Tacti-cool Estwing makeover

J

jaseman

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Jul 28, 2016
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Just a fun makeover/rehab project on an old axe that I thought some of you might enjoy seeing.

I found this old Estwing in a box of misc. tools I acquired cleaning out a relatives house a few years ago. The leather handle was rotted away, the blade was dull as sin, and it must've had 2" of rust, grime, and muck all over it. I figured why let a decent tool just rot away, and I needed a basic camping axe anyway, so I figured I'd make it a bit "tacti-cool". Hope you like.

Cleaned it up with a wire wheel


Blasted it with primer


Hit it with a couple coats of flat black rattle-can


And then wrapped the handle with about 50' of paracord


It's become my primary camping axe for about 2 years now, without issue. It's great for chopping small logs, digging out a small pit for fires, or pounding tent stakes. And when it gets too beat up, a quick pass on the bench grinder, and another coat of flat black, and it looks like new again (though it looks cooler with some wear on it!). It may not be anything super special, but it gets lots of thumbs-ups at the campsite!
 
Nice. I need to rehandle my dads old estwing. The leather is falling off and the butt plate bent from throwing when I was young. A lot of fun throwing those and they're indestructible.
 
jaseman said:
Just a fun makeover/rehab project on an old axe that I thought some of you might enjoy seeing.

I found this old Estwing in a box of misc. tools I acquired cleaning out a relatives house a few years ago. The leather handle was rotted away, the blade was dull as sin, and it must've had 2" of rust, grime, and muck all over it. I figured why let a decent tool just rot away, and I needed a basic camping axe anyway, so I figured I'd make it a bit "tacti-cool". Hope you like.

Cleaned it up with a wire wheel


Blasted it with primer


Hit it with a couple coats of flat black rattle-can


And then wrapped the handle with about 50' of paracord


It's become my primary camping axe for about 2 years now, without issue. It's great for chopping small logs, digging out a small pit for fires, or pounding tent stakes. And when it gets too beat up, a quick pass on the bench grinder, and another coat of flat black, and it looks like new again (though it looks cooler with some wear on it!). It may not be anything super special, but it gets lots of thumbs-ups at the campsite!
Click to expand...

FYI you'd be better off using a single cut mill bastard file as there a risk of overheating with a bench grinder.
While it's not my style that estwing riggers axe turned out pretty good ( might preform a little bit better if you give the edge a slight curve to it, just look at a picture of an axe to get an idea of how much curve )
 
Is a Brazilian bastard acceptable tool? The USA Nicholsons are getting harder to find. I'd use an angle grinder. Go easy
 
Sosa said:
Is a Brazilian bastard acceptable tool? The USA Nicholsons are getting harder to find. I'd use an angle grinder. Go easy
Click to expand...

If your talking about a new made in Brazil Nicholson file, I've had no problems with mine all.
I've been using it for about a year and it still works great.
 
Nice !
As I saw the title,
I envisioned some kind of wildass worthless modification beard & removal the hammer poll into a pointed thing.

Classic Estwings are great.
 
Nice job man!
But wouldn't you prefer to put coating on the blade instead of paint?

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk
 
1 ADAM12 said:
Looks good bud, if I knew how to wrap paracord id do mine...lol..:D
Click to expand...

It's not really that hard. Lots of info online. More time consuming than anything else.

Hickory n steel said:
FYI you'd be better off using a single cut mill bastard file as there a risk of overheating with a bench grinder.
While it's not my style that estwing riggers axe turned out pretty good ( might preform a little bit better if you give the edge a slight curve to it, just look at a picture of an axe to get an idea of how much curve )
Click to expand...

Good to know about the bench grinder. What would overheating do anyway? I had it on low speed at least... Lol.

To give it a curve, wouldn't I have to take a lot of steel off of the top and bottom of the blade? How would one accomplish such a task (especially not being a smith)?

OmerYifrach said:
Nice job man!
But wouldn't you prefer to put coating on the blade instead of paint?
Click to expand...

This was all done with materials I had floating in the garage, on a Saturday afternoon. Didn't give much thought to anything other than making it usable and less ugly. Was initially just gonna give it a quick oil rub, but changed my mind.

Should I decide to do another, any suggestions on an easy coating that can be done at home by an rank a mature?





Thanks all for the positive feedback.
 
jaseman said:
It's not really that hard. Lots of info online. More time consuming than anything else.



Good to know about the bench grinder. What would overheating do anyway? I had it on low speed at least... Lol.

To give it a curve, wouldn't I have to take a lot of steel off of the top and bottom of the blade? How would one accomplish such a task (especially not being a smith)?



This was all done with materials I had floating in the garage, on a Saturday afternoon. Didn't give much thought to anything other than making it usable and less ugly. Was initially just gonna give it a quick oil rub, but changed my mind.

Should I decide to do another, any suggestions on an easy coating that can be done at home by an rank a mature?





Thanks all for the positive feedback.
Click to expand...
There's some kind of spray (I forgot the name) which you spray on the metal and than put in the stove.


Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk
 
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