Oh... So THAT'S what a bad forge weld looks like...

Transcribing ideas from conception to the forge and anvil is never an easy thing. Constructing these ideas and having them go awry is even more difficult to deal with. However, like many other things in life, you live and you learn. Recently I had forged a folded tomahawk in which I had forged a carbon steel insert for the edge. Forge-welding is something that is still elusive to me. It is not the easiest of techniques and I still need a lot of practice. Luckily I got a weld, or I thought I did, on the second try. 

By looking at the images above, one can see a few "questionable" spots. I had seen these, but in my ignorance I assumed they would be fine. I was pretty excited for this project, as it was a bit bigger of a head than I had forged previously. I bought some more oak for my handles, and spent an evening carving and shaping my handle. Once mounted and wedged, I decided it was time to give it a test. I grabbed some wood from our woodpile that had yet to be split, and started plugging it in the log repeatedly. I was also testing the edge, too, to make sure I got the right hardness (I'm ashamed to say I cannot remember tempering this piece or not). After about a dozen or two times, I noticed some fragmented wood stuck towards the tip. I came to realize that part of my edge had not properly welded and the metal literally started to peel back like an orange peel. Of course, I was instantly upset that my work had not held up to the test. I had yet to suffer a catastrophe like this. Once the mild steel started to separate from the hard steel, I came to realize that my bad weld was a bit larger than I thought, and that there was literally a gap between the steels. The second picture below shows a bit of the spots. The bad weld can be seen up towards the top of the edge where matter can be seen. 

So, I'll hang on to this piece and use it as a throw around ax whenever I need a bit more splitting power than my railroad ax will provide. I definitely learned my lesson on "assuming" a forge-weld held. My next project I'll be starting soon will be a traditional style woodsman ax with a drawn eye. I'm excited because there will be no folding. I've managed to acquire a pretty large concrete jackhammer bit that I can square up, maybe upset a bit, and shape it from there. I'm drawing my inspiration for my next ax from Autine. Check them out, absolutely breath-taking axes.