OK,after a few hours in the forge today i'm again(or still...)lost.
I worked up a couple drifts,or rather blanks for them.
Then i realised that i'm still totally undecided about the correct size Or shape for our axes in question here.
I've been kinda escaping into just using conventional,tear-drop shape drifts that became popular later.(and not particularly liking the result-it often bulges the sides of eye out,and even if not,aesthetically it doen't really match the older axes).
So if the eye was rectangular,or bullet-shaped on front end,i wonder how long and wide was a median one?
And what are the physics of hanging a 2+# head,what area of section of wood be sufficient?
I worked on two blanks(i'm still getting used to new dies,and making endless adjustments,tho i think i'm getting it).
The bigger,out of 1 3/4" round stock flattened to just under 2" wide(the new dies are deadly-efficient,not Any mass displacement outside intended direction...kinda scary).
I left it in thickness 5/8" and down.
The second one was the one i made last year,as i was trying to figure things out(same things i'm Still puzzled by).
It seemed a bit insufficient to me.1 3/4" long by under 1/2" wide...I wonder how heavy of a head that eye would support?
But i extended it in length and a bit in thickness,to a 1/2"+.
Starting stock(an old drift for project long ago).I want the length,i need to be able to sight down the drift,so this will be double-ended,and near 2' long for blade alignment.
(close to 2" of med.-C steel,it's about max size for my poor old hammer,i believe the official capacity rating is 2"sq.)
The other stock is 1 1/8" pavement-breaker bit.Here're both viewed on the flat:
And viewed on edge.Again,these are blanks.Now i need to figure out the finish dimensions that i'm going for,then i'll reforge as needed,and grind them clean.
(now how muddle-headed it this,a year into research,dozen heads later,endless thinking and consulting-and still to be uncertain of eye-shape?!):
At that point i had a good fire going,and had still some issues to be worked out with the hammer,so i decided to see what kind of a job it'd do on a overly-thick laminate blade.
I picked a victim,nice and fat.Lots of hard steel,and very soft WI on both sides,so a Very awkward job to do by hand(i'd be smearing the soft WI vs forging through the entire laminate):
Here's a top view.You can see that those front seams-my Nemesis!-are both shitty...Also there's another incipient problem having also to do with steel all the way to eye:Soft WI is shearing over the edge of hard steel,creating those nasty points of weakened structure:
Only a couple heats and i'm done-i don't have an infinite amount to play with.I fluxed the bad ends of those seams hoping what the heck...
And this is what it looked like on the flat.You can see how the blade is elongating almost catastrophically,i've no control other than in that one direction.Cannot turn the axe sideways without modifying those dies extensively.
So another reason to quit there and go to hand hammer:
So far,the head has stayed put,and the wedge,in spite of getting well-oiled,is not trying to slither out...
