Hanging a replica 18th c. American axe

[Square_peg]

This thread will show my part in finishing the 18th c. styled axe that Jake forged last year. See original thread here:
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/r-d-18th-c-american-axe.1657540/

I was grateful that he entrusted me to work on his axe. I shared many emails with Jake and Old Axeman to help steer my course with this. In the end the flaws in the process are mine and no fault of theirs.

The axe came to me fully forged and with much of the forge roughness removed. It looked like this.

I began by just cleaning up the perimeter and balancing the lugs.

I toyed with the idea of giving it pointed lugs but in the end rejected this idea.

Instead I elected to go with round lugs and center them on the eye. I drew lines indicating where the eye was and then shaded the area to be removed to get the shape I wanted.

I cut some of the poll and lugs off with a cutoff wheel and then finished the shaping with files.

Next I laid out the bevels. But I didn't cut them yet. In the past I've spoken about not just shaping the haft to the axe but also filing the axe to the haft. You can tweak the edge alignment a little by how you file an axe. The time to do this is when you still have metal to work with at the edge.

I began rough fitting my handle blank to the axe. This handle blank is cut from a stave of local black locust which I had air dried for 3 years. There were issues with it but more about that later. Fitting the haft revealed an issue with the axe that I hadn't noticed up until now.

The bit was twisted off line from the eye and poll a bit more than I was comfortable with.

At this point there was a lengthy email discussion with Jake, getting his advice about how I might correct this at my home forge. He recognized that even my big 145 leg vise would have difficulty resisting the torque I would have to put on this axe to straighten it.

My forge, cobbled together 9 years ago with junkyard parts. It's made from an old cast iron sink filled with clay earth and capped with refractory cement. I'm swapping out the directional tuyere I use to create a longer fire with the standard tuyere. High temperature anti-seize compound keeps the threads from locking up.

Often I use firebricks to enclose the fire and concentrate the heat.

I brought the body up to heat slowly letting the heat soak through the axe. I used that yellow pump sprayer on the left to keep the bit cool while the body came up to heat. It would be easy to burn the carbon out of the thin bit by overheating it. Once the body was up to temperature I let the bit come up, just before I performed 'the twist'.

I would need to move fast once the iron was hot. I got everything ready before I brought the axe to heat. I pre-set my vise jaws to the width where I wanted the axe to drop into. I braced off the operable jaw of the vise so it could resist the the torque I was going to put on it. I still have a little bit of movement available with it braced off. I adjusted my twisting wrenches to fit on the axe as I would need them during 'the twist'.

Then when I was all set I made...

The Twist

It came out of the twist pretty straight. But it took several more heats to clean up the wrinkles I left in it during the twist and then to straighten and slightly enlarge the eye with some makeshift drifts.

Opening the eye

Edit to add: I had dented one side of the eye while straightening the bit. To push it out I wanted my makeshift drift to move one side of the eye without moving the other side. That's why you see me cooling one side of the eye. The cool side will resist the drift.

I'm going to stop with the axe here for now and go back to that handle.

 

[Square_peg]

I started with one of 3 black locust staves that I set to dry 3 years ago. Black locust is about the best haft wood I'm going to find around here. These were beautifully straight staves when I first split them but they all warped while drying.

I picked one and cleaned it up with my Lancelot tool.

As you can see it was warped in both directions and was too heavy to easily steam bend.

So I traced out a handle blank following the grain of the wood. My goal was to end up with a continuous grain haft.

I kerfed to the line and chunked it out with my Stubai carpenters axe.

Then I did the same in the other dimension.

After sanding I had a handle blank thin enough to steam and straighten.

I wrapped it with Saran wrap before steaming. I don't need to get the wood wet, just hot.

I used my standard steaming procedure on the kitchen stove. I gave it about 45 minutes of heat.

Then I clamped it to the bench and let it cool.

Turns out I hadn't clamped it down tight enough. It came out still warped.

So I heated again and clamped it tighter.

That got it reasonably straight in one dimension but I still had the warp in the other dimension.

I realized that when I tried to straighten the second dimension that the first was likely to return to its warped condition. So I heated it a 3rd time and clamped it straight in 2 dimensions.

That did the trick and I wound up with a blank that was close enough to make into a nice handle. I know this seems like a lot of work for a haft but I looked at it as a challenge to see if I could make a nice haft out of local stock. Good learning experience.

I thought about the handle style for this axe. I had an email conversation with Old Axeman about what would be appropriate. He had sent me some photos of his axes from this period and a couple of them gave me inspiration.

 

[Square_peg]

He suggested that I do it by draw knife and leave it with a drawknife finish. I loved that idea and got to it with the drawknife. But as I approached my final dimensions I ran into trouble with frequent and sudden grain changes. I didn't want to risk ruining the haft after all the effort I had into it. I elected to switch to rasps. Still a period tool.

The project stalled for a bit over the holidays. The axe and haft sat out on my patio. The axe began to rust and the wrought iron eye stained the haft. But those things didn't really matter because they would get cleaned up as I finished it. As I shaped the haft I kept the axe head on it so that I was always orienting the haft in line with the axe.

I like how the bevels popped in the sunlight.

I cleaned up the axe and gave it an overnight soak in vinegar to let the various components in its construction show.

I ended up with a nifty little 2.7 pound axe on a 29" straight haft.

I love it already. It's a handy user. And I love all the history in it, Jake's, Old Axeman's and mine.

 

[the-accumulator]

I love all the history in it

Your knowledge, as a team, as well as your skills, are only exceeded by your passion. Well done! T-A

 

[jake pogg]

Square-peg this is SUCH a great article...You're the Man,knowledgeable,methodical,patient...It took a Lot of work,as many of us here know only too well...
Fantastic,thank you for All that you do.
My hat's off to Old Axeman as well,and to everyone who pitched in,this has been a great project!!!

 

[jake pogg]

Some very clever work getting that haft continuous And straight...Very cool how you left both ends bulky to be able to tweak the middle relative to them...Tons of other info in the story,all of it very valuable...

 

[Old Axeman]

SP-- I find it interesting that while very few axes from this period had hafts with a butt swell. That goes for my axes, some long passed away EAIA axe collectors I knew 40-50 years ago, the Smithsonian collection, Colonial Williamsburg collection, and the Mercer museum collection. You and I both share a preference for a user axe with a butt swell, even a slight one. I have never been able to figure out why our forefather axemen did not seem to prefer a swell.

 

[Square_peg]

Yes, it would have been closer to being period without a swell. But I wanted this to be a user and for me that means having a swell.

It's curious why swells are so uncommon on historic axes. Some of the handles look like they were made hurriedly. I supposed there was urgency to get the tool back to work. But with the tool playing so much more prominently in their lives one would think they would want it to be the most efficient tool possible.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

It may have had to do with economy of wood in addition to economy of effort. When you're doing the work by hand you really want to stretch those materials a lot of the time, and one can use a thinner starting blank without much of a swell to it. Not surprising that you ran into issues with draw-knifing black locust. The stuff is very persnickety about paring tools, even when the grain looks nice and clean and you're working down the slope of the grain. Rasps are pretty much required kit.

 

[Square_peg]

Not surprising that you ran into issues with draw-knifing black locust. The stuff is very persnickety about paring tools, even when the grain looks nice and clean and you're working down the slope of the grain. Rasps are pretty much required kit.

Yeah, it was wierd and unexpected. I hadn't run into that before with clear straight-grained wood.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

The results are worth it, but it's a pain to work with.

 

[Hickory n steel]

Great work all around on an excellent project.

I especially like your choices with the head, and the lugs.
It did look a little like a Gransfors Bruks she it arrived to you, and I think you gave it the finishing touches it needed.
Overall I'd say Jake pogg did a great job in the forging process too, the profile of the bit / cheeks, the eye, and the poll length sure look right to me.

I'll bet in 30 years old would have to do a metallurgy analysis to determine whether or not this is a true 18th century axe.

 

[Square_peg]

I'll bet in 30 years old would have to do a metallurgy analysis to determine whether or not this is a true 18th century axe

Only the bit steel would give it away since the body is wrought iron.

 

[Hickory n steel]

Only the bit steel would give it away since the body is wrought iron.

Well then that makes it even more authentic and period correct.

I didn't catch that, and it's a real nice touch for sure.

 

[jake pogg]

I've convinced myself(rightly or wrongly,i'm ever less sure),that much if not all early iron in USA was imported from Europe,and primarily for carriage trade,tyres and hardware for wagons and carts.
It was all strap,and it came in 20'-ers,as about the biggest wheel was +/- 6' dia.,so 6x3.14 was within that.
Apparently when a shop bought stock they weren't expected to eat the inevitable waste,but at their next purchase they could turn the drops back to supplier,for a discount, i believe.
But of course it made for stock for Everything,sectioned and forged into all the household objects and tools.
And so i think that many construction particulars may stem from that form and quality of stock.

Not too long ago i asked this MT carriage maker if he knew what,if anything,was particularly characteristic of that early tyre stock...(i didn't get an answer yet).

Tool-steel i think they bought separately,in a number of shapes.Tool-steel rod usually came faceted,hex-,or octagon,and it was a kind of a code for hardenable steel.So rock drills,crowbars,cold-chisels and some few other tools still come faceted,it's traditional....

I wish i knew more...(and i wish i'd get off my worthless ass and order that Early American Iron book...

 

[jake pogg]

But this axe was not tyre.
It was a strap bent into a semicircular guard,it surrounded a break-band on this steam winch i have in the yard...It's a smaller(5000lbs or so)donkey,from logging industry in PNW originally,and was used in the village of Ruby to help offload barges,i think...(or on one of mining claims previously)....

 

[jake pogg]

In the later 1700's i think most of the medium or higher Carbon steel was some sort of "shear steel",where bars of WI were surface-carburised,then stacked-"faggoted"-and welded and drwan out together.
Such steel came out of Sweden,and England too,and it would've been an obvious,as in the naked eye,layered material...(in those two axe heads etched and posted by I'msosharp,i think that's what they're bladed with).
But some early Huntsman process,and many others,"cast" or crucible steel was becoming available more and more(till the Brits learned to make it using coke and then Really gone to town on production).
And that stuff was pretty homogeneous...Would not be Too easy to tell,except that elements analysis will instantly tell you "5160" on Square_peg's axe,as there weren't too many Chrome based alloys then...

But,if someone Really wanted to know,and throw money at testing,"they" can now tell to within about couple years when the material last was up to forging temp...(read it in a study about the old Tlingit daggers...).

 

[Square_peg]

In the later 1700's i think most of the medium or higher Carbon steel was some sort of "shear steel",where bars of WI were surface-carburised,then stacked-"faggoted"-and welded and drwan out together.
Such steel came out of Sweden,and England too,and it would've been an obvious,as in the naked eye,layered material...(in those two axe heads etched and posted by I'msosharp,i think that's what they're bladed with).

Such a steel is visible in my cast iron broad axe. The bit and poll cap are made of this material. I wondered what use such a thin layer of carbon steel was. But you answered that earlier when explaning the benefit of forge welding dissimilar metals. So I believe this steel is on the poll not to provide a "hardened poll" but to hold the poll together.

Seen in this thread:
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/on-the-origin-of-phantom-bevels.1563247/page-3#post-17962311

 

[jake pogg]

Yessir...It Really does help hold the back of a stack of multi-layer laminate together.
Also,for some mysterious to me reason the dissimilar alloys have more of an affinity to be welded together than any alloy to itself...
But,also,a thin layer of steel(within reason)is good for a lot of tasks.Many a hammer-face was not much thicker that that broadaxe shows on it's poll.

Beautiful stuff that shear steel is.Always keep an eye out for old buggy springs;each one would have a wealth of this lovely stuff...