gunnut308;
Good morning to you sir, I hope the day's as bright, clear and finally cool in your part of the world as we're getting here and that all who matter to you are well.

With the understanding that I'm an expert on not very much, but tend towards diving into things with "too much enthusiasm"....

Photo for examples...

[Linked Image]

For years I wouldn't pass up an axe head that said either Sweden, USA, Canada or had a brand I recognized. Someday I'll throw all the axes on the place together for a photo, but suffice to say that was just one batch I was working on at that time. My elder brother actually was gifted either a twin to your axe when he was a teen. Actually when I think about it, my lusting after that little hatchet is likely where some of my axe/hatchet/tomahawk addiction comes from. grin

Link to a site for addicts like me which contains the history of Norlund axes.

http://www.yesteryearstools.com/Yesteryears%20Tools/Home.html

If the axe you bought was in my shop, it'd get a 100% vinegar bath for 3 days. It looks like nothing is happening for the first day by the way and by the third day there's enough gunk coming off of it that you can't see the axe heads anymore and you're sure they've dissolved. A couple of them in the photo above were in way, WAY worse condition than yours is and the vinegar bath stopped all oxidization.

After they come out of the vinegar, then rinse repeatedly with water, then liberally coat with your favorite preservative oil. I use a penetrating oil from a long gone company I worked for - maybe Move It????

Afterward if you want to paint it, just clean the head with either white gas or lacquer thinner first and apply as much of your color of choice as you feel inclined.

Another photo to show painted and not painted - along with different length handles.

[Linked Image]

Depending upon my mood at the time and what I think the axe head might be good for, I'll put a variety of handle lengths onto different size heads. So the hatchet head with the long handle was built for a specific task and then I've got a 2½lb wedge banger set up with a short handle too - not pictured but hopefully that makes sense.

Personally besides the cool factor I really find axes of all sizes useful tools. If one looks at the history of the fur trade, it's pretty easy to see why the First Nations folks bought so many tomahawk and axe heads.

Hopefully that was useful to you or someone out there. If you think of questions then by all means either shoot me a PM if you're inclined.

All the best and good luck with the wonderful little project.

Dwayne

The most important stuff in life isn't "stuff"