my first axe with damascus cutting edge .

[midnight 657]

hello everyone this is my first axe , its style is confused as i dont really know one axe from another , but i t has influenses from every axe iv seen subcontously i supose .

its all hand forged from, 1018 for the main "body" of the head with a 15n20 and 01 twisted billet of damascus for the cutting edge , i think its called punch and swadged ? any way i made a hole with a cold chisel and forged a mandrel from a spike off a digger bucket and hammered it through and forged round it to get the hole .

and then after alot of hammering and heating i had a good enough shape to weld in the damascus cutting edge .

its got a hard temper cos i wanted to have ha ha . its sharp really sharp scalpel like cuts are easy with it . it holds its edge for ages to . i can cut through thin stems on an angle and the stum just falls away with out moving the bottom half , if you follow .

so here it is with what i think is an ash handle .

il do more of these but with a wrap and weld method in future .

here goes ...

the wedge of metal on the left is exactly the same as the 1018 i started with .

blade on veiw to show its nice and square !!

ignore the weld flaw

the cutting tests

fine cut , more like a knife than axe

hope you like it .

all the best , matt

[iamduvern 62]

Nice work I might have a go myself once I get a couple more knifes under my belt

[paulus 26]

looks good mate

[the big chief 3,099]

i like that matt look grate

[KittleRox 2,147]

I,ve nae clue what you,re on about but good stuff, I like the fact it keeps a good edge

[socks 32,253]

Cracking looking axe mate are you going to make Any others that will be up for sale ? If so put me down for one cheers ...........

[reddawn 2,173]

is it just me..... but i wanna go chop up some wood noo

[midnight 657]

thanks fellas , there will be more but built slightly differantly . there will be more damadcus on veiw and easier for me to make .

seem like the sort of thing people like !!

iv wanted to chop stuff up with it but asyet have only done that lot in the pics .

i have cut tons of saplings with one blow with it tho , thats adictive !!

i can actualy carve with it like you would a knife , i recon there a bloody usful thing !!

it might be a while before there are more of them guys as i have big orders of steel to secure before i can do another .

all the best , matt.

[Sjt657 191]

Looks good matt nice one !!!!

[waidmann 105]

That's exactly the size I meant matt,

I like the bearded axes too.

 

Let me know when you have one ready for me bud.

 

Waidmannsheil!!

[midnight 657]

im glad you saw it mike .

so its around the size you liike thats good .

leave it with me .

iv just used it for an hour in the garden prooning roses horrible buggers . any way it cut beautifuly , but my worst fear was confirmed , the head has come off the shaft !! so im going to drill through the lot and put a single brass pin through it , if and when the shaft snaps its will be easy to remove with a centre punch and replace but the b*****d will not come of again ha ha

i have to order alot of metal over the next few weeks , i will try to make sure i get the right stuff for more of these .

all the best , matt.

[waidmann 105]

Have you double wedged the shaft matt??

 

[midnight 657]

just a single wedge .

i dont know if i mentioned this before but i was a stone mason , and have put handles on loads of hammers over the years , so thats why it was my biggest fear cos every one iv done has ended up with 5 screws drilled into it ha ha .

iv been shown how to do it properly and still cant do it . so i thought il take an engineering aproach and go belt and braces .

wedge . apoxi and pin it , then oil soak .

that should fix the bugger . of course i should forge it right so that the head will accept the shaft like a pic axe does , with the hole at the top of the axe head being larger . but as a first go in still really pleased with it ¬!!

in use its fast deep cutting and very controlable . from heavy hits to shallow fast chopping it goes through anything so far . i wish i had tallent id carve something with it , allways wanted to make a hollow canoe from a tree . but might take a couple of years ha ha .

if im lucky and get my power hammer this year this sort of thing will be much easier to make and there seems to be a healthy market for them , if all the pm's are genuine !

i think they need a belt sheath to finnish them of tho , cough cough (gaffer)

[Carraghs Gem 1,675]

I actually like the axe better that the damascus knives

[Tayto 52]

Nice looking job,you must have patients of a saint!