COTS Project Thread

I can't help myself. Plus it's the holidays so I feel extra feisty - nothing lifts the spirits quite like Christmas. Sorry jgang, you're right. I WILL have pics to share tomorrow ... maybe.
 
looks great, the swell is fine, nothing to be unhappy about but i get what you mean.

Do you dye the ends of your handle? they look darker than the rest, gives it an antique look which i like.
 
Nice job all around, and that should be a wonderful axe to have all around, although for me it is too pretty to use!
 
Remzy said:
looks great, the swell is fine, nothing to be unhappy about but i get what you mean.

Do you dye the ends of your handle? they look darker than the rest, gives it an antique look which i like.
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Yeah I use some vinegar sludge and then a few drops of leather dye. I do purposefully darken the two ends but I feel like the pictures exaggerated the effect - it's somewhat more subtle in person.

BG_Farmer said:
Nice job all around, and that should be a wonderful axe to have all around, although for me it is too pretty to use!
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Nah, but I will go easy on it. You can see some wood smears on it from the Oak, which as you guys can see in the pics, I've just about burned up.

Kinda off topic but it's been warm in Kansas for winter up until the past couple days and that pile of Oak has kept us warm the cool days in October, all of November and almost all of December. I think it would have gone further but with warm weather (40s and 50s) clear into December we have to start fires from scratch every day rather than keeping a fire burning or else the house gets too hot. Anyway, I'm just rambling but that was a nice score. It had been stored for I don't know how many years in someone's garage and I tell you what, it burned really well. Almost no ashes even. The Hedge in that picture on the other hand ... plenty of ashes left after that stuff has burned.
 
cityofthesouth said:
Today's project is brought to you by the King. 3lb True Temper that came in on my postal scale 3lbs exactly - zero ounces, zero tenths. Too dang cold out today to get many good pics but here we go. I'm not happy with the swell but whatever. More pics later.

3lbtruetemper_fit by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr
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Not happy with it? Maybe it didn't come out exactly how you pictured it in your mind but that is a beautiful axe. Your level of work is telling of your planning and the care you take at each stage and obviously incorporate everything you have learned from each aspect of the materials, tools, and process. Going to assume you take that approach with everything you do.

I have all sorts of collected stuff in my garage and always look for the best deal and won't pay an arm and a leg for any single tool - completed or not. COTS, if I was out someplace and I saw that axe for sale, I would most likely be struck to buy it. Or drive away thinking I should have. :thumbup:

The darkened ends on that one will age nicely I bet. I just put together a hatchet and attempted once again to incorporate dye - Orange Craftsman anyone?
 
I'll get some better pics of the swell but it was only 1-1/2" wide to begin with and it had been put in the lathe off to one side which created a flat spot. So it's lopsided. It feels good in hand and I guess that's really all that matters in the end. Still aggravates me because the whole point of the rough handles is to get a good swell.

What's funny about the orange is I bought "light brown" dye this time but it seems to be more orange than the tan. I was thinking brown would be better.
 
Gorgeous work, COTS. You always inspire me to do better on my own pathetic projects.

How do you drive the head on to the haft the final time? It looks like that head is jammed on tight as can be, with even pressure all around the eye. I'm still trying to master that aspect.
 
Twindog said:
Gorgeous work, COTS. You always inspire me to do better on my own pathetic projects.

How do you drive the head on to the haft the final time? It looks like that head is jammed on tight as can be, with even pressure all around the eye. I'm still trying to master that aspect.
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Thanks! Well, part of it is the fact that I use the first pass handles. The tongue is huge and the kerf isn't cut - often times off the shelf handle tongues are already too small, which can be overcome but it helps when you have plenty of extra material. So what I do is I get the head started on, and drive it down until it starts to shave wood. Key tools in my opinion are a drift that fits the eye well and a wooden mallet. So once it starts to shave some wood I tap the handle out, sand some more, but only enough to clean up the shaved wood and I don't touch the wood that already fits. Drive it on again, shave some more, sand some more. It takes me about 10 or so test fits - sometimes less, sometimes more. Once I get to the next to last one, where I know the head is just about where I want it, I clean it all up, cut the kerf, make my wedge, and drive the handle on for the last time. I think everyone does it this way, but it's best to hold the axe upside-down and strike the bottom of the swell. I like to round and bevel the bottom of the swell a little to prevent checking.

I think one important factor is to avoid having a shelf under the head. The taper into the shoulder shouldn't be so abrupt. Hopefully that makes sense. You can see my handle is juuuuust barely wider than the eye so it's not hitting a brick wall when it gets to the shoulder, it's able to shave a little wood before it really bottoms out. My observation is that this is how handles were done historically and I speculate that is probably the reason - or part of the reason anyway. But most modern handles I have seen have a really over-sized shoulder. It's sort of like using a tapered peg. If the taper is gentle, then it'll get so fricking tight you have to really work to get it loose. At least, that's my theory.

Most likely I do the same thing everyone else does. It's just a matter of forcing yourself to go slow and learn to keep the tongue about the same shape as the eye - it seems no two eyes are really much alike.
 
Nice work COTS. impressive. I picked up some original handle patterns and am going to try and replicate them.
 
When you put a Wood cross wedge on your hammers and axes, how wide does the kerf have to be? I feel like you covered this somewhere in this forum, but I didn't quite get a definitive answer from the explanation. Would it just be (for example) the thickness of a hacksaw blade?
 
xXBackyardCrafterXx said:
When you put a Wood cross wedge on your hammers and axes, how wide does the kerf have to be? I feel like you covered this somewhere in this forum, but I didn't quite get a definitive answer from the explanation. Would it just be (for example) the thickness of a hacksaw blade?
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Yep, I just use a regular ole back saw, which has a pretty thin blade. Some people go for widening the kerf, some use blades of different thicknesses, so it's not especially important how wide.
 
Alright, Thanks! I may try it on my next hang. I always liked the look of a well done crosswedge and this thread has no shortage of those ;)
 
COTS, would you mind sharing some of your most used/favored tools when working on these?

As I ease my way into this hobby I'm trying to slowly piece together my woodworking toolkit.

I think I would really enjoy working with these first pass handles if I had the proper tools to work with.
 
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