FORGING A SCANDINAVIAN HEWING AXE 

Beautiful Bila! From my understanding and what I've seen and own. All of the Swedish made collared axes were hand forged from multiple pieces forge welded together. They also werent produced much after the turn of the century, about 1920 is the cutoff for them from my understanding. Finland on the other hand was industrializing its collared axe production at the same time Sweden was going towards a western style. Finnish kirves were forged in open dies like Gransfors uses today. An iron body with a welded in high carbon bit. Other than the very old Bila/Piilukirves, I haven't seen many hand forged Finnish axes. I would say their most different feature is the sloped top of the blade and the angle at which it meets the collar. Swedish collared axes are typically 90° or close to it, Finnish axes tend to have the blade angled in towards the collar in an obvious way.

Practicing some of these processes myself at the moment. This is a beautiful thing

Oh my. I am getting to forging multipart axes (and knives and such) myself again after three or so years, but oh my, this one is so very complicated, yet beautiful. I think I'll have a go at making a collared axe someday, hopefully soon.

Good on you for tackling such an incredibly difficult forging! I like the honest self critique at the end, that’s how you get better as a craftsman.

Loved this video! just starting to learn knife making, forging and heat treating is tricky!

Beautiful axe and great insight into traditional forging techniques.. thank you!

Thank you for sharing a great video with your amazing and fantastic videos.

Great piece of art. The fusion of the different parts and especially the forgeweldings are inspiring

Хорошая работа. Скандинавы знают своё дело.

I like your "Reckless testing". Well done.

Man ripped a log!!! Heck yeah dude

Beautiful work Nils!

Awesome build man. Your reckless test drive turned out better than my carefully planned builds. Great to see such a complicated process.

I'm furious I've not seen your channel before. This is truly brilliant work.

Nils,you've done a Really good job on this,for the first time-especially,right on. The "book" that you mention-is that Lars Enander's? Have you by chance heard of a gathering of axe-smiths in France,last year,on the subject of this very or a very similar axe-code named "1700"?If not,look to see if maybe Jim Austen has written something about it(he was the chief presenter),but lots of good smiths were there,Terje GranaasMathieu Colette,et c.Maybe look up Mathieu's page,it has some photos of 1700 construction on there somewhere:facebook.com/Taillanderie-Claudel-609826759129934/photos/?ref=page_internal I cannot speak about the differences between this Bila and Piilukirves.They're Very closely related without any doubt(and both probably related to their common ancestor,some sort of Germanic "goosewing" type socket,which also had 2-3 or even more variants). I'd say that a big factor would be the type of local ore,and charcoal,and also socioeconomics(how much time/resources people could dedicate to refining steel).One-piece socket like you did(typical for Sweden)takes some Very clean,And highly refined iron. Possibly things in Finnmark were a bit more difficult with this.Also,their construction techniques were a bit different also,like hewing the vertical faces on logs after the walls were up...

Awesome job please keep making movies of your work.

Здравствуйте ! Очень интересный получился топор !

That was an AWESOME build. Different approach than some i have seen, but GREAT execution. Well done. Thanks for sharing. What steel did you use?

I think you did a fantastic job and did a great job on the video I always wondered how they managed to draw down such a long handle socket well done 👏

Good job. Seems to be durable. That curly birch handle is really nice. Loved to watch you vid. Congrats.

Your attempt, You nailed it figured it must surport the axe . I'm still messing trying to forge weld. But after some advice I trying again this week. Love your videos, Thanks Also the speaking at the end Thanks

I would so take that into battle. Cool axe dude, amazing

Beautifully done. If your parts are slipping before welding and you don't want to tack weld, try cutting a few "barbs" into the insert with a chisel so that it bites a bit when heated and you should find they stay in place a bit better. Skal

Brilliant result mate. That is one great looking axe . Well done.

New sub and amazing video mate :) keep up your amazing work : D

This was a very satisfying video to watch, I have no smithing experience, but liked how the front was all video, and then you finished with a comprehensive explanation of your project, I thought you did quite well, especially after learning this was your first time making something like this Of coarse each next time will give you a much better intuition to work with from practical experience to guide you.... as for the Swedish/Finish differences, I also have no knowledge, but wonder if it was nothing more than regional pride and bragging, if both styles are relatively equal in function and reliability... thank for a great video!

Mình là người Việt Nam nên không biết tiếng anh ,mình thấy bạn làm các mẫu rìu rất đẹp mình rất thích , ở Việt Nam không có ai làm các mẫu rìu như bạn cả níu có thì phải đặc làm mà giá tiền công rất cao☹

Well done.

Very cool

Good job!👍🏻

Awesome vid!!!!🔥💪🏻⚒

Your axes are so pretty man. Edit : it did look really tricky to forge, the design is seemingly quite complicated for an axe, considering its in 3 parts.

Nice work Nils, just subscribed! 👍

Grymt!

Eye socket is deep!

In my opinion your doing fine. And I respect your opinion on the handle material, ash or hickory would be stronger. Great video

I have always wondered why they didn't fix fiddly bits with a rivet before they then went on to forge weld.

Found your channel after seeing Skallagrim try out the bearded axe you made him, gotta say, beautiful piece of work, as is this axe. I've always wanted to see a Lochaber Axe, ever since first reading the Elenium trilogy by David Eddings years ago. I know it's one of the hundreds of types of pole axe, but now I'd just love to see you make one! :-P

Can you forge a ciupaga? Please teach others. You have a great talent.

Subbed Fin øks da Lærte til og med en ting eller to Takk Fra holland

What type of wood was used for the handle.

What wood is that? Is it sturdy? Good video

Beautiful handle material. Curly birch?

Awesome Video! I would like to learn to forge. Any tips for beginners?

I just wondering ,what a purpose of the axe for?Obvious not enough a weight for work and long handle? But it's really complicate to forge.

I want one Nils

Hew many foe-men.

Hi, where do You get that blacksmith book? I wanted!!. Nice Axe, congratulations!!!. Regards from argentina

Sorry to ask a stupid question but what was that white substance called and why is it used? Thanks.

Absolutely stunning work! Can I ask you - which model of Scheppach saw do you use? I consider buy one and yours looks perfect for me. Thanks.

Good Idea to use berch at first so you know it will fit in your hand the way it's sculpted or uses scrap wood. Then shape your more expensive wood or wood you don't have on hand. It might be easier that way. Not a professional.

I appreciate not tack welding and also wonder how it was done during the Middle Ages. I assume you used a gas forge. Why use a gas forge over the coal forge when forging such a bulky object? The coal forge doesn’t have the space limitations.

What kind of wood is that? Pretty nice patern, i want to find this for my knife sheets.

LAKE 👍👍👍👍👍👍

Är det ett fint gammalt söderfors 90 kg du smider på :) ? Dina videos är väldigt trevliga, jag gillar att du behåller ljuden ifrån smedjan och arbetet och inte lägger in en massa musik som en del gör! MvH

What are these axes designed to do?

Whats the book you got?

How well did your welds stick it looked like you might not of been at proper temperature on a couple of them other than that it looks beautiful I bet it chops well

Great video. But the ax is not shown at work.

I hope u did not forget me :) ??

Viking seax vad blir dit pris mats.the.chef@gmail.com låt höra!

Really good work. Good to see a fellow scandinavian hard at work :) im impressed seeing you forgeweld those difficult and complicated pieces :) keep it up :) where did you get the wood?

I think they would have pinned the pieces together and then forge weld it. This technique was used in complicated forge welds.

1:00 Subtitles: [music] 1:19 Subtitles: [Laughing]

Beautiful work! You killed it! I wish my forge was big enough for me to attempt things like that. Maybe someday.

Respect very nice job nice handle lightweight axe fantastic long beard. Nice weapon to enter Valhalla. 🤘🤘🇧🇪🇧🇪

Oh, and on topic of birch for haft material - I think that is part of the reason for why the collar is there in the first place! When I was travelling Finland, the majority of trees were birches, spruces and pines, and out of those I'd absolutely pick the birch. And the long collar means more wood is "gripped"/supported by the eye, working around using comperatively softer wood. That's my train of thought, anyway!

That's a great idea you have setting up the shop-vac under the grinder. I'm gonna have to steal that page out of your playbook for sure. Awesome work and video!

Don't feel guilty about using the power hammer. Look at the painting "The Forge" by Goya to see how much labor was used in the early 18th century. The blacksmith had two assistants. I've seen the original which is under a stay-at-home order in New York City. It is much better than any of the images I've seen online.

Muy buen trabajo te felicito desde España

Amazing axe!!! Beautiful workmanship end to end!!! Blessings to you and your family 😇

Bra jobba!

Complicated build, looks great from our view.

Great job, it looks fantastic, as always love the content and keep up the great work.

It was gonna be cool if you do some demo in the end. You know split some wood and bottled or watermelons. :D :D But amazing Axe bro, good job

Hey Nils, Try not to be too critical,you’re learning and basically re inventing the “wheel” so to speak!! But I’ll say you’re found a hell of a fine job. Do you have any idea of gas consumption,like how long a 9kg (20lb)has bottle would last you with forging heat and welding heat together? Nice work!!

Perfect vid but not enough views and subs Lets add some :D

Beautiful Axe Nils.

Lovely build! Those are some complicated forge welds. The discussion about Swedish vs Finnish style made me go out and actually look at my hewing axe restoration project that I was supposed to do something with forever ago. And made me realise that the axe I have flying around here is more than likely a 1-handed variant. Also made me realise that it is an axe head from a Swedish speaking area in Finland. Outside of a different blade shape - this one is leaning backwards quite a bit - the major difference seems to be a rectangular eye thats tapering down to the end, so probably wasnt wedged. Also at least now lacks a boss on the backside. There's a lot of mushrooming in that area, so it took some abuse. The way the the collar and the blade were attached seems more or less similar to your way of doing it though. Now the differences are probably coming down to different era and the fact that its a 1-handed axe in my case, but they were still standing out to me

Obra de arte...maravilhosa esta ferramenta Parabéns você é um artista da cutelaria Brasil

Well done

Very nice

Very fun video. Thank you for taking all the time to record and share this with everyone. I have been interested in these multiple part axes for a while and it’s interesting to see all the weld joints.

I'm not one to talk as I've never forged anything this big but I've seen a lot of really good smiths chisel in barbs along edges that fit inside another piece of the metal to keep the parts from slipping during the forge weld. Hopefully that makes sense. Look at black bear forge on youtube. He has a trade axe/tomahawk video where he uses the technique. Anyways awesome axe, the handle wood is amazing!!!

Looks good. Awesome skills. I think the finnish used house axe contruction. Where you need to have 4 pieces of mild steel and one piece of high carbon steel. 2 mild steel pieces for the side, one piece for the rear sandwich, and one piece for the middle, leaving 2 gaps, one gap for the eye and other gap in the front for carbon steel insert.

Utrolig nice! Så at du brukte gass esse til å herde bladet på slutten, men brukte du gass Essen til alle seisene?

Om du har några böcker att rekommendera om yxor och yxtillverkning vore det jättetrevligt om du kunde tipsa? Hälsningar från Finland. Mitt mål är att göra yxor som detta nån dag. Yxan blev jättefin

Great visual documentation and great narrative explanation at the finish.

Hello, I admire your manual work. Greetings TeamSpawtech from Poland.

Beautiful work. Love that handles grain

Has to be one of the coolest axes i've seen and definitely going to have to make something like it! Thanks for the inspiration

What does sprinkling the borax on the metal do during the forging process?

Vilket vackert hantverk!

wow that came out amazing thanks for sharing wouldnt it be easier though to assemble it all flat then bend the final side of the collar over at the end?

It's very "economical" with the good steel just making the edge out of it.

You are a great gunsmith blacksmith

Really enjoyed the video Nils and the commentary about the build afterwards. That's important to us Noobs. Been following you from the ForgeCast, seems like you are starting to hit your stride. Keep up the great work.

keep it up love stuuf like this keep it up nils

As for the pieces moving around while you are trying to weld, try to make spikes on the surface of the steel, instead of the criss-cross pattern you made on the poll. Drive the corner of a chisel into the steel at an angle to raise a small triangular spike from the surface.

that is a quality axe right there heirloom quality very well made