R&D,18th c.American axe

Square_peg had to struggle mightily with this...I'm a space cadet,and managed to send this twisted as a boat prop....(still amazed that i pull this kind of stunts...:(
So luckily he had a forge,and all else it takes to deal with this situation...
It wasn't for the fainthearted!But he persevered...
Thanks again,man,for dealing with it!:)
 
Have you had that happen before? Did it cause a weld failure?
Failure is such a harsh word. Jake in this endeavor tries to follow steps of old Pennsylvania blacksmiths. Their axes tend to have cosmetic delaminations. This isn't just one chunk of steel. Why give acid the opportunity to find not visible to naked eye imperfection between the welds.
 
Ok,let me tell a sad tale of thoughtless forging.
Here's what this particular WI did the Very first heat,practically as soon as i touched it:

2009.jpg

Part of the crack was to become the poll,and after ascertaining that it would weld back together i went ahead and used it...
Dumb idea.Silica has a low melting point,and exposed to welding range of heat just leaks out of the joint,exposing the remaining iron to erosion due to scaling and oxidation.

Could i work faster,and accomplish more on each heat,i May've made it.
But knowing full well how long everything takes me it was a daft decision.

Again,this same problem spot still at the pre-form stage.
Now,in hind sight,it don't look promising at all!:)

2029.jpg

But it wasn't that bad spot only that got me.These cheeks are Way too thin,for working the forging.
Especially for welding on the poll-plate.I do so very rudely,by simply pounding down on the poll as the axe is stood vertically on anvil face.
After nth heat i suddenly noticed that the eye has buckled pretty badly...Never had an issue with that before,as i always worked with thicker side-walls...

I was looking for a better photo of how thin the side-walls really were...should take more/better photos,but things just get intense...:(

Only found this,and one more i'll process in a sec here.

2006.jpg

Here's that second one,that also shows excessive thinness.Also,i've WAY too much beef in that blade(as previous photo shows clearly).
The starting stock is 3/8",and i barely affected that thickness in prep.Plus the bit(that wasn't that thick,but still...and i just Hates making the insert paper thin...).

2004.jpg

(that sandwich wasn't That ugly when i went to weld it,i gave it a squeeze in a vise at fluxing heat...
 
Square_peg had to struggle mightily with this...I'm a space cadet,and managed to send this twisted as a boat prop....(still amazed that i pull this kind of stunts...:(
So luckily he had a forge,and all else it takes to deal with this situation...
It wasn't for the fainthearted!But he persevered...
Thanks again,man,for dealing with it!:)

Jake overstates a little twist in the bit. Yes, I had to re-align the bit to the eye and poll. It was so minimal that I didn't notice it myself until I started to hang it. And I had been handling it for severals weeks and had an hour or two into refining the shape without ever noticing.
 
But,my old hammer is running!!!(when it's warm enough:)

Now i have no more excuses about the gauge of materials.
Unfortunately i only have this set of flat dies at present,so can't really use the hammer on most forging surfaces,But,i can sure size down the stock to exactly what's necessary....(i just need to develop a brain to figure out What exactly is necessary!)
 
A friend,a very well-meaning man,has send this photo.
Little did he know how aversely it affected my pea-brain...
I MUST put these axes out of my mind...they're Way outside what i'm trying to do,are much later axes,totally different technology,et c,et c...
But,what lethal elegance!!!Everything that i do in my shop starts looking so clunky and clumsy by comparison...
(i can see why people went to overlayed bit...how Can you have an inlaid insert in something This slender?!...this is apropos my blade mat's gauge musings above).

20200216_135705.jpg
 
How the hell did that thing end up in Galena?

My good friend Charlie,the barge captain,has hauled it downriver on his barge Ramona...
Both him and Ramona are now retired and on the beach,a bigger newer company hauls freight and fuel,and i can no longer look forward to having a cigar and a glass of scotch with Charlie after he docks..:(.
 
The old hammer is really nothing to write home about...An old(1942 i think)LG 25,farmer's model,to draw out plowshares...
But man it does help...I had a tough time warming it up enough to run,but once it got going it made short work of smashing the poll of one of those broken Chinese axes down to about 5/16"...(that's what i used for blade stock).
Very handy to have,but needs much work,and constant maintenance...

2001.jpg 2002.jpg
 
A friend,a very well-meaning man,has send this photo.
Little did he know how aversely it affected my pea-brain...
I MUST put these axes out of my mind...they're Way outside what i'm trying to do,are much later axes,totally different technology,et c,et c...
But,what lethal elegance!!!Everything that i do in my shop starts looking so clunky and clumsy by comparison...
(i can see why people went to overlayed bit...how Can you have an inlaid insert in something This slender?!...this is apropos my blade mat's gauge musings above).

View attachment 1286042
god that left head is beautiful. i can only imagine how well that chops softwood.
 
I'm between and betwixt here again...Screwed myself for forging yesterday by spacing out the wind direction,and all smoke from charcoaling went Direct inside the forge,couldn't even be in there to think and take measurements!(too much snow around to move my charcoal works downwind,got spoiled by all these days of northerlies:).

Today for a few days got company,and in any case,i'm missing something here...I noticed i'm repeating myself in experiments,without having drawn conclusions...
It's time to Think through some of this.

I went to look some stuff up.Rarely do i turn to watching videos(reception not good enough but other reasons mainly),but This i make an exception for:
This is not voyerism,this is Education,i can't tell you how much respect i have for Dave,and in how many different ways...(speaking incidentally of those tongs above,this is the level of competence that they were made with,right about).

Anyway,two things are the reason i drag this in.One,my theory that about all metal then came from carriage trade supply;remnants of tyre and hardware work were used for everything else(else sold back to supplier).
That's why i keep trying to come up with construction sequence based on strap...

But here's the rub math-wise:If the finished axe blade is within 1/2" say in thickness.
This is for three-part laminate(if bit extends to the eye).Bit steel cannot be under 1/4"+,or it'd be weird....So the remainder,divided by 2,is awfully thin...:(...Some went to grinding et c.,but it still leaves under a 1/4" each side in preform...(just thinking out loud here...).

Another awful thought creeps in after watching Dave...I wonder if i'm struggling with hitting sufficiently high heat ranges with my charcoal...It's been Many years since i quit mail-ordering coal from PA(funny that)or WV,the good stuff...I tried coke from PNW,but it somehow worked out the same..Again,it's been a Long time,and i can't compare anymore.

From history i know there used to be a machine shop a couple hundred miles upriver in early 1900's that worked with birch charcoal,and did some heavy work,dredge rigging,et c.(i also heard the rumor that they charcoaled green birch as they went,with waste heat from forging).
I've not enough info though.
What alarmed me in the past is the recommendation in Alaska Miner's Handbook(published regularly since late '3o-ies i think) to buy mineral coal from down south!
And sho nuff,i know that the miners south of here before and after gold rush(mining took a dump here when most guys went off to fight WWI),they all had their coal barged in...

Just tortured by doubt,feeling like i'm balanced right on the verge of necessary heat-range.
 
mail-ordering coal from PA(funny that)or WV
I feel better about living in virginia now, we may not be rust belt but coal is something we dont hurt for. hell, you can buy anthracite at tractor supply, that's where i learned it's really hard to burn solely anthracite. 5 bucks a bag (i think) is what i paid for my current, not-anthracite supply, A pro i know apparently goes once a year and fills the entire bed of his truck with coal and has a dumpster he uses.

it never occurred to me that people wouldnt have the option of coal.
 
"it never occurred to me that people wouldnt have the option of coal."

Oh yeah.Access to coal generally makes or breaks a metal-producing-,or metalworking industry.

Coal is an incredibly complex issue in All respects,and even just taking the different kinds alone would amount to a great deal.
I'd just say that Ideally,one would have access to a metallurgical grade soft,coking,bituminous coal
(what i used to have access to was coal from Pocahontas II seam,and comparable).

Anthracite is fine in Principle,but again,it's all very complex.
Alaska has lots of coal,and years ago i even made a pilgrimage to see a man who owns the one(known)metallurgical grade seam(part of the Buffalo mine near Sutton).He was not ready to commercialise production,unfortunately.
And as a last resort i bought a ton of the soft bitumen that is mined in Healy,the largest coal mine in AK,the Usibelli.
After opening the crate i started breaking apart the lumps to see what's inside.One of the things was a match-head sized pieces of pure Sulphur...as in Every piece i broke open...
Now it's not like metalworkers were historically beating any records in life expectancy,but,you stand there breathing That stuff from a foot away, and i guarantee you you won't last very long at All...
So that is when i went to wood charcoal...
(i've a friend here who suddenly just got diagnosed with mesothelioma,was given less than a year to live...apparently,most probably this contract he had when much younger doing massive areas of suspended ceiling tile...back when it was the real stuff:(...I missed those years here,1940-ies vintage military base and later contracts,miles of pipe insulation,all kinds of good stuff...the place is totally contaminated to this day,and if i needed some asbestos i could get some very easily right up the road:).
 
Oh yes.I've an old(antique,really)cast duck's nest in the bottom,,and i usually work two bricks up from that(set close around perimeter).A stash of other bricks handy right by,for any other configuration.
I try to work with 4"-5" of fuel under the work,and heap it up over the top each heat too.
I feed the charcoal in during the heat as well,and manage it in any number of ways(fraction,amount,density..).
Don't have any trouble with Atm.,i'm in a habit of testing for welding environment with my poker,and sometimes can't tear it off after testing in the fire:)...
It's not that easy to get stuff to Burn,but i put so much effort in maintaining reducing Atm. that(i hope)that then makes sense...

If-IF-there's a problem,it'd be strictly with the caloric value,the old Btu's...Is that possible,i wonder?
That in my back-assward charring process i loose a critical amount of C?
 
Maybe your charcoal is low btu's just because of the species & density of your wood. But it seems like you would make up for that with the volume you're burning.

How's your air supply? A 5" pile fast-burning charcoal will need a ton of air.
 
Well...It's a bit tough to explain,in words...

You know how when blowing up some embers in the morning getting the fire going in your stove from the few remaining ones;at first it takes quite a bit,but once the kindling and whatever gets really Going,than a much lesser amount is enough to whip up a small storm?

It's like that in a way that if there's a large amount of charcoal that is fresh,BtU's not expended yet,it hardly takes much air to make the forge roar...
I have to actually slow myself down on the blower so as not to create a oxydising Atm too far above the tyere,to keep that excess O away from the forging takes a conscious effort on my part..

It also takes keeping up on that bottom layer,checking it for cavities,and adding to it by shoving more charcoal under the forging...Coal for that comes from the pile Above the forging that takes constant adding to...Altogether quite a juggling act...

But,the amount of air it takes to blow it and still remain at mostly reducing atmosphere seems moderate,even modest...
 
I can't believe a whole week has slipped by...:(
I feel extra whiny as it was warm the entire time i couldn't forge,and yesterday and this morning when i was lighting the forge fires it was again -34F...
But it couldn't be helped,and meanwhile i found photos of another fascinating specimen on ebay:
s-l1600 (5).jpg

There were few other photos,but none of the eye,unfortunately.
Also no weight,only the approx.measurements,6"+ L overall x 4"+along edge.
I'm in no wise out to copy it,just more food for thought,spend time staring at these in the hopes of meta-programming my pea-brain.

I'm under pressure to be more methodical,to learn more from each screw-up,and in order to do that better i go back to using mild.
Very simply proportioned,so i couldn't screw up measurements,2" wide strap 1/" thick,exactly 12" L.
(i still see no alternative to thinking that those guys worked with iron imported for the carriage trade,and 1/2" strap would be one of the most common sizes used).

I started on one end,peining material out for blade only.I didn't bring it all the way out to 4"+/- wide,but it's close to that,and it's not the final shape either).
The soapstone marks are all tentative,to help me think,and i move them about after each stage.

2004.jpg

Next is the space for the eye.Drift that i'm loosely thinking of using is a standard boy's axe one.
But,i just may not actually use it-it may end up with a sharp point to that tear-drop shape,sides just coming together in a V.
To define the Back of an eye i do fuller that transition deeply.

2006.jpg

And here it is with the drift placed about where the eye will be:

2011.jpg

So far i kinda like where it's going,so i repeat all that on the other end of the strap.
(strap has a center mark that allows me to keep both more/less the same,+will allow me to quantify the entire amount in cubic inches to translate into mass,since i still don't have a scale).
 
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