It followed me home (Part 2)

Brian Rust said:
...I think my best option is to make a straight line directly below the mushroomed section above the eye from the pole to the bit and take off 1/4” or as least amount possible while still getting rid of the mushrooming. Then clean it up with a file. Does anyone have any other suggestion?
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Instead of "lowering" the entire top of the head, could you instead somehow grind off just the mushrooming that's inside the eye (resizing the top of the eye so a handle could be fitted normally)?
 
Brian Rust said:
Went to the flea market in town this morning. Usually I don’t have too much luck out there but today I did decent. Met a few people that should be bringing axes next weekend supposedly so we will see. But the first is something that has been on the list for a while. A True Temper Flint Edge hand axe! Don’t see these in my area.


The next is what I believe is a Kelly Perfect from Charleston West Virginia. I was heart broken after seeming the stamp.




Someone obviously saw the head was loose and thought they could just bang the crap out of it. Should I just put it on a shelf? The only way I can see to fix it is take an angle grinder to it. I was so disappointed because I think it was a Dayton pattern. But it also could have been a very deformed Michigan. Please tell me what you think I should do. Thanks!!

Edit: I just cleaned up both these heads on the wire wheel. The Kelly Perfect actually has almost no pitting and looks pretty good. I’m not sure how the eye kept it’s shape but it did. Since the impact was coming from the top I guess it didn’t affect it. But I think my best option is to make a straight line directly below the mushroomed section above the eye from the pole to the bit and take off 1/4” or as least amount possible while still getting rid of the mushrooming. Then clean it up with a file. Does anyone have any other suggestion? Thanks.

The little Flint Edge cleaned up super nice. I will just file off the mushrooming on the pole and it will be ready. I was surprised to see eye ridges in that little guy. There are four of them and they seem huge compared to the eye but I love it!! Thanks for looking and please give suggestions.
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They sure beat the hell out of that one. As bad as it is I would be tempted to mark out the eye and then go at it with a jig saw, hack saw holder or sawzall (preferable) and then follow up with a file. I think you are going to find it to be pretty soft.
 
phantomknives said:
dremels do good with that sort of stuff brian
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I agree with this. It's routine to have to clean up axe eyes. Dremel doesn't give these away (they're pricey) but they do offer carbide cutters (square ended and round ended) that are pretty good at removing metal without wearing out every 2-3 minutes such as stones do. I use them for all kinds of stuff including removing the ridges on worn brake drums
 
I use a Dremel or a stone to Dremel bit that fits in my impact driver and clean them up with that. The only thing is the eye is so much lower than the toe it will throw off the pattern. But I may be past that point with this one. Maybe I should try to clean up the eye first and see what it looks like. Then make a smooth transition to the toe. Might look good. If not I can always take more off. Do you think the toe being taller than the eye will look ok? When I get home I will take better pictures.


Brian Rust said:
Does it have eye ridges in it also?
I did a quick file test and the steel seems to be exquisite
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jblyttle said:
No eye ridges.

IMG_20180218_151140 by Justin Lyttle, on Flickr
IMG_20180218_151155 by Justin Lyttle, on Flickr
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JB, that is interesting. I will post a pic of my eye ridges. It is kinda surprising they put them in a hatchet this size. Makes them look huge.
 
Brian Rust said:
Please give me some guidance because I would love to make this a functioning user that still looks correct
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I'd use a flap disk and then once you get the desired profile, use long, sweeping passes with the front section of the disk perpendicular to the side of the axe, having the scratches run long ways down the head makes it a little easier to sand or if you're using an old flapper disk, you'll pretty much be fine.

Like I said, try to work along the head, not across
 
Thanks guys, and phantom that is what I started doing about an hour ago. I have it all roughed out. Now I need to go to the hardware store and get some finer grit flappers and I should be good. The Temper line on this thing is like 4” deep on the bit. Crazy.
 
Much as I can understand the logic behind eye ribs I would be sorely tempted to grind them off. You're going to have to rely much more on precise caliper-derived dimensions (unlike gradual hand shaping and fitting) and then you'll have to expertly score deep enough (and precise) grooves in the wood so as to get the handle started. Hickory unfortunately is not forgiving enough to willingly compress. I have never tangled with a ridged eye tool, (nor a Marbles 'nutty eye') and am looking forward to hearing about your experience with this.
 
That Kelly probably isn't worth the effort. But if you wanted to make it look nicer here's what I would do.

First, preserve the stamp. That's gonna mean trying to hammer out some of that mushrooming. You would first file just the tip of the curl off that mushrooming. You don't want your hammering to fold it over and make it worse. Then you'll need to heat it and hammer it. Of course bringing it to forging temperature is best. But if you can't get it that hot you can still move some of that metal at lower heat, what you get from a blow torch. Recall that this metal deformed while cold. Some of it will go back at medium heat. The drawback is that moving it at less than forging temperature will fatigue the metal and make it weak. So the poll will just be for looks and balance when you're done. And you won't get it all flat but you can get it close enough to file the remaining mushroom without removing the stamp.

The heel will need to be ground back to match the toe or maybe just a bit short of the toe. That means taking perhaps 3/8" off the heel. When you're done you'll have a very thick bit that needs re-profiling. These Perfects typically had a deep heat treat so I think that one would still have hardened steel left after doing this.

The hammering at the top (and bottom?) will need to be ground off as well. A flap disc on an angle grinder will take care of the exterior. Grind the sides flush first. Then smooth off the top. The use half-round and round files to clean out the eye.

This is a lot of work but you could turn it into a well functioning axe again if you wanted to make the effort.
 
300Six said:
Much as I can understand the logic behind eye ribs I would be sorely tempted to grind them off. You're going to have to rely much more on precise caliper-derived dimensions (unlike gradual hand shaping and fitting) and then you'll have to expertly score deep enough (and precise) grooves in the wood so as to get the handle started. Hickory unfortunately is not forgiving enough to willingly compress. I have never tangled with a ridged eye tool, (nor a Marbles 'nutty eye') and am looking forward to hearing about your experience with this.
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In my experience, when you start paring down the tongue to fit into the eye it kind of ends up a touch thinner laterally. That gets the ribs started then they tell you where the head is going. I get the head started then alternate my efforts/focus - shaping the tongue as you normally would, removing the head, checking/altering those grooves in the wood to make sure it is going where you want. That seems to keep the tongue's volume and having those grooves clean for the entire length.
Hanging them is similar to hanging a Jersey pattern in that there is a little more to attend than just getting the tongue all the way through the eye and out the end.

I like the quality of just about everything I have used that had ridges in it. The ridges are kind of unnecessary in my opinion. Although... if you try to force one off a broken handle they seem like they have more "staying power" - toss in some sweet steel wedges, automotive glass, or a key or two and it can be fun.

They aren't ribbed for my pleasure.
 
When hanging a ridged-eye axe it is MUCH easier to fit BEFORE it is kerfed. Alternately a slim wedge can be set in the kerf to simulate an un-kerfed haft.
 
Peg, that is a great description, I appreciate that! That is basically everything I have done other than the hammering of mushrooming. I have tried in the past with a blow torch and it just didn’t turn out. If I had a forge or even an oxy/ace torch I would do it but I don’t as of now (hopefully in the near future I will). But the round and half round files have been a lot of help. The Dremel works well on the eye nearest the pole but when you get closer to the bit you can’t fit anything in there really so I went to the files. And honestly with the hardness of the steel around the eye I could have used files all the way around the eye and been done close to the same amount of time. But when I am done I will post pictures. I have taken down the top of the pole some but I don’t want to take it down too much so it will stay a little off. But yes the heat treat on this head is about four inches deep. It is the deepest heat treat I have seen. And the bottom of the eye is in great condition. There was some damage towards the bottom of the bit (from someone knocking it off a handle probably) but it was fixed easily.

I really don’t mind the eye ridges. I have seen a lot of people that over think them or have harsh opinions on them but it’s not that much different to me. Obviously there is a difference but it’s not a huge different. I find hickory will conform to the ridges fairly easily. I try not to tap the butt of the handle too much but with I ridges I do more. You have to take off a little bit more wood but as long as you use a harder wood wedge and you keep the swell at the bottom of the tongue a hair larger than the eye and sink your wedge you should be fine. I have learned a hardwood wedge (other than a Hardish poplar wedge) it will spread the hickory better with eye ridges. Just my opinion though lol
 
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i'v sent mr. buckin billy ray a few things over the past couple years, he's decided to repay the favor.

in case you can't see it, it's a sager, maybe 4 pounds, on a 35" padouk handle. i know it's not a very resilient wood so this one's a wall hanger

say what you want about his techniques but dont ever say he's a bad guy
 
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