Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Any axe lovers here?

I lost both of my grandmas last winter. When my parents were cleaning out there sheds they found these hatchets and axes.
So after hours of watching you tube I rehung the boys axe. It’s an old Plumb with I think the original handle. I wire wheeled the head and left it kind of a rust blue. I then sanded the handle down and after hours of fitting the head I called it quits. I Burnt the handle and put a few coats of boiled linseed oil on the handle. Know I need to master the art of sharpening an axe. It’s been fun and can’t wait to do the next three.

Talus in AZ is the guy. Axe artiste.

"I lost both of my grandmas last winter.'

How did you manage to do that?

All those axes would be handy to have around a hunting camp. The roofers' axes aren't used in the trade much any more, but they are great around a hunting camp for splitting kindling, trimming branches when cutting firewood, and pounding in tent stakes, among other things....

Buddy of mine just picked up a broad axe for me to use around camp. Love working with them to make things out of logs like seats to sit on, carving, etc.....

Doggone it, I don't need another hobby right now.....

Bob

High Noon will probably check in and answer any of your questions.

He could write an encyclopedia entry on this subject.

BTW, it's good that you have these tools since you appreciate them.

They both passed away. Grandpas have been gone for years

It’s been a lot of fun. Now I need to find a double bit to restore

I lost my grandma in a Montgomery Wards one time

Nice old axes

Good Lord, I apologize. I misread your post.
I thought you meant that you lost both of your grandma's axes. I have made a fool out of myself.

Sorry.

ps Beautiful work on those axes. I am a big time tool guy and have lots of antique adzes and broad axes, and slicks with which I build log cabins.

Sorry for misreading your post. Beautiful work on the axes.

No problem.

Nice work, I have a double bit, that sharp backside keeps me nervous.

I have a bunch of axe heads and other tools that need refurbishing and rehafted that came with my house.

My plan was to knock the rust off using Polyzag and maybe repaint. Now I have to rethink it.






No doubt. I would never have thought of foofing one up that way. That's nice.

Navel jelly is reported to remove rust.

Purdy.
Don't you want to use the loose belt technique on an ax?
To get a convex profile to the edge?

Had to tune up and oil the hatchet today.
Left it on the Adirondack chair arm last night after Delimbing and the night mist rusted the edge.

I keep used differential oil around for the tools.
I sort of like the smell...

win7stw;
Good evening to you sir, thanks for sharing the axe photos and condolences on the passing of your grandmothers.

The old Plumb are well made heads for sure and you did a good job restoring it and handling too by the look of it.

Should you head down the axe rabbit hole with both feet, then this might be a good resource for you.

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

One of the projects that I've been chipping away at in my first attempt at retirement is cleaning up and rehandling a lifetime collection of various axe heads.

Here's three just out of 3-5 days in a vinegar soak.


The top one has been semi-sharpened and the edge polished. It's a Berghaus made for the Swedish sports store somewhere in Sweden. The bottom two makers aren't known at this point.

Here's another batch in various stages after the vinegar soak.



In that batch as well as the Berghaus is a Walters - old time Canadian axe company, a Hultafors Bruks and few others with no maker's mark.

Here's a trio of rehandled axes, the top one is a 3½ lb Hultafors Bruks which to your question about sharpening, has the original handle and factory hollow ground face. The hollow grind has led me down another separate rabbit hole, but I'm not done testing whether I can see any difference between hollow ground and convex.

For a few years I've been reworking old drywall and roofing hammers into tomahawks as well. Here's a couple which I've done up and made up the handle from a chunk of hickory on the top one and maple on the bottom one.



Lastly, this is more or less what rides in the pickup with me when I'm headed up on a firewood collection day so I do use some of them, though the cutting axes do get used less than the splitters and the double bit axes which I use for some splitting as well.



The bush ones get the blaze orange because I'm old and lose things......

Anyways while I'm not an expert by any stretch, I do fool with axes, hatchets and tomahawks for sure.

All the best to you this fall, good luck on your axe projects and good luck on your hunts this fall.

Dwayne

Dwayne that is a very nice collection. I will check out the link you provided. I used vinegar on an old Coleman lantern to remove rust and was very pleased with the results. I’ll try it on some axe heads after seeing yours.

Do you use a belt sander for sharpening or do it by hand?

Not worth a damn for me

win7stw;
Good evening sir, thanks for the reply, I appreciate it.

For convex grinds I'll start with either a flat disc sander or sometimes a 5" angle grinder with an abrasive disc on it, usually 80grit. The disc sander is a mandrel on a 1/3 HP 1725 rpm electric motor and it's an 8" disc. Again usually I'll start with 80 grit and go finer.

Then for the final polish I've got a fair selection of cloth wheels that I'll run different polishing compounds on, increasingly finer.

For the hollow grind, I've been meaning to build myself a bench belt sander and really and truly need to get on that. In the mean time, I've run a 10" wood wheel on the electric motor with emery cloth or abrasive cloth put onto it with a friction fit.

While the theory is good on the wood wheel, abrasive cloth combo, the lap joint I've done makes for too much vibration really so it's tough to hold it steady enough to get a really nice hollow grind.

I've also got a boron nitride grinding wheel on another grinder - sharp on anything that cuts is a bit of a sickness with me sir - but the boron nitride wheel is at it's best on fine wood chisels really and for minor reshaping knives, but for axes I'm not really satisfied with the job.

Whenever we're grinding anything that's been heat treated, we're always being cautious not to change the color of the steel at all as that will degrade the temper and thus it's ability to hold an edge.

Grind and dip is the order of the day or actually sometimes when using the angle grinder for major reshaping I'll just let the hose run onto the head as I'm grinding. It absolutely is messy that way, but the cutting edge's temper is preserved.

On the vinegar, most guys say leave it at least 3 days and I've left them for 5 without any cosmetic ill effects or structural breakdowns that I've been able to ascertain.

Hopefully that was useful and made some sense. If you've got more questions and you think I can help, by all means give me a shout and I'll do my best to find an answer.

All the best again.

Dwayne

I have employed vinegar to remove rust on all sorts of things. Gun parts, gas tanks, files, knives and, yes, axes. The gas tank for the pup motor on my Cat was scaled with rust. After sitting for two days, full of cleaning vinegar, it was bare, grey metal inside. GD