How to make a viking axe from an old hatchet

Did some garage cleaning and found an old hatchet I had for years just laying around collecting dust so I decided to do something fun with it. I’ve always wanted a “viking axe” so I knew that was something I wanted to do.

This is how the old the axe looked like when I found it. Don’t know the brand of this hatchet but I’m pretty sure its not a very fancy axe.

This is how it looks like when finished. I probably spent about 10 hours total working on it and this is my first custom axe built so I’m just a amateur which means anyone can do this with just some basic tools at their disposal.

Ok, so first I did some research online and looked at different viking axes and when I had enought of ideas on how I wanted it I did some sketches on a piece of paper until I was happy with my design. Then I just transfered it to the old axe and started to cut. Use a angle grinder to cut the steel, just make sure you cool the axe often in water so it dosen’t get to hot.

When all the cutting is done its time to smooth everything out. I used a sanding flap disc. Make sure to cool the axe head often when grinding as well as it gets hot really fast.

After a lot of cutting and grinding I wanted to make the axe head look nice and shiny. I first started with a scotch brite connected to a standard drill. When finished with the drill I used an air sander to get rid of any deeper scratches on the head.

Next step I did was sanding it by hand. I started with 80 grit and worked all the way down to 400.

When I was done with the sanding I realised that I needed to do some more cutting.

I wanted to do some etching as well on the axe as it looks really nice if you know how to do it (which I don’t). Anyway I used a 12v car charger and vinegar mixed with salt. I have no idea if thats the best method or not, I just found a guy doing it on youtube with nice result.  And I put nail polish on the areas I didn’t want to etch.

It’s harder then it looks to get a nice pattern when you do it by hand with nail polish. Next axe I will use some kind of stencil instead. If you have any tips for my next axe please leave a comment.

After electric etching the axe head it was time to create a handle. I decided to use the old handle because that was all I had at my disposal. To make it look more like a viking axe I needed to make the handle a bit rounder. I marked out how I wanted it and then I used a jig saw to make the design I wanted. Then lots of sanding again. Same here, started with 80 grit all the way up to 400.

Also I wanted to make the axe handle darker so I used something called wood stain.

Last step is to attach the axe head to the handle.

Thats it. Now its time to sharpen the axe and see what its made of:) Hope you liked it and if you have any questions just leave a comment below.