Some time back, the eldest daughter H says that I need hobbies (or at least friends), and she points me to an ax forging course at Gränfors Bruks. For those not in the know, Gränfors is world famous for super high quality handforged forest tools. I said “yes, let’s do that” and much to her chagrin and alarm, I bought a session for me, her, and her sister. Last week, we did the trip. Jen came too, but mostly to do her own projects by the lake!
Getting there was a challenge by itself. The village of Gränsfors is quite some ways north. About here …
Which is about 10-11 hours of driving. Jen wisely prevailed on me to break the drive into 2 days, so we ended up with 2 days up, 2 days there, and 2 days back. The driving wasn’t that interesting, except that it was often very beautiful country, so I will focus on the forging. While doing the course, we stayed in a cottage at Sagaliden, and got to see a bunch of (pretty-but-invasive) Lupins.
The course started with a little tour of the factory and the factory store. It was very fun for a forest nerd. They have their own formulation of tool steel that is a secret formula, and almost entirely recycled. Most of the operations and materials are quite sustainable.
The work started with how to light the forge (basically build a wood fire to get something hot enough to start the coke fire – coke is “purified” coal. Air quotes intended). And then we made some little mild steel hooks to get a feel for the work.
And then the main event! Forging and halfting a (small) hatchet.
The process was basically heating and shaping the steel thru these steps:
Which is quite challenging and we all had a hard time controlling the hammer, esp. after we were tired! Then there is first grinding (no pics) to put the main edge on, and then heat treating. This the instructors basically did 1:1 with each person – it is so easy to mess up! And then tempering the edge. And H got an amazing classic “straw” coloured edge for her temper! And then the final grind and polish.
When 2 days finished, we had 3 axes and diplomas!
It was a huge amount of fun, and as H said “it is important to do something that I know I will never do again!” 🙂 I am super-proud of our girls for hammering through some very difficult work!
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