Let us show you how they use to do it, a trade axe tutorial..

So here is the dumb question of the day - if you dont put the carbon bit in there, say if you just hammered the head out - how much does that kill the overall strength of the head? Could you still use it at all, practically speaking? Just wondering.
 
If you don't put the high carbon bit in there it won't be hardenable. It would still work — people made axes out of pure iron, bronze and copper for 1000s of years — but it wouldn't be nearly as good. The reason they used a combination of high and low carbon steels back in the day was because high carbon steel was very expensive and harder to come by.

- Chris
 
Great series of pics... you make it look so simple!

How long from start to finish on the hawk head you showed?
 
very nice, I've only forged a poker, and my forge is stuck 12 hours from here at my parents place, but man, that is a lot of work! without a high carbon bit, how long would it take to get enough carbon out of the coal to harden the steel? or would you likely get too much other contamination? (its been a long time since I've looked through my smithing books, and they are with the forge)
 
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