Recommendation? Bridgeport BSA Hatchet Restoration

Whisperstealth

Whisperstealth

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Feb 27, 2021
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My mother found an old dirty hatchet at auction, and knowing I like hatchets, bought it for all of $5 and gave it to me.

At first I had no idea what I had. I like hatchets, but am in no way a really knowledge person when it comes to them. I thought it might be Chineseium, but after getting some of the dirt off, I found the US Patent number and Made In The USA stamped into the upper handle. Thrilled, I cleaned off more dirt and uncovered the BRIDGEPORT stamping...

I went to the internet with this info, and discovered the Hatchet was a BSA Hatchet from before I was born. I was over the moon happy with the discovery, as I love old made in the USA tools, and it being a BSA Hatchet made it that much cooler. With some more dirt removal, I can just make out the BSA Emblem.

The hatchet is in kinda fair overall condition. It's black paint is there. The wood handle scales are a little bowed out and worn, but pretty much intact. The edge is a little chipped and dull, but still useable if necessary, and the hammer head has definitely been used, but not super abused. And there is minor pitting throughout.

My question is, what should I do with it? I absolutely want to keep it. I'm not going to sell it. Should I leave it as is, or restore it. - Or rather have someone restore it? And if I have someone restore it, how much does it cost to have done?

Any thoughts or recommendations? I will try to get pictures of it up soon.
 
Whisperstealth said:
My mother found an old dirty hatchet at auction, and knowing I like hatchets, bought it for all of $5 and gave it to me.

At first I had no idea what I had. I like hatchets, but am in no way a really knowledge person when it comes to them. I thought it might be Chineseium, but after getting some of the dirt off, I found the US Patent number and Made In The USA stamped into the upper handle. Thrilled, I cleaned off more dirt and uncovered the BRIDGEPORT stamping...

I went to the internet with this info, and discovered the Hatchet was a BSA Hatchet from before I was born. I was over the moon happy with the discovery, as I love old made in the USA tools, and it being a BSA Hatchet made it that much cooler. With some more dirt removal, I can just make out the BSA Emblem.

The hatchet is in kinda fair overall condition. It's black paint is there. The wood handle scales are a little bowed out and worn, but pretty much intact. The edge is a little chipped and dull, but still useable if necessary, and the hammer head has definitely been used, but not super abused. And there is minor pitting throughout.

My question is, what should I do with it? I absolutely want to keep it. I'm not going to sell it. Should I leave it as is, or restore it. - Or rather have someone restore it? And if I have someone restore it, how much does it cost to have done?

Any thoughts or recommendations? I will try to get pictures of it up soon.
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I wouldn't try to mirror polish it or anything, but they're quite common and there's nothing wrong with rehabbing it back into functional condition.
 
Okay, so I don't normally post pictures on the web, and have not posted any pictures here on Blade Forums. Can someone please tell me how to do so?
 
Agreed, clean , sharpen & maybe some lite sanding on the wood before a little BOL,
If the handle scales are loose you can usually tap the rivets a little tighter.
Good hatchet.
 
LG&M said:
Agreed, clean , sharpen & maybe some lite sanding on the wood before a little BOL,
If the handle scales are loose you can usually tap the rivets a little tighter.
Good hatchet.
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Thank you!

And thank you for the advice, especially about the handle scales because they are a little loose and I've been wondering how to deal with that.

Question: what is BOL?
 
Thank you FortyTwo,

I don't have have any oil / protective finish I'd want to use on a Hatchet handle. I have some urethane, but that would make it too slippery.

So, I much as I dislike WM, they have it by the quart for about $8. Figure that will last a long time..

Curious, can I use it on wood handle kitchen knives? Is it food safe?
 
Whisperstealth said:
Thank you FortyTwo,

I don't have have any oil / protective finish I'd want to use on a Hatchet handle. I have some urethane, but that would make it too slippery.

So, I much as I dislike WM, they have it by the quart for about $8. Figure that will last a long time..

Curious, can I use it on wood handle kitchen knives? Is it food safe?
Click to expand...
BLO isn't food safe due to the use of cobalt drying catalysts. You'd want to use pure tung oil, raw linseed oil, or something like my Super Safflower polish (though I'm biased there!) To speed up the curing of "drying" oils (really it's oxidative polymerization) you can use UV light, either in the form of natural sunlight or exposure to a UV lamp (which gets the job done in an hour or two rather than a few days.)
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
BLO isn't food safe due to the use of cobalt drying catalysts. You'd want to use pure tung oil, raw linseed oil, or something like my Super Safflower polish (though I'm biased there!) To speed up the curing of "drying" oils (really it's oxidative polymerization) you can use UV light, either in the form of natural sunlight or exposure to a UV lamp (which gets the job done in an hour or two rather than a few days.)
Click to expand...
Okay, cool, thanks for the information!

I went to your site. I'm going to DM a question.
 
Well, the Hatchet is going to be a user, no doubt about it. Which is still really cool, but it is not going to clean up as much as I hoped...

After hand sanding it a bit, I decided to break out the electric plam Sanders, and really get the paint off and get down to bare metal. After sanding with 150, the paint was off and the metal was bare. What I found / saw was that there was much more pitting than I originally thought there would be and some of it is pretty deep.

After the 150, I used 320, then 400, just to put a tiny shine on it and sharpen the edge some.

The pitting on the edge is disappointing, to get to "clean" metal, I'm going to have to remove quite a bit of material, and I'm not sure there is much point in it.

It's a user, not a show piece. I'm thinking I'll try to clean the Pitts out, sharpen the edge some more, then hit it with some DTM Paint, rub the safflower wax on the handles, and call it good.

Pictures to follow...
 
Some Pictures.20260104_183002.jpg
 

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LG&M said:
How's the wood on the handle? Loose? Badly damaged?
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One side is pretty good and still flush. The other side has warped upwards at both ends. There is minor damage on both sides, but really not nearly as bad as it could be. They are a little loose, but not much.
 
May be able to steam 'em with an aluminum foil tent over boiling water and then clamp 'em down flat to set then tighten the rivets. Alternatively, just make fresh scales. If you want to use something other than rivets for putting new scales on, you can use machine screws mated to "self clinching fasteners" which are like a round nut meant to install in sheet metal too thin to support threading. They have an integral serrated washer in 'em that keeps them from turning as long as your hole fit is reasonably tight. Makes a nice clean look and you can find them at your local Fastenal (or readily available online) in a wide range of sizes.
 
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