Joshua States Posted November 25, 2019 Share Posted November 25, 2019 I Built the starting bars a few years ago and found them again recently so I figured I would give this a shot. The starting bar is 3/4" thick, 2" wide and 4" long. I cut the end where the blade bit goes and welded a handle on it. Then I drew out the shank. I Jim's video he says to make the shank 1-5/8" wide, but it certainly doesn't look that wide in the video and I couldn't imagine how you could make the cheeks less than 2" tall starting that wide, so I made mine 1-1/8" wide. It was hard enough with that smaller width getting it 4-3/4" long. I put that little bevel in the end of the shank. Then I cleaned the weld boogers off the front end. (well, most of them anyway) I'll go clean this up a lay out the next steps. “So I'm lightin' out for the territory, ahead of the scared and the weak and the mean spirited, because Aunt Sally is fixin’ to adopt me and civilize me, and I can't stand it. I've been there before.” The only bad experience is the one from which you learn nothing. Josh http://www.dosgatosdesignsllc.com/#! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdJMFMqnbLYqv965xd64vYg J.States Bladesmith | Facebook https://www.facebook.com/dos.gatos.71 https://www.etsy.com/shop/JStatesBladesmith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jake pogrebinsky Posted November 27, 2019 Share Posted November 27, 2019 Joshua,good job,glad to see you're trying this out. In the third photo from top,those aren't cold-shuts,looking straight at the edge of stock? If so,i'd grind those out before you go about shaping things further. (sorry if i'm seeing things). 1 God is in his heaven,and Czar is far away... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Toneguzzo Posted November 27, 2019 Share Posted November 27, 2019 Looking good mate. Best of luck 1 "Old dogs care about you even when you make mistakes" - Tom HALL - Old Dogs, Children and Watermelon wine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshua States Posted November 28, 2019 Author Share Posted November 28, 2019 18 hours ago, jake pogrebinsky said: Joshua,good job,glad to see you're trying this out. In the third photo from top,those aren't cold-shuts,looking straight at the edge of stock? If so,i'd grind those out before you go about shaping things further. (sorry if i'm seeing things). You are seeing things correctly. I needed to bring a bit more down from the head area to get the length JA recommended and got a little overlap in the forging. I need to do some clean up before laying out the shank. Thanks for reminding me. 14 hours ago, Rob Toneguzzo said: Looking good mate. Best of luck Thanks Rob. I have two people asking me to make them an axe. I really have to get this figured out. “So I'm lightin' out for the territory, ahead of the scared and the weak and the mean spirited, because Aunt Sally is fixin’ to adopt me and civilize me, and I can't stand it. I've been there before.” The only bad experience is the one from which you learn nothing. Josh http://www.dosgatosdesignsllc.com/#! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdJMFMqnbLYqv965xd64vYg J.States Bladesmith | Facebook https://www.facebook.com/dos.gatos.71 https://www.etsy.com/shop/JStatesBladesmith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jake pogrebinsky Posted November 28, 2019 Share Posted November 28, 2019 36 minutes ago, Joshua States said: I need to do some clean up before laying out the shank. Excellent,Joshua,it looks like you're happening on this,right on! From experience i know how both the top and bottom edges of an axe blank suffer in forging.(They're also challenging to correct,as few if any of sections of curvature would lay against any surface you may have on your anvil...unless like some Swedish shops you actually forge special top-tools/bolsters for that specific axe shape). I'll even be a total wuss and go ahead and confess that i no longer even use a prick punch for laying out.On number of occasions the marks from my small square punch have grown into fairly unpleasant(both visually and structurally)stress-riser issues...But that's going a bit far,i'm sure you know what effect your marking system will have. Best of luck,man!Happy forging!:) (and safe&happy holidays:) 1 God is in his heaven,and Czar is far away... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshua States Posted November 28, 2019 Author Share Posted November 28, 2019 23 minutes ago, jake pogrebinsky said: confess that i no longer even use a prick punch for laying out. My wife turned me on to white charcoal pencils. The marks stay very visible at high heat. I also just noticed your signature line about the Czar. That reminded me of one of my favorite Broadway musicals and a scene with the villagers and their Rabbi. Villager: Rabbi, do you have a blessing for the Czar? Rabbi: A blessing for the Czar? Sure. May God bless and keep the Czar......far away from us! Happy Thanksgiving! 2 “So I'm lightin' out for the territory, ahead of the scared and the weak and the mean spirited, because Aunt Sally is fixin’ to adopt me and civilize me, and I can't stand it. I've been there before.” The only bad experience is the one from which you learn nothing. Josh http://www.dosgatosdesignsllc.com/#! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdJMFMqnbLYqv965xd64vYg J.States Bladesmith | Facebook https://www.facebook.com/dos.gatos.71 https://www.etsy.com/shop/JStatesBladesmith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshua States Posted January 13, 2020 Author Share Posted January 13, 2020 (edited) I did a little more work on this today. With all the axes being made around here, the peer pressure was too much! I wanted a slightly larger D-shaped drift than I have already made and I had this bar of unknown steel. It's 1-1/4" round that someone had made into a punch. It was a bear to forge, but I managed. (somewhat anyway) The axe preform is on the cooling rack rIght behind it. While I had the forge running, I did a little more shaping. It's now a uniform thickness. Edited January 13, 2020 by Joshua States 1 “So I'm lightin' out for the territory, ahead of the scared and the weak and the mean spirited, because Aunt Sally is fixin’ to adopt me and civilize me, and I can't stand it. I've been there before.” The only bad experience is the one from which you learn nothing. Josh http://www.dosgatosdesignsllc.com/#! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdJMFMqnbLYqv965xd64vYg J.States Bladesmith | Facebook https://www.facebook.com/dos.gatos.71 https://www.etsy.com/shop/JStatesBladesmith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshua States Posted December 11, 2020 Author Share Posted December 11, 2020 (edited) Yeah this one got resurrected today. The local blacksmith organization reached out to me asking if I would do a video demo. After much back and forth, I stupidly agreed to do an axe demo with asymmetric welding. So i made two preforms in case I screwed one up. Today was a forging day. Turns out that was a good plan. The first one had a minor delamination whilst spreading the cheeks. (I cannot believe I just wrote that). Try as I might, I could not get it to reweld again and had to ditch it. Edited December 11, 2020 by Joshua States “So I'm lightin' out for the territory, ahead of the scared and the weak and the mean spirited, because Aunt Sally is fixin’ to adopt me and civilize me, and I can't stand it. I've been there before.” The only bad experience is the one from which you learn nothing. Josh http://www.dosgatosdesignsllc.com/#! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdJMFMqnbLYqv965xd64vYg J.States Bladesmith | Facebook https://www.facebook.com/dos.gatos.71 https://www.etsy.com/shop/JStatesBladesmith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshua States Posted December 11, 2020 Author Share Posted December 11, 2020 The second one went much better. Here it is in basic form. After forging the cheeks out A little clean up and I will go for the eye weld on Saturday. 2 “So I'm lightin' out for the territory, ahead of the scared and the weak and the mean spirited, because Aunt Sally is fixin’ to adopt me and civilize me, and I can't stand it. I've been there before.” The only bad experience is the one from which you learn nothing. Josh http://www.dosgatosdesignsllc.com/#! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdJMFMqnbLYqv965xd64vYg J.States Bladesmith | Facebook https://www.facebook.com/dos.gatos.71 https://www.etsy.com/shop/JStatesBladesmith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pieter-Paul Derks Posted December 11, 2020 Share Posted December 11, 2020 This is looking good already! I like how ovious the flow of material is with the coarse pattern 1 http://mefecit.nl/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Longmire Posted December 11, 2020 Share Posted December 11, 2020 Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Toneguzzo Posted December 13, 2020 Share Posted December 13, 2020 Yes, good luck from me too. It’s looking great. "Old dogs care about you even when you make mistakes" - Tom HALL - Old Dogs, Children and Watermelon wine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshua States Posted December 14, 2020 Author Share Posted December 14, 2020 Well, it didn't go as well as I would have liked. The cheeks got really long and quite thin somehow. The weld seemed good, but it's not fully welded. “So I'm lightin' out for the territory, ahead of the scared and the weak and the mean spirited, because Aunt Sally is fixin’ to adopt me and civilize me, and I can't stand it. I've been there before.” The only bad experience is the one from which you learn nothing. Josh http://www.dosgatosdesignsllc.com/#! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdJMFMqnbLYqv965xd64vYg J.States Bladesmith | Facebook https://www.facebook.com/dos.gatos.71 https://www.etsy.com/shop/JStatesBladesmith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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