- Joined
- Aug 31, 2012
- Messages
- 390
This Finnish broad axe has been seen in my What is it? thread from a little while ago. Here is the link if you want to see what it looked like before I started. http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/988109-What-is-it Here it is now.
This was my great grandfathers broad axe and it was made by his grandfather on his mother's side back on the west coast of Finland, Swedes in Finland. I don't know exactly when it was forged but my great grandfather was born in 1886 and immigrated to the USA in 1906. I do know it was given to him before he left for America. I also don't know the story of the haft that was on it but it was marked with an "A" on the butt of the swell. This "A" would stand for Anders, my great grandfather, as he carved his initials on all his tools. He most likely carved it before he came to America because the other tools of his that I have seen are marked with "AN" which stands for Andrew Nyland, the name he took when he came to America.
This being my first ever attempt at making a haft for an axe I decided that repairing the old one would be a good way to start getting a feel for what needed to be done. The swell was broken and needed to be glued. I also decided to fill the nail holes and spots where material was missing at the butt end of the handle. I used cascophen, a resorcinol formaldehyde adhesive, to glue and fill as I like the color and properties of that glue. I am pretty happy with how it turned out even though I can't quite get the gloss and darkness of the untouched parts of the haft. I used many layers of boiled linseed oil going gradually from 2 parts thinner up to pure BLO. I suspect that many years of palm sweat, dirt, pitch and coffee stains are what is needed give it that old patina.
Having finished the repair I gleaned a chunk of rock maple off my cabinet maker brother in-law. I figured that rather than try to find and buy a piece of birch I would do what any Swede would do and use whatever we had that was best suited for the job. Using the old handle as a template I roughed out the shape using the bandsaw and table belt sander. Fitted the haft to the eye using a utility knife (sometimes just the blades for scrapers), a 3/4" chisel and sandpaper. It took about 14 hours from start to finished haft, 6hrs to get it close and another 8hrs to fine tune the fit and shape the rest of the haft. Who in their right mind makes a lug(?) that is tappered and curved and then puts a slight bevel on both sides??? Oh and lets throw a notch in there at the shoulder too just for fun???
It was a challenge to say the least. Here is the finished haft with the old one and the axe head.
In the spirit of tradition I felt compelled to carve my initial "K" for Ken into the butt.
Hanging it was pretty straight forward once the haft was fitted, no wedge required. I just mixed 2 parts thinner with one part boiled linseed oil and coated the end of the haft that slips into the eye. While wet I tapped it in nice and tight like with a white rubber mallet. I let the whole head of the axe soak in that 2 to 1 solution for 2 days. I am hoping it won't dry out and fall off anytime soon.
I tried to select the best possible grain orientation for the shape of the haft. It curves with the belly and kinks at the swell. I think this piece of wood was just waiting for me to come along and shape it into this haft.
The shoulder still feels a little "chunky" and square. I might thin it out sometime soon but will probably wait till after I give it a go at hewing a little something.
23 1/2" is the overall length as thats what it was to start with. From what I could gather from the internets (which wasn't much) this is a "small" Finnish broad axe used for smoothing the wood thats been rough hewn with a large Finnish broad axe. At roughly 5lbs its quite heavy for finish hewing. I am thinking that it is intended to be used by letting gravity do the work in a straight down motion rather than being swung.
Any advice about how to properly use this tool would be appreciated. Also, any knowledge or history about why the Finns and Swedes in Finland would shape a broad axe like this would be interesting too. My uncle mumbled something about bog iron and meteorites one day while talking to him about the axe.
Thanks for looking at a piece of my family history. I look forward to using it to carve out alaia type surfboards from western red cedar planks that I plan on splitting out of some logs that will come from my parents property. I can't wait to give this Finnish broad axe a go!
Just to make this thread a little better, here is a pic of my dog Murphy taken right after I finished shaping the haft. He was helping.
This was my great grandfathers broad axe and it was made by his grandfather on his mother's side back on the west coast of Finland, Swedes in Finland. I don't know exactly when it was forged but my great grandfather was born in 1886 and immigrated to the USA in 1906. I do know it was given to him before he left for America. I also don't know the story of the haft that was on it but it was marked with an "A" on the butt of the swell. This "A" would stand for Anders, my great grandfather, as he carved his initials on all his tools. He most likely carved it before he came to America because the other tools of his that I have seen are marked with "AN" which stands for Andrew Nyland, the name he took when he came to America.
This being my first ever attempt at making a haft for an axe I decided that repairing the old one would be a good way to start getting a feel for what needed to be done. The swell was broken and needed to be glued. I also decided to fill the nail holes and spots where material was missing at the butt end of the handle. I used cascophen, a resorcinol formaldehyde adhesive, to glue and fill as I like the color and properties of that glue. I am pretty happy with how it turned out even though I can't quite get the gloss and darkness of the untouched parts of the haft. I used many layers of boiled linseed oil going gradually from 2 parts thinner up to pure BLO. I suspect that many years of palm sweat, dirt, pitch and coffee stains are what is needed give it that old patina.
Having finished the repair I gleaned a chunk of rock maple off my cabinet maker brother in-law. I figured that rather than try to find and buy a piece of birch I would do what any Swede would do and use whatever we had that was best suited for the job. Using the old handle as a template I roughed out the shape using the bandsaw and table belt sander. Fitted the haft to the eye using a utility knife (sometimes just the blades for scrapers), a 3/4" chisel and sandpaper. It took about 14 hours from start to finished haft, 6hrs to get it close and another 8hrs to fine tune the fit and shape the rest of the haft. Who in their right mind makes a lug(?) that is tappered and curved and then puts a slight bevel on both sides??? Oh and lets throw a notch in there at the shoulder too just for fun???
It was a challenge to say the least. Here is the finished haft with the old one and the axe head.
In the spirit of tradition I felt compelled to carve my initial "K" for Ken into the butt.
Hanging it was pretty straight forward once the haft was fitted, no wedge required. I just mixed 2 parts thinner with one part boiled linseed oil and coated the end of the haft that slips into the eye. While wet I tapped it in nice and tight like with a white rubber mallet. I let the whole head of the axe soak in that 2 to 1 solution for 2 days. I am hoping it won't dry out and fall off anytime soon.
I tried to select the best possible grain orientation for the shape of the haft. It curves with the belly and kinks at the swell. I think this piece of wood was just waiting for me to come along and shape it into this haft.
The shoulder still feels a little "chunky" and square. I might thin it out sometime soon but will probably wait till after I give it a go at hewing a little something.
23 1/2" is the overall length as thats what it was to start with. From what I could gather from the internets (which wasn't much) this is a "small" Finnish broad axe used for smoothing the wood thats been rough hewn with a large Finnish broad axe. At roughly 5lbs its quite heavy for finish hewing. I am thinking that it is intended to be used by letting gravity do the work in a straight down motion rather than being swung.
Any advice about how to properly use this tool would be appreciated. Also, any knowledge or history about why the Finns and Swedes in Finland would shape a broad axe like this would be interesting too. My uncle mumbled something about bog iron and meteorites one day while talking to him about the axe.
Thanks for looking at a piece of my family history. I look forward to using it to carve out alaia type surfboards from western red cedar planks that I plan on splitting out of some logs that will come from my parents property. I can't wait to give this Finnish broad axe a go!
Just to make this thread a little better, here is a pic of my dog Murphy taken right after I finished shaping the haft. He was helping.
