The cure for Cabin Fever: Axe Work

[SR69]

I'm looking forward to the winter months where I can take some sweet time on rehabbing my axes.

I've been working on acquiring the tools I'd need for the task. So far, I'm up to about a dozen vintage
files, a few clamps and standard hand tools that every carpenter should have. I picked up a Dreadnaught
file because of it's aggressive curved tooth pattern thinking it would be good at rasping away material.
It turns out that they are for metal, but are also very effective on wood as well.

On my hit list are a vintage vise and a wood rasp plus a few sanding pads. I'd like to do as much as I can
by hand as that's going to be the intended therapeutic angle to it. What else do you guys suggest I use
and most importantly, what set of files should I use to shape and form the heads (polls, eyes, cheeks, etc...)? What's are going to be helpful accessories (rags, buckets, pails, etc...)?

And, if you were starting from scratch, knowing what you know now, what set-up would you put together?

Thanks in advance for any input.

 

[Square_peg]

A sturdy vise that holds an axe head at about navel height makes filing an axe much easier. I prefer a blacksmith's leg vise for this because you can work it from 3 sides and it has non-marring jaws. A double cut or multi cut file does a fine job shaping an axe. A variety of stones are useful for honing the axe. I hone it in the vise.

 

[SC T100]

I found that some fine plastic finishing pads from Lowes do a good job of polishing the wood grain of the handles after rough sanding to give that "worn-in" feel to the grain. I use the blue shop towels for oiling everything (just don't leave them lying around with oil on them...especially linseed oil).

I will second the lower vice...mine is mounted up on the bench a little high and can cause some strain when trying to do major reshaping of bevels. I also would suggest a set of stones, or even just a decent 2-sided stone (coarse/fine) for when you're done with the files, as the stones help to smooth out all the file lines.

I know you mentioned wantiing it all done by hand, but if you feel the need to speed up, an angle grinder has been indispensable after trying the forum-favorite model of refurbing axe heads with a wire brush cup, and can also really help speed along the removal of handle material with a sanding disk. Otherwise some good aggressive rasps will be all you need for major material removal.

I use scrap leather pieces to hold the heads and handles in my vice, but non-marring jaw protectors would be better.

As for files, I would suggest hitting up flea markets and such to find old, lightly used or new US-made files. I picked up a Heller Nu-Cut 10" file and it cut into metal that my el-cheapo files would skate across. It cost me a whopping $2. I wish I had picked up a few more as it seems like that file is beginning to dull after reprofiling a number of vintage, hard-bitted axe heads.