Recently, there has been a lot of buzz within the blacksmithing community concerning drawing the line between "traditional blacksmithing" and metalworking/fabrication. One could argue this topic until they're blue in the face, but let's face it... it all comes down to perspective.
The allure to a more traditional style of blacksmithing for myself is the mentality that I have had a majority of my life: doing things that people have done in the past and thinking "I wonder if this is how [insert person of interest here] did it so many years ago?"
I enjoy doing things the old way, especially blacksmithing. That is not to say that I never use a power tool, I do because there are many procedures and techniques in the blacksmithing world that I don't yet have the skill for. I definitely practice towards those skills, though. I like using old things. I like using things that were passed down to me, and use them just as my dad, step dad, or grandfather used them. It gives me a sense of pride, accomplishment, and comfort to know that the hammer I'm swinging to make something was the same hammer that my great grandfather used at his forge on the Frisse farm. I get these senses, or feelings, when hammering out a knife (in a coal forge), filiing, polishing, and sharpening the blade by hand, and cutting the handle out all by hand. The railroad spike ax I previously posted about, for example. Other than using a gas forge, that baby was crafted entirely by hand. There was no power tools involved. Hammer, tongs, anvil, hardy, file, stones, wood, and a draw knife. For me, its the coolest sensation when I'm hammering and I think "I wonder if a Scandinavian smith was making a bearded small ax this same way so many years ago?" Granted, he probably wasn't using a railroad spike as stock.
I believe that many of these traditional values are what help facilitate the growth of this... this... whatever you wish to call it, trade, art, skill, lifestyle, etc. I've had many inquiries from friends asking me about how I do things, and many of them say the same thing. "I've always wanted to smith, but I don't have the space, time, or the utilities". This is a common problem, and one can get their start in this trade without having access to all of the old style equipment. One can obtain that old world, old style feel of blacksmithing with some simple things that can be found relatively easy if one looks in the right places.
Let us look at it from this stand point - someone is interested in getting started in smithing, but doesn't want to dump a bunch of money into procuring everything in case they don't enjoy it as they thought they might. Harbor Freight is pretty hard to beat when looking at starting from that angle. They have most of the things needed to start out on a budget. You can get two sizes of hammers and a 55lb caste iron anvil for under $60. Forges... those are a little more complicated to come across, which is why many make their own. Seriously, people, you can make a forge from an old grill, or even push mower body. Check out my friend Terran Marks great article on making your own forge found here. His blog can give you insights to do-it-yourself blacksmithing better than most you can find on the internet.
It is easier than most think to share this trade and share the knowledge that accompanies it. A 200lb anvil from 1862, a Buffalo coal forge, and a rack full of hammers aren't needed to get started in this community. Lastly, one can still obtain that old world feel of "traditional blacksmithing" in the back yard with a Harbor Freight arsenal and a forge made from a lawnmower that fried when you hit that concrete garden gnome of your neighbors two summers ago.
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Railroad Spike Axe - Round 1
A Saturday spent forging is a good day. Many days throughout the week, I look forward to being able to wake up, enjoy a hot cup of coffee, stroll out to the shop, and fire up our gas forge. Most mornings, dragging myself out of bed takes no less than a tow truck, but on Saturday mornings, I'll spring right out of bed.
This weekend, I had my mind set on a project I had found on anvilfire.com. As one can tell from most of my recent posts, I've contracted a mild to moderate form of ax-forging fever. I can assure you, it is one of the best illnesses one can contract. Previously I had tried to make a few knives out of spikes that did not work out. I had heard of people making hatchets and tomahawks out of railroad spikes from my good friend Heath, but that was the extent of the matter.
I stumbled across a step by step guide to forging an ax out of a railroad spike, written by Bill Epps. It can be found here. I had meant to take pictures of this process step by step... but my phone was dead and so I will post a step by step process supplemented by photos later on.
I was really excited to do this project, because it was going to require Wayne and I to use tools that I had never used before. I had split metal, but never split an eye on something before, nor had I really used a drawing block on an anvil. I usually used the horn or some other fashion of drawing. So, we started the process by, like Mr. Epps states in his walkthrough, upsetting the tip of the spike. Upsetting is a nifty technique, being able to thicken the metal where you need to, especially if you know how to control your heat. I should note here: before you start this, forage around and find some good tongs to hold onto spikes with. None of ours really fit well nor were we able to make some this weekend. Luckily, we had some that worked, but one person had to hold the tongs and spike while the other hammered.
Once you have the spike upset to a little shy of 1'x1' inch square, it's time to move on to the punching and drawing of the eye for the handle. We used this set of punches: Big Blu - we punched most of the way through on one side, then moved to the other side, finding our hole by the "black dot" that forms when punching through something. High heat seems to be key, here. You're just going to wear yourself out if you do not have a high heat on your spike (or you'll wear your punch out and dull your tip). Once we were able to get that through on both sides, we then moved on to widening the hole. As mentioned by Mr. Epps, the key is to open the eye ALMOST to the perfect size, then shape the blade portion, and once your blade shape is done, then finish the eye. Your eye will distort (as we found out, quite considerably) as you shape the blade.
Now, on to the blade portion of the project. The guide states that thin is not a bad thing. If a tomahawk blade is being forged, this is true. A thicker blade won't still in much. My last ax I forged, intended to be a little kindling/forging ax (as can been seen through previous posts) is pretty well utterly useless, as it is too thick to do anything with, despite the decent edge I put on it. I started with a fullering hardy, the one shaped like a Pringles can cut in half longways. I widened it out a bit on both sides, and then moved to the crosspeen side of my hammer to fan it out and thin it more. Now, here's where the variation of our project turns away from Mr. Epps. Once I had the blade fanned out a bit, I hammered the top of the blade down, to where the ax started to take on a bearded look. I then moved on to a rounding hammer because I wanted to really thin the blade and have the rounded hammer blow texture to the blade. I thinned the ax blade quite considerably, I'd say down to a little less than 1/4'', and that really seemed to be needed in order to get the length and shape needed for the head. I think it's really important to mention the working of the metal with the rounding hammer, here. With the 36oz Diamond Rounding hammer, I was focusing on drawing the blade in the shape I needed. I was drawing the blade toward me with glancing blows. I wasn't killing it, I was taking my time and care in my hammer blows.
After the blade was shaped, I finished shaping the eye with a handle mounted mandrel, and then let it cool. I left this rough, I did not want to polish the whole thing because I like a rough look on my work. This thing was hand made, I want it to represent being hand made (besides, it's an ax. It will be slammed into tree stumps... and zombies if that ever comes to pass). Mildly sharpen it by file and thin the edge a bit more, and you're ready to harden, temper, and hone. I heated the cutting edge up to cherry red and then quenched into used motor oil. I then cleaned it up with some emery cloth so the edge was relatively clean of the oil residue and slag. That's important, the clean up, because you have to see your color for tempering. I held the edge on the outside of the forge, where some of the fire, or "dragons breath" was coming out of the ports, and watched the colors dance across the ax edge. I watched it turn yellow, gold, blue, purple, and then between a purple and peacock blue, yanked it away and quench back in oil. Many will quench in water for the second quench... but I'm scared to for fear of cracking. So I'll hit it in oil again. Clean it up, sharpen it, whittle or buy your handle, mount it, and wedge it and you're ready to go. I carved the handle on this the same as I did Kindling (see previous posts) out of a 1.5in sq board of red oak with a draw knife. If you get the hardening and tempering right (which I think I did. Time will tell) along with thinning your blade enough, this baby will take an edge quick and hold it.
Here's some pictures. Happy hammering!
This weekend, I had my mind set on a project I had found on anvilfire.com. As one can tell from most of my recent posts, I've contracted a mild to moderate form of ax-forging fever. I can assure you, it is one of the best illnesses one can contract. Previously I had tried to make a few knives out of spikes that did not work out. I had heard of people making hatchets and tomahawks out of railroad spikes from my good friend Heath, but that was the extent of the matter.
I stumbled across a step by step guide to forging an ax out of a railroad spike, written by Bill Epps. It can be found here. I had meant to take pictures of this process step by step... but my phone was dead and so I will post a step by step process supplemented by photos later on.
I was really excited to do this project, because it was going to require Wayne and I to use tools that I had never used before. I had split metal, but never split an eye on something before, nor had I really used a drawing block on an anvil. I usually used the horn or some other fashion of drawing. So, we started the process by, like Mr. Epps states in his walkthrough, upsetting the tip of the spike. Upsetting is a nifty technique, being able to thicken the metal where you need to, especially if you know how to control your heat. I should note here: before you start this, forage around and find some good tongs to hold onto spikes with. None of ours really fit well nor were we able to make some this weekend. Luckily, we had some that worked, but one person had to hold the tongs and spike while the other hammered.
Once you have the spike upset to a little shy of 1'x1' inch square, it's time to move on to the punching and drawing of the eye for the handle. We used this set of punches: Big Blu - we punched most of the way through on one side, then moved to the other side, finding our hole by the "black dot" that forms when punching through something. High heat seems to be key, here. You're just going to wear yourself out if you do not have a high heat on your spike (or you'll wear your punch out and dull your tip). Once we were able to get that through on both sides, we then moved on to widening the hole. As mentioned by Mr. Epps, the key is to open the eye ALMOST to the perfect size, then shape the blade portion, and once your blade shape is done, then finish the eye. Your eye will distort (as we found out, quite considerably) as you shape the blade.
Now, on to the blade portion of the project. The guide states that thin is not a bad thing. If a tomahawk blade is being forged, this is true. A thicker blade won't still in much. My last ax I forged, intended to be a little kindling/forging ax (as can been seen through previous posts) is pretty well utterly useless, as it is too thick to do anything with, despite the decent edge I put on it. I started with a fullering hardy, the one shaped like a Pringles can cut in half longways. I widened it out a bit on both sides, and then moved to the crosspeen side of my hammer to fan it out and thin it more. Now, here's where the variation of our project turns away from Mr. Epps. Once I had the blade fanned out a bit, I hammered the top of the blade down, to where the ax started to take on a bearded look. I then moved on to a rounding hammer because I wanted to really thin the blade and have the rounded hammer blow texture to the blade. I thinned the ax blade quite considerably, I'd say down to a little less than 1/4'', and that really seemed to be needed in order to get the length and shape needed for the head. I think it's really important to mention the working of the metal with the rounding hammer, here. With the 36oz Diamond Rounding hammer, I was focusing on drawing the blade in the shape I needed. I was drawing the blade toward me with glancing blows. I wasn't killing it, I was taking my time and care in my hammer blows.
After the blade was shaped, I finished shaping the eye with a handle mounted mandrel, and then let it cool. I left this rough, I did not want to polish the whole thing because I like a rough look on my work. This thing was hand made, I want it to represent being hand made (besides, it's an ax. It will be slammed into tree stumps... and zombies if that ever comes to pass). Mildly sharpen it by file and thin the edge a bit more, and you're ready to harden, temper, and hone. I heated the cutting edge up to cherry red and then quenched into used motor oil. I then cleaned it up with some emery cloth so the edge was relatively clean of the oil residue and slag. That's important, the clean up, because you have to see your color for tempering. I held the edge on the outside of the forge, where some of the fire, or "dragons breath" was coming out of the ports, and watched the colors dance across the ax edge. I watched it turn yellow, gold, blue, purple, and then between a purple and peacock blue, yanked it away and quench back in oil. Many will quench in water for the second quench... but I'm scared to for fear of cracking. So I'll hit it in oil again. Clean it up, sharpen it, whittle or buy your handle, mount it, and wedge it and you're ready to go. I carved the handle on this the same as I did Kindling (see previous posts) out of a 1.5in sq board of red oak with a draw knife. If you get the hardening and tempering right (which I think I did. Time will tell) along with thinning your blade enough, this baby will take an edge quick and hold it.
Here's some pictures. Happy hammering!
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