Axes from Karelia (Mikhail Artemeyev)

JayGoliath

JayGoliath

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Mar 27, 2010
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Some eye-popping, Karelia and Finnish inspired axe heads,forged in monosteel (ball-bearing and O1 equivalent ) by renowned Russia’s finest Axesmith, Mikhail Artemeyev (Артемьев Михаил):


Mikhail has also put together Russian, Finnish and Swedish axe making crafts and design into work of art, love and real world applications.
 
Thank you Jay for posting over these axes here at blade forums.com. Personally when it was me I'd stop after the initial forging process, forgoing the extra buffing and polishing, but as you say this one is clearly after a bit of that artsy element in his works, and good for him in scoring the extra attention and spreading greater axe appreciation generally. Do you happen to have information on the construction methods he uses beyond what you call mono steel, not really sure what you mean by that exactly?
 
Ernest DuBois said:
Thank you Jay for posting over these axes here at blade forums.com. Personally when it was me I'd stop after the initial forging process, forgoing the extra buffing and polishing, but as you say this one is clearly after a bit of that artsy element in his works, and good for him in scoring the extra attention and spreading greater axe appreciation generally. Do you happen to have information on the construction methods he uses beyond what you call mono steel, not really sure what you mean by that exactly?
Click to expand...

He is active on Instagram (user Artaxe674) and will return messages quickly (given respect to different time zones of course)

I bet he would respond to questions about his work.
 
Ernest,there's a photo in the "Kirves..." thread of a wall-mounted display showing the later,more industrialized Billnas factory process;it shows the method of drawing the socket from a solid billet in a step-by-step manner(thanks again to Jacob Neeman for that shot).

The alloy in question is ШХ15,it is an analog of 52100.
It is indeed favored by the industry for manufacture of bearing balls and rollers and races et c.,being designed for high resistance to wear,which translates (as in Can,given proper HT)to high degree of both hardness and toughness,and therefore edge-retention.
Mikhail is also known for his lovely Karelian-style puukot-like knives,and is very attached to using that alloy,does it a lot,and is Very skilled at working with it(it's a wise craftsman that sticks to one,or few in any case,alloys).
 
Agent_H said:
He is active on Instagram (user Artaxe674) and will return messages quickly (given respect to different time zones of course)

I bet he would respond to questions about his work.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I won't be contacting him and the access I'm granted to the Latvian picture hosting site is shall we say , constrained but all in all I thought a wider exposure here at the forum's site might educate more than only myself.
jake pogg said:
Ernest,there's a photo in the "Kirves..." thread of a wall-mounted display showing the later,more industrialized Billnas factory process;it shows the method of drawing the socket from a solid billet in a step-by-step manner(thanks again to Jacob Neeman for that shot).

The alloy in question is ШХ15,it is an analog of 52100.
It is indeed favored by the industry for manufacture of bearing balls and rollers and races et c.,being designed for high resistance to wear,which translates (as in Can,given proper HT)to high degree of both hardness and toughness,and therefore edge-retention.
Mikhail is also known for his lovely Karelian-style puukot-like knives,and is very attached to using that alloy,does it a lot,and is Very skilled at working with it(it's a wise craftsman that sticks to one,or few in any case,alloys).
Click to expand...
Lazy and/or highly lacking in the more refined computer skills of hunting things down I'll only go with what I can imagine is this method of drifting a socket from billet form, incongruous as that maybe seems. The height of the billet more or less representing than the length of the socket plus whatever thinning and extrusion might occur in refining its final form? It all suggests to me that such axes as we see from the hand of this smid are indeed a matter of uni-construction and material. How can it be so across his range to include the representation of the archaic Swedish timmerbila with elements of a French doloire?
 
Ernest,if i read you right,you're wondering how the socket can be drawn so long/thin/et c,?

In principle it's a method called "DOM"-Drawn Over Mandrel;there's a grade of seamless tubing that is made that way in great lengths.

In practice,it's countless hours that MA has invested in practicing that technique,much liked by him(plus a decent-size self-contained air-hammer,i'm not sure what's his exactly,just an old 50,or an 80 or even 150(numbers are kg of falling mass).
But "tools don't make a blacksmith...",it's Mikhail's love for that method that made him more than a craftsman at it but an artist(as per St.Francis' specs:)
 
It is quite apparent to me now in the view of the top of the socket in one of the pictures loaded on by Jay, the socket's absolute lack of a seam. And don't get me wrong thinking that I'm in any way calling into question the level of technical competency involved. Of this I have no doubt. And also it's clear that he is after some thing just that bit more than strictly utilitarian, and it's a thing I can appreciate too.
 
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There are a couple I particularly like, like the original pictured along side its reproduction the ones we could call Kareliaian/Connecticut looking. I see this pattern or close to it called Cossack, an indication of the place where it's known? Does anybody know more of this axe form? What would justify the unfortunate label and can something be done about it before it's too late? Also I have to say that I prefer his handling of the handle on his double lugged axes to ones that get the handle trimmed to the out-line of the upper lugs. Just cut the excess off straight there and be done with it, I say. And it looks cleaner. Objectively speaking, he covers a wide range, from fairly modern to ancient.
 
Ernest DuBois said:
like the original pictured along side its reproduction the ones we could call Kareliaian/Connecticut looking
Click to expand...

There isn't really any single one,unified,accepted et c. typology of axes in Mordor.
Any enthusiast can start a trend that may stick,and a couple of people have done just that by designating this type(and it Is a Type-many examples from various regions exist and all share in some very specific details of balance,construction,eye-shape and other parameters),they called it the Mangazeya type.

Manazeya,a trading fort-settlement on river Taz,was founded in the year 1600 by a hundred or so armed cutthroats sent by Boris Godunov .The place is along the White Sea coast going east from Karelia,and that city was there to aid in extracting marten furs from native population.
By 1672 all extracting was over,native population and marten were extict,and project closed down by another edict.

Short defined period like that helps archaeology to date things,and there was extensive studies on M.digs,and several axes of this distinctive type present in the collections.
 
Thank you Jake and at least you show its place in the lineage which is as informative and pertinent as any label could ever be. Still it'd be good to nip this Cossack business in the bud before it takes hold so Manazeya it is.

jake pogg said:
There isn't really any single one,unified,accepted et c. typology of axes in Mordor.
Click to expand...

Could be said, I think in more instances than only the old Ruskie scene, Swedish axes, ironically, for example have a tentative relation to categorical labeling, I mean no one's ever charted the variations to my knowledge there in the home of Linnaeus.
 
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