Eastwing care

[SPHayes]

I have a Eastwing Hatchet with the leather handle. The laquer on the handel has begun cracking and chiping off. What is the proper way to care for and/or restore the handle on this hatchet. It is about 20 years old and has a lot of sentimental value so I would like to keep it in good shape.
Thanks,
Patrick Hayes

 

[DancesWithKnives]

I have not yet re-done the stacked leather handle on my old Estwing, but I've refinished a knife handle of that nature. I used a varnish recommended by an experienced hardware guy but can't recall exactly what it was. As he correctly pointed out, the two keys are surface preparation and using THIN coats. I carefully sanded the handle to a smooth finish, then applied several very thin coats. I did the same thing with the rawhide head-to-shaft reinforcing on my Two Hawks Longhunter tomahawk ( www.2hawks.net ). Put about 6 very thin coats on that and it looks quite nice. [The leather tends to soak up the first couple thin coats pretty thoroughly.]

 

[tyuio]

I also have an estwing hatchet with the stacked leather washers covered in varnish. It was the first hatchet i bought and it's in sad shape. The varnish is cracking all over, and one of the leather washers has cracked in half, and half of it is missing. Any suggestions on replacement of washers? I have never done anything in the way of knife smithing or handle making. My only thoughts were to fill the gap with something and wrap the handle in some kind of tape for grip. This sounds very butch to me and i was wondering if there was a better way. It will probably just be a backup hatchet or loaner for friends so it doesn't need to be perfect, just looking for ideas. Thanks.

 

[DancesWithKnives]

Here's an idea, but I don't know how well it would work. You could remove the other half of the cracked washer so that there is a uniform open space in the handle. Carefully clean out that opening and rough up the surface of the other washers with a strip of sandpaper. You could cut a slightly oversized replacement washer out of a fresh piece of leather of appropriate thickness. Then cut out the center of the new washer to accomodate the shaft of the hatchet. Make one cut in the washer that would permit you to slide it into the open space, over the shaft. Once you are confident that the fit isn't too bad, smear it with carpenter's glue and slide it in. After it has set, you could sand off the slightly protruding edges of the new, slightly oversized washer so it is smooth with the rest of the handle. The last step would be to sand the entire handle and varnish it.

If you are looking for a quick and easy fix that would include wrapping the handle with some sort of friction tape, you could remove the existing half-cracked washer and simply fill the space with a few wraps of leather thong that you could glue in. You could wrap with tape over that. It wouldn't be as pretty, but it would probably work OK.