An old friend of mine commissioned a breaching axe with me for..... things that he needed it for. Who doesn't need to breach a door from time to time? Anyway, I haven't ever made one of these before and was excited to get started. The example my friend showed me was made from 3/8" thick 80CrV2 steel so that is what I went with.
As soon as I started cutting out the profile with an angle grinder I realized how much work this was going to be. The thickness of the steel makes every cutting or grinding operation take FOREVER. I was also going through cutoff discs and 2x72 belts faster than Tony Montana goes through a pile of blow.
I was able to get my forge running at the just about the perfect temperature for heat treating 80CrV2. As a result I was able to soak the blade for an appropriate amount of time before quenching. This obviously isn't as good as a heat treating oven but it's still a step-up from the get-it-hot-and-quench-it approach I had been using previously (which is a bit of a stretch for 80CrV2).
Finding handle material stock long enough for the handle was difficult but I was able to source some 24" black canvas micarta which fit the bill for this build perfectly.
All in all, I'm very happy with this build. Not bad for my first try ;)