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Axes, finally

By on June 23, 2017 in Tools

For years now I have been telling customers that I would be adding axes to my site in the near future, well finally that day has arrived! When the next round of orders come up there will be a carving axe head available to buy.

I have finally refined the design to a point that I am confident that I will not suddenly feel the need to change it, I do love to tweak designs like this, but after at least a couple of years of trialling the many prototypes I am happy with where I have got to. Less visibly I have trialled different steels and heat treatments and am pleased with what I have come up with. Importantly I have refined the production process so that I can consistently make the heads the same, I don’t want to be listing individual heads,  I expect to be within 25g of the target weight and 1/4″ in measurements. Apologies for the mash-up of metric and imperial- I always think of edge lengths in inches, but final weights in grams. Still I have customers in Europe and the States so it seems appropriate.

A  satisfying by product of forging accurately to size is that the initial  blank of round bar I start from looks improbably small.

These heads will have an edge length of 6″ ( measured along the cutting edge – is about 5 3/4″ as the crow flies) They will be symmetrically flat ground, the steel and heat treat I am using will hold an edge at 29deg which is much finer than standard  axe grinds, they tend to be a fair bit over 30deg. The tips at heel and toe are fine, they will stand up to sensible use but are not designed to be used to pry with, these are carving axes and these tips are for getting into and out of concave cuts. I prefer to think of these heads as a ‘knife on a stick’,  albeit much prettier hopefully, rather than a jack of all trades tool. I have made the throat quite narrow as I like the dramatic ‘Viking’ look this gives, I have however left it a bit thicker than normal to be sure that strength is maintained, you can see this in the profile picture at the bottom of the page.

The toe is quite pronounced but due to the long cutting edge this is balanced out by the large beard, it makes for an agile head that will shape well but still have enough edge length for planing cuts, the edge is pretty straight which aids both the planing cuts and the more extreme tips.  The weight at 650 is fairly heavy for a carving axe- not far off a GB carver but, but it is certainly not excessive. I may well introduce a scaled down version around 500g

I have put some subtle decoration on the heads, as I mentioned at least a year ago part of the rationale behind this was to reinforce the point that these are not heads bashed out at speed but works I have poured a lot of effort and care into, I enjoy making them and don’t want them to become a huge part of my production schedule. If they do the frisson of excitement I get from an axe making week coming up will be lost. And it was such fun that I went ahead on the dates that I had marked on my calender despite them coinciding with the hottest days of the year- the workshop has never been so hot, which was challenging. I also spent some of this week making the fourth prototype for a larger head that I hope to put into production next, but currently I am struggling to make them using the techniques that I want to at a speed that will make them commercially viable.

I should also say that whilst the carving head may seem expensive at £210  it is from my point of view under priced, I still take too long over them. I could make them quicker but there are so many tweaks and refinements that I feel are necessary to make these the best Axes I have ever made. My hope is that with practice I will speed up to a point that they do become worth making financially, they are fantastic heads and I enjoy forging them, but if I only made these heads I would struggle to stay afloat.  So I will put these up in the next round of back orders, will be really informative seeing how many are ordered.  When they have been made and posted out I will then take stock and see if it will be possible to repeat next month. I certainly hope so.

Axe Forging- Demo and Workshop

By on May 10, 2017 in Tools

This weekend I will be at the Bodgers Ball, its only a bit over an hour down the road, I am pleased not to be spending too long in the van. will set up the forge and make an axe and an Adze, Harry who used to strike for me at the Greenwood Guild will be wielding the sledge again.

May is looking to be my busiest month ever so I will not be setting up a stand at the show, and am really looking forward to a relaxing weekend catching up with friends and family.

The weekend after I will be in London teaching knife making on the Sat and Sun, and on the Mon/ Tues will be doing Axes- and there are still a couple of places left. These usually sell out very quickly so this is rare chance to grab a place while you can. Tom made a great video of the last course we ran.

These courses are really special and being over two days the atmosphere is great, the sense of achievement people get from forming and marrying raw blanks of steel and wood into their own special axe is infectious.

You can book your place Here.

Detail knife handle

By on April 6, 2017 in Handle making, Tips

After reading a request by a customer for information on how to fit these blades I remembered that I haven’t ever shown how to fit small straight blades so put this together today. As it was spur of the moment thing whilst waiting for some Twca Cams to anneal I didn’t have my camera with me or a finished detail blade but used my phone and found a blank that had been used for hardness testing after heat treat- hence the small impressions on one face.

I used some birch for this handle, it wasn’t fully dry but had been in the workshop for a few weeks in a 1″x 2″ section which is turned out well, dry enough so that it will take a good finish but still enough moisture that it didn’t crack and will tighten onto the tang as it dries later. Ash is also good as is elm, harder woods such as yew seem to be prone to splitting.

I took the pictures for this sequence as I did it, it was all by eye, not marked out on a table. This really can a very quick process. If when you get the handle on it doesn’t line up well split it off and have another go,  you may only be 10 minutes in.

As I general rule I make a handle one finger width wider than my palm. So I cut the birch to length and shaped one end, leaving the other end largely untouched. Then lined up where I wanted the blade to be.

I then marked where I wanted to drill the hole for the tang.

 

Rather than drill immediately I then used a bradawl to start the hole to be certain the drill wouldn’t wander. I chose a drill bit to give a hole slightly undersize.

 

The hole was drilled in a press but you could do it freehand, main thing is to be certain that the orientation is good left to right, up and down there is more leeway for error in this blank.  Make sure you drill the slightly deeper that the length of the tang. I then put the drill bit in the hole and used this as a guide to see how well it all lined up. As I have done it this many times is was fine, but if it wasn’t the idea is that you have left enough excess wood in the butt end of the handle to bring everything back into line.

 

If you are using a cordless drill after drilling you can put it in a vice, put the handle back onto the drill bit and spin the handle slowly whilst holding a marker to the other end, it should scribe a circle with the middle being your centre. This trick works well for lots of instances where you need to drill dead central. As it was all I needed to do was mark the centre on the butt and draw on the rough outline of the handle.

 

I shaped the handle, including cutting the face that the tang was going into, I left the butt unfinished. The blade was then put in the vice protected by a wrap of cardboard and then it was tapped gently into place.

 

When I was happy with that is had gone in OK I cleaned up the Butt, no point getting it perfect then marring it by  hammering on it.

 

Finally I gave the handle a coat of oil and as I wanted to use it for something ground the point to a pyramid to make a bradawl.

 

 

Froes

By on April 5, 2017 in Tools

When I made my hazel gate a few weeks back I was reminded that I didn’t have a small froe anymore. As often happens I must have sold it when running low on stock. I find it quite amusing that when  I offer to sell a customer one of my personal tools their eyes light up thinking that these are in some way special.

In a way they are. If I forge a tool and some fault become apparent  that means it won’t be fit for purpose then it will be scrapped, I won’t spend time finishing such a tool. However sometimes when I make a batch of tools something may come to light that means it won’t be sold on this site, sometimes it is just a matter of sizing. I make a bath of 80mm blades and one measures up at 75. These will be sold at shows, that way a customer can be sure of what they are buying.

Other times though an issue will come to light that makes me question a tools strength. It may be forged too thin, I do like my tools to not carry excess bulk but there are limits. I often handle these tools myself and try them out, to see if I can find these limits. I actually have yet to break one, which is pleasing. Other issues include de-laminations in a forge welded tool. I prefer not to sell these, if I do it will only be face to face so I can point out any issues. Regardless everything is guaranteed.

So, back to the Froes. For me there is no doubt that the most efficient way to make a froe is to weld a laser cut blank to a piece of tapered tube. But, this is not a way I prefer to work and wanted to forge myself one in a traditional style, mainly to see if I could. One issue that can effect all froes is the eye join. In machine welded ones they can break, in forge welded ones they can split where the eye is wrapped and the two sides meet, wrought iron resists this splitting a lot better but not completely  and is not a material I work in so the weld was potentially more vulnerable.

I have wanted to forge a blade with a socketed eye for quite some time, but I wanted to avoid the likelihood of the eye opening so tried a new (to me anyway) weld, it was tricky partly due to the shape, but also because when I did decorative work I used to forge weld everyday, now it is very uncommon for me. But I did fairly well I think. Made a pair, then had another go and did another couple.

I will as ever keep the one with the dodgiest weld and sell the others. They won’t be on the site as it is not worth listing something I am unlikely to make again- I can’t see me being able to forge these at a rate that would make them viable. I could arc weld and grind some up that would look very similar and function the same much quicker. Still it was fun to try something new.

 

First two forged in the end they went a lot easier than I expected.

 

 

Final forms for them; I was talking to Alex Yerks about these and sagely proclaimed that a froe should be sharp enough to bite into a log but not cut you.

 

I decided to put handles on, and in the process cut myself deeper than I have in a long time!  I used  hazel in the round and stained it; this is a favourite for me, lots of variables but if you get it right the results are really good. They ended up looking very much like the tool I envisaged, rough forged and handled but with a bit of delicacy.

 

Years back I used to help out at a forest school, children learning cleaving used to work in pairs, one holding the froe the other the maul, even with gloves it was dicey at times.  I tend now to either forge the eye slightly offset, or if I am still not happy fit a curved handle to give a little bit more clearance on very short froes.

Awaiting Changes

By on March 30, 2017 in sales

Don Nalezyty

 An Introduction

If you follow Nic on facebook, you will know that I’ve started helping with the website. Some of you may know me from the spoon carving community, but my profession is in IT. When Nic asked if I’d be interested in supporting the site, I was happy to help out with something that ties together two passions.  (Yes, I’m uber geeky!)

We’ve updated the technology and processes behind the scenes over the last few months. Much of this Nic has talked about here, but it has not really been visible in the shop until Tuesday.  We added a password protected section to the Shop and opened it to folks on the top of the wait list to place back orders. Nic will be working hard to complete these in the next month.

Wait Lists

One more visible change Wednesday was the removal of the old product specific wait lists. Those lists were limited and cumbersome to manage, so we created a new wait list. It is important to us the list is accurate, since it will be used to grant access to the back orders section of the shop. This will happen periodically when Nic is ready to take orders.

As detailed in Tuesday’s post, there was a great deal of effort to clean the wait list, but we would like to make it better. There will be an email going out soon to everyone on the wait list. You should update your information following the instructions in the email. This will verify that you are still interested and waiting for a turn to purchase some of Nic’s blades. I have added a page to the site to allow folks to add their names to the queue. You can find it in the menu under Shop.

This new list combined with password access to the back order shop means that everyone will get an opportunity to order rather than relying upon being online at the right moment and lucky enough to submit an order before all the stock was sold.  Given the long list, folks may have a long wait, but when they reach the front of the queue they’ll have access to the site for 24 hours to complete orders.

We’re both happy with how the last sale went. We hope this new more equitable system will make everyone else happier too.

Back Orders and the Wait List

By on March 28, 2017 in sales

We have opened a new back order section in the shop and will be taking orders over the next day or two. Before you all race over to the shop and attempt to order, I wanted to give an update on the changes we made and how the process now works, but first we need to briefly cover what’s happening with product wait lists as it’s a big part of the new process.

As previously mentioned, the old wait lists and ordering system had problems.  The new process is relying on a single unified wait list for back order-able items. There were nearly 1600 email addresses on the old product wait lists, which had to be merged, cleaned of duplicates and invalid email addresses. The new list is now down to 650 prioritized emails based on the order in which folks joined the wait lists.  (650 sounds like a lot, but before you lose hope – we suspect a large percentage of these will not result in sales.  We’ll know better in a few days.) This unified wait list is used in the new process outlined below.

Here’s the quick summary of  the new process:

  • The back orders section of the shop is behind a password
  • Emails have gone out to the first block of people on the wait list
    • Instructions on how to order are in the email
    • The password is in the email
    • Passwords expire 24 hours after being sent
  • Those who received emails will have that 24 hours to submit orders, then we will be letting the next block through with a new password.
  • This will continue until I have taken a month’s worth of orders.
  • Back ordered blades should be shipped within a month.

Please note that the sharpening section is not back ordered nor  password protected, so these are normally shipped the next day. If however you order sharpening kit alongside back ordered blades then the whole order will be shipped when the blades are completed.

I am also getting daily, sometimes hourly requests for axes and adzes or to be put on wait list for these.  Currently the wait list only covers back order-able blades, but once we have this system working well I may start to include these in a separate list. Any new information will be put up on here.

Strop

By on March 28, 2017 in Tips

I sell suede to make strops with as it would get pretty expensive posting heavy strops around the world, but I thought I ought to show how to make them. I prefer a thick base as this gives clearance if you are stropping on a bench but also allows you to hold it safely from the back if you are holding the tool (such as an axe) still and moving the strop. Another popular option is a paddle strop, with a handle.

The backing needs to be hard and flat, softwood such as pine will compress over time. I have a strop made from pine that exhibits a wonderful wood grain pattern in the suede from repeated use. MDF is very good for this. Not something that I have in the workshop but I was able to get some from the unit next door, some chipboard was screwed and glued to the back to increase the thickness.

Make sure the backing is a few millimetres smaller than the Suede all the was around. In this case the suede I am using is distressingly white- it was very hard to keep it clean in my workshop for the duration of these admittedly poor photos. I use impact adhesive and you only get one go at fitting this. A glue like this which doesn’t dry hard is better, Epoxy or PVA will work but but can soak into and effect how the strop feels and holds the compound. It is important to get an even layer of glue for the join so you maintain a flat surface.

Then glue the suede down. Or to be more accurate I prefer to leave the suede on the bench and glue the backing down onto it, finding it easier to line up this way. Leave to dry then trim off the excess to get a neat edge.

Strop in use, touching up the knife. Suede is naturally abrasive so will dull edges quickly when you cut it, however this action also means it is ideally suited to use as a strop. It is however better to use a compound, it is so much quicker, even with a fine compound. You can often hear a hiss as it cuts. A thin layer rubbed into the grain cuts best. You can see how very quickly the compound turns black with metal particles, at this stage it is better to scrape it off with a blunt edge and re apply the compound rather than add more on top.

Midlands Woodworking and Power Tool Show – Newark

By on March 23, 2017 in sales, Shows

I will be packing the van today and heading off to Newark for this show, open on Friday and Saturday. I will have unprecedented stock of blades!  Have now finished the shaping and  Heat treat on these adzes and got edges on them late last night so hopefully can make and fit some handles over the course of the show, these are prototypes and will not be for sale, but if I get them up and running you are welcome to have a go.

 

 

Sharpening Video

By on March 22, 2017 in Tips, Tools

After many abortive attempts I have finally got a video together explaining the geometry on my curved blades, the thinking behind it and how best to sharpen them. I would like to say a big thanks to Alex for filming and then editing this, if you watch to the very end you will see the blooper reel that chronicles the mountain he had to climb.

I realise that it is a long film, but there was actually a lot to say; Alex did cut it down to make a shorter version that captures all the essential sharpening information but the longer one is much better in my opinion. I have also put together a sharpening kit that includes everything that is used in the video.

 

 

 

 

 

Ordering Information- Update

By on February 22, 2017 in Tools

The first trial of the back or pre-order system is underway- I have taken what I estimate to be a month worth of orders and will be starting on them first thing tomorrow.  If you had notification but got on to the site and found no stock then don’t worry- we will be using your place on the wait list to build a new linear one. Sign up to my blog to be kept informed of updates as we have them.

 

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