Another identify my axe :)

[jake pogg]

Garry yeah...kinda-sorta..It's not a total loss,and will probably end up on somebody's trapline here one of these days...(that is where i exile my shop-uglies,far away in deep woods where no one will ever see them...Like nobility of old sending off their illegitimate children into remote mountains...(when too soft-hearted to murder them outright)
It was said,very wisely,by Mr Austin,that it takes a couple dozen tries at each new to one pattern.I find it particularly true for me.
I'd LOVE to have the time&energy to do that for this design.
Both the beginning of this thread and that marvelous "18th century axes" thread both have the top-views of these.Note how graceful,torpedo-like the shape is.
I believe that it's one of the clues to their efficiency in use.(what Old Axeman said about testing one impressed me very much).
So i'd want to come up with a clear solid approximation of that,to make the study in any way worthwhile.
Frankly,i'm so tempted,that i've started thinking about translating this design into the slit&drifted(easier to forge,much easier to repeat and vary slightly) variant.
But then i remember that i'm Not a full-time smith any more,and that the Spring is breathing down my neck,et c.,and i wake up again!
(i must pry myself out of the forge,it's a fact).

 

[garry3]

Garry yeah...kinda-sorta..It's not a total loss,and will probably end up on somebody's trapline here one of these days...(that is where i exile my shop-uglies,far away in deep woods where no one will ever see them...Like nobility of old sending off their illegitimate children into remote mountains...(when too soft-hearted to murder them outright)
It was said,very wisely,by Mr Austin,that it takes a couple dozen tries at each new to one pattern.I find it particularly true for me.
I'd LOVE to have the time&energy to do that for this design.
Both the beginning of this thread and that marvelous "18th century axes" thread both have the top-views of these.Note how graceful,torpedo-like the shape is.
I believe that it's one of the clues to their efficiency in use.(what Old Axeman said about testing one impressed me very much).
So i'd want to come up with a clear solid approximation of that,to make the study in any way worthwhile.
Frankly,i'm so tempted,that i've started thinking about translating this design into the slit&drifted(easier to forge,much easier to repeat and vary slightly) variant.
But then i remember that i'm Not a full-time smith any more,and that the Spring is breathing down my neck,et c.,and i wake up again!
(i must pry myself out of the forge,it's a fact).

Nothing crafted by hand is perfect Jake and a craftsman will be harder on himself than others would be. Where you see the imperfection others might easily over look it and except it for what it is. That little hatchet would serve a guy well no doubt and little belt axes of that design don't grow on trees. Its good that you will finish it up and find a trapper that will use it and appreciate it. I am sure they will become quite attached to it.

 

[garry3]

Jake, my great Grandfather was a blacksmith. He passed away in 1977 at the age of 103, his mind remained as sharp as a tack even at that age. There is so much I wish I would of ask him and he could have taught me. I have a couple things that he made, I also have his ledger book. He was forced to close his business during the depression, there is thousands of dollars left in that book, nobody had any money to pay him. He considered himself lucky though, he had hogs to fall back on and managed to keep the homestead while many of his neighbors were not so fortunate.

 

[Fmont]

I think it's a really handsome profile. I hope you give it another go when you get the time.

 

[jake pogg]

Garry3,thanks for that story...Sounds like he was a great man.Yes,running a small forge even a hundred and more years ago was near impossible(and ever increasingly more).

Fmont,thank you( and everyone else,if i forgot to say it) for encouragement.
Yes,i'd like to.Am thinking about simpler method,where i can come up with a prototype or three,to really get a feel for this pattern.

Logging season is coming up soon,then fishing(fishing-gear work even sooner),and these being my hogs,i'll have a few months to think about how to go about it.
(getting my old power hammer up and running would be sweet).

 

[Agent_H]

Garry3,thanks for that story...Sounds like he was a great man.Yes,running a small forge even a hundred and more years ago was near impossible(and ever increasingly more).

Fmont,thank you( and everyone else,if i forgot to say it) for encouragement.
Yes,i'd like to.Am thinking about simpler method,where i can come up with a prototype or three,to really get a feel for this pattern.

Logging season is coming up soon,then fishing(fishing-gear work even sooner),and these being my hogs,i'll have a few months to think about how to go about it.
(getting my old power hammer up and running would be sweet).

What hand tools could a guy up there need for an easier "Logging season"

 

[junkenstien]

If you could use old heads so you don’t have to make an eye or for steel put up a place to send them too.Know nothing about forging but reading,stuff is cool though sure would like to see one that made you happy:

 

[Square_peg]

Well,i Had to try this one...just too classy of an axe...
My reverse-engineering ideas about it's construction actually worked(for a change);which doesn't mean of course that it's how original was done .


https://imgur.com/Dd1alve
https://imgur.com/a/XH1vBYC

Preform was cut and folded double at the poll:
https://imgur.com/pkQhnI6

Materials are some nasty old WI(brake handle off of a steam donkey i have in the yard) for body,it was a strap 1/2" thick x 2";leaf-spring for the bit(all the way into the eye),and 1095 for that poll-plate.

Learned a lot...(turns out i ain't no Stohler...darn...

Beautiful!!!!

Well planned and well executed. You just created an heirloom!

 

[Agent_H]

Beautiful!!!!

Well planned and well executed. You just created an heirloom!

Exactly!

 

[Square_peg]

I've lots of photos of the process,but am sheepish about boring the daylights out of folks,it's a deadening craft in many ways,the mensuration and the logic behind it is...or can be.

Oh dear gawd! Please bore the daylights out of me!!!!

These is the most important series of posts I've seen on this forum. Blueprints for a dream I've had for several years.

 

[Square_peg]

Hey Jake, is there a young man up there you could hire as a striker if a few of us chipped in for wages and charcoal? Maybe you'd have time next Spring to make another go of this. We could ship lump charcoal from Fairbanks. Send me an email. I'd love to discuss it with you. Seriously!

 

[jake pogg]

Square_peg,i'd be really honored to cooperate on what research i can with such an esteemed axe freak(s).
I'm probably done for spring session,but some hope for fall,after moose season in Sept.
It's good to have time to organize both mentally and tooling-wise.
My poor old LG25 is not in That bad a shape...Hypothetically i just need a motor...(ideally i'd re-pour main babbit bearings and machine swivels,but not right away necessarily).
Fuel is no problem,an hour or two of charcoaling duty a day provide enough to about kill oneself in the forge,many hours.
Also a friend parked a neat little atmospheric propane job in here,it has good adjustments and can be set up for a number of functions.

Important things are details of constr. and the weight.It'd be lovely to keep things under 2 1/2 lbs or so,as things get pretty crazy after 3...(crazy=loss of control,not a good thing...).
Axes` without specialized machinery is pretty harsh.I remember an historic account of an 18th century forge outside Moscow,a smith with up to two strikers took 3-4 hours to complete an axe-head...With 400 kg(!) helve-hammer on premises...
(big fat helve like in Wira video...btw,that character there is in Shape,decades of axes day in day out you can see that in his movements)...

But,yeah!

 

[ithinkverydeeply]

That’s crazy. That’s craaazy!

 

[Fmont]

Hey Jake, is there a young man up there you could hire as a striker if a few of us chipped in for wages and charcoal? Maybe you'd have time next Spring to make another go of this. We could ship lump charcoal from Fairbanks. Send me an email. I'd love to discuss it with you. Seriously!

That echoes my own sentiments. I'd be party to a small commission, as it were.

 

[Malus]

After reading the 18th c. axe thread this is really superb. These small heads with lugs and oversized hardened polls might be my favorite pattern of axe and seeing one being forged is very interesting stuff indeed. I'm with Square peg on this, please bore us more!!

 

[Agent_H]

Garry3,thanks for that story...Sounds like he was a great man.Yes,running a small forge even a hundred and more years ago was near impossible(and ever increasingly more).

Fmont,thank you( and everyone else,if i forgot to say it) for encouragement.
Yes,i'd like to.Am thinking about simpler method,where i can come up with a prototype or three,to really get a feel for this pattern.

Logging season is coming up soon,then fishing(fishing-gear work even sooner),and these being my hogs,i'll have a few months to think about how to go about it.
(getting my old power hammer up and running would be sweet).

If encouragement is part of the impetus to create and document this journey then I believe you will find this group more than willing!

Hey Jake, is there a young man up there you could hire as a striker if a few of us chipped in for wages and charcoal? Maybe you'd have time next Spring to make another go of this. We could ship lump charcoal from Fairbanks. Send me an email. I'd love to discuss it with you. Seriously!

I am interested in helping this happen as well - We use, find, research, share all this information we can about tools but most of us lack the knowledge, skills, and set-up to make this journey ourselves. Your documenting and sharing of all of this from a smith's point of view is very important and highly interesting. It crosses so many aspects of what we find appealing about the "archaic" processes and the works that men make with their own hands through resourcefulness and the knowledge that really can only come from doing it themselves.

 

[jake pogg]

Well,it sounds like an excellent opportunity for all of us,to take a deeper look into the nature of that ancestor of all modern axes...
The community here is a treasure-trove of information,i'd be so pleased and honored to cooperate...
I'll look about for assorted stock,and look into both the welded,and slit/drift version of the event.
Axes from "18th c." thread are Super interesting...#1 exhibits apparent weld-seams,#2 does not(apart from bit and poll).
It's not out of realm of possibilities that they're Both slit&drifted;seams of #1 being from re-welding of de-laminations caused by slitting...