Excellent advice for surface work on old axe heads (I think!)

jblyttle

jblyttle

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Sep 3, 2014
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I received a pro tip yesterday from an older guy that I met who is THE axe guy in my area as far as collecting and restoring goes. I had heard of him from a few of my antique store contacts, and met him at a show yesterday. He isn't really competition as far a buying the common rusty stuff that I normally find goes, but he specializes in finding/buying highly collectable stuff, hand making handles from lumberyard hickory blanks, refinishing the heads and selling to collectors as very expensive wall hangers. (They could easily be users, but these could also be museum pieces) From what I could gather, he is a retired woodworking or shop teacher. We spoke for a while, I let him know about my new interest in the hobby and my love for crawling through basements and barns. The guy, having never met me before, opened up a bag, pulled out a very nice axe head and handed it to me as a gift just for being into the hobby. Genuine gestures like that leave a mark on me, as he did it with no expectations of anything in return. I will return the gesture in some way. He gave me his number and has many great heads that are right up my (our) ally but are not interesting to him for high end sales. He will happily sell them to me cheap, can't wait to see what he comes up with.



Anyway, long way of getting to the pro tip! We talked technique a bit, and as is usually the case, the old pro always has new great advice for the new guys. His tip was to use a scythe stone for surface work rather than a grinder or sandpaper. I did not know what a scythe stone was, but a quick online search fixed that. The idea is that it won't wear out like the paper so is a big money saver, and fatigue the hands like sandpaper will. Also, it's shape allows for it to touch all of the curve surfaces of the axe face. Because you are using it in your hand, it is easy to apply good pressure to tough spots, or a light touch for light cleaning. Great for working the rust off and cleaning the pits out. It makes perfect sense to me, and his heads looked great. I have not tried it so can't promise this is good advice, but I completely believe that it is. I am ordering a Lansky one today, they are under $10. This model is not super fine, so not the best for bare metal polished looks, but great for cleaning down to the patina I think for that nice used look that I think many of us like.
 
JB,
Be careful. Scythe stones can be an addiction in themselves! After I got a couple for my scythes, I started using them for all my sharpening tasks... There is a huge variety, also, and some of the finer natural stone ones are beautiful objects on their own.
 
Scythe stones are awesome. One of the single most versatile sharpening stone forms in my opinion. The overwhelming majority of my hand-sharpening work is done on/with scythe stones of various grits.
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
Scythe stones are awesome. One of the single most versatile sharpening stone forms in my opinion. The overwhelming majority of my hand-sharpening work is done on/with scythe stones of various grits.
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When googling them, your videos popped up so I'm not surprised to get your input here. Can you recommend your favorite most commonly used 2-3 grits and models? Also, have you ever used them instead of sandpaper to clean a head in this manner? I'd love to hear your experiences.
 
My personal favorites are the Falci "Original Carborundum" and "Enzian" models for most of my work, though the Lansky and Angelo B. "Smeriglio" models are good for coarse stones. They're just both fairly soft, so don't bear down too hard with them--light pressure only.
 
Good info and great connection for you. I'll give ity a try. I don't think I'll be converted from relying on a cup brush on an angle grinder but it's worth a try.
 
Square_peg said:
Good info and great connection for you. I'll give ity a try. I don't think I'll be converted from relying on a cup brush on an angle grinder but it's worth a try.
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I don't feel like it's the best choice for initial heavy removal, and certainly not polishing, but it may be great for everything in between. I envision a wire brush to get the loose junk off, then this stone at the sink with a slow flow from the faucet to keep the debris moving. I'll drop $10 on one and even if it isn't fantastic I'm happy for another handheld stone for edges.

FortyTwoBlades said:
My personal favorites are the Falci "Original Carborundum" and "Enzian" models for most of my work, though the Lansky and Angelo B. "Smeriglio" models are good for coarse stones. They're just both fairly soft, so don't bear down too hard with them--light pressure only.
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I love the fact (seriously) that no matter what the subject or how obscure, there is a subculture for it. We are now talking about the finer points of various models and types of scythe sharpening stone. Most people don't know what a scythe is, and there are many varieties of stones for sharpening them. I love it! :)
 
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Man--you should see some of the technical stuff I'm trying to work out on that front. :D
 
Don't think I'll exactly contradict that guy's advice, but I've adopted an approach that's different in detail but similar in concept. Most actual sharpening stones such as scythe stones use very hard abrasive that's designed to remove metal efficiently. And many of them are very coarse. So if ya use one to remove rust, it will chew right through the rust down to bare steel and leave a coarse scratch pattern on the surface. I also got tired of sandpaper and wanted to take off stubborn rust (I'd probably use the cupped wire brush on an angle grinder as mentioned by Square_Peg if I had one), but wanted to leave a little patina. I found a piece of soft sandstone in a creek bed somewhere, and discovered it works perfectly for this. Since it's friable, it easily conforms to the curves of the head, and since the abrasive particles are not nearly as hard as carborundum, it easily knocks off the rust without hardly removing any good steel.

Grandpa told me that every spring, he and his brother were given the job of using soft sandstone like this to shine up the plow or disc so it would pull easier.
 
Steel wool is not a bad choice. Probably better than a wire brush. Thats the way I used to clean old tools up, until I took the advice of members on this forum and put a wire brush on an angle grinder. The down side to the angle grinder is that the dust becomes air born.
 
the possum said:
Don't think I'll exactly contradict that guy's advice, but I've adopted an approach that's different in detail but similar in concept. Most actual sharpening stones such as scythe stones use very hard abrasive that's designed to remove metal efficiently. And many of them are very coarse. So if ya use one to remove rust, it will chew right through the rust down to bare steel and leave a coarse scratch pattern on the surface. I also got tired of sandpaper and wanted to take off stubborn rust (I'd probably use the cupped wire brush on an angle grinder as mentioned by Square_Peg if I had one), but wanted to leave a little patina. I found a piece of soft sandstone in a creek bed somewhere, and discovered it works perfectly for this. Since it's friable, it easily conforms to the curves of the head, and since the abrasive particles are not nearly as hard as carborundum, it easily knocks off the rust without hardly removing any good steel.

Grandpa told me that every spring, he and his brother were given the job of using soft sandstone like this to shine up the plow or disc so it would pull easier.
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This is a great idea, and I think that there are softer natural scythe stones for this. I would love to try sandstone, but how the heck do I know if it's the right stone?
 
garry3 said:
Steel wool is not a bad choice. Probably better than a wire brush. Thats the way I used to clean old tools up, until I took the advice of members on this forum and put a wire brush on an angle grinder. The down side to the angle grinder is that the dust becomes air born.
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I've used this method and it works well, I just hate the dust in the air. This is why I moved to wet methods at the sink.
 
the possum said:
I found a piece of soft sandstone in a creek bed somewhere, and discovered it works perfectly for this. Since it's friable, it easily conforms to the curves of the head, and since the abrasive particles are not nearly as hard as carborundum, it easily knocks off the rust without hardly removing any good steel.

Grandpa told me that every spring, he and his brother were given the job of using soft sandstone like this to shine up the plow or disc so it would pull easier.
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Good stuff. I've heard pumice stones and grill blocks work well for this stuff, too.
 
Also, when working with wire wheels I also suggest safety goggles. Those things like to fling wires sometimes and I'll find them stuck in my clothes etc. I've taken a few to the face and was fortunately always wearing my goggles.
 
Upon a time I worked for a company making granite counter-tops. We had a few angle grinders with water kits and polishing pads that went from 50 to 3000 grit. I have one axe-eye hawk that I carved down from an old boys axe head back when I had access to the tools. The polish I was able to get was fine enough to see the line between the bit steel and the rest, just like when you do a vinegar soak.
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
Also, when working with wire wheels I also suggest safety goggles. Those things like to fling wires sometimes and I'll find them stuck in my clothes etc. I've taken a few to the face and was fortunately always wearing my goggles.
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I was using a dremel with a wire brush once and the thing shot a wire into the side of my nose. It went in about 4mm and I used pliers to pull it out. I was wearing safety glasses but shudder to think what would have happened if it'd hit me in the eye.
 
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