending on how much older animals there are available and to what price they are but depending on where you are in the world it's a decent Anvil so thank you to Vivo for sponsoring there are some links in the description with discounts if you're interested thank you Viva and thank you very much for watching the video I'll see you in the next video goodbye

Channel: Nils Ögren

Views: 148,758

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Id: HkJmb7Bztqw

Length: 12min 21sec (741 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 16 2023