Axe and Anvil Hand Works

06/07/2026

recently turned me on to a fascinating 18th century French work written by a cutler named Jean Jacques Perret: “L’ Art Du Coutelier”, IE “The Art of the Cutler”. The full text of the book is available for free on the French website “Gallica”, as well as on Google Books. I have been using online tools to translate and read portions of it, and have found his descriptions of the forge, bellows and tools of an 18th century cutler to be some of the most detailed of any 18th century work I have looked at so far. Really cool stuff. You do have to be VERY careful when using AI or other electronic translation tools on historical documents, as while they can give you very readable results, meanings can often be obscured or confused. Take it with a grain of salt, and learn how to double-check things. Man I wish I could read 18th century French!

06/02/2026

There’s been so much interest in my hand-cut custom touchmarks, that we went ahead and made a listing on the website where you can just head over there to order one. These maker’s marks are completely handmade, and I cut each letter stamp that I use to make them painstakingly by hand. Ideal for hot iron or steel, end-grain wood, softer metals that are cold, or even tooling leather. Currently available with letters that are roughly 1/8” tall, and only in my crude font. Please let me know if you have any questions, or difficulties ordering. Here’s the link:

https://axe-n-anvil.com/shop/makers-mark-stamp

06/02/2026

These stamps I make work well on softer metals, hot iron and steel, some leather, and end grain wood- you can see similar markings on a lot of antique wooden planes. Custom stamps are available here: https://axe-n-anvil.com/shop/makers-mark-stamp

05/30/2026

Friday’s “work day” went well- we started laying the end grain block floor! Lots of grade work done by hand to level the dirt and bring it down to the right level, then plastic moisture barrier put down, then bedding sand (finely crushed limestone in this case), and then each block carefully bedded. The blocks started life as cheap pallet cant cutoffs from a local mill, and are a mix of oak and poplar. We’re putting the poplar in lower traffic areas, although I’m sure the end grain is plenty durable. To process, we are crosscutting the blocks on a bandsaw with a sled to 3” thick, then running them through the table saw to make sure none are over 4” wide- though many of them are already narrow enough. Most are 6” or 8” long. Huge thanks to the guys that came and helped. This floor is fairly labor intensive, but it will be so much nicer to work on than concrete, and it looks great. It’s going to be huge to have a more level floor, and one that is dry and doesn’t rot or rust anything that comes in contact with it.

05/26/2026

Latest batch of touchmarks ready to head off to their owners. Making these is a labor of love for sure. I’ve been making more letters for my set one at a time, and it has been a real challenge to get them to just the right hardness- a seemingly knife-edge balance between being soft enough to deform in use, and hard enough to chip under the shock of being smacked into steel repeatedly. I anneal (soften) each mark blank before stamping with the letters, but it is still punishing on the letter stamps. I do enjoy the process of making these, and while my attempts are crude by comparison, it sure makes me appreciate even more the hand cut stamps you see on so many antique tools- some of them very elaborate. These marks are roughly 1/4” high by 3/8” long, and the letters are about 1/8” tall.

05/26/2026

A set of strap hinges and hasp Zane and I installed last week on a pretty wellhouse. Smooth install, sweet hardware. Forge-welded hinge eyes, forge-welded drive-type pintles.

05/19/2026

I’m finally building some bellows this summer! That’s been a bucket list item for many years- even before these pictures were taken some six and a half years ago when I got this set of bellows shipped down from New Jersey. Made about 190-200 years ago by James Sleeper, bellows & stove maker in Philadelphia, they are an exceptional example of early American bellows- and since I just received a commission to build a set of bellows for a late-18th century historic site, I am super thankful to have this set on hand to study and copy. I hope to document the entire process of study and reproduction thoroughly, both in notes and on camera, and my plan is to pursue making a book out the project that is very thorough and contains measured drawings of every piece- a book to explain building, setting up and using a blacksmith’s great bellows in exhaustive detail- and that includes also all the history on this particular set that I can discover and compile.

05/17/2026

One of the goals for this year is to actually finish the shop- or at least mostly. Currently, I’m scheduling Fridays as “workdays”, and I’ve had a few very generous friends show up to help at each one. We’ve gotten the front windows built and installed, siding finished, 99% of the trim completed, the eastern double door opening trimmed out, the interior door moved to improve layout and traffic, and we’ve been processing the blocks for the wood pavement-style flooring. That has been going too slowly with my 12” chop saw, 4” thick green oak is a bit much- so next weekend we are going to drag out my Dad’s big 17” 5hp bandsaw and try that. Many thanks to everyone who has given their time and labor this month- it’s a slow process, but things are coming right along- and after 6 years, it’s past time to finish this so I can better serve my customers, family and friends. I like to say that this isn’t my dream shop- but it is a shop of dreams- and when it is finished, it will be one heck of a nice little shop to work in. Creds for the nicer photos in this post go to , Keith, you’re pretty cool.

05/14/2026

Recently made some 4” long 20d nails for , in an 18th century style. Shanks are about 1/4” in cross section under the head. Really like how these turned out, need to add them (and a jillion other sizes and styles of nails) to the website soon.

04/26/2026