The Merlin: A British Carving Axe with Talons

Some tools are helpful. Others are transformative. The Merlin carving axe by Thorn Wood Forge belongs emphatically to the latter, the sort of tool that makes you stand a little straighter and marvel at what your hands are doing.

I’ve had the chance to test the Merlin properly: first alone in my workshop, and then in a teaching setting with students from St Cuthbert’s Society, Durham University, introducing them to carving axes and the making of spoon blanks. That combination, private scrutiny followed by public, slightly chaotic reality, is usually where a tool either earns its keep or reveals its shortcomings. The Merlin did neither. It simply got on with the job, calmly and confidently, and made everyone holding it feel like they knew what they were doing.

Which, in many cases, they didn’t. That’s rather the point.

A Gap Worth Filling

The Merlin didn’t arrive fully formed in a flash of blacksmithly revelation. Its origins lie in obsession, the good kind, and in a very specific gap in the market. Sam and Joe of Thorn Wood Forge are both deeply embedded in the practical world of green woodworking and bushcraft. Joe is a bushcraft instructor; both are serious outdoorsmen and committed tool users long before they are makers of them. Like many craftspeople, they reached a point where “good enough” no longer was.

They noticed that existing carving axes tended to sit at frustrating extremes. On one side, small, delicate axes that felt nervous in the cut. On the other, heavier, more brutal tools that demanded confidence you didn’t yet have. Somewhere between those axes lay an unoccupied middle ground: an axe that could carve aggressively but still forgive hesitation.

Encouragement from Izzy at Woodsmith nudged them into action, but the real work came from listening to experienced carvers, to fellow makers, and to the long list of things people disliked about other axes. Rather than copying established patterns, Joe and Sam deliberately set out to learn from everyone else’s mistakes.

After five design iterations, the Merlin emerged: a carving axe that sits squarely in that sweet spot between too light and too heavy, too twitchy and too ponderous.

Why Merlin?

All Thorn Wood Forge axes are named after British birds of prey, and the Merlin — small, fierce, precise — is an apt choice. Joe and Sam are bird-watchers, adventurers, and romantics of the outdoors, and the name fits not just the scale of the tool but its temperament. This is an axe that strikes fast, slices cleanly, and doesn’t waste energy.

It also feels British in the best sense: purposeful, understated, and quietly confident without shouting about it.

Forged, Not Pressed

The Merlin head is forged from 52100, a high-carbon bearing steel chosen for its excellent edge retention and slicing ability. Many axes are made from EN9 steel, which is a genuinely excellent choice for robustness: it will take abuse in 99% of use cases and is rightly a steel of choice for working axes. However, when it comes to edge retention and carving performance, 52100 outperforms it, and for Thorn Wood Forge, that advantage is worth the fight required to forge it.

That choice came at a cost. 52100 is notoriously prone to cracking during heat treatment, and in the early days they lost seven axe heads to cracks before refining the process. Cooling is done slowly in vermiculite; patience replaces speed. This is not a “one heat and done” operation.

Although Thorn Wood Forge do use power hammers and presses, the critical shaping is always done by eye and hand. The team are clear about where the line is drawn: the blacksmith must understand how to move the steel, not simply squash it into submission. Each axe is hand-forged, and while there are subtle differences between them, as there should be, they are all tuned to perform to the same standard.

Like carving spoons, making identical axes is theoretically possible and practically absurd.

It is also worth noting that Thorn Wood Forge is not an ego project. It is a team of highly skilled blacksmiths — Joe, Jimmy, Tom, and Will — all forging to a shared standard of craftsmanship. The emphasis is on consistency and collective skill rather than individual signature. Jimmy now forges all of the Merlin axes, ensuring that standard is held with absolute focus. 

Geometry That Inspires Confidence

One of the Merlin’s quiet triumphs is its geometry. The head design gives immediate confidence: it wants to bite, but it doesn’t lunge. The slicing action is clean and predictable, making controlled stop cuts and long, flowing removals equally comfortable.

In teaching, this matters enormously. Students learning to carve spoon blanks need a tool that communicates clearly where the edge is, how it wants to move, and when to stop. The Merlin does that. Nobody felt over-tooled or under-armed. It encouraged good technique rather than punishing mistakes.

Its weight, neither feathery nor fatiguing, allows it to do one thing very well: carve. Not fell trees, not split rounds, not pretend to be a forest axe. Just carve, beautifully.

A Handle You Trust

The handle is European ash, sourced responsibly from the continent due to ash dieback and sustainability concerns in the UK. Handles are copy-lathed to rough shape, then hand-finished to introduce subtle facets, ones you can feel but not see.

This matters more than you think. The handle sits perfectly in the hand, with a fairly assertive palm swell that I personally find reassuring rather than intrusive. It tells your hand where it is, without dictating how it must move.

Moisture control is taken seriously. Handles are now dried down to 3–4% moisture content before fitting, a practice refined after an early lesson when an axe shipped to Arizona loosened due to extreme humidity differences, only to tighten again on its return. That experience informed the current process, ensuring long-term stability even across challenging climates. Wedges are kiln-dried twice, and the finished axe is soaked in boiled linseed oil for several days. This swells the wood, tightens the fit, and improves grip.

The blade is hung perpendicular to the handle rather than tilted upward, contributing to the sense of control and alignment in the cut. Everything feels intentional. Nothing feels accidental.

Leather, Legacy, and the Soul of a Tool

Each Merlin comes with a sheath made from oak-tanned leather by J&FJ Baker of Colyton, Devon, the last oak bark tannery in the UK, hand-stitched by a local leatherworker. It is unapologetically traditional, and quietly radical because of it.

Sam speaks movingly about the relationship between maker, tool, and user. A tool, he believes, needs a proper birth: made by a craftsperson, in a workshop, with care. Over time, the experiences you have with it add to its life. A £15 axe can cut wood, but it won’t travel the world with you, or gather stories, or feel like something you’ll pass on.

That philosophy runs through the Merlin. It isn’t cheap, but it is honest. It is designed to last, to be used, and to still be carving decades from now.

Verdict

The Merlin carving axe is exceptional. It sets out to do one thing well: carve, and surpasses expectations. It occupies a rare middle ground with confidence and grace, offering control without timidity and power without aggression.

More than that, it represents something increasingly rare: a group of young makers choosing the harder path. Thorn Wood Forge are not chasing profit margins or production shortcuts. They are chasing legacy. That means cracked steel, slow processes, modest returns, and an extraordinary level of care.

It is, quite simply, British craftsmanship at its finest. Not nostalgic, not precious, but alive, ambitious, and deeply human.

And yes, it’s the best carving axe I’ve used. Which is rather the point.

10/10