I Inherited An Old Hatchet, Help Me

Bigfatts

Bigfatts

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Mar 12, 2012
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So a couple years ago my great uncle Bill passed. He was a master carpenter. While a few family vultures picked over the majority of his life for valuables, I walked around in his workshop. Scraps of exotic wood, long rotted with age, old tools and spider after spider. I found an old hatchet in the rubble and decided to try and revive it. I'm about to become part owner of the family property that my great uncle and grandfather worked their entire lives- that means a much more hands on role and a good hatchet will be indispensable. So I want to breathe a little life into this old thing and get to work.

Enough of my rambling, on to the hatchet. The head is stamped: Shapleigh Hardware Co, Diamond Edge, inside a diamond. There is another logo under that but it's obscured by built up rust. It looks like the rust isn't quite bad enough to cause major pitting, but I won't really know until I get the rust off. So that brings me to my first question. How do I remove the rust without destroying the logo? I've heard of vinegar baths, I have some white vinegar, is that appropriate? I have sandpaper and stuff but really want to save that logo. It doesn't look very deep in. The haft is gone. Brittle, cracked and loose.





 
That's a great looking hatchet and a cool story! I've had best success preserving logos and such use a wire wheel attachment on a angle grinder.

I tried the vinegar bath and it was dirty and tough. I much preferred the wire wheel. Below is a picture of the type of wheel I mean and a before and after.

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I can only give you the assurance of my experience- I've had success on about 6 different heads.

I'm sure a similar crimped wire cup on a drill would produce a similar result.

Good luck and please do post pictures!
 
Oh nice. Ok, that's a different type of wire brush than I was picturing when I heard of people using them. Makes much more sense now. I'll grab one of those and get to work on this thing tomorrow! Pics will follow with progress.
 
Sounds great! Just make sure the head is secure so it doesn't go flying if you catch a corner! Be careful and good luck. I clamped mine In a leather lined vice.


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Nice hatchet, seems to be in pretty good shape as well. I'd definitely go the wire cup route myself if I had an angle grinder. Vinegar is great for heads that are very rusty and pitted. I used to toss all of my axe heads in vinegar but have started to go the route of using a wire brush before taking that route.

Have you given any thought to what sized handle you plan to put it on? The tasks you plan to use it for should dictate this decision in my experience.
 
Hacked said:
Have you given any thought to what sized handle you plan to put it on? The tasks you plan to use it for should dictate this decision in my experience.
Click to expand...

I was thinking about that. Perhaps something a little longer than what is on it now. It'll be just for small work, odd small chopping tasks here and there. It had a 13" handke, but that seems just a bit too short. Maybe 15" or so? Not really sure what sizes are common or available. New to axes and such!
 
I also recommend usi g a wire wheel, but just know when to stop ( ie what's rust and what's patina )
The 1950's craftsman on the right has more patina then the more modern Vaughan on the left.
TiThe Vaughan didn't have as much patina to begin with , but had I went farther the craftsman would look the same

This last one is turn of the century, and you can see that it's much darker with these deep chocolate browns which are patina and not rust. If you don't like this look you can keep going, but thus is patina that can only come from its 120+yrs of age.
That's a real nice Michigan pattern hatchet there, and I'm sure it's got an awesome patina under all of that rust.
BTW I've had good luck with $6.50 link " scout " handles from the hardware store, but just make sure not to get this one it doesn't have all that good of a profile, and there's not enough material to re shape.
 
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Have you cut the old handle off already? If not consider saving and reviving the old handle. We can give you step by step instructions for removing and restoring it. It's almost miraculous what boiled linseed oil can do for an old haft.

A knotted wire cup brush on an angle grinder is a super way to clean rust off old axes. Also consider using a brass wire cup brush. They take a little longer but are still very fast and leave a little nicer patina.
 
I'm slow on the draw to respond here but your storied old hatchet is well worthy of receiving some attention. As most others have already said; wire wheel/wire brush will clean up that baby just fine! Handle (I'm thinking) 1) is not original and 2) it's seen better days and the 'best before' date passed quite a while ago. Anyone can learn to select and craft with wood; creating finely tempered axe heads, not so much. Take your time with this; the headstamp will forever attest that this was not lazily-made yesterday by an offshore lowest bidder using smelted fenders and soup cans.
 
Bigfatts said:
...The head is stamped: Shapleigh Hardware Co, Diamond Edge, inside a diamond. There is another logo under that but it's obscured by built up rust...
Click to expand...

Below the Diamond Edge stamp is an embossed dog, similar to this one:

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A nice hatchet! Supposedly made by Plumb, according to YesteryearsTools and other sources.
 
Nice work Steve. I couldn't make out the dog but it's so obvious now after your post. Pics make it hard to tell the size but it looks to me like a longer handle would be appropriate too. Congrats on that find - it looks dang near complete to me. You can bet that's gonna be a good one and comes with good memories.
 
To me the dog looks the exact same, but I may be wrong.


Also before you grind or file the mushrooming off the poll is first put on some safety goggles and try to flatten it back out with a hammer, I think you might be able to do it on this one fairly easily as it's not that bad. For one thing it usually doesn't end up looking very good, and your pretty close to the stamp they you'd risk messing it up if you try to file or grind it.
 
Square_peg said:
Have you cut the old handle off already? If not consider saving and reviving the old handle. We can give you step by step instructions for removing and restoring it. It's almost miraculous what boiled linseed oil can do for an old haft.

A knotted wire cup brush on an angle grinder is a super way to clean rust off old axes. Also consider using a brass wire cup brush. They take a little longer but are still very fast and leave a little nicer patina.
Click to expand...

Didn't have to cut it, slid right out. Pretty sure it's junk. Several cracks and it's misiing pieces to where it doesn't fill the eye front to back.
 
Missed in the op where you'd asked about the stamp. First time I looked at it I thought "is that a dog". I've seen these hatchets with ducks on them as well I believe. Definitely a nice stamp, looking forward to seeing it cleaned up.

For handles the standard choices are 14", 16", and 18". Most hatchets in recent years have come with 14" handles, though it was pretty common for them to have longer handles once upon a time.

I really like the 14" length for carving and small tasks. That said I hung one of my hatchets on a 19" house axe handle for use as a small and light camp axe. Mainly used for chopping and splitting. I really like the longer handle for those chores and I actually think a bit longer would suit my needs better. Basically a hatchet primarily designed to be used with two hands.

I will say that for whatever reason House Handle if you look at them for handles seems to shape their 14" scout handles better than their 16" and 18". At least in the examples I've had.
 
Well, here she is after some time with the wire wheel:



Logo looks good and the patina under all that rust is awesome. I might have been a little heavy handed in a couple spots here and there, but overall I'm happy with it. I also went after the mushrooming a little bit with a hammer. It looks bad in the pic but in person it's much cleaner than it was before. The hammer took the patina off but once it starts coloring again I think it will look much better.
 
Hickory n steel said:
To me the dog looks the exact same, but I may be wrong.
Click to expand...

Take a closer look. This axe on the left, the one Steve posted on the right.

Shapleigh%20Dog-Sportsmen.jpg


Note that on the left axe the dog's forehead drops down to the nose at a steeper angle. Also notice that the ear is down instead of back. Then look at the jawline.

As Steve noted, they are similar but each is distinct.
 
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