Photos Hytest Craftsman Restoration

F

Flemm

Joined
Oct 3, 2020
Messages
48
Hello everyone,

I'm starting a restore today on another axe. This is one of the axe's I've taken from my father's house. I believe he received them from my grandad and has been using them for block splitting. They were sitting outside in the woodshed rusting, so I offered to try and clean them up. I don't think I will be returning them!

This will be my second restoration so if you have advice or ideas on what to do then please let me know!

I've cleaned off all the surface rust with a wire brush and water. It has revealed the old paint which is army green.
I'm planning to take off the rest of the old paint and scale in a phosphoric acid bath. After this, I will try to smooth out all of the scratches and dings on the pommel and face.
Lastly, I plan to paint in the same kind of green gloss enamel 3/4 of the axe from pommel to blade. I will leave 1/4 of the axe at the blade as polished steel with a razor edge.

I'm also considering making a custom spotted gum handle but will see how long the axe takes first!

I will keep this thread update as I go. If you think I should do something different then leave a reply and I'll consider it.

Enjoy the photos.

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Looks like it has the Army's "Broad Arrow" ownership stamp as well, nice find!
 
Flemm said:
It has revealed the old paint which is army green.
Click to expand...

Actually that green was the standard color for the 'Craftsman' line of axes. The 'Forester', the top grade axe was red. The 'Challenger', their home owner axe was sold blue.
 
G'day,

I'm back again after having some time to do some more work on the hytest craftsman.

Unfortunately in my attempts to get rid of the rust scale, I have removed a bit of the original green paint. So in paying homage to the original tones, I decided to paint the inlay of the letters in army green.
I've also started polishing up the blade and have hung it on a spotted gum handle.
I made a wedge out of some black wattle that I had chopped down last year and finished the hang, however, the fit was not as clean as I wanted. None of the handles at the hardware store were big enough to properly fit the eye of the axe.
I decided to spice up the handle a bit with the green enamel and plan to finish the rest of the bare timber with a darker brown oil-based stain.


I hope that you all enjoy the photos!

 
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