Gransfors Bruks Factory Tour: Splitting Maul Forging by "TT" Summer 2013

[k_estela]

In August 2013, I traveled with one of my best friends through Sweden bushcrafting and practicing our skill sets on our way to Jokkmokk in the Arctic Circle. We stopped at Mora, Gransfors and Falkniven and were given tours. Here is a video of Tobias Thelin or "TT" forging a maul. I took it with a Canon Rebel if anyone is wondering.

[video=youtube;rV-aAsKGnFk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV-aAsKGnFk[/video]

 

[Operator1975]

While everyone here knows I am not a big "Euro" guy, I will tip my cap anyday to a guy forging axes.

Well done. Nice video.

 

[300Six]

Wonderful footage you got there. Entirely takes the romance out of any aspirations to become an G-B tool craftsman. Imagine doing that day after day and year after year?
I'd go completely bananas after a few months.

 

[Paul Brach]

I LOVE this video. Not sure if you were the one that posted a similar video on youtube but I have watched it many times and shared with friends. Whenever I go to Highland Woodworking in Atlanta, I always stop by the wall of Gransfors Bruks axes they have and look for the ones marked "TT". Thanks for sharing this post.

I would also LOVE to have one of those bad-boy power hammers sitting in my shop!

 

[k_estela]

Paul,

I'm not sure if it is the same video on YouTube. My handle over there is EstelaWildEd like my twitter account. Everyone over at the GB forge was really great about answering my questions. If you saw the room of finished heads, you would go through the roof. Literally thousands ready to be shipped to the U.S. The Cafeteria served amazing food and the girl at the retail section was too damn cute and had the best personality paired with a Swedish accent. It is a trip I recommend everyone take.

 

[Paul Brach]

Honestly, I was interested in the fact that you were allowed to walk around in the hot forging production area. Clearly, there are fewer lawyers over there!

Looks like I had seen a different video of TT getting it done.

http://youtu.be/E89nlVmPeeU

It is by someone called "CrawlingRoad"

If you have ever beat hot steel with a 2lb hammer, you will really appreciate watching that big hammer move the metal.

 

[A Visitor]

Thanks for the vid. I don't think he is making a splitting maul though.
There is another good vid out where the owner of the company talks about re-inventing themselves in the 1980's.
Getting away from the ground and painted heads, painted and epoxied handles they were making and back to older styles.

 

[k_estela]

A Visitor. I'll post the pictures of the head afterwards. I know it was a maul but it may have been the one hand version. I was there, I saw it and it was definitely not a hatchet or ax head. Let me find the photo and I'll throw it up.

 

[jpeeler]

Great vid, K, thanks for the post. It does appear though that the axe Tobias is hammering in that video is not the GB Maul. Looks like one of their mid sized forest axes? Def not a splitting profile.

 

[k_estela]

I stand corrected. Here is the photo. There were two forges going that day. One was splitting mauls, the other was this one. My mistake(Johnny Walker was talking.) This man was making the maul heads. Here is one angle of the finished heads room.

 

[k_estela]

Here are some stills of TT working.

 

[k_estela]

[video=youtube;Zkmmampv-48]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zkmmampv-48[/video]And just a couple more of the ax targets visitors could try their luck at.

 

[TheyCallMeEric]

Too cool. Even after watching the video, I still don't understand how it's transformed into such a nice piece. That guy has some serious dexterity with those tools, and some serious dedication to stand there doing that all day every day!

 

[jpeeler]

Thanks for these posts, K, really great thread. A visit to Gransfors is on the bucket list of many members here.

 

[lmalterna]

Kevin- Thank you for sharing that and I would say that is not your first time throwing an axe

I love my GB's- I have owned the SFA and replaced it with a gift from my wife of the Scandinavian. She recently gifted me the 35" double- while I would have preferred the American Felling model, I will treasure my gift. Whether the styles fit everyones needs or not- their quality is excellent and something to be proud of. The Wildlife hatchet is another on my list to get

Those guys have some serious dexterity- maybe not thread a running sewing machine but not too far behind. I tend to grab to catch anything that falls so a forge would be a bad place for me.

Bill

 

[garry3]

Very cool, thanks for sharing that!
I really like some of there axes. What can I say I am an axe junkie, but I am trying to stop.

 

[Square_peg]

I really enjoyed the video. Thanks.

It would be fun to operate that power hammer just for a day or two.