Maciek Tomaszczyk

No, it is not pipe hawk, it is so called axe with Hammer, very common weapon in early medieval.

annual update:-) Below you can find what i forged during last year (most of its forging process you can sea on my yt channel). All axes are based on early medieval archaeological finds from Poland. To forge it i used 100% scrap metal :-). Here i had a chance to touch original find. And full collection of early medieval wrought iron axes

First one is finished :-). In my opinion the chevron pattern is a mosaic. It is possible to forge it using only basic tools. Now when I know how to forge it i am going to forge another one using bloomery iron.

I decided to not create new topic because all examples of these fantastic swords are already here. Some time ago i bought two kg of two colors of plasticine and started cold forging:-), based on this "plays" i was able to recreate (i hope so) original technology of Illerup swords. the assumption was to use only tools and technology which were available in ancient times. Below first effects. dimond/chevron paterns And palm patterns

My most recent project, probably the most challenging thing I've ever done. This time i decided to forge a replica of the spear head from Ostrów Lednicki in Poland (cat. no. 31), The original find is very corroded and some parts are missing so i had to interpreted it based on analogues. The iron inlaid in the spear blade is very rare, I know only one. I am lucky to know the guy who was responsible for conservation of this find, i was consulting with him many things during forging. I was able to know much more about technology than from book itself. To forge it i used only scrap metal i collected on the scrap yards. More details about forging and techniques i used i will show in the video tutorial on YT.

well done, next time try to forge weld the socket to the spears' core first and after that forge weld others element of the blade - it is easier.

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.