474 1^^^^ JotiTual of Forestry. 



welding steel on to edge-tools) for about two or three inches ; this is 

 done after the axe is forged or shaped out, and is the chief art of axe- 

 makinof, and both the woodward and blacksmith know it to be so. The 

 woodward will often wait while the job of re-laying an axe is done, 

 giving a hint of what he wants. Tlie blacksmith will explain that he 

 cannot do a job like that without a " clean fire," which is freedom from 

 sulphur, with whicli coal is charged: this prevents the flux of steel 

 and iron, excess of heat making the steel melt and crumble away; 

 or imperfect and uneven distribution of the hammering will deterio- 

 rate the steel, to say nothing of making a bad " scarfe," showing where 

 the steel and iron should blend without a mark or seam. 



When East Kent was a large iron district the Kentish axes had a 

 fame everywhere ; the forging being done by wood fires preserved the 

 purity of the steel from sulphuric acid gas ; and the blacksmiths of 

 the present day in these parts succeed in making and tempering axes 

 to perfection. In tempering, the steel part is made of a bright cherry- 

 red heat, and plunged into cold water ; this crystallizes the steel to 

 intense brittleness. This crystallization has to be destroyed slowly 

 by heating the axe, thus, making the head nearly red-hot, and letting 

 it cool gradually, and watching the colour the steel gradually assumes 

 where the scales of the surface have been filed or rubbed off. First 

 a very faint straw-colour is visible at the cutting edge ; this becomes 

 full yellow, then brown with purple spots ; now the axe is plunged 

 again into w^ater, and the hardening is done. 



This heating of steel changes the crystals that form its molecular 

 structure into stringy fibres, which are fixed at their density by 

 chilling when the purple spots appear on the surface. Hard steel 

 needs more " lowering " than soft steel ; then the purple spots become 

 diffused into a purple all over. The softer the wood, the harder the 

 axe may be. Because a man may be a smith, he may yet not be able 

 to make an axe, any more than a forester may be a woodward, though 

 he may have handled an axe for years. 



The sharpening is done by grinding two bevils, forming a cutting 

 edge ; these bevils are concave, formed by the convexity of the grind- 

 stone, which is made to revolve to the cutting edge ; if it were turned 

 away from the edge, it would drag the steel to the edge, leaving it 

 ragged, even forming a fine strip of ragged steel on the edge, known 

 as a " wire edge." The illustration No. 3 shows the edge of an axe 

 as left after forging; the grinding is carried further up the blade, 

 making the angle very acute, but still leaving the faint ridges B No. 

 3 well defined. These give the axe easy clearance when bedded 

 deeply in the heart of hard grained timber, and make the chips fly 

 from the strokes, by breaking the grain of the wood ; without these 

 the grain would be only bent. 



