I was working on finding a coronation present for Kane and tried several things. I was attempting a jewelry casting and ran into some difficulty. First I tried a clay mold. I guess I didn't get all the air bubbles out of the clay and when I put it in the kiln the mold exploded. I tried again and again the mold broke up. I was fast running out of time so I went to casting investment bought from a dental supply company. I made the impression and put it in the kiln. I left it for a while and when I came back it seems I had the kiln on a little high and melted the whole thing to slag including the cast iron form the plaster was in (the owner of the kiln was not pleased). Next, I tried casting sand. I got a good impression and started melting the brass. While trying to get the amount of brass I needed to casting temperature I melted a hole in my crucible with the torch. Well, the only torch I had was my welding rig. It got a little too hot. I finally decided that my equipment is just not set up for doing anything quite that small. So I went on to make something I knew a little more about and was better set up to do. I had recently bought a new forge and replaced the two old ones I had made. The old ones worked but were too small for some projects I had in mind. This was an excellent chance to crank up the new forge and try it out. I have a supply of scrap steel that I have collected. I went through the pile till I found a piece I knew to have a high carbon content so it could be heat treated and hold an edge. This was a pretty thick piece, about 5/8 in. I drew the axe shape I wanted on the metal (Fig.1) with a piece of soapstone and cut the shape out with my torch. I lit the forge and got started. Using my small hand sledge - about 3 lbs. - I started beating. I heated to red heat the area I wanted to work. Then used the wire brush to take the scale off, and then beat it until I lost the red color. You should never work too cold. You are likely to crack the piece if you do. This is a time consuming process because you lose working heat fast, and you cannot rush. If it gets too hot, you burn all the carbon out of the piece and you are liable to wind up with something quite brittle or even melt the whole thing down. If the anvil is cold you may not get more than 3 to 5 strikes with each heat. Also the larger the piece the quicker it will cool. I spent about six hours in front of the forge for this one. Also as the piece was reduced in thickness the outer shape was changed as well (Fig.2) Now the edge. I heated just the edge in sections and forged the edge first. Holding the piece at an angle to the anvil (Fig.3) and flipping the piece every other strike so it came out even, I used the flat face of my l.5 lb. ball peen hammer. Particularly at the edge don't strike if your piece is too cool. Make sure it is still glowing red. Here at the edge it's very easy to overheat and melt it. As it gets thinner it will heat faster than the surrounding metal so watch it real close. So far the metal has not been quenched and do not do so now. Allow to air cool. This should take several hours before you can handle the piece. Now use a grinder to finish the edge and clean up the surface of the whole thing. I used a 4 in. disk grinder. It's a little more versatile than a bench grinder. Then using a hand file on the edge I took off the grinding marks. Now with a wire wheel on a drill or polisher, go over all surfaces again to clean and help remove grinding marks. I didn't polish the axe smooth because I wanted to leave some hammer forging marks for effect.

      The next stage is the heat treatment to make it hold an edge. Bring the whole piece up to a light peach color. It should then be quenched in oil. Old motor oil will do but it must be in the open. Wear a hat, gloves and safety glasses. Toss the piece in from as far away as you can and get back. The oil will flash and burn and boil. Use a deep open container. A large metal tub works well. Make sure there is at least 5 or 6 in. of oil in the tub. It will take a while to cool. Do not touch the oil, but have a supply of baking soda or a CO 2 fire extinguisher handy and after a few seconds of the flash and burn, start putting the flames out. Do not leave this alone. Keep an eye on it until the danger of fire and popping, splashing hot oil is over. Of course, there is a type of oil that doesn't flash during the process. The flashpoint is about 2500F, but it is not easy to find and is quite expensive. If interested, ask around some machine shops or, better still, Vo Tech schools, and they may be able to help you find some.

      Now what this did was harden the steel and set the crystalline structure. Forging upsets the structure and now that structure is set, so it is now very brittle as well. So not drop or it might break. The next procedure was to heat the piece slowly from the back. I put the rear of the axe in the forge with the edge away from the fire, heated slowly and watched the slight color change in the surface of the steel. The steel must be clean or the color changes cannot be seen. I heated the piece until the edge just turned light bronze color, then quickly quenched it edge first and just a little at a time in a brine solution (salt water). I dipped the edge then pulled it out quickly. Dipped it again, but slightly deeper, working very slowly until the whole thing was quenched and cooled. Remember to use a large enough container of saltwater to get the whole piece into. This procedure is called normalizing and re-aligns the crystalline structure so the piece will not be brittle. I learned this heat treating procedure from an industrial education class I took at LSU a few years ago.

      The last thing to do is how to attach this blade to a haft. One way is to cut a slot in the haft and bolt or pin through it. This makes a weaker shaft at the business end but also is lighter and better balanced. I opted for another solution. I welded a 11 in. piece of pipe to the back end of the axe blade using a small electric welder. The pipe went over the shaft, then I drove a wedge in to tighten it up, then pinned it through in two spots with a brass rod that was about #10 or 10 guage. I then filled the open end with epoxy and put a TYC commemorative coin over the end on top of the epoxy and clamped it in a vise till the glue set.

      Well, that's about it, except decoration of the haft, if you want. I made an eight inch suede leather grip for mine by wetting the suede and tacking one edge down with small head flat tacks then stretching the wet leather around until it overlapped the small tacks then tacked it again with larger round head brass tacks (or decorative upholstery tacks). I ran four 3/4 in. wide strips of the same suede up and around the haft in a diamond pattern. I then put a brass tack at every crossing of the strips. I cleaned it all up again then coated the blade with some mink oil to prevent rust. I then had a pretty impressive axe that wasn't bad at all for the first attempt.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3