Axe Making

Part of Metalworking

Forging axes from raw iron or steel — the single most important tool for a civilization rebuilding in forested terrain.

Why This Matters

The axe is arguably the most critical metal tool for any rebuilding community. Without it, clearing land for agriculture, harvesting timber for construction, and processing firewood for heating and cooking become exhausting, time-consuming tasks. A stone axe requires ten times the effort of a steel one and breaks unpredictably. Once your community can forge iron or steel axes, the pace of development accelerates dramatically.

A well-made axe is also a remarkable feat of metallurgical compromise. The body must be tough enough to absorb repeated shock without cracking, while the edge must be hard enough to bite into wood without rolling or chipping. This combination — a soft iron body with a hardened steel edge — represents one of the earliest and most practical applications of composite metallurgy, a technique your smiths will use for knives, chisels, and dozens of other tools.

Axe making also teaches fundamental forging skills: drawing out, punching, drifting, welding, and heat treatment. A smith who can produce a serviceable axe has mastered most of the operations needed for general blacksmithing. This article covers the wrap-and-weld method used for centuries before industrial drop forging, requiring only a forge, anvil, hammer, and basic tooling.

Choosing the Right Axe Design

Not all axes serve the same purpose. Your community will need several types, and the design affects forging technique.

Axe Type	Weight (head)	Bit Width	Primary Use
Felling axe	1.2–1.8 kg	9–12 cm	Chopping down trees
Broad axe	1.5–2.5 kg	15–25 cm	Hewing logs into beams
Splitting maul	2–3 kg	8–10 cm (wedge)	Splitting firewood
Hand hatchet	0.4–0.7 kg	7–9 cm	Light camp work, kindling
Adze	0.8–1.5 kg	7–10 cm	Hollowing, shaping wood

For a felling axe — the most universally needed — you want a head weighing about 1.4 kg with a slightly curved cutting edge roughly 10 cm wide. The eye (handle hole) should be oval, roughly 3 × 2 cm, slightly tapered so the handle wedges tight from below.

Start Simple

Begin with hand hatchets. They require less material, forgive more mistakes, and teach all the same techniques. Once you can reliably produce good hatchets, scale up to full-size felling axes.

The Wrap-and-Weld Method

This is the traditional technique used from the Viking age through the 19th century. It produces a strong, reliable axe head from a single bar of iron with a separate steel bit welded to the edge.

Materials Needed

• Iron bar: approximately 4 × 2.5 cm cross-section, 25–30 cm long (for a felling axe)
• Steel insert: a piece of medium-to-high carbon steel, roughly 10 × 3 × 0.5 cm
• Flux: borax powder or fine silica sand (clean river sand works)
• Drift: a tapered steel mandrel matching your desired eye shape
• Handle material: ash, hickory, or any tough, shock-resistant hardwood

Step-by-Step Forging

1. Prepare the bar. Heat the iron bar to bright orange (950–1000°C). Draw out both ends slightly, leaving the center thick. The finished bar should be roughly 30 cm long with a slight hourglass profile — thicker in the middle where the eye will be.

2. Punch the eye. Heat the center section to welding temperature (bright yellow-white, 1100°C+). Place the bar on the anvil over the pritchel hole. Drive a slot punch (flat chisel-like tool, ~2 cm wide) halfway through from one side. Flip the bar and punch from the other side until the holes meet. The slot should be roughly 2 × 1 cm at this stage.

3. Drift the eye. Insert your tapered drift into the punched slot. Drive it through gradually, reheating as needed. The drift expands the eye to final size and shape (oval, ~3 × 2 cm). The metal displaced by the drift flows outward, forming the characteristic “cheeks” on either side of the eye.

4. Fold and weld. This is the critical step. Heat the entire bar to welding temperature. Fold it in half around the drift so the two ends meet below the eye, forming the blade portion. Apply flux generously to the mating surfaces. Bring back to welding heat and hammer the folded ends together with firm, rapid blows. Start from the eye and work toward the edge. You need a solid weld along the entire seam — any cold shut here will cause the axe to split in use.

5. Shape the blade. With the body welded, draw out the blade portion to your desired width and thickness. A felling axe blade should taper from about 2 cm thick near the eye to about 3 mm at the edge, with a slight convex profile (not a flat wedge) for better wood separation.

6. Weld the steel bit. Prepare a piece of high-carbon steel for the cutting edge. Forge a shallow groove or “scarf” in the iron blade end. Heat both pieces to welding temperature, apply flux, and hammer the steel into the groove. This forge weld bonds hard steel to soft iron — the key to a durable edge.

7. Final shaping. Refine the profile, smooth the surfaces, and ensure the eye is true. Insert the drift one final time to correct any distortion.

Weld Quality

Test every forge weld by attempting to pry the joint with a chisel tip while cold. A failed weld in an axe head is genuinely dangerous — the bit can detach and fly off during use. If in doubt, cut the weld open and redo it.

Heat Treatment

Heat treatment transforms your forged axe from a soft, edge-rolling tool into a sharp, durable cutter. This applies primarily to the steel bit — the iron body should remain soft and tough.

Hardening the Edge

1. Heat only the cutting edge (the bottom 2–3 cm of the blade) to cherry red (760–790°C). A magnet test helps: steel loses magnetism at its critical temperature. When it stops attracting a magnet, it is ready to quench.
2. Quench the edge in warm water or light oil, plunging it in edge-first. Move it gently in a figure-eight pattern — do not hold it still, as steam pockets can cause uneven hardening.
3. The edge should now be glass-hard but brittle. It will shatter if struck against stone.

Tempering

Tempering reduces brittleness while retaining useful hardness.

1. Polish the hardened edge with sandstone or a file so you can see oxide colors.
2. Heat the axe body (not the edge) gently with the forge or a torch. Watch the colors creep toward the edge as heat conducts through the metal.
3. When the cutting edge reaches dark straw to bronze (220–250°C), quench the entire head immediately.

Temper Color	Temperature	Hardness	Appropriate For
Pale straw	200°C	Very hard	Razors, engraving tools
Dark straw	230°C	Hard	Axes, chisels, knives
Bronze/purple	260°C	Medium	Springs, punches
Blue	300°C	Soft-tough	Saw blades, screwdrivers

For a felling axe, dark straw to light bronze gives the best balance of edge retention and toughness.

Fitting the Handle

The handle (“haft” or “helve”) is as important as the head. A poorly fitted handle wastes energy, causes blisters, and risks the head flying off.

Handle Selection and Shaping

• Wood: ash is the traditional first choice — straight-grained, shock-absorbent, and widely available. Hickory is superior but less common outside North America. Beech, elm, and even oak work if properly selected.
• Grain orientation: the grain must run parallel to the length of the handle AND parallel to the cutting edge. Grain running across the handle creates a breaking plane.
• Length: felling axes need 70–80 cm handles. Hatchets use 30–40 cm. Longer handles multiply force but reduce control.
• Cross-section: oval, roughly 3.5 × 2.5 cm at the grip, swelling slightly toward the head. The oval prevents the handle from rotating in your hand.

Hanging the Head

1. Shape the top of the handle to fit the eye snugly. It should require firm force to press in — tight enough that you cannot pull it off by hand.
2. Cut a slot in the top of the handle, centered and running parallel to the edge, about two-thirds the depth of the eye.
3. Drive the handle into the eye from below. The taper of the eye wedges the wood tight.
4. Drive a hardwood wedge into the slot, spreading the wood inside the eye. For extra security, drive a small metal wedge perpendicular to the wood wedge.
5. Trim any protruding handle material flush with the top of the eye.
6. Soak the head end in linseed oil (not water — water causes swelling followed by shrinkage and loosening).

Maintaining and Resharpening

An axe that is not maintained becomes a dangerous, inefficient club.

• Sharpening: use a coarse sandstone first, then a finer-grained stone. Maintain the original bevel angle (about 25–30° for felling axes). Work both sides equally to keep the edge centered.
• Re-profiling: if the edge chips or mushrooms, regrind the entire bevel on a pedal-powered grinding wheel. Keep the steel cool — dip in water frequently to avoid drawing the temper.
• Handle care: oil the handle with linseed oil every few months. Never paint or varnish it — paint hides cracks, and varnish causes blisters.
• Rust prevention: wipe the head with an oily rag after each use. A thin coat of beeswax mixed with tallow provides long-term protection for stored axes.

The Sharpness Test

A properly sharpened felling axe should shave hair from your forearm. If it will not shave, it is not sharp enough for efficient wood cutting. A dull axe bounces and glances — it is more dangerous than a sharp one.

Common Failures and Troubleshooting

Problem	Cause	Fix
Edge chips or shatters	Over-hardened, temper too light	Re-harden and temper to darker straw
Edge rolls or folds	Under-hardened or poor steel	Ensure steel is medium-high carbon; re-harden
Head cracks at eye	Overheated during forging	Must remake — cracks in the eye are unfixable
Bit separates from body	Failed forge weld	Re-weld or remake entirely
Handle loosens	Wood dried and shrank	Add another wedge; soak in linseed oil
Handle breaks	Grain not parallel to edge	Select new blank with proper grain orientation

A well-made axe, properly maintained, should last a generation of daily use with only periodic resharpening and occasional handle replacement. Invest the time to get the forge welds right and the heat treatment correct — a good axe is worth fifty mediocre ones.