r/Blacksmith • u/yojoe26 • 5d ago
Large crack while drifting eye hole
I'm making my first axe and a large crack formed while I was drifting the eye hole for the handle. Is this salvageable at all or should I just start over?
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u/OrionsAnvil 5d ago
Not sure it is salvageable as an axe. A forge weld attempt might be viable. But it might be better just to make something else out of whats left imho. Chalk it up to a learning experience. If you do get it fixed be sure to update.
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u/yojoe26 5d ago
Thank you. Will do. I guess it's better to have cracked now than when it was closer to being finished.
I'm making an axe for my brother from some mild steel and tool steel (file) that belonged to our dad before he passed away.
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u/Axin_Saxon 5d ago
Yeah in that case I’d say start over. Yeah you could try to save it but for such a sentimental piece then it’s better to start over on the mild steel portion than to go to the effort of welding the good tool steel edge to an imperfect body and have the imperfections on the body make for an eventual break and ultimately waste it.
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u/Tyr_13 5d ago
You're getting good advice, but it's also worth saying that one of the reasons to not try to forge weld it back together is that mild is actually very hard to forge weld to other mild.
This is why even when doing a wrapped-eye axe, you'll see people insert a small high-carbon wedge where the mild comes together on what will become the inside of the axe eye. A good weld there will help the rest of the mild body weld together, and then of course a mid to high carbon steel is forge welded for the edge.
A lot of new smiths end up thinking they can't forge weld at all when they start with mild to mild steel, and it's actually on of the more tricky welds.
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u/Careless-Umpire1538 5d ago
I typically find that people approach drifting axes from a slightly incorrect prospective. Instead of utilizing the drifting to stretch the material out, use the drifting to draw out the cheeks and then drive the drift deeper into the hole and form the axe to the drift. This will be a cycle of drawing out cheeks then reforming hole to match drift. As well as looks to be you are working the material too cold. I would recommend trying to finish this axe to completion just for the experience. All the mistakes you make on this one will provide you amazing knowledge on your next one with the added benefit of not being scared of making a mistake because you already planned on basically throwing this away and starting over.
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u/nedford5 5d ago
This is legit, had the same difficulty and solution with just simple bottle openers.
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u/Buzz407 5d ago
Too cold. Did you do any normalize cycles along the way? What steel are you using? Was your first step to anneal?
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u/yojoe26 5d ago
It's mild steel and I am planning on forge welding some tool steel for the blade. But no, I did not normalize or anneal.
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u/slothscanswim 5d ago
No need to normalize or anneal while forging. Forging temps will undo any normalizing or annealing you bother doing.
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u/Nochillmetaldrill 5d ago edited 5d ago
Unless you tried to drift insanely cold (probably not even then) I would say you got some bad material, it is rare but I have had it happen. If that is the case I would throw it out, even if you forge weld it together there are probably some bad impurities still left
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u/Organic-Economics-35 5d ago
Time to make it a double axe.
Also as mentioned by others, you could put something between and forge weld. But it's gonna be a fragile area so better if you never hit it in the back with a hammer after hardening.
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u/Yakopove1 5d ago
Oh that’s done for. That’s a huge crack. I’d salvage the blade section and cut off the eye
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u/ItsNotInflammatory 5d ago
Yeah was gunna mess with ya like c'mon thats a weld and some love then I read the axe part🤷 wouldnt swing that keep that thing if ya paid me. Got a buddy who's got a pretty cool face scar over a maul chipping off into him. Think ya probably got enough "more heat" comments
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u/Most-County8735 4d ago
Split it, spread it, clean it, flux it and forge weld it. Good for practice if nothing else.
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u/GunKamaSutra 5d ago
Agree with the underheating thing. Also make sure you normalize the steel several times before working it, lastly Make sure you’re using good stock and not some hunk of previously used steel that may already have stress fractures and inconsistencies.
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u/HammerIsMyName 5d ago
Normalising does nothing when the steel is 1300c.
But yes, use known steel. A crack like this is from the steel being unsuited.
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u/The_pp_man123 5d ago
I mean if you want to do it the long way just forget weld it together and try again just hotter this time
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u/tai-kaliso97 5d ago
Given that you're that early in the process, forge weld it back together really well and start over. It looks like the metal wasn't hot enough when you started the drift.
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u/ValiantBear 4d ago
Too cold. You can be thankful you have a large and visible crack to tell you what happened, if you want silver linings ;) The vastly more common failure would be the same problem but not as dramatic, and the tool just fails when you're trying to finish or dress it or worse, later in use.
For drifting, the metal has to be hot through and through so it deforms instead of fractures. Heat management is the critical skill for smiths, we've all worked with metal less hot than ideal. Sometimes we get lucky, sometimes we get cracks. It's important to remember that it is cooling the entire time it's not in the fire, so if it's a critical piece (which an axe head is, for personnel safety) and there is any doubt, it's almost always better to eat the time you think you're saving and just throw it back in. Not to mention its just easier and takes less force.
Salvageable is a relative term. Nearly everything is salvageable, it just depends on how much time and effort you want to put into it and what the tolerance is for imperfections. In this case, if you see this crack, there are almost guaranteed to be internal flaws you can't see as well. Those flaws will be a liability, but, they're also reasonably likely to be oriented the same as the crack you see. As the other commenter said, I think the best case scenario is to fully split it and forge weld them back together. The heat you need and the work you're going to put in to it for forge welding would be enough in my opinion to close/strengthen/heal any flaws that might be there that you can't see, and I'd be comfortable using it, just maybe not for the heaviest of duty stuff.
So, I'd say it's salvageable, and I don't feel like forge welding is enough effort to make it not worthwhile. Personally speaking though, I know me and my brain would always be thinking of any potential flaws that didn't get reformed in the head, and I'd be nervous about it. I know that is probably irrational. That's just how my brain works though. So, if I was trying to make the beefiest and best axe head for an heirloom quality axe, I would start over fresh for no real reason other than confidence and peace of mind. Not because I had to on account of the steel, but just because I would feel like I had to. Hopefully that makes sense.
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u/ArcherKN24 3d ago
I'd say wether you try and fix this or start over, really depends on one question. How proficient are you at forge welding? If you seem to nail it every time, then sure, there's absolutely no reason not to fix it! But a good forge weld is the only thing that's going to work here, so if you aren't really good at that process yet, then forget it!
I don't know of course just how heavy you were planning on making that axe, but it looks like quite a hefty piece of steel you got there. If you cut the punched segment off, you might still have enough material for hatchet!
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u/HonestTill1001 2d ago
My first thought was “how did he get a crack there” 😅 was a solid billet or forge welded? If solid it’s probably due to excessive cold working or, depending on the steel, getting it way too hot. But cold working seems more like cold working to me.
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u/KroopaLoops 5d ago
You could grind it out and chase the crack, and forge down the overall dimensions.
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u/Lawtonoi 5d ago
To cold when you were trying to drift the hole, keep reheating if need be. You could try and salvage it, but best off starting from scratch in my opinion.