Maciek Tomaszczyk

You are right, long lugs are hard to forge out when you use wrought iron, but when you use a bloomery iron as Moravian did then it is quite a different story :-). Usually bloomery iron is better quality than wrought iron with no tendency to delamination and crack.

Really nice work, but in my opinion after analyzing hundreds of archeological finds (mostly from literature but I had a chance to touch a few originals), the lugs are forged out of the same piece of material as the eye. Of course, there are many ways to reach the same final results, and I even forged one Great Moravian axe using technic you presented but it is much more time-consuming than one piece method.

This is what I like the most - SPEARS!. Well done.

New project for the museum exhibition. These three axes have the same shape but the technique of welding the cutting edge is different. Here I show 3 main techniques that have been used in the early medieval. I used wrought iron and 1045. and Video

Hi, I based on the archaeological find from Gniezo (Poland). It is dated to early-medieval. Blade length is 20 cm. Wolf's teeth have been made "unplugged", I used only basic and historical tools. I used several kind of the materials, mostly scrap.

Here you can watch the production process. Enjoy watching.

Early medieval battle axe. I used wrought iron (old 19-century wagon axel) and medium carbon steel (1045). I based on the archaeological find from the Płock area (Poland). The eye is wrap and forge-welded, the cutting edge is symmetrical.

Axe from Ostrów Lednicki (catalog no. 474). The sizes of the copy are the same as the original, length 10.2 cm, blade height 8.1 cm. The weight of the replica is150 g (the original weight is 75 grams). The difference in weight results from the corrosion losses of the find and the inaccuracy of the shape of the replica. Axe forged of 3 types of material: Eye is low-carbon steel from the beginning of the 20th century, neck and beard, 19th-century wrought iron, a blade is old steel.

The axe I forged last month. Copy of the F-type axe found in Birka grave 750. The weight of the corroded original is 1260 g. My replica has 1700 g, the size of both is the same: 180x222 mm. I used 19century wrought iron and old steel. The eye of the axe is folded and welded. Before i started to forge i print it in scale. To forge body of the axe i used 19cent. wrought iron round bar (part of the steam engine). Cutting age is 1045 steel etching in nitric acid showed a very heterogeneous structure of the wrought iron (crystals up to 3 mm).

...and the video tutorial, enjoy watching.

Replica of the early medieval finds from Szurpiły (Poland), height 18.5 cm, weight 1.2 kg. I used the same technology as in the original find. To forged it I used 3 pieces of material (two types of the wrought iron and modern tool steel on the edge).

Short update of this project. I needed more bloomery iron so I had to prepare an iron bloom I smelted some time ago. A few weeks ago there was an opportunity to use a historic water-powered hammer in Gdańsk in Poland. The forge exists in this place since 1597. It was really great experience to use 250 kg dies. The 12 kg iron bloom has been flattened really fast. After heating and forging more than 6 kg of iron left. Below I link the video of this process.

Usually yes. In this year because of lock down festival will not take place.

Great Moravian battle axe dated to early medieval (Viking Age). To forge it I used wrought iron and O2 steel, the eye is punch and drift, there are at least 4 different ways to get the same shape but in my opinion punching and drifting is the most accurate and historical proper. Tutorial is now available on my YT channel.

Forge welding is easy, if not, start to use smaller hammer:-).