Hi all
Not sure if this should be in out and about, social or edged as its got them all
Well Saturday I went to the Bushcraft Show
And sat in traffic waiting to get in
Teach me to be a day visitor. Next time I'm camping for sure.
It was a stunning day and good fun too. Did spend too much, but a lot less than I could have or would like to have:sulkoff:
Popped along to see Angst who was a great fella with a fantastic family. I hope he had a good rest of the weekend, and his new marquee survived.
Also saw Spiritwalker and his young son. Good to meet some fellow BCUK folk. All great individuals.
I did a bit of shopping, a bit of eating, then went to the Wetterlings tent to do the axe making. I didn't get any pics of me in action as it was full on and blumming tiring. However the morning group over ran so I did get a couple of pics of them.
It started with a brief introduction from Julia (a nicer person you could not hope to meet). We ran through the process, the tools and a bit of safety. I'm really happy to say the safety stuff was brief. One of the main bits was. Here are some gloves, you can wear them if you want. It was great not to be health and safety obsessed. Because to be honest we would never have been able to do it if they had been involved. Its called axe forging. There will be hammers and very hot lumps of metal. Buyer beware
I was paired with Luke and we watched the first steps and them set off. Luke duly on the sledge hammer me with the pre holed block of red hot metal. Held with tongs and a former to open the eye. First swing Luke smacks my hand. He apologised, we got on with it, and he was good enough to not do it again.
Then we swap and he takes his block from the forge/kiln, while mine goes back in to heat again and the roles swap.
Next is forming a dip in front of the eye to start to form the shape.
Then thinning out the cheeks to form the lips. All a lot harder than it sounds and a lot of hammering, heating, repeat.
Then we moved on to drawing out the blade edge. This took a while and I was tired by this stage. The head also deformed quite a bit so needed some tinkering at stages. Our master smith Richard gave a few pointers and took a swing here and there to help things, but largely left us to create our own unique axe. Mine was splaying at the blade and was a little thick. Richard helped with correcting things a little but the design evolved into a sort of carver.
A good bit of cooling later and grinding was next
Ben Orford (a scholar and gentleman) had very kindly offered to do this on his exceptional grinder to speed the process along. I cannot thank him enough for lending a hand like this.
As mine was carver ish, I opted to have a single sided convex edge put on it
Richard then set about heat treating the head and quenching the blade in heated water. Then using the residual heat in the poll to let a temper run up through the head and a little extra heat from the kiln. Very cool. He did state that he would harden and temper them softer than normal to ensure no failures after all the hard work.
Ben was kind enough to put a polish on this for me, see nice guy.
Next a quick handle fit. Glue in a wedge and trim of the exess.
My axe
Its by no means perfect and rough and ready here and there.
A great project. It took far longer than planned. I was dehydrated and worn out by the hot day and hard work (yes I'm unfit and have a very lazy job) but thoroughly enjoyed it. Just needs a strop, a mask and to be put to the test.
My impulse purchase of the day
A little Enzo Necker from English Handmade Knives. Another little project. I cannot decide if to use the orange G10 it has or to use some wood and liners maybe. I kind of like the G10 and I've never used any before.
Thread to follow
And a great find
A canoe awl (trade awl) from Andrew Kirkham. A great guy and a fine example of his work. Same as you can get off Woodlore. This now needs a handle. Antler I think.
Not sure if this should be in out and about, social or edged as its got them all
Well Saturday I went to the Bushcraft Show
And sat in traffic waiting to get in
Teach me to be a day visitor. Next time I'm camping for sure.
It was a stunning day and good fun too. Did spend too much, but a lot less than I could have or would like to have:sulkoff:
Popped along to see Angst who was a great fella with a fantastic family. I hope he had a good rest of the weekend, and his new marquee survived.
Also saw Spiritwalker and his young son. Good to meet some fellow BCUK folk. All great individuals.
I did a bit of shopping, a bit of eating, then went to the Wetterlings tent to do the axe making. I didn't get any pics of me in action as it was full on and blumming tiring. However the morning group over ran so I did get a couple of pics of them.
It started with a brief introduction from Julia (a nicer person you could not hope to meet). We ran through the process, the tools and a bit of safety. I'm really happy to say the safety stuff was brief. One of the main bits was. Here are some gloves, you can wear them if you want. It was great not to be health and safety obsessed. Because to be honest we would never have been able to do it if they had been involved. Its called axe forging. There will be hammers and very hot lumps of metal. Buyer beware
I was paired with Luke and we watched the first steps and them set off. Luke duly on the sledge hammer me with the pre holed block of red hot metal. Held with tongs and a former to open the eye. First swing Luke smacks my hand
. He apologised, we got on with it, and he was good enough to not do it again.Then we swap and he takes his block from the forge/kiln, while mine goes back in to heat again and the roles swap.
Next is forming a dip in front of the eye to start to form the shape.
Then thinning out the cheeks to form the lips. All a lot harder than it sounds and a lot of hammering, heating, repeat.
Then we moved on to drawing out the blade edge. This took a while and I was tired by this stage. The head also deformed quite a bit so needed some tinkering at stages. Our master smith Richard gave a few pointers and took a swing here and there to help things, but largely left us to create our own unique axe. Mine was splaying at the blade and was a little thick. Richard helped with correcting things a little but the design evolved into a sort of carver.
A good bit of cooling later and grinding was next
Ben Orford (a scholar and gentleman) had very kindly offered to do this on his exceptional grinder to speed the process along. I cannot thank him enough for lending a hand like this.
As mine was carver ish, I opted to have a single sided convex edge put on it
Richard then set about heat treating the head and quenching the blade in heated water. Then using the residual heat in the poll to let a temper run up through the head and a little extra heat from the kiln. Very cool. He did state that he would harden and temper them softer than normal to ensure no failures after all the hard work.
Ben was kind enough to put a polish on this for me, see nice guy.
Next a quick handle fit. Glue in a wedge and trim of the exess.
My axe
Its by no means perfect and rough and ready here and there.
A great project. It took far longer than planned. I was dehydrated and worn out by the hot day and hard work (yes I'm unfit and have a very lazy job) but thoroughly enjoyed it. Just needs a strop, a mask and to be put to the test.
My impulse purchase of the day
A little Enzo Necker from English Handmade Knives. Another little project. I cannot decide if to use the orange G10 it has or to use some wood and liners maybe. I kind of like the G10 and I've never used any before.
Thread to follow
And a great find
A canoe awl (trade awl) from Andrew Kirkham. A great guy and a fine example of his work. Same as you can get off Woodlore. This now needs a handle. Antler I think.
