Gimli's Battle Axe - Stage 1 - Design

Background

Today's project is the first of what will likely become several installments. As part of a school project, I am making 1 weapon from each race of the Company in "The Fellowship of the Ring" (LOTR book 1). Starting with the dwarves as homage to fellow smiths, I decided to make Gimli's battleaxe.

Deg

So, the first step in any project is to start by sketching. I decided to base my rendition off of Gimli's battleaxe from the movies. I began by freehand sketching a to scale drawing.

Normally this takes several tries and goes through several evolutions, but this time I was happy with the first attempt.

Plan for Metal

Under normal circumstances, I would be forging this axe to shape from a chunk of steel. However, several factors make this not practical this time around. The first is: I have 1 week (ish) to make 5 weapons, each different. Second, this will be for display only. This piece should never see any actual use.

So what I decided to do is cut out the drawing and trace it with soapstone onto some plate steel.

This steel is 17.5" x 12" and 22 gauge. Since the steel is so thin, I decided to double up on the axe heads.

After I cut them out, I'll tack weld them together, grind them to symmetry, then do a final weld to keep them flush.

The last thing I did tonight was sketch dwarven runes onto each axehead.

I used an approximation to the script of Khazdûl (I think), but the words are English. One side reads "Son of Gloin", and the other " Battleaxe". Yes, it is very creative, I know.

Any questions or comments will be gladly accepted and answered, and prepare to see many LOTR builds over the next 1.5 weeks!

Also, sidenote. In addition the build posts, I may also make and link to DiResta style build videos as a 2000 follower celebration, if there is enough interest. Let me know thoughts!