Here is my latest axe.. punched and drifted eye from 1" square 5160. 1 pound 12 ounces. 28" oaken haft with ebony wedges. Light and fast! I'm thinking of doing a run on these as I've fashioned a punch/drift for my press that will make these a bit more convenient to make. I could offer a 'forged finish' version and a finished version. Please contact me with interest.

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Way cool, Scott. Way cool. What kinda pesos we talkin' on a rough forged ?.......mcm

that is sweet!!! no wait.... AWESOME :eek: i wish i had a forge to make stuff like this too (i say stuff because i have many ideas for swords and other weapon/tools)

Now that's an axe!
It does, it looks very swift and lively, yet still able to carve deep something nasty!

Very nice indeed. I am starting to really like the forge finish on axes. IIRC, the very well-preserved Oseberg axes had a similar forge-finish, with only just enough grinding to form the edge. I really like the way the blade tapers from fairly thick near the eye with a slightly concave taper to the beginning of the final edge bevel. What sort of heat treat did you go for on this one? Differential hardening, differential tempering, slack-quench, timed-quench?

Thanks folks!

Scott.. it's interesting that there are examples of forged finishes! It seems like common sense to me.. but I only see the decorative axes or ones so degraded that you can no longer see the finish.

Being a single piece of 5160 tool steel.. I basically differentially heat treated it by watching critical temperature creep up to the eye. I like these thin bladed axes to be hard all the way to the eye so they don't bend with heavy cutting! I then temper the whole head in an oven.

Scott, I recently saw this thread on Bladesmiths forum: http://forums.dfoggknives.com/index.php?showtopic=25866 Bogdan Popov has apparently done some considerable research into the Rus/Baltic type axes with round eyes and lugs on the back, and concludes that almost no grinding and no welding whatsoever was involved in their construction, just forged to shape and sharpened. Other than the Oseberg axes, I have not been able to find pics of examples well-preserved enough to give a good idea of the finish either.

Maybe a bit off-topic, Scott, but perhaps you will find these pics of pretty well-preserved axes with parts of the hafts intact interesting. The axes are from Krefeld-Gellup. I am not sure where I found these pics at the moment.

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Nicely shaped and designed light weight fighting axe, I like the rough out of the forge finish but I'm certain that a polished finish would also be attractive.

Thank you Scott for showing those. I can never get enough of that!

Jean.. I think you are right. I recently saw one of Jim Austin's that was fully finished.. with a nice brushed look and it was beautiful.

A few more random axes?

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I'm finishing up one forged from the left over billet of my 'Forn' sword. It is much like the wedge-like simple axes you have at the end there...

Oooh, that should be very interesting, I can't wait to see the pics.