Over the summer I took a weekend intensive class aimed at making a hatchet or camp axe. The hatchet I made is far from perfect, but it was a great learning experience and a lot of fun. To forge a hatchet out of a bar of steel, you first punch a hole into the steel with a slot punch. Next, you start to drift the eye- stretch it with a drift and forge the eye to be the shape you want. After that, you draw the blade out and start to shape it. There is some back and forth between shaping it and fixing deformations in the eye. After getting the blade and cutting edge how you want them, you do a final drifting of the eye to get it shaped well to fit a handle. We used a pre-made handle so we wouldn’t have to learn woodworking and do it from scratch. After it’s how you want it, you normalize, harden, and temper the blade/cutting edge. Finally, you grind and polish the cutting edge and put a handle on it.

Follow along with what I’m up to. There will be posts about blacksmithing and other hobbies I may try out. I may write a bit about tech from time to time, but I’ve grown tired of thinking about tech in my free time. This blog is free of content created by AI. All thoughts and images are my own, unless otherwise stated.