Nils Ögren

Hello everyone!

Last year, and the year before that, I sat down during my little Christmas break and wrote a short summary of the past year. Now, it’s not like I expect anyone to find this especially interesting or anything, but I find that it helps me tremendously to take a moment to pause and reflect.
Did you know that the month of January gets its name from the Roman god Janus? Janus was depicted with two faces, one looking forward and one looking backward. In many ways, January serves the same purpose for us. We look back at the year behind us while also looking ahead to the year to come.If you haven’t tried it, I highly recommend taking the time to reflect on the past year. For me, it helps bring clarity and focus for what lies ahead.
Anyway, let’s get on with it.

2025 has been a very intense year for me and my family.
It started out strong on Youtube with the rasp axe video, shortly followed by my most successful video to date, the hardware store axe video. As I’m writing this, it has over 1.7 million views, which is an all time high for me when it comes to long form content. So, you could say it really set the stage for the year. No pressure at all 😉
Shortly after that video, my son Paul was born. He was in quite a hurry, and I ended up delivering him in the passenger seat of our car. Well, I say ”I”, but it was really my wife who did the heavy lifting. I mostly wrapped him in a sweater and handed him to his mother. Still, quite the experience.
As the year went on, I made a few more videos, but then I decided to seriously try out Shorts. I made a simple plan. Post three short videos, one each week for three weeks.The first didn’t perform very well at all. The second did much better, which made me think there might be something to this Shorts thing. But the third one absolutely blew up.
Today it has over 37 million views, and it slingshotted my channel past the 100,000 subscriber mark, finally.
I know it might sound silly. And maybe it is.Okay, it is.
But reaching 100k subscribers had been one of my long standing goals. I do this Youtube-business-thing for a living, and while I’m fully aware that subscriber counts don’t mean what they used to, they’re still one way of measuring success on YouTube. And since my company essentially is a YouTube channel, reaching that milestone was a very big deal for me.

When that happened, I decided it was time to step back from YouTube for a while and focus on a special project I had been quietly working on for years.
In secret, I had been writing a book about forging axes.
For the past two or three years, I had been writing, drawing, thinking and talking about this book without much direction. But at the start of 2025, I made a clear decision. This year, the book would be finished.
So throughout 2025, I worked on it in the background. And when I finally reached 100k subscribers in May, I decided to take two full months off YouTube to finish the book properly.
Those months were intense. Stressful. A lot of back and forth. Ordering prints that looked terrible. Fixing tiny details over and over again.But finally, in July 2025, the book was finished, and I released it on July 24th.
I was honestly blown away by how well it was received.
Believe it or not, I’m quite an anxious person. I had no idea if anyone even wanted a book. All I really knew was that I wish I had an axe forging book when I started out.
But would anyone else want it?
Now, we didn’t sell tens of thousands of copies or anything like that. But it has absolutely been worth the effort. And for that, I am deeply grateful. From what I can tell, the book has actually helped people, and that means more to me than numbers ever could.

After the book release I continued making videos. Some performed very well, others not so much, which is usually how it goes. One of my personal favorites was the pipe tomahawk. Unfortunately, that video got demonetized since I was smoking tea in it, so I never got paid for it. Not ideal, but still a video I’m very glad I made.
I’m also very thankful that I got to end the year with one of my best performing videos to date. Especially since it was one I never expected to do well. I experimented a bit with pacing and brought back more voiceover, and it turned out to be a good reminder that you never really know.
It feels good to both start and end the year on a strong note.

2025 also marked another huge milestone for me and my family. We bought our first house.
In March of 2026, we’ll be moving, and that’s both incredibly exciting and deeply emotional for me. The house we’re leaving is the one I grew up in, our family farm.
My father worked there as a dairy farmer. My grandfather before him. And his father and grandfather before him. My family has lived there for over a hundred years, since 1917 to be exact. My grandfather’s grandfather came from Norway and settled there.
With our move, the farm will leave our family for good.
That feels strange. And sad.
But I’m not a farmer. And the new house has a large workshop, which feels like the right next chapter.
This also means I’ll be moving workshops. I’m leaving my 25 square meter shop that I built in 2019 for something much, much bigger.
I hope you’ll follow me on that journey.

So yes, 2025 was quite the year.
A newborn son.
100k on YouTube.
A book release.A new home.
But strangely enough, the biggest moment of all, apart from the birth of my son, was something else entirely.
It was watching my daughter meet Pippi Longstocking at Astrid Lindgren’s World.
She was two years old at the time, holding her Pippi book, when the actress suddenly spotted her in the park, walked over, and hugged her.
That moment hit me like a tidal wave.
Being a husband and a father is not always easy, but it is the reason.

Thank you so much for 2025, my friends.
I am deeply grateful.
I wish you all a Happy New Year.// Nils

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1 week ago | [YT] | 1,359

Nils Ögren

I just want to take a moment to say thank you!
It’s now been 4 weeks since the release of my book Beginner’s Guide to Forging Axes — and what a mind-boggling 4 weeks it has been!

I’ve received so many messages, photos, and reviews, and the feedback from peers and others in the craft has been incredible. I’m honestly blown away.

When I was writing this book, I had mixed feelings. On one hand, I knew I was answering many of the questions I get on a regular basis (which should mean there’s a demand). But on the other hand, I had no idea if anyone actually wanted a book. It’s not like people were asking for one. I remember worrying that I was spending countless hours — time away from my family — on a project that might turn out to be a big flop.

Luckily, it all turned out alright. And that’s all thanks to you.
So thank you for making this book launch something I’ll never forget!

And if you haven’t checked it out yet, you’ll find it here: ogrenaxes.com/getbook

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4 months ago | [YT] | 456

Nils Ögren

I wrote a book! 🪓
Man, it feels so good to finally be able to tell you about this.
I’ve been working hard on it for a long time—especially these past six months. It wasn’t really meant to become a book at first. I was just planning a simple downloadable PDF. But as things progressed and I kept writing, the pages started piling up, and new ideas kept popping into my head.

The book is called Beginner’s Guide to Forging Axes—and yep, it’s all about forging axes.
The idea came after I had read through all my blacksmithing books and realized that while axe forging might get mentioned here and there, it’s never the focus. Which was frustrating, because axe forging is what I’m truly passionate about. Sure, there’s overlap with general blacksmithing—but you’d be surprised how much there is to say about axes specifically. In fact, I ended up writing a whole book on it. And honestly, I still feel like I’ve only scratched the surface.

That said, the book isn’t perfect—but it is the book I wish I’d had when I was just starting out.
Inside, I cover things like:
✅ What tools you actually need
✅ How to punch and drift an eye
✅ How to fold an eye
✅ How to forge weld laminated edge steel
✅ Choosing the right steel
✅ Heat treating, normalizing, tempering
✅ Grinding and sharpening
✅ Hanging your axe
✅ And even how to make a leather sheath
You’ll also find:
✅ Step-by-step guides for several axes
✅ Tips on function, balance, and what really matters in a good axe
✅ What to do when things go wrong—and how to fix it
✅ 180+ hand-drawn illustrations
✅ 60+ minutes of exclusive video demos

I also share a bit of my journey—and how I used social media to build my blacksmithing business.Basically, it’s everything I’ve learned—boiled down into 145 pages.
So whether you’ve wanted to forge your own axe but didn’t know where to start, or you’ve already begun but want to dive deeper into axe making—this book is for you.

If you’re interested, you can check it out here:
👉 ogrenaxes.com/getbook

Thank you so much for your support!/Nils

5 months ago | [YT] | 734

Nils Ögren

Here's a little sneak peek from the upcoming video.
This is going to be of the trickiest forge welds so far on the channel.
Wish me luck!
//Nils

8 months ago | [YT] | 384

Nils Ögren

The next video is officially in the works!
For this one, I actually made a rather special tool… any guesses what it's for?
This is going to be one of the more complicated videos I’ve made in a long time — can’t wait to share it with you all!

Also, Happy Easter! 🐣
see you soon,
//Nils

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8 months ago | [YT] | 289

Nils Ögren

The next video is officially in the works – and it feels great to be back!

In case you missed it: about four weeks ago, my wife and I welcomed our second son into the world. I’ve been taking a little break since then, and honestly, it’s been a bit weird trying to get back into the rhythm after dropping everything. It’s like having 100 ideas in your head, all at once, and then being forced to hit pause. Getting going again – especially with the lovely bonus of no sleep – has been a bit of a challenge ;)

That said, the new video is coming along, and it might stir up some opinions at first… but I promise it’ll be an interesting one. The last video was a lot of fun to make, and I think this one will be too.

While you wait, I thought I’d share this older video where I talk a bit about the power hammer. I’m by no means committing to just one way of doing things – I still make plenty of videos with only hand tools – but sometimes I don’t. I think the balance has been alright so far, and this video is a good reminder of how I think about it all.

The book is also coming along nicely! Most of the writing is done, and now I’m focusing on editing, test prints, and all that behind-the-scenes stuff. So far, I’m still on track with the release plan.

Just wanted to share a little update with you guys – and oh, we just hit 80,000 subscribers. Thank you all so much!
/Nils

9 months ago | [YT] | 112

Nils Ögren

The next video will be slightly delayed…

On February 26th, our son Paul was born. He was in a hurry, and we had to deliver him ourselves in the passenger seat of our car. Quite the experience—going from total fear and anxiety to the deepest joy in just minutes. Thankfully, everything went well, and both mother and child are healthy. Thank God for that!

I’m pausing all work on the next video for a little while. In Sweden, fathers get the first two weeks off to be with their newborn, and I intend to cherish this time with my family. Adjusting to life as a father of three isn’t easy, but it is the most precious of gifts.

See you soon!
/Nils

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10 months ago | [YT] | 1,044

Nils Ögren

Things are coming together on the next build!
Hopefully I will finish it next week :)
/Nils

10 months ago | [YT] | 380