Hi everyone, new member to this forum, though I've perused it before.
I finally joined because I wanted to share my most recent project with you guys: refurbishing an old Walters Black Diamond Hatchet. I don't know much about the company or model, so if someone can pull any details out of my photos, I'd love to know about it.
The following photos are of the head, but are recent, post-refitting, as I hadn't thought to take a picture beforehand.
I bought the axe in Ontario last summer at an antique shop for $10, a real steal, mostly because the original handle that it had been on was broken and the head was loose. Below are pictures of this handle, which I quite liked. It has a really nice palm swell at the bottom of the handle, making for a very secure grip. My only complaint would be that it was overall on the thin side for a handle. I have fairly small hands, but even still, I felt the fore and rear ends digging into my palms when gripped tightly.
So, the handle came off! Which had to happen anyways, since it was loose!
This was exciting for me, I've been an admirer and user of axes for some time, and have some experience refitting handles to them. This time, however, I decided that I wanted to make myself a new handle from scratch, and using nothing my hand tools to do the whole project.
Now came the design and decide part. Not having done this before, I was at a loss of where to get proper wood for the job. Home Depot did not have the White Ash, Hickory, or White Oak that I was looking for, so I was stumped
there.
Being the outdoorsy type, however, it came to mind that I should make my handle from a piece of wood collected raw from the forest. One of my friends very kindly stepped in and offered to procure me a chunk of Ostrya virginiana, also known as Ironwood. This tree is rather diminutive, the piece I have representing basically the average size of fully grown individuals. It's size is made up for, however, by being a very hard and dense wood.
Having procured my piece of wood, I started to break it down to a more workable size.
Once it was split, I started to lay out some rough ideas for the dimensions of the handle.
I started rounding and smoothing the wood around this general guideline and, as it got closer to handle-size, I drew out some rough detail as to the layout of the handle.
With these guidelines, I attacked my billet with a wood rasp and, slowly, the piece of wood started to look more and more like a real axe handle.
At this point my handle was mostly done. I was happy with the shape of it, and would be able to smooth it out with a finer file later on. With the head and handle in hand, I was missing only one piece of the puzzle: a wooden wedge. Now, I've seen numerous videos where people have made wedges in seconds using a band saw. I however, was more limited, both by my decision to use only hand tools and, (more importantly) the fact that I did not own a powered saw!
This issue was further compounded that I had little in the way of scrap lumber lying around my house. I found some small sections in my garage, of which I chose one without knots. I now faced the problem of making a wedge with very limited tools, and from a very small piece of wood. Not knowing what else to do, I painstakingly coaxed a wedge out of it using a combination of a knife, a rasp, a file, sandpaper, and curses. 
Please feel free to enlighten my on better ways to do this but, in any case, it was eventually done to my satisfaction.
Finally! I had everything needed with which to make a usable tool! Happily, I set to making my cut for the wedge, fitting the head, and seating and wedging the axe!
The head was seated and sealed beautifully to the handle, and all that was left was to douse everything liberally in boiled linseed oil.
The only major fault that I can find with my completed project is that the handle developed a twist in it during the carving of it. I remember this being, to a certain extent, due to the shape of the wood, but I'm sure also to user error
. Either way, the handle is solid, and I actually rather like the feel of the angled handle. We'll give it a true test when it's sharpened and put to work but, for now, I like it.
I was also especially proud that, except for the chainsaw that originally cut down this piece of wood, it was not touched by a single power tool. Everything was done by me and my hand tools.
That concludes this project. Thank you all for reading, and I hope the quality of some of the pictures did not put you off. I was limited to a phone camera, and did not always check for the focus while working.
I hope that you enjoyed my narrative, and please do not hesitate to post questions/comments/criticism/insults
Until next time,
Noah
I finally joined because I wanted to share my most recent project with you guys: refurbishing an old Walters Black Diamond Hatchet. I don't know much about the company or model, so if someone can pull any details out of my photos, I'd love to know about it.
The following photos are of the head, but are recent, post-refitting, as I hadn't thought to take a picture beforehand.
I bought the axe in Ontario last summer at an antique shop for $10, a real steal, mostly because the original handle that it had been on was broken and the head was loose. Below are pictures of this handle, which I quite liked. It has a really nice palm swell at the bottom of the handle, making for a very secure grip. My only complaint would be that it was overall on the thin side for a handle. I have fairly small hands, but even still, I felt the fore and rear ends digging into my palms when gripped tightly.
So, the handle came off! Which had to happen anyways, since it was loose!
This was exciting for me, I've been an admirer and user of axes for some time, and have some experience refitting handles to them. This time, however, I decided that I wanted to make myself a new handle from scratch, and using nothing my hand tools to do the whole project.
Now came the design and decide part. Not having done this before, I was at a loss of where to get proper wood for the job. Home Depot did not have the White Ash, Hickory, or White Oak that I was looking for, so I was stumped
there.Being the outdoorsy type, however, it came to mind that I should make my handle from a piece of wood collected raw from the forest. One of my friends very kindly stepped in and offered to procure me a chunk of Ostrya virginiana, also known as Ironwood. This tree is rather diminutive, the piece I have representing basically the average size of fully grown individuals. It's size is made up for, however, by being a very hard and dense wood.
Having procured my piece of wood, I started to break it down to a more workable size.
Once it was split, I started to lay out some rough ideas for the dimensions of the handle.
I started rounding and smoothing the wood around this general guideline and, as it got closer to handle-size, I drew out some rough detail as to the layout of the handle.
With these guidelines, I attacked my billet with a wood rasp and, slowly, the piece of wood started to look more and more like a real axe handle.
At this point my handle was mostly done. I was happy with the shape of it, and would be able to smooth it out with a finer file later on. With the head and handle in hand, I was missing only one piece of the puzzle: a wooden wedge. Now, I've seen numerous videos where people have made wedges in seconds using a band saw. I however, was more limited, both by my decision to use only hand tools and, (more importantly) the fact that I did not own a powered saw!
This issue was further compounded that I had little in the way of scrap lumber lying around my house. I found some small sections in my garage, of which I chose one without knots. I now faced the problem of making a wedge with very limited tools, and from a very small piece of wood. Not knowing what else to do, I painstakingly coaxed a wedge out of it using a combination of a knife, a rasp, a file, sandpaper, and curses. Please feel free to enlighten my on better ways to do this but, in any case, it was eventually done to my satisfaction.
Finally! I had everything needed with which to make a usable tool! Happily, I set to making my cut for the wedge, fitting the head, and seating and wedging the axe!
The head was seated and sealed beautifully to the handle, and all that was left was to douse everything liberally in boiled linseed oil.
The only major fault that I can find with my completed project is that the handle developed a twist in it during the carving of it. I remember this being, to a certain extent, due to the shape of the wood, but I'm sure also to user error
. Either way, the handle is solid, and I actually rather like the feel of the angled handle. We'll give it a true test when it's sharpened and put to work but, for now, I like it.I was also especially proud that, except for the chainsaw that originally cut down this piece of wood, it was not touched by a single power tool. Everything was done by me and my hand tools.
That concludes this project. Thank you all for reading, and I hope the quality of some of the pictures did not put you off. I was limited to a phone camera, and did not always check for the focus while working.
I hope that you enjoyed my narrative, and please do not hesitate to post questions/comments/criticism/insults
Until next time,
Noah
