As promised in this thread http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=23376 . Here is my first attempt at a write up. It was also my first time at forging anything and I am very pleased with the results (but i am biased). Before I start i would like to thank John ( singeblister) for his time , patience and expertise.
This idea started at the Delamere meet when i spotted and held the small pocket axe from Gransfors and I just wanted one. Finances stopped me as usual. Sat around the fire it was discussed and we decided that it might be possible to make one from a small hammer.
This one cost the mass amount of £2 from lidl. it weights in at 400g and has a nice wooden shaft that I think is hickory. Cut the shaft off and get the forge going ,have a brew while it warms up.
Throw in the hammer head and heat it until it glows. Remove the head from the forge and proceed to hit it very hard with another hammer. All the time attempting to flatten the head out and spread the metal around. This is where its time to start sweating. Pulling the head from the forge, getting it on the anvil, holding it steady is an art form in itself. Trust me it gets easier as it goes along. Not forgetting to pull the obligatory cheesy grin while your mate takes piccys.
After a while of heat, hit , heat , hit and repeat. it will start to look like this
Rather than try and go for a totally smooth finish we opted for the easy way and pinged it with a small round headed hammer to give the head some texture.
When it is roughly the shape desired, its back into the forge to reheat until critical again. At which point pull it out and normalise the metal. This was done on a split log as it was the first thing that came to hand at the time.
When it is normalised, put it back in the forge and heat until critical again. Remove it from the forge and quench it in oil.
At this point we started to panic as the head was covered in something as was changing a bizarre colour. As it cooled down it turned out that some brass/copper? ( help me out John) That was being forged at the same time had melted in the forge and covered the head leaving a very pretty pattern.
Then it was into the shed for let the axe take shape.Oh not forgetting the obligatory silly smile shots.
While John set to shaping the head i started to carve the handle to fit .
John did his stuff, shaped, ground , polished and sharpened the head. While i made a complete pigs ear of the handle. Not to worry cut it down again and start again.
We refitted the handle with some posh rare wood ( memory like a sieve) and fitted a pin from an offcut of 01.
Then we sanded the handle down to get rid of all that writing and black paint. Sealed it with some goo ( I know all the technical terminology ) then finished it with linseed oil.
At this point I was on top of the moon and immediatly fell in love with my new toy. So we took some more silly piccys
Still not sure how it would perform, it was tested on various bits of wood from lying around. It seemed a good idea to record the cutting ability ( Apologies for this but the heat , fumes and rain made us a bit manic) and to compare it to a GB SFA. not like setting our standards high for a first attempt
.It was hair poppingly sharp and cut like a demon. So here are a few vids.
It was a great afternoon and a huge learning curve for me. I have used this little axe nearly everyday this week cutting firewood and playing and it just out punches it weight. Splitting 4/5 inch logs. It has the advantage of being shaped like a very small maul and just fits in my hand.
All I can say to anyone is have a go if you get the chance, its great fun. If it goes wrong what have you lost? £2 and an afternoon.
Cheers Greg
This idea started at the Delamere meet when i spotted and held the small pocket axe from Gransfors and I just wanted one. Finances stopped me as usual. Sat around the fire it was discussed and we decided that it might be possible to make one from a small hammer.
This one cost the mass amount of £2 from lidl. it weights in at 400g and has a nice wooden shaft that I think is hickory. Cut the shaft off and get the forge going ,have a brew while it warms up.
Throw in the hammer head and heat it until it glows. Remove the head from the forge and proceed to hit it very hard with another hammer. All the time attempting to flatten the head out and spread the metal around. This is where its time to start sweating. Pulling the head from the forge, getting it on the anvil, holding it steady is an art form in itself. Trust me it gets easier as it goes along. Not forgetting to pull the obligatory cheesy grin while your mate takes piccys.
After a while of heat, hit , heat , hit and repeat. it will start to look like this
Rather than try and go for a totally smooth finish we opted for the easy way and pinged it with a small round headed hammer to give the head some texture.
When it is roughly the shape desired, its back into the forge to reheat until critical again. At which point pull it out and normalise the metal. This was done on a split log as it was the first thing that came to hand at the time.
When it is normalised, put it back in the forge and heat until critical again. Remove it from the forge and quench it in oil.
At this point we started to panic as the head was covered in something as was changing a bizarre colour. As it cooled down it turned out that some brass/copper? ( help me out John) That was being forged at the same time had melted in the forge and covered the head leaving a very pretty pattern.
Then it was into the shed for let the axe take shape.Oh not forgetting the obligatory silly smile shots.
While John set to shaping the head i started to carve the handle to fit .
John did his stuff, shaped, ground , polished and sharpened the head. While i made a complete pigs ear of the handle. Not to worry cut it down again and start again.
We refitted the handle with some posh rare wood ( memory like a sieve) and fitted a pin from an offcut of 01.
Then we sanded the handle down to get rid of all that writing and black paint. Sealed it with some goo ( I know all the technical terminology
) then finished it with linseed oil. At this point I was on top of the moon and immediatly fell in love with my new toy. So we took some more silly piccys
Still not sure how it would perform, it was tested on various bits of wood from lying around. It seemed a good idea to record the cutting ability ( Apologies for this but the heat , fumes and rain made us a bit manic) and to compare it to a GB SFA. not like setting our standards high for a first attempt
.It was hair poppingly sharp and cut like a demon. So here are a few vids.It was a great afternoon and a huge learning curve for me. I have used this little axe nearly everyday this week cutting firewood and playing and it just out punches it weight. Splitting 4/5 inch logs. It has the advantage of being shaped like a very small maul and just fits in my hand.
All I can say to anyone is have a go if you get the chance, its great fun. If it goes wrong what have you lost? £2 and an afternoon.
Cheers Greg
