SC T100's Axe Projects (Pic Heavy)

I cleaned up the severely cracked No name Wall Hanger a few weeks ago, and I guess it's name isn't applicable anymore. Come to find out, it's actually another Council Tool, with the same older script as my recent beveled axe find. You can just see the stamp near the poll. Cool! And once cleaned up with the wire cup brush and WD-40, this head has the absolute darkest patina I have found yet...it's almost black, and looks great. The handle didn't get touched other than coat or three of BLO.

 
While I haven't touched the head yet, I went ahead and put a coat of BLO on the handle of the beveled Council.

My oh my is this handle gorgeous with the oil on it. It's a really nice reddish-brown. And it's easily the thinnest handle I've found on a full-size axe. This should turn out to be a beautiful axe once I fix it up a bit more.

 
I love seeing old handles come back to life with some coats of oil. Looks like the grain's opened up quite a bit, how do you plan to solve that if you don't mind my asking? I've got the same thing happening on an old axe of mine as well.
 
DarthTaco123 said:
I love seeing old handles come back to life with some coats of oil. Looks like the grain's opened up quite a bit, how do you plan to solve that if you don't mind my asking? I've got the same thing happening on an old axe of mine as well.
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I probably won't do much about it. It seems like it looks worse in the pic than in person. It isn't anything like long checking or cracks like an old Plumb hatchet I have. I think with a few more coats of oil and some grain polishing it will likely not be an issue.
 
It would be tough with all the dimples in the cracked head (probably never get the weld to look right), but awfully tempting to fix it. It's got all the ear marks of a nice piece of equipment though. But then again, so does the beveled one.
 
cityofthesouth said:
It would be tough with all the dimples in the cracked head (probably never get the weld to look right), but awfully tempting to fix it. It's got all the ear marks of a nice piece of equipment though. But then again, so does the beveled one.
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Yeah, I think so too. That and the whole side is essentially bent/blown out. It's not just a crack...the entire wall is shifted outward. It's the retired life of a wall hanger for that one.

The beveled one will get used...it looks too nice not to, and even with the toe chip, it should be excellent. And the handle feels amazing...definitely one of the best I've held.
 
So is that the handle that was on it? Also, I really like the way they did the beveled axes, with the sharp lines.
 
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cityofthesouth said:
So is that the handle that was on it? Also, I really like the way they did the beveled axes, with the sharp lines.
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The handle that was on the cracked head? Yes. And the handle on the beveled CT was the one on it when I picked it up too. I assume they are both original, but I could be wrong. In fact, the beved CT handle actually says Council on it about half way down. The handle on the crocked head is pretty worn, so there's no way to know.
 
"Pickett's Pride": The Refurb

I love they way this axe turned out...I'm really happy with it overall, and it was a bit of a challenge.

Here's where I started...had to get a little creative, but nothing too bad to pull the head.


If this handle was original, I have to assume it was re-hung. otherwise it's a replacement handle from Council. The metal wedge wasn't across...it was dead center like a normal wedge, with two wood wedges to the front and back...or something laong those lines. It also had the normal nail and screw extras.



Who says all vintage hafts were better-grained than today's modern ones? Hehe. This haft, while being slim and having an awesome swell and curve, has pretty bad grain runout and bad grain alignment. And I don't care one bit. :) I tried to get other photos to show it, but they didn't turn out so well.


The handle was a bit beat up, but it feels too nice not to re-use.





I hate that the swell is cracked and missing some wood, but oh well.


But this where the trouble started...
 
"Pickett's Pride"

The head, while in good shape on the outside, had some serious, flaking rust in the eye. Pretty bad. It's difficult to see in the photos, but some good chunks came off with the screwdriver. The rust was on the sides and the fron (bit-end).


I was actually concerned it might compromise the axe head, but after knocking off what I could, it didn't seem to go too deep. I hadn;t planned to give this head a vinegar bath, but the amount of rust in the eye sort of required it. So into the vinegar it went (and the head appeared to have been cleaned up at some point anyway, so any patina was minimal anyway).

Here's how it looked once pulled from the vinegar. Lot's of hard bit left it appears.


So I then scrubbed it all up, and cleaned out more of the rust in the eye. It probably could have used more time in the vinegar, but I wanted to re-hang it over the weekend. So I then hit it with the wire brush on the angle grinder, and it came out great.


Hit it with a file to get it back into shape and sharp again. The chip required some finesse to make sure I didn;t take too much toe away, and I think it turned out great. The toe has a little thicker bevel now, but that's fine by me...a little extra strength there. Oddly, this bit wasn't super hard despite the vinegar results. I think it's just fine though, but definitely softer than my old Plumbs and Kelly. Easier to sharpen though, but a good bit. And the bevel wasn't too bad to begin with either, so it's a great edge on it.



Next up...hanging it.
 
The re-hang was a bit more difficult than I imagined, and it didn't want to seat much lower (but it's definitely a little lower than it was). I can only guess it had to do with the WD-40 I sprayed on the head (including in the eye to sort of coat the remaining hard oxidized rust in the eye), as the head didn't seem to seat lower once I rapped the butt end with the mallet. But I also think it had to do with the cracked end, as i couldn't really put a ton of power into the wooden mallet. In fact, I added more damage and a little cracking to the swell just seating the head. Oh, and I also didn't want to sand too much of the outer wood off as I would lose the gorgeous color the handle turned once I oiled it.

Overall, though, the head seems quite tight, and the wedge went deep. I think it'll be just fine.



And here it is getting a BLO bath with some friends!


This is definitely one of the prettiest axes I have, and I'm really happy with the way it turned out, and how I was able to get the toe sharp without losing too much of the bit...I *almost" looks like it was never chipped. It definitely needs a sheath now though...it's blazing sharp!
 
"Mystery Craftsman"

A new arrival! It's a Craftsman boy's axe my family grabbed at an estate sale for a buck! Sweet! This one is a mystery as to the age...I've looked for a good resource for dating Craftsman stamps, including Square_Peg's excellent thread, but it doesn't seem like there a good consensus. But I think it's a quality unit either way...It has a high-ish centerline, and a nice stamp. As for the stamp, it's a "=Craftsman=" stamp with "Made in U.S.A. Reg. Trade Mark" underneath.

How it arrived...standard condition...dull, mushroomed, etc.



Has a decently high centerline and convex cheeks thankfully...all indications point to a high-quality vintage piece.


I had an ok Link boy's axe handle already that was originally designated for my Norlund, but the Norlund has a huge eye and slid right down over the whole thing. So the haft has been in my garage for a bit. It seems pretty good for standard hardware store Link handle...wax coating...no lacquer. And I thinned each side so it's thinner and more oval than round...feels pretty good!


I refurbed the head with a wire wheel on an angle grinder...took a really nice color. I filed off some mushrooming, hammered some of it too, but had to use an angle grinder with a grinding wheel for a few of the mushroomed areas. The very top and bottom of the poll had VERY hard mushrooming...so mush so that my files skated off. Oddly though, the sides were fine. Weird. At any rate, I wire-brushed it after so it actually all blends pretty well.


The edge needs work, but I'll get to that soon hopefully.


A little off-center, but it's first fitting and during the thinning of the handle. I had to re-do the fitting a few times...the eye was pretty small, and the kerf was as wide as my saws, but the kerf wanted to close pretty badly one in the head, so I widened the kerf a little with sandpaper, and thinned the sides a bit as well. After that, the wedge was pretty good, but may be a little shallow...nothing I would worry about though unless it comes loose. I guess we'll see! And it gives me an excuse to go use it. I know it's tight though...even without the wedge, it really didn't want to come back out of the handle the last time I pulled before wedging.


And all hung and oiled with a few others (second from left).


And with "Pickett's Pride"


Next up will be a sharpening and a sheath and it should be ready for anything.
 
"The Monster" Sager...

I re-hung may Sager a while back to improve the feel and look, but it never quite looked right to me. It was the weird little curve under the beard at the front of the eye...it just didn't look right. So after having it bug me, I grabbed it down and went to town on the handle. A few hours with the rasp and sandpaper and it looks right to me know, and feels a lot better too! Thinner handle, bigger, safer swell, and nicer lines...love it. I didn't get a great pic for comparison, but here it is.

During the thinning (up top):


Here it is now! After oiling (second from left):


Second from right:


And an old pic for comparison...you can see the weird curve just under the head on the bit side that always bugged my eye.
 
It seems like when companies are turning the tongue, material is taken off front and back, leaving that hump under the head toward the front and it bugs me too. It's ok I guess that they do this, but then we have to fix it and you did a nice job. I agree that it really makes it look that much better.

I haven't managed to break my sideways grain axe handle so far, or the one on my hardware store maul, or the one I used for years when I had just a single axe to my name that sat outside 24/7/365. I'm not saying it'll last forever, but I don't think it's a show stopper either.

Good stuff SC
 
cityofthesouth said:
It seems like when companies are turning the tongue, material is taken off front and back, leaving that hump under the head toward the front and it bugs me too. It's ok I guess that they do this, but then we have to fix it and you did a nice job. I agree that it really makes it look that much better.

I haven't managed to break my sideways grain axe handle so far, or the one on my hardware store maul, or the one I used for years when I had just a single axe to my name that sat outside 24/7/365. I'm not saying it'll last forever, but I don't think it's a show stopper either.

Good stuff SC
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Thanks very much. The other factor is that they eye of the Sager is shorter than the Council Tool handle, and it's much easier (and keeps the head back a bit) to remove the wood from the front. I should have corrected the hump when i first hung it, but lesson learned!

As for the grain...I'm not worried either. I think I've broken one handle my whole life, and that was likely on an old beat up axe. It's been a while, but the axes I used to use had loose heads and nails in the eye and old worn handles, so I likely broke an old, cracked handle.
 
And a project *with* an axe instead of an axe. My aunt and uncle are moving to town soon in their retirement. They picked a beautiful lot, but much of it had to be cleared. It had some good wood on it, so i thought I would carve them a spoon made from a cherry tree that was on their lot before it was cleared. I roughed out the shape using the SFA, which is a great carving axe. I don't know what voodoo they use to make their convex edges carve so well, but my re-profiled convex hatchets don't carve as well...even the ones with thinner bits. Love it!




Now it's on to the Mora Companion, which is the best large carving knife I have. And then I'll finish carving it with my Bear and Sons stockman. I hollowed it out using an antique store find Mora farriers knife I reprofiled, as well as a no name (but fantastic steel) spoon knife also scrounged from an antique store. I had to resharpen it but holy cow does it make nice cuts.
 
I finally got my Iron City shipwright's pin maul re-hung.

Here's how I picked it up. Loose handle with a lot of overstike damage. I had hoped to save the handle, but it was too cracked and there wasn't enough shoulder left to hold the head on. The wood also seemed to be very soft. I think it's a bit dry rotted...I kept it for something else that may come along so we'll see.

Anyway, the head was a rusty mess, so I gave it a vinegar soak and then spent some time with a wire brush on the angle grinder.




I hung it on a Link heartwood sledge handle, and cut it to somewhat match the original length. It seems like a handy size this way. I also found another stamp on the bottom of the head...a big "5" so I assume it's a 5-lb hammer.




I'd been needing a big hammer, and now I have one. While the drawn tip side may get in the way in certain close-quarters situations (under the truck for hammering a ball stud loose for example), I think that tip may actually have some unexpected uses. Anyway, I'm really happy with it. It's a good looking hammer.
 
"The Kubben"

I was recently gifted a beautiful GB Hand Axe (also known as the Kubben). I absolutely love it...the feel, the edge geometry...it's awesome. It'll be used as a carver as it's so nicely balanced in the hand, and will be easier on the arm than my SFA.

I might have been on the shelf for a bit, as it seemed a bit dry. Here's how it came:





I sanded the haft with some 80-grit, touched up the edge and stopped it, and gave the sheath some love as well.

Sanded:



And after a bit of BLO...it needs more, but it's on it's way. Love this thing.




I'm really looking forward to carving and making some fires with it.
 
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