Battle Axe Project - Completed w/ Pics

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Dec 28, 2003
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Guys,

I mentioned this in a thread a few weeks ago, and finally got it wrapped up today.

Cold Steel was closing these out. The used to sell for 30 something bucks each, and as much as $50 if you can believe that, but were selling a pair of them for that price (about $30) on closeout thru Special Projects so I bit.

The hickory handles are about 30" long, and the assembly is simple: slide the axe head down the shaft and then secure it in place with metal langettes on the side of the shaft to prevent it from sliding down. Here is a link to a pic of the standard axe:

http://www.fernknives.com/cold-steel/battle-axe/495/

Unlike the pic, the langettes are NOT flush with the bottom of the head. I don't know where they dug that one up. The underside of the heads are curved and the langettes are straight across so only a bit of the langette on each side bears on the head to support it.

I made some changes to my pair: I took hex head bolts and ground off the edges on the full size axe #1, perfectly round, and polished them out and sunk the bolts into the head and butt of the axe and secured with JB Weld. I have done this before and it protects the butt and adds weight and balance, and looks nicer on the head that just the plain wood. May cold blue them later. I sanded off all the finish on the handle and restained with red oak stain, and then coated with 3 coats of Minwax satin poly. Then sharpened the 5" axe heads up to 600 grit and finished with a leather belt w/ chromium oxide. Went from average dull to razor sharp w/ convex edge. I repainted the heads to cover up some lettering. I really like the looks of this stained wood with the satin finish. The regular plain varnished handle is not attractive at all and this treatment brought out some beautiful grain.

The hardest part was grinding and filing the top of the langettes where they butted up against the head so that they would support the head along their entire length. As each head is different each langette on each side had to be filed, then fitted, then filed again, etc., etc., until they conformed to the head, then screwed in place. Lots of trial and error! If I had done it the way CS said, it would have taken 10 minutes and would have done a lousy job supporting the axe head.

Did the same treatment to axe #2, but since I didn't need a pair I decided to turn it into a big hawk. Cut about 10" off the handle and then rounded the butt, did the bolt thing but this time left the head bolt raised off the top of the shaft, then cut finger grooves and serrations in the handle along with a ring to demarcate between the original stained section and the resanded section with the thong hole. That is, I wanted to add a wrist thong, but wanted it lined with brass. As I had no brass tubing, I just cut up a .357 mag casing and used that as an insert and then sanded the whole thing flush. Made the wrist thong out of leftover latigo strips from a rifle sling. The langettes took a lot longer on this one, as since I was dealing with a shorter handle I wanted shorter supports. I cut about 3" off each langette, then fit them to the head. These had more paint damage because of this so had to be repainted. Held on with 5 screws instead of the standard 7.

Overall I am very pleased with the results. The only caveat I would mention is that in sanding down the handle I decreased its diameter a bit, so had to work with the langettes a little to get them to mold to the new handle form. I cut the finger grooves individually to match each finger, so the second one down is the deepest and the last the shallowest, etc. The handle came out _just_ slightly thinner than I wanted, but still feels good to me.

I wanted to post more pics than one post could handle so will do two posts. The last pic in the second post shows the hawk with the original handle piece I cut off next to it, so you can see what the length should have been. The first pic in the second post shows the head bolts rounded and flush with the axe, and polished hex on top of the hawk.

This was a lot of fun. For a total cost of $30, some paint and 4 bolts I can't complain! Still working on my picture taking skills...

Thanks for looking.

Norm

Oh, the stats: The axe is 32.5" long and 39 oz. The hawk is 22" and 31 oz.

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Here are the last two pics, one of the heads w/ inserted bolts and one of the hawk showing the original handle chunk for comparison.

In retrospect I should probably have blued the bolts before inserting, but I can always do them later although not as easily...

Regards,

N.

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looks good to me.
You should open a shop and sell those things for 100$ apiece.

Langets, as I recall, were not really meant to support the head of a polearm, but to protect the wood against being cut in half by an enemy's sword. sort of armor for the wood...
 
DannyinJapan said:
looks good to me.
You should open a shop and sell those things for 100$ apiece.

Langets, as I recall, were not really meant to support the head of a polearm, but to protect the wood against being cut in half by an enemy's sword. sort of armor for the wood...

Interesting! That makes sense. The design on this one counts on those to support the head. You can keep it at the top of the shaft for a while without them with a good friction fit, but without the support it will eventually slide down the tapered handle to your hand.
 
Beauties Norm. What a bargain too.
 
Nice work, Norm. :thumbup: Saw that one on the back page of the catalog. I'm afraid to watch the Cold Steel DVD they sent... Have a feeling it will lead to a gross messer.

Then, I'm still looking for a Locaber ax and a halberd or two.



Ad Astra
 
Stocking up on Dane axes Norm? Thinking of signing on with the Varangian Guard? Or. . . . . something a bit more sinister? I'll keep an eye out for stories of villages being pillaged. Proper pillaging, like so many things, is becoming a lost art, sigh. :rolleyes: :D

Sarge
 
Very nice, I already own one and put it together like they said (and it fits just fine), but after seeing yours I may have to pick up another just to customize.
 
Thanks guys! I did something similar last year with a pair of their large and small Assegai spears. CS is a good reasonably priced start for a lot of fun customizing projects. Now I just need to hunt down some zombies like Munk said and test them out. So far the only thing they've cut is me. :eek:

Norm
 
Norm: I case you may have forgotten, my birthday is coming up on March 15th. (Hint, hint) Most impressive work, by the way.
 
Dana, glad you found the link OK and like the work. Changing stuff around is a lot easier than making it from scratch but is satisfying in its own right.

I didn't forget and have a nice pink card with flowers picked out for your B-day. ;) :D

Norm
 
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