Blacksmithing - making Russian axe head from C45 steel

Video Description

Hand forging a Russian axe head from a single piece of C45 steel. This is how I make most of my bushcraft axes. Open the full video description for more information. ---------------------------- Date: March 2025 Day: 08°C (46.4°F) Night: 0°C (32°F) Hours of daylight = 11 Location: My property. Scandinavia, northwest Denmark - sea, spruce/pine and hardwood forrest. Some of the most remote in Denmark, but limited how remote it can get. A lot of birds and deers etc. No bears, only a few wolves. _________________ Dimensions and weight: Made from a 140mm long piece of 20x40mm C45 tool steel. 12cm cutting edge, 15.5cm from pole to cutting edge and 700 grams. A future handle would be about 55-60cm long. _________________ A few questions: 1. What are the function of the spike on the axe? Protects the axe handle and add more contact area (making the axe head less likely to work itself loose). 2. What fuel are you using in the forge? Charcoal. Homemade from birch and poplar wood. Just made in an 200L oil drum. 3. What anvil are you using? Home made - made from a large fortlift fork. Cut with an angle grinder and heat treated like a normal anvil. 4. What hammer are you using? Homemade - Now a days offen referred to as a "Japanese style hammer" but this style of hammer are/was used by many. The main advantage of a hammer like this with only one face are that you can keep the balance point (the handle) way off center making the hammer natural wanting to fall straight and able to self correct if not straight to some degree. By far my favorit blacksmithing style hammer. 5. What forge are you using? Homemade bottom blast forge. Made from random plumbing parts from a scrap yard. The air blower are from the danish military - if you want similar try to google "hand cranked forge blower" or similar. You can get a better look at my specific forge blower in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWgESobxudc 6. Why heat treat in water? Some steel are supposed to be hardened in oil and others in water. C45 steel are supposed to be hardened in water. Personally do I like water hardening steels - no flames that can burn you and no smoke making it harder to see what you are doing. 7. How did you heat treat the axe? Normalizing once, hardening the cutting edge area in water and using the heat in the rest of the axe for tempering to a light yellow collar. The final step was to add oil and let it burn onto the hot surface leaving a black fishing and a bit of rust protection. 8. Why use the top fuller tool at 04:23? To avoid getting a cold shut (in preparation of bending/raising up the spike). 9. Can I buy an axe, knife etc. from you? No. 10. What are the two other axes show in this video? Another Russian axe design and a Karelian axe design. Homemade, also made from C45 and with the same blacksmithing tools as shown in the video. 11. Why so many hammer marks on 02:58? Because I am using the corner of the hammer to make the axe blade wider and not longer (a alternative to use a cross pen hammer). 12. Is it a hot tent in the background? Yes - a 4 person lavvu/hot tent. Just made from spruce poles, plastic tarps and nails. 13. What will the next video be about? Primitive bushcraft trip with primitive natural shelter building. 14. What if I have a question that are not included in this video description? Consider leaving a comment - I read all comments made within the first few days and update the video description with the most asked questions. _________________ Video gear: Nikon Z30 Nikon 40mm 2 Nikon 50-250mm 4.5-6.3 Røde videomic NTG Macbook 2011 iMovie