schmittie
Gold Member
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2009
- Messages
- 2,968
I posted this up in the Ax forum but thought some would appreciate it here.
Just past weekend I helped my wife and her family clean up grandma's house to put up for sale. (she's in a nursing home now, sad really). My father-in-law asked me to go though the tools left by his late father and pick out anything I could use. Amongst other things, like a nice Old Hickory knife, I ended up with two old ax heads, one single edged, the other double. I don't really know the story behind them. It could have been my wife's grandfather's faithful tools he used for years until the handles broke, never getting around to rehafting them. Or something he picked up at a garage sale. But really, it doesn't matter to me. All I know is they were his and may have ended up in a dumpster. Who knows?
After buying a new handle, I spent some time cleaning up the double bit, trying to remove decades of tarnish and rust. The brand new handle needed attention too. Lousy thing was varnished, and done poorly at that. Anyone who has spent a day splitting wood will tell you a roughly varnished handle will destroy your hands. So I sanded down to bare wood, stained it a bit darker and finished off with some tung oil. I still need to spend a little more on the edges of the ax head with a file to really have it nice. And I'm still tossing around the idea of a vinegar patina.
Here are some pics:
as found:
after a bit of cleaning up:
new life!
I'll work on the other ax soon. The poll is mushroomed a bit and it will need some more attention. I have to say though, there is much more value to me in saving an old family piece than had I just bought a new one at the hardware store.
Just past weekend I helped my wife and her family clean up grandma's house to put up for sale. (she's in a nursing home now, sad really). My father-in-law asked me to go though the tools left by his late father and pick out anything I could use. Amongst other things, like a nice Old Hickory knife, I ended up with two old ax heads, one single edged, the other double. I don't really know the story behind them. It could have been my wife's grandfather's faithful tools he used for years until the handles broke, never getting around to rehafting them. Or something he picked up at a garage sale. But really, it doesn't matter to me. All I know is they were his and may have ended up in a dumpster. Who knows?
After buying a new handle, I spent some time cleaning up the double bit, trying to remove decades of tarnish and rust. The brand new handle needed attention too. Lousy thing was varnished, and done poorly at that. Anyone who has spent a day splitting wood will tell you a roughly varnished handle will destroy your hands. So I sanded down to bare wood, stained it a bit darker and finished off with some tung oil. I still need to spend a little more on the edges of the ax head with a file to really have it nice. And I'm still tossing around the idea of a vinegar patina.
Here are some pics:
as found:
after a bit of cleaning up:
new life!
I'll work on the other ax soon. The poll is mushroomed a bit and it will need some more attention. I have to say though, there is much more value to me in saving an old family piece than had I just bought a new one at the hardware store.
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