Blacksmithing: Making a Merovingian style warrior axe.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ม.ค. 2025
- In this video I document my making of a prototype Merovingian style axe head, based on a couple of finds from Germany and Northern France. It isn't a perfect reproduction of archaeological items but it has set me in the right direction!
This video ended up with so many layers that my CPU couldn't cope so couldn't give it the full definition I wanted. Still, enjoy :)
You're NOT a skinflint! You are thrifty and frugal, AND a damn FINE BLACKSMITH!
Thanks for your great videos!
Always love what you make.
I miss Rowan. I feel like I learned a ton from his material and wish he was still making content like this.
He teaches blacksmithing now in Hereford
From a purely visual standpoint, I have to say that this video is fantastically composed.
+John Polchlopek Thank you :) I finally found a use for my degree in film and T.V production, lol!
Lovely work, and a beautiful concept for a project. It's nice to see you working with traditional forms and styles, and I think it makes your work stand out. More Please! :)
I could watch your videos all day. Your narration reminds me of Attenborough narrating his nature films. Just relaxing as hell
Really lovely piece of work. 10/10 would love one of those axes
This just shows 51 jealous veiwers that wished they could forge this axe!!!
Great work!!!👍🏻👍🏻
Love your thinking aloud style of narration,nice axe as well .
I have watched a few of your videos, and I just wanted to tell you I think you are one of the best at this. Your camera angles are great and very clear instruction plus I like your accent keep up the good work and thank-you.
Awesome work please keep posting more videos. From Australia
The big companies swindle folks into buying the inferior product they put out....but the truth is, to most people ,the stuff like you make, is not avaiable. or one doesn't know how to find it....Beautiful and practical stuff...reminds me of my childhood in NW Spain where the town smith fixed all the agricultural implements, the plows....shoed the cows and the horses/donkies......another universe altogether.....Thank k you for the video sir!!
Great video and I like that low calm tone. Keep up the great work.
+Rick Nowlin Thanks Rick :)
well you've ruined my morning, damn it, I had work to do and got stuck in your videos 😂 really great stuff 👍
+TheShedStudios Hahaha, I apologise! :D
I know right?! lol
love the design. We don't give our ancestors enough credit
Great work! It turned out beautiful!
Great video and narration. You do fine work and thanks for sharing!
I thoroughly enjoy your videos. Very informative.
+Jack Haggard Thanks mate :)
Awesome work very pleasant to watch.
hey man nice work. I tried to make the folded axe yesterday. I used a railroad spike for my mild steal and burnt it up at the start of the eye when I was wielding. I will try again with some different materials.😢 I was so close. lol
+brian krause Make your fire taller in order to lower the oxidising layer - that is most likely what happened. WIth a nice big neutral layer in the fire you can go beyond a welding heat without burning. Have a look at my "blacksmith's fire" video. Good luck :)
Like the way it folded into an axe. Nice work.
i am really amazed and very envious! it's a beautiful piece... :)
+Bearded Bushcraft Thank you :) They'll be lovely once I have the process set in stone. A couple more and I'll be ready to make a batch and see how they go.
That was very nice video. Didn't like your narration at first, but it grew on me :) Great job!
Very nicely done Sir.
I'm sure I've seen this quite a few times now, truly brilliant video. I'd kill for you to teach me some basics
Great video looks awesome! cant wait till the next video!
+Hot Iron Art Thanks mate :)
Beautiful piece great job mate
that was a lovely piece.
Hey Rowan, nice work! I have seen the "tongues" on the poll referred to as a "helmdach"
I'm kinda newish to this and I was wondering why you didn't do a differential on it
Nice work. Thanks for sharing. Could you share the dimensions of the drift you are using?
+sgribb02 I'll try and remember to measure it on Tuesday for you. It's something like 1 1/2 inch by 5/16ths from memory
How would anyone know anything about your welds without examining the piece?
nice job cool axe the old guys back in the day new there stuff
How do you know what temperature and how long to temper any given metal?
Also, once a metal is "Quenched" in oil, is it possible to heat it again and continue forging or is it game over?
quenching temperature is when the steel becomes nonmagnetic. tempering temperature is when the blade becomes wheat coloured and the spine between wheat and a purply blue. it has nothing to do with time. and you can continue forging after quenching, however it will reverse the hardening process.
Another great video. Do you happen to know the reason for the protrusions on the poll? They're rather unique.
+E.R. Long Thank you :) I genuinely don't. I have a theory that they are to add weight to the poll, thereby making the axe easier to control, without actually raising the upper profile of the axe - but it is just a theory.
Would they also spread any off centre force over more of the haft, making it less likely to bite into the back of the haft and damage it? I can imagine that fighting axes would be subject to a bit of that, being used to hook and so on and being used on a less than cooperative target, unlike wood chopping axes.
as always dude, gert lush, :D
+ctantep Thanks Mike :D
I am sorry to have lost track of Rowan. Any word on him?
I missed the steel type in the opening, could someone please make a note on what it is?
it looked like a piece of leaf spring for the higher carbon part.
What is the white powder?
Borax and sand used as a flux. To clean the metal and form an oxygen barrier that helps facilitate the weld.
i like the look of the axe head we don't have smiths in the US doing this
i think it would do good work over hear in are woods
Great video again! Your quality of video is so good! I have never heard of merovingian style axes, thank you for sharing. I know how difficult this is and you really make it look so easy! Do you just hit the steel very hard? I never get the steel to move so easily, maybe I'm not strong enough :(
Watching this at 3 am :)
+knives&stuff Haha, I think I finished uploading and sorting it out by about 2 am lol. I guess I do hit it hard when it is quite hot but don't forget that I fitted a 4 hour process into 25 minutes so it does go a bit slower than is represented.
K
God your transitions man, did you study cinematography or something? love your videos
agustin venegas yup, degree in film and TV production :)
What a beauty.
+John Ratko Thanks mate :)
Very well explained. I recently made my first folded eye axe, not sure if that’s the proper term, and watching this video has helped me to correct some of the mistakes I made during the forge weld. Is that pure coke or do you use coal? Also, are you a full time blacksmith? If so, are you making a comfortable living? Who and what type of customer buys your work? Do you sell to collectors of middle age steel replicas or to blue collar types in need of reliable tools? Thank you.
now thats what I call nice forging
You make quite a few prototypes. Any reason why?
+Cave of Skarzs Mainly for myself - I find that filming the process helps me ground it in my head. Protoyping is essential to coming up with something which you are happy with and I have a pile of stuff somewhere which is too bad to sell but too good to throw away lol.
I see. Thanks.
Cave of Skarzs said the blind man
Would be nice to see the finished product in action, was this mainly a tool or a weapon back in the days?
Good job turned out great!
phogelbice "warrior's axe" is likely not a workman's tool
Hey rowan Ive been a subcriber for a long time and I also wanted to piont out you can draw those sides out by hand by yourself. Aroud 2 minutes in you said if you have a striker you can, well you could without one. you would make a set down on the edge of the anvil and draw it out from there. you may have not thought about it so its fine.
Not even done watching this video and I have to say wow
Nice work sir from salutes from miami
When you're not blacksmithing, do you commentate on snooker matches?
Do you ship to the USA
I bet it's well capable of doing it's job, was it to reach the heart and brains 😂
good job lad
+driveheronman Thank you :) Yes it is good as an axe just not close enough to the originals next. I taught me enough that the next one will be, though :)
Is you vise cracking
+Gavin Sinn looks like it, yeah.
Nice Axe old chap
Whats really cool about this vid is i see you hammering on the poece with a pair of tongs that isnt quiet holding it correctly, and the steel is bouncing. I cant tell you how many times ive done that and just got annoyed when it would happen to me. But you just took it in stride, rolled with it and just kept on.
Why'd he leave us?
👍👍👍👍👍
80% of the people don't know what they're talking about. your doing fine .
+Tim Samuel McSwain Thank you Tim, that means a lot :)
Sweet!!
+Ron W Thanks mate :)
Hello do you sell your work ??
Hi blacksmith 👋⚒
I read that your shop is in a trust building...the rent must be brutal!
Those tongues along the pole are called a langet.
0:55 ...dragon?...
I think the protrusions are called languets.Frank
Could you please speak a bit louder and more clearly in the videos? its some times hard to hear what your saying.
otherwise very nice work.
+thebeyondwordser Thank you :) I am limited with regards to my sound kit at the moment - literally just talking into the mike on the camera, which just ends up producing crappy sound which buzzes if I turn it up or spikes if I speak too loud into it. I will be upgrading to a proper camera microphone in the next few days though, which will improve things greatly.
I like it. He sounds like David Attenborough.
Fair enough, you give a great over view of the process regardless
+Ryan Johnson Hahaha, you are the second person to say that :D
+thebeyondwordser Thanks mate :) Like I say, sound should be improved by next week's video I hope! No idea what I'm making yet though!
Rearly have I seen better forge welds than yours. 2018 now missing your videos! Are you ok? Anthony Kent HAWK woodlore knives UK
you said "spread the cheeks" at 6:44 lol
It looks ver Antique to me
The japanese cover there high carbon steel in straw ash and clay slurry to keep out carbon from the weld when making there stock material for swords why don't western smiths use something like that.
demonic477 nordic cultures likely used horse dung for wrought iron blooms but i dont know if it has comparable effects
like flux?
No the clay and ash keep the steel from getting carbon out of the coal used in the smelting to much is bad . a lot of the carbon is lost when the steel is hammered from what I have learn they want to control the amount of carbon in the steel to make it stronger. and yes If the dung is used to make a shell to seal in the iron bloom it should have the same effect of controlling the heat and carbon content Citation needed I know more about japanese smiths than nordic smiths.
Wasn't he the slickster with the French accent and the super hot wife in The Matrix? The Merovingian I mean....
Am I listening to snooker?
You exposed yourself ? to who?
Quedrjr de estar slando
It
wow. the british can make anything sound boring...
Go back to your reality television and video games.
Well, I didn't make the video. My point was that perhaps your attention span might be better suited to louder more "exciting" videos, where people are yelling at each other. If you want to actually learn something, learn to listen.
Time consuming
I love this 💖