To us, there is nothing like watching a true craftsman work and create. Whether we’re talking about welders and metal fabricators or we’re talking woodworkers and blacksmiths like in this video, it is a soulful experience to watch someone’s mind and hands work in concert to form something and literally make an object that did not exist before they started. This video highlights the craftsmen at John Neeman tools making a carpenter’s axe. When we say “making” a carpenter’s axe, we mean it. They start with a lump of steel, flat wooden stock for the handle, and some leather to make the sheath with. From there, the guys heat and hammer and heat and hammer and grind and form and temper and quench until there is an axe head that you can literally shave with. Following that, the next man in the chain gets the head and forms the hardwood handle that the operator will swing when using the tool as it was intended to be used in the process of building things. Finally, the sheath is crafted so that the razor sharp blade is not able to harm anyone when not in use.

We should mention that these guys are in Latvia of all places and that people all over the world buy their tools. They aren’t cheap. We don’t know the specific pricing, but when it requires 50% down to start the job and 50% to finish it, you know that the cost is going to be significant. But why would anyone pay that? Largely because these are probably to to three generation tools, if not more. This isn’t big box store crap that falls apart n a week, this is grandfather’s tool box kind of stuff here. It’ll make you look at your own plastic or fiberglass handled axe differently after you see this tool get made. The care and skill involved is amazing. Even more amazing is that this was not the exception to the rule decades ago, there were thousands of these guys in America alone making pieces like this for other craftsmen to use. Today, this is the extreme exception, and hammers which disintegrate on the fourth use as the rule. Not at John Neeman, though.

This is an amazing video. With all of the current governmental horse shit  currently going on, use this video like we did to remind yourself that people are still exceptionally awesome creatures.

PRESS PLAY BELOW TO SEE A HAND CRAFTED CARPENTER’S AXE COME TO LIFE RIGHT BEFORE YOUR EYES!

The Birth Of A Tool. Part I. Axe Making (by John Neeman Tools) from John Neeman Tools on Vimeo.