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Original
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Found: Valthe
Age: 1800 BC This was the only picture I had available of this particular axe. As
there were no dimensions, I've underestimated its size. I thought I had
seen the original in Leiden recently, but in retrospect that appears to
be a different axe. The actual Valthe axe is more close to my version (9.5
cm in length, while mine is 8.5cm), but is still about 2 times thicker.
Still isn't a very close copy, but it's my first succesful cast, higher
accuracy comes next:)
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Mould
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Material: clay & sand
The mould was made of clay straight out of the ground, mixed with an equal amount of sand. The two halves were dried, and after the clay was sufficiently dry, the shape of the axe was carved in both sides of the mould. For the carving I used an antler point and flint. Due to the sand the finish was rather rough. As pure clay seems to work fine as well, and gives a much smoother finish, I'll probably stick to that. The mould was further dried near the fire, with the inside slightly baken due to the fire. The mould here is after the casting, and broke during transport back home. |
Casting result
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The cast in my opinion completely succesful, and also my first attempt at casting something other then a few rivets. So I was very pleased with the result, especially as even the most experienced casters only have a good result once in a while. The mould had completely filled, and the metal doesn't have any inclusions or holes in it. Plus the feed and flash are not too thick, so they can be "easily" removed. So for this reason, and for it being my first successful cast, I'm finishing this one using authentically. |
Removing the casting feed & flash
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Here's the axe after the removal of the flash and casting feed. The feed was removed by first making a groove on both sides using flint. Then the feed was hammered off, using my antler hammer/digging tool. The flash was removed by hammering it flat until it broke away. Still some of it stayed on, which fell off after sanding the sides with a piece of flint. There's also some mismatch between the two halves, which I partically removed. The axe is now ready for hardening the cutting edge. |
Applying the cutting edge
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The last step of the axe head itself. To get a sharp edge which is hard enough, I first hardened the edge by hammering. For this I used a smooth stone as hammer. After hardening as far as I dared without risking cracks, I sharpened it on the flat stone I used as anvil. The axe head is now ready to be hafted. |
First part of the haft
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For the haft I deviated somewhat from found evidence of axehafts for bronze axes. Of the few hafts found, we know that L-shaped wooden hafts of ash or yew wood were used. As my axe is very light, less then 60 gram, and the wood is light too, I wouldn't be able to cut much with it. So I used a piece of antler to fix the axe head in, which I attach to the wooden haft. The antler nearly triples the weight of the axe head. And the antler doesn't split, so this should be a more durable solution. Another change I made is rotating the axehead 90 degrees, so it forms an adze. Adzes were already used in the stoneage, probably for hollowing out canoes, wooden dishes etc. The antler piece I shaped using my bronze chisel. The hole in which I'll insert the wooden haft was hollowed out by burning the core with glowing charcoal, and then removing the core with my chisel. By burning the core, it gets very brittle and easy to remove. |
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The completed axe
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And here is the axe in completed state. The antler is fastened on a haft of ash wood. The axe head is fastened with raw hide. This shrinks and hardens when it dries. I've used the axe several times now, and found that it works very well on small scale woodworking. For example I regularly cut the stick to size with which I take my crucibles out of the fire. I've found that the antler slides off the wooden haft after some use, which I kinda expected. So I'll have to modify this sometime to attach it more securely. Also the raw hide doesn't seem to have enough grip, and slides off easily. So I'm going to replace it with leather, when I get the chance to tan some myself. Leather has more grip, and stretches which should hold it together more tightly. Fortunately the axe head already stays in well without any wrapping though. |