Forging a Wrought Iron Trade Axe - Part 1: Welding the bit.

[@leperejoe1536]

One of the best traditional blacksmith channel. Thanks for your time.

[@bertrandpotvin]

Great video, highlights superior skill and craftsmanship, as well as traditional method. Thank you for sharing. I learned so much! I aspire to achieve this level of accomplishment.

[@vileguile4]

Thanks for showing and sharing!!! Very interesting :) Your video skills are on par with your smithing. Fantastic work!

[@RowanTaylor]

Thanks mate :)

[@UncleKaboom]

Beautiful work as always.

[@RowanTaylor]

Thanks a lot, Uncle Kaboom :)

[@FOB-yz7gf]

Beautiful weld work. It is pure textbook perfect.

[@RowanTaylor]

Haha, thank you :) It's taken a lot of practice to get there!

[@stevesyncox9893]

Thanks Rowan

[@AmanSingh-vh2ep]

Good video

[@fordguy8792]

Hope this doesn't come across as creepy coming from another guy, but you have a very pleasant voice. I find your videos to be calming as well as interesting. Love your work.

[@nicko9404]

great video!

[@RowanTaylor]

Thanks mate :)

[@jon-erinneksteen4223]

RowanTaylor can you make next a metal file

[@Cadwaladr]

When I was walking around Minneapolis not too long ago I went under one of the bridges over the Mississippi and there was a bit of a history exhibit that had some pieces of one of the earlier bridges, built in the early 1870s, and I saw that they were wrought iron and thought of you. Very much bigger pieces than you could make on your anvil though.

[@RowanTaylor]

Gosh, I would have loved to have seen those! Wrought is just so lovely to work with. I do tend to hoard it when I come across it, lol. I believe that the Eiffel tower is made of wrought iron as well, but I may be wrong

[@mitchthegamingidiot3516]

The tower is made out of puddled iron, which is a softer form of wrought iron.

[@norsepool5273]

I'm very new to blacksmithing but love watching it. So sorry if this is a "no shit" moment but I have never seen someone split the iron for the steel edge insert. I've only ever seen it folded in two then inserted so this is new and refreshing.

[@pmi7696]

Amazing clean forging and welding! How come so much clinker? You did not seem to use borax on the first compacting steps?

[@caveofskarzs1544]

I was wondering whether you were going to do the asymmetrical eye or a split and welded eye. Looking forward to the next video.

[@RowanTaylor]

Very good question - I'm actually going to do an asymmetrically welded eye as I have seen evidence for that method being used with Trade axes. I do intend to do a split welded eye for a Daneaxe though at some point.

[@caveofskarzs1544]

Cool; thanks!

[@paulorchard7960]

Wet anvil technique, thats a first for me! Stops oxidising ?

[@asernesesealsesaseso]

Really love your videos detailing tool and axe making, inspires me to try them out! how did you know the metell was wrought iron? is there a way to test the metal, or where you told they where wrought iron when you aquired them?

[@RowanTaylor]

Thanks mate :) You can tell wrought because of the grain in it - it looks like plywood (see the image of the punched eye at the beginning of the video). If it is pre-1860 it will most definitely be wrought.

[@asernesesealsesaseso]

I see, thank you! Now all that remains is to wait for part two i guess... (can't wait!)

[@malcolmbuehler5619]

that is quite a clinker

[@Gunnvulcan]

Gorgeous powerhammer. I would love to get one once i start smithing, but they are very expensive.

[@RowanTaylor]

They can be, but as a business it is such a time/money/elbow saver! Mine was made by Dave Preston of Ledbury. Well worth a look!

[@williambarnhartblacksmith414]

It's awesome when the anvil is wet and the hot steel causes an explosion when hammered.

[@kiksforge]

nice job man, very tasty

[@RowanTaylor]

Thanks mate :)

[@brianzinn6354]

I don't understand how any forge ends up with that much clinker. Jaw dropping. Does it have to do with the type of coal you're using? Bitumous coal is the most common around my area. I would need to be running my forge for 10 times as long to get a clinker that size.

[@juanpartida7830]

great work man thanks for sharing your videos and knowledge I would like to know if you could sale your axes and if you could how much would be a price that it would be like for a fine axe if you would sale it OK thanks keep up the good work

[@BB_46]

Nice video, what did you trade it for?

[@mollettforge5373]

is there anything u can do with the clinker, or just have to throw it out

[@RowanTaylor]

I give them all to my dad and he'll use it on garden paths to keep the mud down. It's pretty much all you can do with them. Back in the day they used to go into making construction material but not any more.

[@greatspartan6ap549]

can you give any tips on how to get iron i can't find any

[@يحيىابوشرار-ف2ن]

لمازا ترش ماء عند الدق على الحديد

[@jon-erinneksteen4223]

can you make metal file next

[@garethbaus5471]

I'm surprised you don't have peices of steel that are already beveled so you can cut off the exact length and weld it into a tools edge and not waste as much material and time on every edge you do this way.

[@boonethompson797]

good grief! I have never seen a clinker that big.

[@woodslore8537]

Boone Thompson little new to smithing terms. what exactly is a clinker? Is it slag?

[@boonethompson797]

a clinker is a rock like chunk that forms in the bottom of coal forges, they come from impurities in the coal and from scale from the metal. slag and scale is oxidized iron that forms when the metal is hot (like really hot... red, orange and yellow hot) it often falls off the metal in little flakes.

[@woodslore8537]

Boone Thompson so it is similar to slag then

[@douro20]

Have you done work for the Government?

[@KowboyUSA]

If you're feeling froggy: Jump.

[@RowanTaylor]

Lol :)