The Northlander Felling Axe is made much like the American Felling Axe. It has
a single bit with a long blade and a heavy pole that delivers weight and
balance to the stroke. This insures the blade hits accurately and bites deep
into the wood. The main difference between the two is the Northlander Felling
Axe is a bearded axe. This allows the user a balanced one handed option when
clearing smaller brush while prepping to fell the larger tree.



The first step in axe making is to chisel a hole in a block of mild low carbon
steel. This is where the eye will take place. Using a mandrel the eye is
stretched into the needed size. Next a notch is chiselled in one end of the
billet and a wedge shaped piece of alloyed Bohler K460 tool steel is inserted
in it to form the harder cutting edge. Now the axe is heated to a dark yellow
color and borax is sprinkled on it. Melted borax liquefies the oxidation scale
and washes it out of the welding seam. Once again the axe is heated, this time
to a bright yellow glow, and forged so that the two pieces of steel forge weld
together. The blacksmith then forges the axe’s head into a shape and grinds the
rough edge. Now the axe is ready to be annealed.



Annealing is needed to remove the inner stresses in the steel formed during
the forging. To do that axe is heated to 850 degrees Celsius and cooled very
slowly to room temperature. After that the axe goes to second heat treatment
step which is normalizing. For this the axe is heated again, this time to a 800
degrees Celsius, our makers mark is stamped into the steel and the axe is
cooled down in the air. Normalizing prepares the structure of the steel for the
next step; hardening. Again the axe goes into a furnace and is heated to 800
degrees Celsius. Then the axe is quenched in mineral oil and water. Now the axe
is hard enough, but is very brittle so it needs to be tempered. For the last
time the axe is heated to 220 degrees Celsius, and is held at that temperature
for one hour. After the axe is tempered to Rockwell 58-59 (HRC) and the steel
is hot enough, a mixture of bees wax, linseed oil and turpentine is applied to
the axe head. This is a very old and effective way to protect the tool from
rusting. After final smooth grinding and polishing the axe blade, it reaches
mirror finish, becomes razor sharp and is ready to get its own unique handle.



Each axe handle is made individually for each axe head to achieve a perfect
fit. To start, a knot-free piece, of locally harvested and kiln dried (6-8% of
moisture) Red Elm wood is chosen and then marked out using a template. We use
only parallel grained wood to the axe eye, if the grain of the wood will be
perpendicular to the axe eye - it will break fast and will not last long. The
rough shape of the handle is sawn using a bandsaw. Next the handle is shaped
using a drawknife. Axe eye dimensions are marked on the top of the handle and
the handle is shaved to almost fit the eye. Final finishing is carried out
using sandpaper to ensure a close fit. Then the axe handle is tightly punched
into the axe head and locked with the wooden wedge which is glued in with an
epoxy wood glue. A small steel wedge is hammered into the wooden wedge to lock
the axe head vertically. Now the axe has been laid in the Tung oil bath for 24
hours, this fills the wood pores with the oil, and swells the handle so after a
week the oil dries and polymerizes and wood is fully protected and it will
never shrink.



Like our other leather goods, the axe sheath is made from cowhide that's
manufactured in a local tannery using the same methods and techniques that were
used 100 years ago. 4mm thick leather is dyed with Fiebings professional oil
dye. Afterwards, the leather is treated with palm leaf wax and heated beeswax
that gives it a vintage look and protection. As final finish Fiebings Acrylic
resoline is being applied.

Overall Length: 33” (838 mm)
Axe head: 7.5” (190 mm)
Cutting edge: 5” (127 mm)
Overall weight: 5.3 lbs (2.4 kg)
Hardness: Rockwell 59-60 (HRC)

**In case we’re out of stock from the warehouse for the certain item you
ordered, Items shall be shipped from our South-East Asia’s production facility
directly at your doorstep with no extra shipping cost.