I'll let this story be my introduction and ask my question at the end. Hope you enjoy!
When you do something this boneheaded you have to be able to share it with folks, so here goes. Yesterday I was building a fire in the Encore and my daughter arrived with my sweet little 18 month old Grandson. My wife and daughter were chatting away, as they will, in the other room. While I was getting the kindling set to go, I found that I had to go back outside for some larger wood. The lad was transfixed by Grandpa's efforts. I had my very nice Snow and Nealey hatchet next to the stove and realized I had to find some place to put it where the little guy couldn't get his hands on it while I was outside. What better place than to temporarily place it into the fire box. I'll pull it out when I put in the larger pieces. All good! As I am bringing the wood in the girls decide that is a good time to pepper me with questions, demands, suggestions, etc. Girls being girls I guess. So...,you know where this is going...I finish making the fire, light her off and away it goes. A while later I begin wondering where the hatchet is and go in search of. I could not find it and by now I have a real nice fire going. Dreading what I might find I go over to the stove and cannot see anything resembling a hatchet so I let it go. I let the fire go out overnight and this morning while cleaning up the ashes, I find my hatchet head in the ashes. I thought for a while of hiding the hatchet head, but this is just to good to keep to myself. I just showed it to the girls and they are ricochetting off the walls in hysterics. Every time I begin to think I am a pretty smart guy I do something like this!
By the by, if you are in need of a good hatchet, Snow and Nealy make excellent products. I'm going to buy the small splitting set with hatchet and small splitting maul...and a new handle. I'll give the new hatchet to my daughter so through the years, every time she touches it she will get a laugh. I'll re-temper the edge, sharpen and re-handle and hopefully I too will get a laugh every time I grab the darned thing.
On the brighter side, the little guy thinks Grandpa is OK, and in years to come I will tell him this story too.
Well, that is todays story. I googled S&N and was disappointed to find they are no longer around. I selected BladeForum on that page and here I am. While in Bangor on business years ago I bought this small hatchet and have been very well satisfied with it. I am going to try to re-temper the edge and re-handle. With a story like this I can't just let it go. It's a family heirloom now. I have torches but want to ask, how would you go about re-tempering the cutting edge?
When you do something this boneheaded you have to be able to share it with folks, so here goes. Yesterday I was building a fire in the Encore and my daughter arrived with my sweet little 18 month old Grandson. My wife and daughter were chatting away, as they will, in the other room. While I was getting the kindling set to go, I found that I had to go back outside for some larger wood. The lad was transfixed by Grandpa's efforts. I had my very nice Snow and Nealey hatchet next to the stove and realized I had to find some place to put it where the little guy couldn't get his hands on it while I was outside. What better place than to temporarily place it into the fire box. I'll pull it out when I put in the larger pieces. All good! As I am bringing the wood in the girls decide that is a good time to pepper me with questions, demands, suggestions, etc. Girls being girls I guess. So...,you know where this is going...I finish making the fire, light her off and away it goes. A while later I begin wondering where the hatchet is and go in search of. I could not find it and by now I have a real nice fire going. Dreading what I might find I go over to the stove and cannot see anything resembling a hatchet so I let it go. I let the fire go out overnight and this morning while cleaning up the ashes, I find my hatchet head in the ashes. I thought for a while of hiding the hatchet head, but this is just to good to keep to myself. I just showed it to the girls and they are ricochetting off the walls in hysterics. Every time I begin to think I am a pretty smart guy I do something like this!
By the by, if you are in need of a good hatchet, Snow and Nealy make excellent products. I'm going to buy the small splitting set with hatchet and small splitting maul...and a new handle. I'll give the new hatchet to my daughter so through the years, every time she touches it she will get a laugh. I'll re-temper the edge, sharpen and re-handle and hopefully I too will get a laugh every time I grab the darned thing.
On the brighter side, the little guy thinks Grandpa is OK, and in years to come I will tell him this story too.
Well, that is todays story. I googled S&N and was disappointed to find they are no longer around. I selected BladeForum on that page and here I am. While in Bangor on business years ago I bought this small hatchet and have been very well satisfied with it. I am going to try to re-temper the edge and re-handle. With a story like this I can't just let it go. It's a family heirloom now. I have torches but want to ask, how would you go about re-tempering the cutting edge?
