My Father's Axes...what do you think?

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Jul 17, 2007
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So I just really begun to get in to axes and purchased a Wetterlings Bushman for my camping and backpacking adventures. Anyway, I was visiting my parents today and while I was there it occurred to me that my Dad (he's 80) might have some old vintage stuff laying around. I started poking around his workshed and found these three guys. I know you fellas dig these old things so I took some photos. Maybe you guys could shed some light on them for me as I really have no clue how old they are or anything.

The first one doesn't have a haft. It says KEYSTONE MFG CO. and right underneath that it says SOLID FORGED STEEL. No other markings that I can see except for the big S on the cheek. Cutting edge length is 4-3/4" and head length is 7 inches.

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Here's a small guy. The only markings I see is a big "U.S." right under the poll. The cutting edge is 3" and length of head is 5". Handle is 15-1/2".

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And finally the big one. It is marked U.S.A. under the poll and then TRUE TEMPER FLINT EDGE KELLY WORKS. It has a cutting edge of 4-7/8 inches and head length of 7-1/2 inches. It is on a 34-1/4" haft. I like this one and it appears to be in the best condition of all three. A few tiny chips on the edge but nothing that can't be easily worked out. The poll is pretty good too.

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My father's days of swinging an axe are over and he said I can keep them. I'm thinking of cleaning them up and see what I can do with them. Any advice would be great. Thanks fellas.
 
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The US and USA leads me to believe that they are military issue.

The U might be missing on the Keystone axe. Axe stamps are many times lacking.


The little axe seems to have the correct haft for a vintage WW2 hatchet.



They are all in good condition and are great candidates to restore.
 
I would like to also add that the hafts are worth saving. And appear to be in good condition. There is plenty of help here to get you through it. Even if they are warped they can be straightened.

The hatchet handle might look like a sawed off handle because they lack the fawns foot swell but I find them surprisingly comfortable to use.
 
The hatchet handle might look like a sawed off handle because they lack the fawns foot swell but I find them surprisingly comfortable to use.

I have a few in this style and believe they are original. At 15.5" with a 1.25lb head, it really wouldn't have been any longer. I like them too. They always seem to be slim and very comfortable.
 
I think- as others stated - they are a win. Does your Dad remember where he got them from? My two cents- if they were original to my Dad, passed down from a family member or Dad used them for a period of time- I would retain the original hafts if at all possible. Someday you or someone in your family might enjoy shaking hands with history through an original haft. have him mark or initial them for you. If they were garage sale pickups or unknown acquisitions- I would put them in service without regard to maintaining the hafts.
 
Thanks for all the input gentlemen. I decided to take home only the big guy (the True Temper on the long haft) because I wanted to leave the old man with something even though he said he had no use for them anymore. He doesn't remember where he got these from but my Mom is fairly certain that his uncle gave these to him (along with most of his tools) some time in the 70's when they moved away from San Francisco.

I would love to keep the original haft on the head but I'm not sure if it will be possible because I want this axe to be a user and upon closer inspection there is some damage to the haft. The head does feel very secure but I took some more photos for you guys to see what you think. Since it will be a user I want it to be safe. Like I said, it would be cool to keep the original haft on there but I also have no problem putting a new one on and maybe just keeping the old one on a wall or something for sentimental purposes. Here are the photos:

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Here's another shot of the head. I really like this thing and I hope I'm able to make her look nice again. What do you guys suggest as the first step in accomplishing this? I hear a lot about soaking it in vinegar for a few days to knock some of the crud and rust off? Also I see some people are using an angle grinder but wouldn't that be a little drastic? I don't want to take too much metal off, just clean her up real good. Thanks again fellas and have a great Independence Day weekend!!

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Depends on the finish you want. Sanding leaves a polished look, vinegar soak leaves a duller finish but you have to take the handle off. Looks like there might be some life left in the handle, pull out the old wedge and whatever else is in there, seat the head down a little further on the handle and re wedge.
 
Sadly that is pretty typical handle damage. I think it's probably safe to use, but your idea of saving it for decoration (or as a pattern) isn't bad and the handle in present condition probably wouldn't suit me if it were mine. The head looks pretty good to me. You absolutely could do a few different things to it, but since it is pretty clean already, I'd give it a couple hours in vinegar, then hit it with a scotch brite, maybe even just one of the blue scrubbies or something equally gentle. Just knock off the dirt and whatever flaky rust as it gets loosened - leave everything else. You can just go a couple hours at a time in the vinegar to see how it's progressing and take it out whenever you get the result you like.
 
Well folks I began step 1 of my very first axe restoration on my father's True Temper. I made the sad decision to take the handle off but I'll keep it laying around somewhere for sure. Removing that haft was quite a chore though. After pulling out the wedges I beat the head off with a rubber mallet. About an hour and a totally messed up mallet later I finally got it off.

So then the vinegar bath. I left it soaking in a bucket for almost four days and when I pulled it out I really didn't even have to scrub it much, that vinegar bath worked great! I also noticed on the underside of the head a number "4" which I assume means 4 pounds. I took a photo of it. I can say I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

One question though, is the "U.S.A." stamp under the poll what leads you guys to believe this may have been a military axe? I also noticed after the bath what appears to be some green paint (you can see it on the photo of the underside of axe head). Or is it just that some years of production of this axe had that stamp and some did not? When I look at photos on the internet for this axe I would say about 90+ percent of them that I see do not have that USA stamp. Thanks for all the help gentlemen. I guess I'll keep posting photos of my little project here on this thread as I progress through it. Here's the photos, you can compare it with the picture above which was taken before the bath.

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Government purchases, seems to me, were generally stamped USA so this is definitely not a store bought axe. There will be fellas here that can date the head with some certainty because of the known history of Tru Temper and Kelly and their brand names. The 4 stamped at the back of the head is weight in pounds. She's in good shape still, the quality will be excellent and there are a lot of miles left on it. The finesse of the original handle will not be duplicatable with current store bought hafts which are much thicker and clumsier but with a rasp, file and sander you can try to model off the old one. One Internet source for handles is House Handle and there are others.
 
Question.
I know that some people use a vinegar (or apple cider) bath on their carbon steel knife blades to "force" a patina. Since the axes have a carbon steel head, wouldn't the vinegar leave a patina on them? (not that that would necessarily be a "bad" thing, since a patina helps protect against rust.)
 
This axe already had a 'patina' (more scale I'm guessing) with some paint and rust, so basically the vinegar began to lift that off. When you clean it the material that made up the patina will get moved around and give more of that dull look. Otherwise you have to soak it in the vinegar longer and then do a lot more work to polish it up.

Generally forced patinas are on brand new and polished knives. And a lot of axes have what is similar to the 'heat treat' finish on knives, the scale. So axes often have a combination of paint, scale, and patina.

You'd have to polish the axe first to give it a forced patina. Although in some sense the vinegar bath is a bit like a forced patina, just to remove the rust.
 
If you were able to remove the haft without cutting it, you might square off the helve on the poll side and glue a piece onto it. That would give you a good solid shoulder upon which to mount the head. The butt, I am not so sure about. I'll leave that suggestion to the real pros. Nice score no matter what you end up doing. I'd have gone for the True Temper as well!
 
I don't think rust is part of patina. I think rust is involved in the natural aging of a metallic object though. "Forced patina" on a knife isn't really much more than an acid etch. People use mustard and other food products that have vinegar in them because I suppose some other "stuff" is left behind. Patina is just "stuff" that has naturally gathered on the tool as well. Using vinegar won't add to the patina though. There isn't other stuff in it, so it is acting strictly as an acid. It will dissolve everything. I suppose if the acidity could magically remain for hundreds of years, it would dissolve the steel and iron and everything else, eventually. In my experience vinegar starts dissolving rust first and fastest, but it's going to eventually remove everything right down to bare metal. The difference between a few hours in vinegar to knock off chunks of rust, vs 24 hours in vinegar and removing everything down to the pores. Lots of folks find well cared for tools that have real patina. They just look almost black and smooth, but there is no rust. In these cases there is no work to do at all. A rusty hunk of iron is just that, and vinegar will remove that rust from the pits, pores and eye where it's difficult to get to - you have to apply the patina naturally from that point forward. So ... rambling ... point is, vinegar leaves a gray, etched surface.
 
Just finished my first axe restoration and rehang of my father's axe today!! Pics coming soon!
 
All done!! First let me say that this restoration did not go as smoothly as I had hoped ha ha. Anyway, I got my handle from House and I went with a 32" for this 4lb. head. You guys are right though, these modern handles do not feel nearly as good as my dad's original. This one from House felt more like a caveman's club than an axe haft. So I took some sandpaper and a lot of elbow grease to it in order to thin down the profile a bit. Felt much better after that although I'm still not too fond of the big bulging shoulder.

Long story short, I stained and treated the wood then began the hanging process. I tried to get it so only from 1/3 of the edge from the heel to the center touched the ground when laid on its edge and end knob (per what I read from Mors Kochanski) and I managed to get it pretty close. After driving the wood wedge in I had some reservations on whether or not to use the metal wedge too but ultimately I hammered that in as well. After bringing the edge back to life with a good sharpening and a final rub down on the haft with some 0000 steel wool I was finally done. I am pretty happy with the results even though I ran in to a few snags on the way. But definitely want to say thanks to everyone here who offered any feedback and steered me in the right direction. You guys are great! Oh, and because of its (possible) WWII roots, I've nicknamed this thing "Patton". On with the photos!

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Moved the axe out of the sun and in to the shade. I'm not the best photographer. Here's some better photos of what it really looks like:

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