Cold steel pole axe stain and weather treating thoughts

[Thorlak]

Greetings All!

New to the forums I am and a great desire to kill time at work has fallen upon me!

I'm not a mega collector of knives and swords however I have a great appreciation of these instruments of undeniable awesomeness and wanted to share some of my thoughts on my newest acquisition; the Cold Steel Pole Axe.

Purchaser's of the pole axe will be aware that some assembly is required for this piece which is a step I have not done as of yet. My intention is to utilize a water based stain on the 6 ft long ash handle then go to work on weather treating the haft with oil. Assembly instructions suggest to use a mallet to pound the axe head onto the haft end however mine just slides easily though the hole meaning I'll have to swell the wood first.

To this end I'm hoping a day or two soak in pure tung oil will swell the wood sufficiently. Past that I intend to use the tung oil on the remainder of the half to seal it from the weather elements. The research I've done pertaining to axe handles suggests that tung oil does not cure "hard" which I believe would be of benefit given the length of the half and my desire to not weaken it. Perhaps boiled linseed oil wouldn't compromise strength with reported surface hardening but I'm hesitant to go that route.

I won't have a chance to work on it until next week so any thoughts or concerns regarding this staining and weather treating process would be appreciated.

May the force be with you!

Thorlak

 

[Square_peg]

I don't like water based stains and the way they raise the grain.

For swelling wood I'd recommend dipropylene glycol. It's the key ingredient in several wood-swelling solutions. Tung oil makes a great finish for a handle.

 

[Thorlak]

Thanks for the comment.

I was worried an oil based stain may prevent the tung oil from being properly absorbed but if that's not an issue then I'd be fine going that route. I'll look into the dipropylene glycol for wood swelling and where I can get it locally.

Thanks again!

 

[Square_peg]

There are tung oil based stains that are used in hardwood floor finishing.

To get a more even color from your stain you can first seal the wood with Benite. It hardens the soft porous areas so that the stain will take more uniformly.

DPG is available commercially as Swel-Lock or Wood Swell & Lock. It's also available generically on that auction site or that giant book-selling site. It's totally safe - often used as a base in perfumes.

 

[Thorlak]

Thanks again for the info. I should have time this week to start procuring and starting the treatment. Will post pictures of the finished piece when together!