To far gone or still worthy of a restore?

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westwood

Joined
Jun 23, 2012
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I have the opportunity to buy this batch of older axe heads.

I am fairly new to collecting and restoring these older axes, so it would be nice to get your opinions on whether these can be brought back to life. I would hate to see them waste away.

I know the picture quality is not great, but this is all I have at this point.

3330dbn_20.jpeg


Thanks.
 
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I would have walked out of there with all of them Had I seen them.

I'd say that they are plenty restorable and a fun project.

I am by no means an expert, but the first 2 vintage heads that I bought looked like that covered in rust. They ate good axes now. I did a vinegar soak and then used a wire brush on them. Then took sand paper to them and they look great now. They cut great too (once I got them sharpened).

With the rust on them that I see, who know what kinds you have there

By the way, can you read any makers marks on them?
 
crazyengineer said:
By the way, can you read any makers marks on them?
Click to expand...

I can't read any makers marks from the picture and I have not seen them in person yet.

I have found the vinegar trick to work well in the past as well, but I have never used it on something this heavily rusted, so it its nice to hear that you have had success.
 
If the price is right then go for it. FWIW, those should be priced less than $5 each.

Vinegar works but a cup brush will save the patina.
 
Oh, yeah- you have hours of entertainment there. Looks like not much damage to them.
I've used the vinegar only once, because I had to know just how much steel was left on a pitted claw-hatchet. It worked great removing the rust, and left a funny leaden shine.
I often start by rubbing in oil and scraping with a "razor" blade.
 
By the way, I have been recently using the vinegar not as a soak, but as a cleaning agent. It seems to work well

I dunk a head in vinegar and then take a wire cup brush on a drill and go at it. It seems to work very well. I have soaked as well on the bad ones and like some people have said, it does leave a weird shine to it

I usually san it after that.
 
If you buy those and want great product to safely remove rust, try Metal Rescue. ( http://www.metalrescue.com/home.aspx )

It works exactly as advertised. Just drop it in the liquid and come back a few hours later and there is zero rust. It is safe on your hands and you can dump it on your grass and it will not hurt it. I used it on an old WWII kukri and a few other old knives and it was amazing.
 
like square_peg said, use a wire brush or wheel.
the patina under all the rust will help protect the metal from rusting in the future

buzz
 
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