What did you rehang today?

bbforstr said:
If you guys ever see something that could be done better, please give me some hints. That's why I joined BladeForums, to get better at restoring vintage tools.
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I'm not saying that this is necessarily better but I've been doing the swells of my octagon handles differently. I've mentioned numerous times before that I like a large swell and try to never make a swell smaller. With that in mind I keep the spoke shave off of the swell and instead work that lowest section with a rasp. This leaves a nice knob on the end of the handle. Like this:

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I agree. I think I overworked the swell trying to make it look octagonal. It was kind of small to start with, so extra rasp work didn't help. I'm not,too impressed with the Ames handles. They fit the eye better than some, but they aren't the highest quality handles. Cheap at Lowes though.
 
I like the looks of your octagonal handle. What pattern is the head? All I can guess is Puget Sound Falling.

I think you're right that I overworked the swell. I was pretty focused on making everything octagonal. I'll take your advice and go a little easier on the next one. Thanks for the advice. I really appreciate the help.
 
Yes, that's a PS Falling axe.

I've noticed that younger hands don't mind the poor grip of a small swell as much as older hands do. OTOH, if I had paid more attention to such things when I was younger my hands probably wouldn't feel as old as they do now.
 
Got another one done. It's a 4 pound red warrior. Had it ready for a while, but I couldn't decide what to do about the red paint job. Finally decided to finish it off.

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I'm a newbie on here and only recently (hour ago) found this particular thread. Nice to see, and hear, that there are dedicated folks still out there that know what they're doing and aren't all hot air espousing about what they've been told, and read about on the Net, and thinking a $500 Yuppie-custom item is superior to a $5 garage sale foundling. The head shots (showing the end grain, and placement of wedges) immediately tell me that. There is nothing perfect in wood and that frankly is the real beauty of all this and you do 'read' right.
Like an idiot I bought a stainless steel and synthetic stock hi-power bolt rifle from Ruger 15 years ago in anticipation of draconian Canadian gun laws coming into effect. Sure that particular gun was state of the art and doesn't rust or 'move' but also proved to be downright cold and impersonal for my purposes.
I contacted the manufacturer not long after and ordered "a" walnut stock and paid a premium for 'making sure of the wood grain' and ensuring it fit on one of their synthetic offerings. Took me 6 months all told but this got me a modern rifle that still shoots straight and has a 'warm to the feel/live' fit.
Perhaps I'm old and prejudiced but hefting plastic vs wood is like comparing a warm body to a 'stiff'. No life there!
 
Thanks Chris.

I'm pretty proud of the Red Warrior. It wasn't cheap at $35' but you don't find many 4 pound double bits. I didn't paint it. It took me a while to decide to leave the red paint on it. Pretty happy with how it turned out. Hopefully my children will appreciate my collection.
 
Damn Square Peg, that is one good looking axe... especially like the haft. I wish you'd start up a handle company, then I could stop buying the "premium" ones from House Handle and reworking them before they get hung.
 
Square_peg said:
Fantastic! Great grind and a perfect haft.
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Thanks. Your opinion means a lot. It's amazing what a difference an extra 1/2 pound makes. The Red Warrior feels substantially heavier than my 3.5 pounders. It would take a little getting used to for felling. I could see myself getting tired pretty quickly swinging it at undercuts. It should be pretty nice for splitting though.
 
halfaxe said:
Idle I think that looks good as a practice for fitting and balance. Good job on the shape and wedge too. But that wood won't hold up to serious chopping.
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It lasted two days... I tried to split a 8" seasoned oak round and it cracked right down the center.

I've too much time in this one to do dumb things with it like the last one.

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It's mystery wood... I soaked it in BLO all night after 50 grit. It seemed like a good idea, maybe it got better penetration. After gumming up a sheet of 120, I got the gouges out with another sheet of 120 then took it to 320.

It was a small limb, I goofed and got carried away at the end. Had intended on it being centered completely. Also, did'nt account for a swell on the sides and later realized I wanted a bigger one, so I scabbed the cutoffs to the end and shaped it. If it breaks off, I'll wrap it with my old rawhide bootlaces or something.

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Anyone seen this wood before? I've no idea what it is.

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A couple leaves that were on one piece.

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Oh, and I rehung the mighty mite. The heads been on upside down and a little crooked since I got it a decade ago.

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Thanks Warner. I'm pretty proud of that one. Got lucky getting it for the price I did and found a good haft for it. Now I want to find a Red Warrior Jersey pattern.

Later
 
Here is my true temper Kelly perfect I finished. Just finished it today. I have to say it feels pretty good to take it from what it was to what it is now. This is my first axe I've ever restored and re hung. It's the original handle and I was happy tht I could save it. My wedge job isn't the best but the original handle was missing some material so I compensated by using and oversized wedge to make sure it filled in the gap. Can't wait to get a few more finished up to share and take to the woods.
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I did use it to split a few logs and it seems to be nice and tight no movement tht I can tell of. Hopefully she holds. I did soak it in linseed oil to try to keep it from drying out or splitting. Fingers crossed.
 
Mike,

You did an awesome job on that axe. It's cool that you were able to keep the original handle. It looks nice and tight to me. You might be able to tune up the wood protruding from the eye with a little judicious rasp work. I like the blue paint. That's pretty close to the original paint color. I was thinking about getting a KP powder coated with that color, just to try to make it look original.

Later.
 
Yeah I wish I could find more pics of original color schemes and what not. I have quite a few more axes I'm starting to restore and would like to try to keep it as close to original as possible. On the Kelly I just posted I just had at it didn't really try to keep it original other than the way the head was painted, I do believe there was a pic somewhere with it painted like tht so I just went with it. It's actually a satin black paint. Hopefully ill have many more to post in the near future :)
 
Sometimes you can find some old advertisement posters on ebay. You don't have to buy them, but they can give you some good ideas about colors. That' the reason I left the paint on the Red Warrior earlier in this post. Paint comes off anyway. You did a good job of getting it in the right places.
 
Thanks for the tip it's cool that the old ads have in the description the color because the pics are in black and white. I was able to find a few of my axes tht I'm getting ready to restore. :D also seems decent to date an axes age. Super cool.
 
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