My first hang—Kelly Flint Edge

M

Michael H

Joined
Sep 10, 2017
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15
Hello all, this is my first rodeo here—first hang, first post.

For starters, I want to thank all of you for your wisdom and experience that I’ve been lurking off of for the past couple months. Especially wish to thank member Imalterna for his willingness to help a newbie.

I bought this 3 1/2 lb. Flint Edge on eBay. I thought the profile was pretty good and didn’t reconfigure. It did have a hard single angle bevel so I worked that down with a sharpening puck. Then 360 sandpaper.

It’s on a House Handle; I made a few adjustments, like thinning out the knob and the shoulder. I left the shoulder farther back, as I assumed I’d bungle my first attempt and might be able to rehang on the same handle.

I countersunk the triangular wings (not sure what these are called), so there was a lot of knife work there. I do need a better knife. Darn but hickory is hard wood when up close and personal.

One thing I probably could have done better is that the head went almost all the way down without much persuasion, with only 1/8” gain from pounding on the handle for the final fit. It was snug-ish, but I would not call it tight, and with effort I could rock it around a hair. Though when I put the wedge in it got super solid. I did pound the heck out of that wedge.

Curious how old this head is. 1950's?

Brushed four coats of boiled linseed oil on the handle, and soaked the head part overnight.

Any thoughts at all about how you’d have done this differently would be most appreciated!

Cheers, and Happy New Year everyone,
Michael

Here's the finished axe:
https://imgur.com/8DI4M1W

And a couple replies down are a few detail shots -
 
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Oh rats. I'm not seeing any of the images uploading. These were from Imgur. Sorry, beginner here!
Ok, just trying links now-
 
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Michael H said:
Hello all, this is my first rodeo here—first hang, first post.

I countersunk the triangular wings (not sure what these are called), so there was a lot of knife work there. I do need a better knife. Darn but hickory is hard wood when up close and personal.

Curious how old this head is. 1950's?


Any thoughts at all about how you’d have done this differently would be most appreciated!
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Click to expand...

Hello! and welcome!!!

First - great job on the hang! Jersey's are harder to hang than other head patters because there is so much more axe head surface area to fit to the handle.

The triangular wings are called LUGS.

I'd say that head pattern dates probably to the 30's to 60's era, so your right on with your guess.

ok, and I think you did a great job and the hang is great and I think will work perfectly for a long time. However, since you asked, I'll just point out a couple of things that I personally done differently.

The main thing is that I would have thinned out the handle much more below the head. I take mine all the way down so there is no wood proud of the axe head. My first hang was also a jersey and I did the exact same thing you did - I cut little triangle cutouts into the handle for the lugs to sit in. This actually doesn't make it as secure as you think it will, and theoretically having horizontal cuts into the handle creates breaking points. In reality its unlikely that the handle would actually break there, but Its actually much easier to hang a head the way you want it if you thin the sides of the shoulder all the way down so the handle is no thicker than the eye of the axe. I'll show you some pics of one of my flint edge jerseys





the second thing is that the hang is maybe the tiniest bit open. I should have taken a picture to demonstrate, and maybe its not too open, but generally, if you set the axe down on the floor so that the heel of the swell is touching the floor - the bit should touch the floor somewhere between the middle of the bit and a third of the way from the heel of the bit. its possible that yours is right on and I just can't tell from the picture.

overall, super job though. I love the head and the handle!!!
 
FLINT77---many thanks for your comments and photos!! Super helpful!

It makes much more sense to thin out the handle to the width of the eye, I'll try that next time.

And you're absolutely right---it is a bit open. I just balanced it on the floor and it sets barely a quarter of the way from the heel. Could an overly open axe cause a functional problem, such as in splitting? I do use my axes for feeding small pieces of wood to my small wood stove…

I wasn't sure I was going to like the multi-colored wood handle, but with more and more coats of oil it's increasingly engaging. And I've taken it out to the chopping block this week and it's still quite tight, rather to my surprise! (Evidence of being a half-wit is encouraging if the alternative is a complete idiot.)
 
Michael H said:
FLINT77---many thanks for your comments and photos!! Super helpful!

It makes much more sense to thin out the handle to the width of the eye, I'll try that next time.

And you're absolutely right---it is a bit open. I just balanced it on the floor and it sets barely a quarter of the way from the heel. Could an overly open axe cause a functional problem, such as in splitting? I do use my axes for feeding small pieces of wood to my small wood stove…

I wasn't sure I was going to like the multi-colored wood handle, but with more and more coats of oil it's increasingly engaging. And I've taken it out to the chopping block this week and it's still quite tight, rather to my surprise! (Evidence of being a half-wit is encouraging if the alternative is a complete idiot.)
Click to expand...

I don't think being a little open is a big deal at all. I'm sure it will work great for you. I love the darker streaks in the handle, I always prefer a little character over a plain all white handle.
 
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