Help heal my wounded hatchet

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Pydpiper

Joined
Feb 19, 2006
Messages
72
After many years of great service I finally decided to give this old girl a face lift.. It has been an awesome hatchet over the years but also severely abused..

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The first thing I noticed is how crooked it is, can I just pound this back into shape? Would I need heat? If so would torches be sufficient?

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The other issue is the lack of care that has been put into the sharpening, it is now sharp as can be, but with obvious errors..

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i would really like to bring this back up to speed, even with the deformities it still performs exceptionally well, any help would be great.:)
 
It looks like a broad axe which are typically only sharpened on one side as they are used like planes to square logs for timber. You can work the bit back into shape, but under such heavy distortion the steel will be fairly heavily stress and would likely benefit from being rehardened.

-Cliff
 
Yep, this is a broad axe. It hasn't been abused, it is how it is intended to be (at least for the crooked handle thing)

It is normally chisel ground (one side sharpened, one side kept flat). Looks like someone has ground the flat side to make it a general purpose. That's a bit dumb as broad axes are generally rarer and more expensive then usual ones.

Making it straight would be nonesense IMO. You would spoil it and would get a quite cumbersome general purpose axe in return. On the other hand restoring the original chisel grind looks quite a big job.

For the notice, under abusive use, any axe handle would break long before it gets that crooked.
 
Ravaillac ? Are you saying the blade is supposed to be curved like that ? In a way it makes sense as the blade could be relatively flat against the work surface without the eye getting in the way . It does seem to me that if that was by design that the axe might lift a bit with impact ? Could you enlighten me ?
 
Broad axes generally have recessed handles which left up from the blade to allow you to work flat to a log, the ones I have seen where not curved like that on the back as they are used similar to planes. Many axes heads are also made from laminate construction and only the actual edge is hardened steel, the rest of the bit can be mild steel or even wrought iron and fairly easy to deform.

-Cliff
 
I actually have a hatchet sized version of that . I think it had a hammer poll on the back of it . Its in the back of my garden tool box . I was thinking it might be good to rough out staves if it is single bevel . the handle has a choked up groove in it that actually looks like it was put in by pressure . It looks like a good grip placement for finer work . I can,t see anyone gripping so hard or so often that they would groove wood ?
 
Generally not, it would take a hell of a grip. There are many versions of that basic design, some carving axes are also single bevel and some also have very wide edges. An actual broad axe stands out immediately because the handle isn't inline with the head.

-Cliff
 
I hve never seen a true broadaxe then . I was told my axe may have been a cedar shingle roofers tool .

I once saw a groove put in a 12/16ths oak dowel that was used to belay a rope .
The groove in the hatchet handle reminded me of that . Smooth shallow rounded .
 
This is a small hatchet..
Thanks guys, I guess the general opinion is to keep it the way it is, I suppose that makes sense considering it works so good the way it is..
Live and learn...:)
 
Yep, it's a broad axe/ hatchet. Sometimes refered to as a carpenters hatchet or axe. The flat side allows the blade to cut flat against a log, and not bite in.

Me personally, I would leave it as is, and spend a little money, and get another hatchet. If you don't want it anymore, I'd be more than happy to take it off your hands.;)

mike
 
Thanks..
I spent a couple hours and brought the hatchet to a nice edge, it is amazing how nicly it digs into wood. A month ago I would have surrendered it, but latly it seems to always be close enough to be handy. The best part is it has curved my appetite for a Gransfors, of that size anyways..
 
I have 3 of these and on the one I flipped the head over so that i have a left and a right hand for doing notching work with timber framing.
 
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