What can I make with this?

Raymond Richard

Raymond Richard

Joined
Jun 17, 2001
Messages
5,705
Actually the answer is in the picture. A piece of buggy axle and a small pick ax handle. I had the buggy axle tested and its got .2 carbon. Not much but it will harden up in water. I forged the ax head yesterday, ground the head and drilled the eye this morning. I'll get it heat treated today and hope to finish it tomorrow.

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Good looking ax head Raymond! I have three of those axles and didn't know what they were from. They were used in some concrete around an old hand- dug water well 60 + years ago. My dad made it for our water supply before I was born and I am 62. I filled the hole in a few years ago and when I broke up the concrete I found them along with some other interesting things.

Ramsey
 
Ramsey said:
Good looking ax head Raymond! I have three of those axles and didn't know what they were from. They were used in some concrete around an old hand- dug water well 60 + years ago. My dad made it for our water supply before I was born and I am 62. I filled the hole in a few years ago and when I broke up the concrete I found them along with some other interesting things.

Ramsey
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Did you notice the concrete on this piece? This axle was cut in half but I do have one thats whole. I may save it for when gas reached 5 bucks a gallon. I'm going to build me an ox cart have Little Bill pull it. Mine came out of an barn foundation.
 
I see the concrete now. Folks just used what they had back then. Some of the other things I found were very old marbles, in fact after the rain the other day I found another marble. It has been about ten years since I filled in the old water well. The marble was part of a game back then for entertainment. I still find some on top of the ground, but the others were embeded inside the concrete. A few feet away was an old cellar and my dad had dug it by hand as well and mixed the concrete with a shovel and inside it I found several old leaf springs he had used for rebar over the doorway. I have them put back for some family knives that I need to make.
 
mrnewberry said:
What were the other interesting things in the concrete? Oh yeah, nice looking hawk so far.

Allen
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I'll have to jog my memory some. One two man cross cut saw, just the blade that was around 6'. 8 hay rake tines, lots of agricultural wrought iron, a couple wrought iron brake peddles, pieces of wagon wheel, several wrought iron house shoes, size jumbo, and a few things I couldn't identify.

Ramsey, I watched some show awhile back that was about hunting old bottles. The number one spot for finding the best bottle were old outhouse holes.
 
Here's a picture of the finished ax. The head has 5" of cutting edge measured around the radius, edge to end of hammer pole is 6 1/2" and the handle is 15". Weighs in at 1.75 pounds.

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Turned out really nice Ray! Could chop or use it for a skinner.......Great job. Did you taper the eye for the handle? For me, that would be something different to try. Years ago I purchased two different tapers for hawks but have never used either of them. They are just a little different. I think I will check the three axles I have to see if they are wrought iron.

Ramsey
 
Ramsey said:
Turned out really nice Ray! Could chop or use it for a skinner.......Great job. Did you taper the eye for the handle? For me, that would be something different to try. Years ago I purchased two different tapers for hawks but have never used either of them. They are just a little different. I think I will check the three axles I have to see if they are wrought iron.

Ramsey
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With the low carbon in the buggy axle I'm not sure how long the edge would hold up. This one is more of a art project than a using tool. There is a slight taper in the eye but I did no drifting. I didn't want any eye bulge with this one.

How thick are your buggy axles? Mine averages to be around 1" X 1 1/4". If there that small I wouldn't think they would be wrought iron.
 
Super work Ray.

Do you know how iron is tested for carbon content? The reason I ask is I worked at a facility that had a lab and they had a portable device that could determine steel alloy content. It was hand held and used X rays I think. I seem to remember the QA person said it could analize everything but carbon.

Finding old stuff is neat. My mother renovated a house in Kingston, WA dating to the late 1890's. We dug a trench for a new water line, easy digging all sand, and found all sorts of stuff, amoung them a old milk bottle that is still used for pocket change in the house.

I'm still looking for the Stanley hammer my kids lost in the woods 30 years ago.
 
How thick are your buggy axles? Mine averages to be around 1" X 1 1/4". If there that small I wouldn't think they would be wrought iron.
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My buggy axles are 1 in. sq. Even if their not wrought iron I might use them for guards and caps just to have a little story with them. I didn't measure the length because a tree top is lying on top of them from an ice storm. Perhaps the length would vary for different style of buggys and so the metal as well.

Ramsey
 
Ramsey said:
My buggy axles are 1 in. sq. Even if their not wrought iron I might use them for guards and caps just to have a little story with them. I didn't measure the length because a tree top is lying on top of them from an ice storm. Perhaps the length would vary for different style of buggys and so the metal as well.

Ramsey
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I've wondered about buggy's several times now. I bet they were made at most towns so most likely all the components are pretty different unless they could mail order parts.

Gene, Some fellows have all the luck.
 
Raymond Richard said:
With the low carbon in the buggy axle I'm not sure how long the edge would hold up. This one is more of a art project than a using tool. There is a slight taper in the eye but I did no drifting. I didn't want any eye bulge with this one.

How thick are your buggy axles? Mine averages to be around 1" X 1 1/4". If there that small I wouldn't think they would be wrought iron.
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ray....what do you mean when you say you did no drifting....what does that mean.....thanks for any explanation.....ohh yeah and what's an eye bulge?...ryan
 
ryan9977 said:
ray....what do you mean when you say you did no drifting....what does that mean.....thanks for any explanation.....ohh yeah and what's an eye bulge?...ryan
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Ryan, Here's a picture with several steps I do when I make a tomahawk. First chunk of steel has a slit and the next one down shows it after I heated it up and beat the drift in the slot to form the eye. Thats what I'm calling eye bulge. The drift is on the right of that picture.

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thanks ray....in the first pic with the slit...is that cut in with a drill or machine.....it loks like a pefect slot...that's the only reason i ask....and then you use the drift to widen it while forging......ryan
 
Ryan, Yes I do use my drill press to make the slot. I'll drill a series of holes and then clean it out with a carbide burr. I'll then get the steel hot and open the slot up with a chisel and when its wide enough I get the drift started. I've changed the sequence a good deal over several years. I do the majority of the forging first and then do the slot and eye close to the end of the forging process instead of at the start.
 
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