You really do make beautiful tools, I love this channel weather your talking playing music or it’s just the hum of the press. At the end of day it’s not about the videos it’s about the work. Keep it up thank you for sharing. ❤️🇺🇸❤️
Excellent creation, as always. That handle would have cracked regardless of circumstances... Better to have it happen in your hands during the build as opposed to somebody else's out in the bush. Have you heard of Timothy Dyck/ Tim the Blacksmith? He's a Blacksmith up in Canada and also has a RU-vid channel. I bring him up because he makes axes from time to time and when it's time to set the wedge in he uses his Press with stellar results. I think you may enjoy watching his process, as well as his videos in general. Anywho, I enjoyed watching this un-narrated video, but it felt lonely without hearing your voice. I'm sure it was much easier to produce and edit without the dialog though, and also time saving which is always in short supply.
I've seen some axes by well-regarded makers which do not have a smoothed, or polished poll. So, my question; is there any disadvantage to not finishing the poll, i.e., leaving it as it came out of the forge....rough ? (I'm not referring to a hardening of the poll)
I've seen both, I think it's just personal preference. I'm not aware of any advantage one way or the other accepting specific cases as follows: some applications favor a rounded and smooth poll such as a carving hatchet where you may have your hand up close to the poll, and a rounded poll keeps it from digging into the web of your hand. Another example is a field dressing hatchet or ax, where the poll can be used to run in between the carcass and the skin, effectively helping remove the hide.
making an axe and everything I read says the eye of the axe is larger at the top and smaller where the handle enters the eye. But every video I watch it looks like the eye is being drifted with the eye lager at the side the handle enters the axe. The axes you forge is the eye larger at the top or on the handle side? Thanks for your videos and time I appreciate it.
Are these 52100 as well? If so, how does 52100 compare and function versus 5160? I’m intrigued by an axe that is tough, yet has double the carbon of most axes made today.
when hanging an axe never hit it from the bottom handle and was the glue on your wedge? You don't hang very much. A little BLO on the wedge a 2x4 on top set it lose in a rack/stand/vise and take your time hitting it in, this way you see how much its mushrooming out on the top sometime it takes a whole wedge sometimes it needs a round or straight step wedge sometimes it takes half the wooded wedge and you can just cut it clean off.
Awesome 🪓!!! Some constructive criticism, if you make your handles have a little less curve to them, or at least less curve per inch or foot of length, the handles will be a good amount stronger. Like with bow making, wood will do what you want and flex and absorb shock but you have to be careful about having grain run off your piece. It will always happen but if it can be minimized it allows the wood to be more resilient. Another weird example is Viking ships used whole lengths of wood which kept the integrity of the grain of the wood down the whole length of the pieces and it allowed the ships to be super strong and flexible. Anyways longer comment than I intended, you're a much better axe maker than I am for sure, but I do have a lot of experience working with wood. Great work and hopefully I'll buy one one day.
Thanks, you're right. So what actually happened in this video is I was trying out a new 28" handle design with more curve than the previous less curved 25" handle I've used... I ended up using the 25" handle, haha...
Never had an axe fail due to curve. On a small axe, I feel curve is especially important because you’ll have a lighter head and shorter handle. The curve will allow the axe to punch above its weight. Additionally, in my experience, the curve does help some with shock absorption. Beautiful axe, just my two cents.
@@FireCreekForge been using it for years. Tip: agricultural graphite is used to lube seeds. It comes in big containers and is WAY cheaper than the small packages at the hardware store.
