A small forged hatchet

[lwrhea]

I just finished this small hatchet which I forged from mild steel but added a bit of 19th century buggy spring steel. The steel has the wrought iron look naturally but I wanted it for the performance. It heat treats out sort of like O1. I carved the handle from some 5/4 kiln dried Hickory. The handle is 12 inches.

 

[Mossyhorn]

That is just awesome. I'd love to have one of those.

 

[MrFixIt]

Very nice!

 

[Hale Storm]

Incredible work. Do you only sell from what's available from your website or do you take custom orders?

I didn't see this one there. Is it for sale?

 

[lwrhea]

Thanks guys. Some things sell before I can get them onto the website. Yes I sell them too. This one is not spoken for yet. Remember it's forged and shows it. I don't pretend to say they are milled out to perfection. However they will perform and are made the old way if that appeals.

 

[300Six]

Nice job and thank you for resurrecting old techniques. I'd love to find out how much performance/durability/ease of sharpening difference there is between a single-quality-steel head with tempered blade and an identical head made as you describe with a hard steel blade insert.
That and find out from you how much extra work is involved to make something like this.

 

[lwrhea]

Thanks.

An axe is like a knife in the respect that you are asking. If the heat treat is done correctly and a good steel is used, it should perform the same as any other well made factory tool. In the real world a maker of individual tools can tune the piece somewhat finer to fit the particular duty whereas a factory is making them to fit the middle customer. As with knives, the combination of steel, heat treat, and edge geometry is what makes it cut or not cut. Once a factory or smith accomplished those three things he can tune them to work together for a great cutting tool.

Steel is easy to acquire but the maker has to then be able to properly heat treat that steel. Then again he has to know geometry to make it cut. Then there is the handle.............

 

[300Six]

Steel is easy to acquire but the maker has to then be able to properly heat treat that steel.

Apparently that was a problem before the advent of Bessemer steel in the late 1800s. Wrought iron heads (readily available material) incorporating a difficult to come by (therefore expensive) steel insert.

 

[lwrhea]

Yes it was a problem. High carbon was hard to come by early on in this country especially out in the territories. Nearly all steel was recycled from broken tools and welded onto a wrought body. I would imagine that blacksmiths hoarded steel bits to re use.

In our blacksmith shop I have a set of 150 year old tongs whose jaws are clearly forged from a hoof rasp. The reins are welded on as all tong's reins of the period. This is one re purposing of steel that seems misplaced. I cant figure out why the blacksmith used high carbon steel when it is not a cutting tool. Iron would have served as well in my opinion.

 

[Sharp_Canadian]

Wow, looks amazing. What is face length and head weight? Love at first sight.

 

[lwrhea]

Thanks. The head weighs 14.2 oz and is 5 inches long with 3 1/2 inch cutting edge.

 

[SC T100]

Beautiful hatchet, and outstanding craftsmanship. She's a beaut.

 

[Kentucky]

That's nice, it "looks" like you used a traditional polled wrap & weld.the style used to make colonial era hatchets.I have a bar of 1 1/2" x 1/2" laying on my bench right now marked out for the exact project..Nice job.

 

[Bridger]

Can we get a few more pics, pretty please?

 

[Square_peg]

Well done!!!!

I just finished this small hatchet which I forged from mild steel but added a bit of 19th century buggy spring steel.

1084/1085 were in common use for springs and agricultural equipment. Good tough steel for an axe bit.

Are you using coal or gas for your forge welds?

 

[lwrhea]

I forged this one in coal. Thanks.

 

[Chris Montgomery]

That's very nice Lin. Thanks for showing it here.

Chris