Collins Legitimus Rehang WIP

[John Frankl]

Well, I failed to salvage the beautiful old handle on my Collins Legitimus. I guess I still lack some crucial skills.

Here is the head from the top. Just too much metal for me to get out.

I drilled around where I could, but the thing was getting ugly and still wouldn't budge. I sadly decide to cut it off.

 

[John Frankl]

Now for the good news. I had a boys axe handle that was pretty close in size to the original. Strangely, even though the head weighs nearly 3.5 lbs., the eye is closer to that of a boy's axe.

This also gave me a chance to clean up the head a bit better than I could have with it mounted.

 

[John Frankl]

Here are some shots of the eye and handle before any work had been done.

And here they are after very minimal filing and cutting off a bit of the extra haft.

 

[John Frankl]

The fit was good overall, except for the gap up front. I decided to remedy this with the two wedge system I learned here.

I sawed a second kerf and drilled a hole to prevent cracking.

I then worked some wedges down to a nice profile and thickness. They went in nicely, but I still wound up with a bit of space up front. :grumpy:

I decided, for now, to leave the top of the haft a bit proud. Grinding it down flush would likely help with the appearance of the wedges.

 

[John Frankl]

Aside from the slight problems mentioned above, I was happy with some of the new things I did on this axe, like smoothing out the transitions between the shoulders and heel, which I used to leave as they came from the factory.

Overall, it was fun and I continue to learn a lot.

This is an interesting combination of a pretty good sized axe (3 lbs. 5 oz. after all my grinding) on a pretty small, slim handle. Should be interesting.

 

[Double Ott]

VERY very nice, I like your two wedge system.

Tom

 

[CedarEater]

Looks like it worked out nicely. That is a very fine looking axe you got there. Good work.

 

[Square_peg]

This also gave me a chance to clean up the head a bit better than I could have with it mounted.

I always prefer to do all my work to an axe head before I hang it. It's just easier without the handle in the way.

This is an interesting combination of a pretty good sized axe (3 lbs. 5 oz. after all my grinding) on a pretty small, slim handle. Should be interesting.

Let us know how you like that. It's odd to see a boy's axe eye in such a heavy axe but they did seem to fit. I like your technique for stopping the crack below the cross wedge. I haven't had a chance to try that yet.

 

[trailmaker]

Awesome restoration, thanks for sharing. That's a very trick two wedge system, I think I'll try that sometime.

 

[halfaxe]

That's a beauty. That 2-wedge system with the drilled hole is a great idea that I learned just now, thanks for posting this.

 

[Paterfamilias]

Great work and a beautiful axe! Just learned the two wedge technique. Thanks for this thread.

 

[mattyak]

That looks great. Ive used the two wedge system before as well. really sets it off! The hole to stop it from cracking is a great idea. Thank you.