Re-hanging my first small axe

F

Frank R

Joined
Feb 19, 2015
Messages
17
I have an old Boy Scout hand axe I found at a flea market last year. I removed the wedge and the handle.

I wire wheeled the rust off and then I used Brownell's Oxpho-Blue. This is the first time I used blueing and I like it so far.

However, the steel still has a lot of shallow pitting over the entire surface. I am thinking of taking a grinder with a flap sander and going over it to take it down to smooth metal. If I do this then I will probably end up removing the engraved name, which is partially gone already. I can then re-blue it.

Will I be destroying something of value or should I just go ahead and mod it as I feel?
 
While some might disagree with me, I think you should do whatever you want. You only live once, then you're gone. No time to worry about what other people think is valuable. In the end, it's just a chunk of metal to cut wood with. It's not going to last forever anyway.
 
Generally the more you attempt to 'restore' something the more you devalue any collector interest it. Myself wouldn't go beyond wire brushing. That being said what you do have is a quality 'user' with provenance (ie it's stamped!) and whether it's all gussied-up, or not, is not going to affect how well it pounds tent pegs, cuts branches or splits kindling. Your call though. Having been a Boy Scout myself in the 1960s I suspect that there are hundreds of thousands of these still out there, most of them gathering dust.
 
chuxwan said:
While some might disagree with me, I think you should do whatever you want. You only live once, then you're gone. No time to worry about what other people think is valuable. In the end, it's just a chunk of metal to cut wood with. It's not going to last forever anyway.
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What to do with this axe has nothing to do with this guy as a person.

Imagine 60 years ago everyone was wire wheeling and sanding and drowning in vinegar these axes etc we are all interested in. I dare say you would not have the interest in this stuff that you do today. My opinion is we should keep our eye on posterity and keep this stuff as original as possible.
 
crown & hammer said:
What to do with this axe has nothing to do with this guy as a person.

Imagine 60 years ago everyone was wire wheeling and sanding and drowning in vinegar these axes etc we are all interested in. I dare say you would not have the interest in this stuff that you do today. My opinion is we should keep our eye on posterity and keep this stuff as original as possible.
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Be honest - you have no interest in keeping this stuff as original as possible, or you wouldn't touch them at all. Leave them to rust to pieces in sheds, garages, and backyards around the world. I'm not interested in old axes because they're old. I'm interested in them because they are good tools. I don't have space in my life to collect useless junk, just my opinion, others can do as they please. Is the world going to miss another BSA hatchet? I don't think so. If you want to save them for the future, go ahead. It should be easy enough to snatch up hundreds of BSA hatchets. When all others have been ground into oblivion 80 years from now, your grandkids can sell them on eBay for a few hundred bucks.
 
My interest is mostly in "one of a kind" handmade antique whatever. Not mass produced stuff. So yeah I would treat a BSA hatchet differently than I would what I like most. But putting aside our individual subjective interests -- a pristine as possible BSA hatchet will be worth more than a worked over one 25 years from now. If that's not your concern, that's your choice obviously. As far as utility -- I only need one good axe. So that's not where my interest lies. This guy came to a public forum asking advice -- so there's nothing wrong with giving it.

Grinding the pitting out of this axe will not improve it's utility one iota, and may if anything hurt it.
 
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I wont get into the collecting and preservation portion of this topic but id like to say that to remove the pittings which in no way affect the performance of the axe, you would have to remove a lot of metal, thus running the risk of messing up the hardness of the steel and youd (marginally) shorten the life of the axe, as we all know, less metal equal less chance to reprofile it in the future. however, as stated, its yours, its your decision.
 
BSA hatchets, are they collectable? Sure, people collect everything. Will we regret taking a wire wheel to them? I won't.

They are like a Winchester model 94, millions of them out there. Cutum, grindum, meltum, you will never get them all in are life time.
 
Thanks for the feedback guys.

A previous owner engraved two initials into the face, partially obscuring the original manufacturer's name. The initials are deeper too. I don't think I could grind out the initials but the manufacturer's name would be gone if I sanded out the shallow pitting. I won't remove enough steel to weaken it. Also, there are some scratches that obscure the name. I already ground off the mushrooming.

This one is not collector quality. Just wanted to be sure I was not doing something sacrilegious. I see a lot of different modifications on this forum and I want to give some a try. So many possibilities....
 
crown & hammer said:
What to do with this axe has nothing to do with this guy as a person.

Imagine 60 years ago everyone was wire wheeling and sanding and drowning in vinegar these axes etc we are all interested in. I dare say you would not have the interest in this stuff that you do today. My opinion is we should keep our eye on posterity and keep this stuff as original as possible.
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Jeez man have you ever got a bee in your bonnet all of a sudden! Or is this the result of a snootful of hooch?
 
I'd say fix it up however you like and to whatever degree you want. It's a good, quality hatchet that should serve you really, really well. In 60 years, someone else can fix it up after you've given it a patina of your own! :)
 
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