Julia Kalthoff

Axe maker

©Joel Nilsson

The art of axe making

Julia is fascinated by forging
She uses drop forging for top quality edges
She brings modernity to ancient tools and traditions

At the age of 19, Julia Kalthoff developed a fascination for forging. Without the funds to pay for a course, she contacted an axe factory and asked if she could work to pay for the training. The course led to a summer job and eventually to a position as managing director at a sister company. Preoccupied by all the small details required to make a good axe, Julia started to explore woodworking to better understand the tool. After a business degree, she developed a carving axe and started making it to order. Since then, she’s been making high quality axes for craftspeople and office workers alike. Despite the urban location, or perhaps because of it, she attracts a great deal of local interest and regularly holds courses.

Interview

What interested you about forging initially?: I found it fascinating that you could take a piece of solid metal and change the shape of it with nothing but heat and your own body. But I prefer wood to metal now. It’s very accessible and you can make something from it with just an axe and a knife.
Why do you use drop forging to make the head?: Drop forging has a lower status, perhaps because it’s mainly used for mass production. But it’s more gentle on the steel. There’s this idea that handmade is better, but that’s not always the case. I found that I can’t compromise on quality.
Why are axes still relevant today?: For thousands of years, the axe was the most important tool for our survival. Today, we don’t rely on it like we used to. But with digitalisation, the interest in making things with our hands is growing and for that reason we still need our axes.
What do you bring to this ancient tradition?: Perhaps, I contribute by not accepting established ways of doing things, but by carrying out new research to either validate them or find a better way. I want to make axes that are an extension of ourselves, so we become absorbed in the craft and the object we make.

Julia Kalthoff is an expert artisan: she began her career in 2008 and she started teaching in 2019