Hey Everyone. Just something I thought I'd share in case it can inspire some ideas of craziness in anyone else. I'm big on "making my own" from whatever I have laying around, so here's another example of that. I got the chance to use a Gransfors broad axe that belonged to Dave Carlon at a timber framing class a few years ago. I loved it! The way it cut was incredible, the finish it left was awesome, and it was just a nice comfortable tool that was a pleasure to use. I wanted one, and was convinced I'd get one until I saw the price. I may be able to justify it if I were using it more regularly, but there's not much use for it in my current engineering job. The thought crossed my mind to make one, but I put that on the back burner until just recently. I work on "lunch time projects" every day, and some space opened up, so I did my prep work, made a drawing, got some materials together, and started "building". Here are the results so far. I'l try to include pictures and elaborate as time goes on.
I started off by cutting the business side of the axe out of a piece of 1/2" thick annealed O1 tool steel I had laying around. I used the drawing I had to transfer the shape to the plate, and cut the profile on a bandsaw at work. When doing the drawing, I made sure the cutting edge was a perfect arc. 6.36"" radius IIRC. Then I took an old junk axe, layed it on top of the sketch, scribed my cut line, and brought it to the bandsaw too.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/22410/IMG_1804.JPG)
more to come soon...
I agree that Gransfors axes cost a pretty penny and so when I came across the Wetterlings long handled hewing axe (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/76585479/Tools/wetterlings-long%20handled%20broad-axe-WT192-d6%5B2%5Db.jpg) on sale from Knives and Tools (http://www.knivesandtools.co.uk/en/pt/-wetterlings-192-axe-long-handle.htm?SID=B455E2F434E2546525543554542564E254D4558464B404E454B4&utm_content=dynamic-WT192&utm_source=exacttarget&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=uk_2014-12-17_week_51_wereld) in the Netherlands I thought that I would buy myself a belated Christmas present.
I paid £114 including shipping charges to the UK which seemed like a good deal however was somewhat taken aback when a few weeks later this same axe was now listed with a sale price of £164.
Wetterlings (http://www.wetterlings.com/) is now owned by the same person who owns Gransfors Bruks and I have corresponded with him discovering that a number of the Gransfors Bruks staff are now resident at Wetterlings to repair, overhaul and update the production facilities at Wetterlings. They intend producing new axe designs shortly based on older traditional Swedish axe designs.
My axe arrived in perfect order in a box with the blade protected with a thick leather cover (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/76585479/Tools/wetterlings-broad-axe-cover-WT192-d5%5B2%5D.jpg). The cutting edge was very sharp and so a few finishing strokes with very fine carborundum paper brought this to a scary sharp edge (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/76585479/Tools/Wetterlings%20Hewing%20axe%20edge.jpg). These axes are knife edged i.e. not flat one side and so a slightly different technique is required to use same.
I have found that when hewing with my long handled chisel edged Kent pattern hewing axe (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/76585479/Hewing/Derek/Kent%20pattern%20Hewing%20Axe.jpg) that this can be difficult when hewing spiral grain material (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/76585479/Hewing/Tie%20Beams/Hewing%20Tie%20beam%206%20-%20rough%20hewn.jpg) and so I have wanted to buy a hewing axe that I could use to sever spiral grain especially along the top surface before removing fleshings and juggles with the thicker and heavier duty Kent pattern axe.
It is important to have to hand and select from a number of different axes to be able to deal effectively with the variations in grain found in logs especially around knots and spiral grain.
Chilterns
Thanks for the info Chilterns. I haven't had much experience with spiral grain, but I did get into some knots, and I liked the versatility of the smaller handle on the Gransfors, which allowed me to attack knots from different angles to prevent tear out and get a smooth finish. The axe Im' working on will be primarily single bevel, but will have a very slight angle on the back side which should allow me to climb out of the cut.
Once I got the cutting portion sawed out of the plate, I set it up on a milling machine with a rotary table. I tilted the head to 20°, and cut the bevel instead of grinding it. I tried with a large grinder, and that O1 turned out to be pretty tough. Milling took about 3 lunch breaks with setup.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/22410/IMG_1801.JPG)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/22410/IMG_1802.JPG)
With the bevel roughed in (I left a slight blunt edge on it so it doesn't distort during heat treating), I put it in a press to form a slight curve in the cutting edge. Just enough so when laying flat, the edges are up around 1/8". I did a little more bandsaw work on the head to blend the profile around the beard, then tacked the head to the blade at a slight angle to allow some space for my hands while working.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/22410/IMG_1817.JPG)
With the head roughed-in, I started working on the handle. My neighbor recently dropped a cherry tree, and I wanted a handle with a curve to it. I found a branch that looked just right and cut this section out of it. I glued the ends to try to limit the splitting
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/22410/IMG_1818.JPG)
After some work with the draw knife to flatten the sides a bit, I was able to sketch the shape I was looking for and rough it out on the bandsaw. Fortunately, all I really had to do was follow the grain, so there's no runout to worry about. It's finally starting to look like something.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/22410/IMG_1822.JPG)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/22410/IMG_1826.JPG)
You may notice the weld blobs on the head. The portion of the head with the eye was much thicker than the 1/2" steel I used for the cutting edge, so I'm filling in the low spots, and will blend the transition. I'm adding a small amount of weld each day to prevent over heating the area. Another added benefit is that it will add some weight back to the head because it's a bit on the light side.
Will be interesting to see it finished! ;D
I am also a big fan of home built. :) I will be following this closely, I like the shape of the axe, not sure of the handle, but then it could be just the thing. ;) :P
I had some time last night to work on the axe a bit more. The handle is all shaped, and I got a coat of linseed oil on it as quickly as I could. There are a couple small knots around the grip that are forming cracks, and I read somewhere that boiled linseed oil can displace the water in green wood, so I'm hoping it'll control the cracking before it gets bad. I knew better than to make the handle with green wood, but my lack of patience got the best of me. At the end of the day, this one may be perfect, or not so great, so I may make another one anyway. I am taking my time to get the head right. I'm finished with the welding, and 95% done with the grinding and blending. Just need to heat treat it, which I was planning on doing at the shop at work, but I'm having second thoughts on that. I'd rather not smoke the guys out in the shop, so I'll probably build a small simple forge at home and take care of it there.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/22410/IMG_1828.JPG)
This second picture shows the offset on the head that should help keep my knuckles from getting too bloody.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/22410/IMG_1829.JPG)
Looking good. Like you said, if you have issues with that handle, make another.
I want to see it cut!
Thanks BCsaw. So do I!
I called a heat treating company yesterday to get a price, just in case it was affordable enough to go that route. Since it's tool steel welded to iron, the whole thing needed to be stress relieved, then heat treated. Stress relieving was $75, and the heat treatment to bring it to around RC60, maybe a bit less was about $60, so that was way more than what I was willing to spend, especially considering the only investment I have into it so far is some steel I got for free, an old junk axe, and some lunch breaks. I put it in the wood stove last night and got the whole thing to glow a nice cherry color, and left it in overnight to stress relieve it. Today and tomorrow I'm working on building a quick brake drum forge for the heat treatment.
I hope the head is mild steel, not iron.
You could consider heating just the working portion of the blade an inch and a half or so back, with an oxy-acetylene torch and quenching in oil. Follow with a draw in the oven (after de-greasing) at 400 degrees.
I like sharp things that cuts stuff. :D smiley_thumbsup
Nice work . You are going the right way with the weld build up . I would then use a flapper disk on an angle grinder for fine finish . I have made a couple tomahawk peace pipes similar to the way you made that and I used weld buildup to get the side contour . You have also just inspired me to make some things for my new timber frame venture .
Hey Scully, glad I could inspire, that's why I posted. What types of things are you planning on making? I ground the welds with a regular 4-1/2" grinding wheel, then hit it with a 36 grit flap wheel, then a 60 grit to clean it off. Once it's quenched though, (in my experience), most of the polishing work is gone, but I like the black steel look, and the unevenness to the surface texture. I think I'll give it a treatment of wax once just after the normalizing process. I thought about adding some hammer marks some time before hardening it, but I don't want to push my luck with the seam between the two different materials.
I don't yet see a reason it wouldn't, but if it turns out it doesn't work all that great, I had a great time doing it, and I'll have learned a lesson or two along the way. I got my brake drum forge built during yesterday's lunch (in 17 minutes!), and found a local place I can get some coal (not charcoal), so I"ll crank that up this weekend and see how it works if we don't get too much snow.
I thought about heat treatment with a torch, but I don't have the necessary equipment at home, and the blade is a pretty good size, and would take a lot of gas to retain the critical temperature to fully form the austenite throughout the blade. My skills with a torch are somewhat limited as well, but I'M pretty good at playing with fire, so we'll see how that goes. We're on the same page with tempering, although I'm a little concerned of stinking up my oven at home, even with a good degreasing.
Hardening with the forge is going to be better than trying to do it with the torch. I agree, trying to maintain the temp with anything but a huge rosebud is going to be difficult.
Done! I finally got a chance to finish the axe over the past couple snow days we've had. The forged worked. I won't say it was ideal, but it got the job done. It actually over heated part of the blade to the point that the metal was burned away. I should have left it much duller, but a lesson was learned at least. After the quenching in motor oil, I degreased it as well as I could, wrapped it in tin foil and tempered it in the grill so it wouldn't smoke up the house. There wasn't even a noticeable smell. I may not have gotten the temp up enough during the tempering because it kills the edge on a new file when I'm trying to sharpen it, but if I notice any chipping in the edge, I'll re-temper to soften it up a bit. I've still got a bit of sharpening work to do because there are a couple minor voids defects at the edge of the blade, but it seems to cut pretty well in a block of dried white pine that I had (doesn't everything?). I'll get more use out of it once the weather cooperates a bit more. In the down time, I had a chance to make a sheath too, then got caught up in that and made one for almost every sharp tool I have. I think I'm going to try a small carpenters axe next.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/22410/image.jpg)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/22410/image~0.jpg)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/22410/image~1.jpg)
It should be hard enough that you can't scratch it with a file. A broad axe needs to be sharp enough to shave with, and hold the edge. Mine is soft in the middle of the cutting edge, so I don't know what happened to it over the years. Someone may have overheated it by grinding or something. It won't hold an edge as long as I'd like.
I had originally tempered it it at a lower degree, but the edge was so brittle that I was getting chips off the edge when I tried to get it as sharp as I would've liked. Probably too much pressure with my diamond card, but I wanted it a bit softer than that, so I re-tempered. I read somewhere that the Gransfors 1900's are Rc57, and O1 is very predictable when tempering, so I aimed for 57-58 on my second go-around on the tempering. I hope I didn't go too far, but I won't put it back in the forge again for fear of burning off too much of the edge.
Nice on the axe head.
That curve to that handle looks really painful to use for any length of time. Wrong bend to the wrist, as I see it.
Will be interested in what your experience is after using it for any length of time.
Fine looking axe! I bet it will cut nice.
That sure did come out looking nice. And than some.