Heads up! Maine Pattern Axe In Progress... Making The High Carbon Overcoat Bit

J

joshiecole

Joined
Apr 29, 2012
Messages
515
Hey guys,

Thought one or two of you might be interested to see a quick snap of the first phase of my Maine pattern axe production. I'm making wedge pattern axes with high carbon 80CRV2 steel bits overcoated on. This picture shows the bit before it gets split. I didn't take the picture myself (obviously!) so sorry it's not more exciting.

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Anyway, I'm using exactly the same process as in the Emerson Stevens factory. If you want to keep up to date on what I'm up to you can do it here or here.
 
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Of course. If there's interest I'm happy to show the progress. I'm doing a few different things at the moment, but I'll hopefully have a finished product within a few days. Meanwhile, here are a few pics of the overcoat taking shape.

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Interest!! Absolutely. I have a friend who is on the verge of some of his first blacksmith work, and with any luck I'm gonna be around to help.
 
Interest!! Absolutely. I have a friend who is on the verge of some of his first blacksmith work
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Great! If your blacksmithing skills are anything like as good as your woodworking then you'll make some lovely stuff, COTS.

Well if people are interested I'll gladly upload progress reports on here. I'm only 25, but I can't exactly say I'm new to blacksmithing. I've been forging for about 14 years off an on (in between learning about girls and getting a degree and everything else! :p )

I'm not a natural lover of technology but what I do love about the internet is how it can be such a powerful tool to conserve traditional skills and ideas.
 
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I'm going to have to rely on my enthusiasm and interest I'm afraid in this arena. Hoping to learn as much as I can while I have the opportunity. Anyway, I think it'll still be interesting to follow along with your creations and we're axe enthusiasts so, why not? Give everybody something to talk about.
 
Super cool project. I've wanted to do this for some time. I'd like to follow your progress. Please continue to post updates here.

joshiecole said:
If you want to keep up to date on what I'm up to you can do it here or here.
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Firefox reports a problem with the certificates for your wordpress site.
 
Firefox reports a problem with the certificates for your wordpress site.
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Thanks for flagging that! It was just a coding problem I think in the original link. As far as I can tell it should be working now.

Anyway, I'm very pleasantly surprised by all the interest here, and will keep you all up to date with how it's going.
 
joshiecole said:
Thanks for flagging that! It was just a coding problem I think in the original link. As far as I can tell it should be working now.
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This is what I still get:

"You have asked Firefox to connect securely to www.coleandreeves.wordpress.com, but we can't confirm that your connection is secure.

Normally, when you try to connect securely, sites will present trusted identification to prove that you are going to the right place. However, this site's identity can't be verified."
 
Hmm, that's very irritating. I'll get the tech-ier half of Cole & Reeves to have a look at it. The odd thing is that plenty of other people seem to be getting through to it just fine. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Anway, I forged a special boy's axe eye-sized drift today so I can get down to the real work tomorrow!
 
I also got a security warning. I used Wordpress for awhile because it was touted as "go to" in blogging. When I couldn't keep up with the onslaught of spam and viruses I closed it up and never looked back. And I rarely visit a site running on wordpress if I can help it.
 
What is the mild steel you use and how well does it weld to the 80CRV2? I heard this is one of the issues with 5160, it can be difficult to forge weld, but my knowledge of forging is less than beginner.

Also, do you know what steels were used by Emerson & Stevens and how these new steels compare?
 
This is pretty neat, hope theres some updates. If you want btw, Ill post some pictures of E&S axes through the forging process (not my axes unfortunately).
 
Hello,

I'm sure there would be plenty of interest in seeing E & S forging pics. I'd like to see them that's for sure.

I've been busy away recently, but I was able to put an hour or two in at the forge this afternoon. I flattened out the wings and and folded them over. Here's how it happeed in reverse order.

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