The Lord of the Rings: Rise to War has challenged us to build
Gimli's axe featured in the game.
Stick around, the war for the ring has reignited.
Here's Gimli!
You know, axe's are pretty simple. From a design perspective at least.
Really it's just a sharp, heavy thing attached to a long handle.
Now Gimli's axe is no different.
I mean, there are some aesthetic details that are going to complicate things,
but we'll get to that later.
Gimli's axe is known as a battle axe, which basically means
it's two axes in one.
Kind of like this...well sort of..
Not really.
Traditionally battle axes are made and sharpened by blacksmiths.
And despite my name being the Hacksmith,
I don't actually know much about blacksmithing.
I mean, we did a little forging with the Rainbow Six Sledge build,
but for this project, it's going to need a little help.
To help us build Gimli's axe
I'm here at Two Smith's.
A local blacksmith shop.
And Amy and Sandra are going to show me some traditional blacksmithing
techniques to bring this project to life.
Two Smiths is a design and prototyping studio that has been forging
both functional, and art projects in copper steel, bronze and aluminum for over 28 years.
They recently established one of the most comprehensive and
well-equipped teaching facilities in Canada that is dedicated to preserving
the craft of working with metal by hand.
Located in Kitchener, Ontario, they offer a series of workshops
ranging from introductory blade smithing
to masterclasses and craft design.
Sandra Dunn the owner of Two Smiths is passionate about creating opportunities
for collaboration, which is how we ended up working together on this project.
As you know on our channel, we kind of cheat.
We use CNC machines and we use lots of welding and engineering techniques
to make a lot of our projects.
But since this is Lord of the freaking Rings, we figured we got to do
Gimli's axe justice and do it the proper way with real blacksmithing.
You think you can help us out with that?
Absolutely.
Awesome. Let's get started.
I'll try and explain my understanding right now and you can correct me
Yeah.
So we have Gimli's axe head right here.
We have to trace it on this piece of metal here.
Yeah.
And we're going to actually make it of three separate pieces of steel.
Right.
So we've got our big piece of mild steel, square right here.
And that's actually the center part where we're going to mount everything to.
Yeah.
But then we've got our 10-45 tool steel that we're actually
going to heat up and fold in half.
And actually basically encase around the edges of the mild steel.
And so we'll be folding this in half it's what, what is that
eight inch three sixteenths.
By the time you fold it in half, it would be three eighths thick
but we'll also forge that out.
Right.
So once it's forged, once it's attached to here, then we can forge it out
taper it, and then we can shape it.
Awesome.
Where should I start hitting?
Like on the edge or near the middle?
Yeah.
It's better to work from the center out towards the edge.
Basically when you're trying to move a lot of material, we want to make sure
that you're at a yellow color.
You go ahead and start.
Because it's interesting.
cause you control how fast it hits with your foot.
Almost like a sewing machine.
Because I'm trying to evenly smooth it out and make it longer because
if you kept going in one spot, you would basically just dent the metal.
But if you keep pulling it, then it kind of stretches the metal out.
Almost like play-doh.
Actually looking pretty even, just the edge is all wonky.
That doesn't matter, we'll just trim those off anyway.
So traditionally, the person holding the tools and holding the work is like the master
and the person striking is the apprentice.
So that's like the orientation that, cause you're making the decisions
exactly where it's going to be moved.
And I'm using a cold chisel to basically indent along the scribes.
So when we heat this up and we use a hot chisel, the hot chisel can
find the edge so we can hit it again.
And they actually cut through the material.
While James works on the axe head, I've been tasked with designing the handle.
Step one, figure out which material I'm going to make this handle out of.
After some research, I decided to use Hickory.
It's known for being incredibly durable and flexible,
which is great for repeated impacts.
That's why they use it when they're making drumsticks.
Now let's talk about scale.
How big is Gimli?
How big is this axe?
After some in-depth groundbreaking research, I've found that dwarves
in middle earth are about four to five feet tall, and Gimli's axe
is about two and a half feet.
That's a big axe for a dwarf, but we want it to be proportional
to an average sized human.
So we're going to make it a little over three feet long.
I also whipped up this quick prototype to make sure that the length of the handle
was good and comfortable for swinging.
It's a pretty good swinger and those are really good goggles.
Pick yours up at hacksmith.store.
On my Solidworks model
You can see there's a few little accent pieces, and I'm going to make those out
of this metal box tube,
which slides right over top of the handles very nicely.
And I also have some leather which I'm going to use to wrap the handle,
making it more comfortable and also making it look this..so good.
Now, once this is all put together, should fit quite nicely with James' axe head.
I'm going to start with the wood and I'm going to use a router to round the edges.
I've also marked out some holes where I'm going to
bolt the axe head into the handle.
Traditionally, the axe head is fastened to the handle by sliding it around the wood,
but then driving a wedge into the handle.
This causes the handle to spread out and keep the axe head lodged firmly in place.
How we're going to do it is a little different.
We have this slot in the middle and we're going to slide the axe head
into the handle and then bolt it through the side because it's a quick
and easy way to make a nice battle axe.
We're going to stain this a deep red oak finish.
Rather than watching stain dry, let's start cutting up some metal.
On this channel
We strive for accuracy.
We pay attention to the details.
Take this Gimli axe build for example.
We spent a lot of time looking over renderings from multiple sources.
We spent hours researching the techniques that go into this type of build.
We source the materials that will give us an accurate, authentic look,
and we're even blacksmithing it!
This attention to detail and a desire to make it real
is what you love about our channel.
It's also, while you'll love The Lord of the Rings: Rise to War.
This epic strategy game has paid attention to the details too,
it features apainstakingly faithful, immersive rendering of middle earth
its characters, and its weapons.
Players will embark on new adventures to build armies for conquest and
strategically expand their territory in pursuit of the one ring.
Explore middle earth, build settlements, assemble armies, and form your very own fellowship
in this thrilling mobile experience like no other.
Epic tales of old.
Be it love, friendship, or glory, are in days bygone
a new war for the ring is on the horizon
and the fate of middle earth is now in your hands.
Click the link in the description below and get The Lord of the Rings: Rise to War today.
So we've got our main axe head
Pretty much finished now.
We hot chiseled out the detailed pieces and we've got
one of our tool steel blades, with the ends forge welded.
Now we need to make the other side and then we got to put it all together.
So my flames pretty green 3, 2, 1.
I'm going to come out, see how there's a little bit of sparks.
I'm going to start at the back and work my way out.
And the idea behind that is you're squeezing out impurities.
So visually you can see one edge is over the other.
That's fine.
If you wanted to clean that up, you could take it to a
welding heat and pinch it in the vice.
Alright, so we'll get your piece.
So now you can take it up to that sparkling temperature.
So Amy tack welded the tool steel to the edge right here, here and here.
And that's just to keep it in place while we heat it up and actually
forge weld it along the entire seem.
Alright, we're done here and it looks fantastic.
Now we just have to take this back to the shop.
We can clean it up, start sharpening the edges of these and see
how Caleb's getting on with a handle.
I've got these pieces cut and engraved.
Now it's time to weld them together.
So I welded together this nice little cap and it should just slide right over this.
And it'll be used for weaponation and decoration.
Not going anywhere...except for into an orc's skull.
Do you have any idea how hard it is to find brass box tube?
Well, if you live in Kitchener, Ontario it's nearly impossible.
What I have is steel box tube, which is very easy to come by.
I'm going to make it look like brass through a process called brass deposition.
Step one, make the metal really toasty.
This is a brass brush and we use it around here to do things like shine up metal
or remove paint or floss your teeth...
Not the last one. But what we're going to
use is the brass bristles to be deposited on this metal.
So once the metal gets hot
And then once you spin this on, it'll leave little bits of
brass and it'll create an entire layer of brass on the metal.
That is some brass deposition if I ever saw it.
Alright, this looks awesome.
Huge thank-you to Two Smith's for teaching me how to blacksmith and
helping create Gimli's bearded axe.
The next step is to actually start sharpening it and then attaching to the handle.
Now I have to do some leather work. Have I ever done that before?
Not at all.
Let's see how it goes.
You know your wrap is good when it covers up all the wood.
This axe handle is looking good.
And now with James' axe head
You can slide these together, put on the decorative tab,
and it's going to look so good.
Alright, let's test this thing.
Why don't we start with a sticky first?
Next!
What, no signal?!
Let's try and fix it.
At least tig it back into place.
Back from the forges of Mordor.
Let's get back to testing.
Woo.
Look at that.
Oh, it is sizzling.
You think I can try chopping something up?
Sure.
You did a good job on the handle.
Yes.
There we go.
Excellent.
Woo.
I went right through the chopping block.
Since we're on pumpkin's which I think technically might be a fruit...
Let's do an apple as well.
Do you prefer Doritos or Red Bull?
Red bull.
Face shields up!
I love the smell of Red Bull in the air.
This thing has taken up a lot of space.
Smashy bin is valuable real estate.
Look at these hands..
He's not going to have a good day
Should I grab an ankle?
Let's try some real wood.
Woooo! Look at that I think I could have hit it again!
Let me slice this guy in the middle and then we can make a little fire
Alright I'm done with the fire.
That's pretty awesome.
We did some good damage, but I think we should test this battle axe
in some more like real life situations.
Like, you know, where you'd actually use a battle axe right.
Like, like orcs?
Oh, you could say that.
Okay.
I think it's dead.
Here's Gimli!
What a mess.
I think it worked pretty good.
I'd say so.
What an amazing build.
It was a ton of fun and a great learning experience for us.
And I hope you too.
Don't forget The Lord of the Rings: Rise to War just launched.
It's a strategy mobile game that you definitely do not want to miss.
Based in middle earth lore, you can choose from 10 different factions,
select your favorite commanders and lead your own army to expand your territories.
Download the game for free from the link in the description below
from both the app store and the Google play store.
See you next time.