Grimalkins Projects Thread

Bob, the reason I like the combo of carnauba and beeswax is that the bees wax makes the carnauba just soft enough to be able to apply by hand to your tools, even in the field where you do not have a buffing wheel.
 
I have used carnauba wax for years on my 10'' table saw it makes the cast iron deck and rip fence slick and cuts down the friction drastically.
 
Grimalkin said:
yep, I clean it often with my wire brush. I'll give it another go sometime, but she's tough that plumb.
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I've had good luck lightly sanding the general area to be filed first if it's heavily oxidized. The file bites easier after.
 
Old Axeman said:
Bob, the reason I like the combo of carnauba and beeswax is that the bees wax makes the carnauba just soft enough to be able to apply by hand to your tools, even in the field where you do not have a buffing wheel.
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Yeah, tradeoff between ease of application vs hardness of coating.

Bob
 
I'll try the sand paper route and see if that works! As for the wax paste, I am planning on getting a good hard beeswax in all the pits, and then once thats done, I'll make a more paste with beeswax and mineral oil for coating my carbon steel stuff.

So this hang is going far better than any other so far. I seem to have a really nice fit all the way through the eye, but for the life of me, cannot figure out where to take off material to fix this problem:

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I tried a number of solutions, but none really worked. Before taking more material off I just wanted to get some advice. I know this seems like a stupid question, but for some reason I can't figure out where to take off material to straighten this up. the main culprit is the heel, it goes off to the left.
 
None of my factory assembled axes are dead straight. What you've got is minor and will never be noticed by the majority of folks that choose to swing it.
 
300Six said:
None of my factory assembled axes are dead straight. What you've got is minor and will never be noticed by the majority of folks that choose to swing it.
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really? Okay, I am going to attempt to take a bit more off to try and straighten it out and we'll go from there as I might just leave it. Thanks Agent, That is along the lines of what I was trying so I'll give it another go.

The major thing that I learned with this hang that I was doing wrong before was once I got the eye to fit on the bottom, I don't modify the top of the wood anymore. Previously, I had never thought about it, so I kept inadvertently shaving from the top area to make the middle and bottom fit with the rasp. Which is why in the end I had such a small fit at the top. I'm glad I sorted that out!
 
Grimalkin said:
really? Okay, I am going to attempt to take a bit more off to try and straighten it out and we'll go from there as I might just leave it. Thanks Agent, That is along the lines of what I was trying so I'll give it another go.

The major thing that I learned with this hang that I was doing wrong before was once I got the eye to fit on the bottom, I don't modify the top of the wood anymore. Previously, I had never thought about it, so I kept inadvertently shaving from the top area to make the middle and bottom fit with the rasp. Which is why in the end I had such a small fit at the top. I'm glad I sorted that out!
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If it's a tilt from toe to heel, I have found removing wood from the top of the eye on one side, and the bottom of the eye on the other side will usually get it straightened out.
 
SC T100 said:
If it's a tilt from toe to heel, I have found removing wood from the top of the eye on one side, and the bottom of the eye on the other side will usually get it straightened out.
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Problem with trying to readjust things (for alignment purposes, in this case) that already closely fit together is it recalls (to me) an old carpentry jingle: "Darned; I've cut it twice and it's still too short!".
 
haha, I know all too well about removing too much wood on cuts, used to frame houses in a past life.

Well I have taken care of the problem, the real culprit ended up being near the bottom of the eye on the left side. I got her straight now, but once the wedge is in I know all bets are off. I also suspect this eye shape on the bottom had something to do with my problem as well.

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This is how the handle shoulder looked before, very fat, not sure why manufacturers do that on a 24" handle..this is even after I did some work on it.

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And now its ready to go. I like the beaver-tooth handle, its the only 24" out there for sale that I could find, really good grain all the way down the spine of the handle from top to bottom. I might still take some off the sides of the bottom of the handle, but its okay for now, I'll try it out and see how I like it. Just need to sand it down still.

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I was wanting to do that WD-40 patina I saw on here on another thread, is it okay to heat up the head in boiling water to get it hot enough to sizzle liquids on it? From that other thread, that's how hot it needed to be I think. Just curious if that's a safe way to heat up the metal without ruining the temper?
 
Grimalkin said:
is it okay to heat up the head in boiling water to get it hot enough to sizzle liquids on it? From that other thread, that's how hot it needed to be I think. Just curious if that's a safe way to heat up the metal without ruining the temper?
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The current Ontario school curriculum covers energetics of hot and cold, and properties of water, already in grade 7. Water boils at 100C (or 212F) which won't remove the temper out of steel, and also will never enable a metal to become "hot enough to sizzle liquids". Boil away man, but do use gloves or mitts to retrieve the boiled up head.
 
Ha-ha okay, I'll figure something else out! I've also seen some people do the boiling apple cider vinegar patina and it goes pretty much black. I might try that instead. It's easy enough to remove if it doesn't work.
 
For those that are interested. I did the boiling Apple Cedar Vinegar Patina (I splurged for the good Heinz stuff). The Hardened bit turned black, but the rest really not so much. I understand now why this works on carbon knives, and not axes. Knives are hardened all the way through so that's why they turned black on the whole blade. Back to the drawing board!

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It was kind of cool to see that chemical reaction.
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Know what? Get out there and use it just any other age-old seemingly unappreciative owner would have. Stick it in a stump and leave it in the rain and sun during the day and don't go out of your way to remove pine pitch or spruce gum until it becomes a nuisance. The head will then develop it's own colours fast enough.
 
300Six said:
Know what? Get out there and use it just any other age-old seemingly unappreciative owner would have. Stick it in a stump and leave it in the rain and sun during the day and don't go out of your way to remove pine pitch or spruce gum until it becomes a nuisance. The head will then develop it's own colours fast enough.
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I'm actually planning on doing this after this failed experiment. I'm going to sand off this mess and then hang it and use it.
 
I have another question for you guys, what method do you use to drive in your wooden wedge if you don't have a mallet?

I tried hitting a 2x4 with a hammer last time on top of the wedge, I don't think enough energy transfers to the wedge. Any suggestions?
 
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