Square_peg
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Looks good. Light head on a long handle makes for a handy axe.
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What did you rehang today?
- Thread starter Irongun324
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Turned out great, wdmn! That looks like a mean half-banana grind you've put on that thing and I like the idea of a boy's axe head on a longer handle. Offers a good bit more power in the chop while still having the benefits of a lighter head. My 3lb head on a 31" handle is my go-to axe, but it does eventually strain the forearm if I choke up on it for too long. I might have to give the idea a try if I can find a good 2-2.5 lb head to restore.
As for the awkwardness of using the axe in limbing, are you using the full length of the handle? You can always bring your grip up as needed - it doesn't always have to be at the swell. I'll often grip at the 3/4th point or even further up when I'm limbing with a 30-32" handle - it feels perfectly natural to me. If you look over the Mclaren axe manual you'll see that he alters his grip all throughout. When bucking, it's at the swell for the bottom notch, a bit higher for the mid, and ~3/4th for the top. He also chokes up to the 3/4th point when limbing and chopping around a knot.
As for the awkwardness of using the axe in limbing, are you using the full length of the handle? You can always bring your grip up as needed - it doesn't always have to be at the swell. I'll often grip at the 3/4th point or even further up when I'm limbing with a 30-32" handle - it feels perfectly natural to me. If you look over the Mclaren axe manual you'll see that he alters his grip all throughout. When bucking, it's at the swell for the bottom notch, a bit higher for the mid, and ~3/4th for the top. He also chokes up to the 3/4th point when limbing and chopping around a knot.
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Thanks guys. It is handy and a lot of fun to use.
Killa, I wanted to go for the full banana grind, but the top of my c-clamp is always getting in the way of the file as I move up the cheek, or else I start scraping into the axe higher up on the cheek (you can see some of those lines in the photos of this one). Not sure if I'm doing something wrong technically or if it's just a result of my mickey mouse set up.
I did do some limbing choking up on the handle. It was a particularly difficult space because these three trees were felled by hydro and piled in a heap on top of each other on the bank of a pond. Trying to get in there and keep my balance was difficult, and there was not a lot of room. You're right, it would probably not be a problem in most situations. That said I had never thought about this technically, and this is a super useful link that will no doubt improve my technique. So thank you very much.
Killa, I wanted to go for the full banana grind, but the top of my c-clamp is always getting in the way of the file as I move up the cheek, or else I start scraping into the axe higher up on the cheek (you can see some of those lines in the photos of this one). Not sure if I'm doing something wrong technically or if it's just a result of my mickey mouse set up.
I did do some limbing choking up on the handle. It was a particularly difficult space because these three trees were felled by hydro and piled in a heap on top of each other on the bank of a pond. Trying to get in there and keep my balance was difficult, and there was not a lot of room. You're right, it would probably not be a problem in most situations. That said I had never thought about this technically, and this is a super useful link that will no doubt improve my technique. So thank you very much.
Turned out nice.
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wdmn,
I am unskilled at doing some of these grinds but one thing I noticed was the c clamp getting in your way- maybe try clamping a 1.5" thick board to the bench just behind the head and clamping the handle to secure the axe? I have used this setup and works good for me.- Sometimes I have to place a wedge between axe head and bench for added support or change the angle of the head.
GREAT job on that axe by the way!
Bill
I am unskilled at doing some of these grinds but one thing I noticed was the c clamp getting in your way- maybe try clamping a 1.5" thick board to the bench just behind the head and clamping the handle to secure the axe? I have used this setup and works good for me.- Sometimes I have to place a wedge between axe head and bench for added support or change the angle of the head.
GREAT job on that axe by the way!
Bill
With the quality of work here, I am reluctant to post pics of my work but what the heck...
I really love the way these are going so far.
Plumb in a rehandle, aside from burrs there was no metal work aside from smoothing corners, head was dropped 1" to shoulder, came with bad gouging in throat that lead to the sweep you see, split and chunks missing from butt- fixed the split and filled chunks with marine tex(only had white on hand). LOVE this little axe!
TT Flint edge boys axe, hung on a hardware store Symour handle, butt recut and like the burl. Still need to clean the head, remove mushrooming and resharpen. 3lbs ready to roll.
Warren 2.75lb fire axe- head looks new, slimmed down a 32" full sized Seymour axe handle to work with the head, recut butt. This will be my crash axe in vehicle.
Bill
I really love the way these are going so far.
Plumb in a rehandle, aside from burrs there was no metal work aside from smoothing corners, head was dropped 1" to shoulder, came with bad gouging in throat that lead to the sweep you see, split and chunks missing from butt- fixed the split and filled chunks with marine tex(only had white on hand). LOVE this little axe!
TT Flint edge boys axe, hung on a hardware store Symour handle, butt recut and like the burl. Still need to clean the head, remove mushrooming and resharpen. 3lbs ready to roll.
Warren 2.75lb fire axe- head looks new, slimmed down a 32" full sized Seymour axe handle to work with the head, recut butt. This will be my crash axe in vehicle.
Bill
Square_peg
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3 beauties there. I like the work you did patching up the swell on that Plumb. (Runs off to google marine tex.)
Vintage handles with good swells deserved to be saved. That's a clever way of fixing one up.
Vintage handles with good swells deserved to be saved. That's a clever way of fixing one up.
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Okay I was looking at yesteryear tools at the kelly section and it stated kelly was based in LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY 1874-1897+
Is the Fall City a reference to Louisville? So is this axe possibly that old?
i roughed out this piece of vine maple when it was green and threw it in the Conner of my garage for a few months, spent the last two weeks slowly shaping it into a haft. the handle follows the core along its whole length and it wedged with some yellow cedar.
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Excellent! Good Job!
It was cut down about 9 months ago and left in a 5ft section out side off the ground for a month. Then I roughed it out to pound in some stakes on a trail project and thought it might be useful again so I put it in the corner of the garage and forgot about it. About a month ago I was tying to figure out how to haft that broad axe and remembered i had that vine maple, it looked like it was just big enough and offset the right way so I moved it beside the furnace for 3 weeks then started carving. I should have oiled and waxed the end grain, the bottom end that was thinned down a lot when green cheeked pretty bad and stared to split when I was hammering on it. The top was curred as a sold log so it didn't cheek very much but I carved that close to it's finel size first so it could shrink some more befor I cut and wedged it.
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Awesome job, DH. That broad axe looks ready to work! Beautiful canoe also! Any pics of the rest of the canoe?
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Based on info from yesteryearstools.com,
If it says "Kelly Works" it's from 1930 or later.
If it says "True Temper" it could be from as early as 1938 (or perhaps earlier?)
[see next post]
The "Falls City" stamping is one of their brands.
Acquisition of Kelly Axe Mfg. Co. and Operation as Kelly Works 1930-1949+
Corporation Name Changed to True Temper 1949-1987+
from http://www.yesteryearstools.com/Yesteryears%20Tools/American%20Fork%20%26%20Hoe%20Co..html
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1949 is the year that American Fork and Hoe (owner of Kelly Axe since 1930) changed the A.F.&H. name to True Temper, BUT there were some True Temper axes out there before 1949. Here's an ad from 1941 for True Temper axes:
http://books.google.com/books?id=iycDAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA221&dq=%22true%20temper%22%20axe&pg=PA221#v=onepage&q=%22true%20temper%22%20axe&f=false
American Fork & Hoe was using the True Temper brand as early as 1907:
http://books.google.com/books?id=oUDnAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22true%20temper%22%20axe&pg=PA52#v=onepage&q=%22true%20temper%22%20axe&f=false(scroll down)
True Temper Kelly Perfect Axes were being advertised in 1938:
http://books.google.com/books?id=JQNEAAAAIAAJ&q=%22true+temper%22+axe&dq=%22true+temper%22+axe&hl=en&sa=X&ei=rAtrU42OC8n4oAS4_oH4Ag&ved=0CG4Q6AEwCQ
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I completely forgot I had this little mini hatchet in the bottom of my knife box. Spent the day making a handle for it and rehanging it. All I used was some old firewood that had a nice straight grain and no cracks (douglas fir). I figure the hatchet is small enough that this kind of wood would be alright... At least for a while. We will see!
PS- anyone know the maker? "FB" is marked on both sides.
PS- anyone know the maker? "FB" is marked on both sides.
First double bit rehang: Welland Vale True Temper Black Prince.
When purchased this axe was on a handle, but the tongue only came 3/4 up the eye.
In order to remove the rust I used first a synthetic dish scrubbie, then a brass dish scrubbie and some water with dissolved sea salts.
THen I drilled a few holes in the wedge and used a makeshift swedge and a lot of patience to knock the handle out.
I did some minor reshaping of the handle focusing on thinning the shoulders and the grip of the handle.
Tried to get full banana grinds going, especially on the chopping side... still not quite thin enough to fit the gauge from "An axe to grind" (thanks killa), but almost there. Man this steel is hard; I was using a brand new grobet double cut file and it was hard to get it to bite.
The kerf had to be deepened. Unfortunately it was cut off of centre, and I found this to be more significant to the outcome than in the case of single bit axes.. Maybe this was just on account of my lack of experience with double bits...
I think because of the off centre kerf I could not get this head to sit properly. I tried for a long time to make adjustments but it only seemed to be getting worse. In the end I hanged it anyway, which might have been foolish. I felt sort of sick putting in all that work and then driving it home when I was not happy with it.
Will have a chance to put it to work this weekend.
Thanks for looking,
wdmn.
When purchased this axe was on a handle, but the tongue only came 3/4 up the eye.
In order to remove the rust I used first a synthetic dish scrubbie, then a brass dish scrubbie and some water with dissolved sea salts.
THen I drilled a few holes in the wedge and used a makeshift swedge and a lot of patience to knock the handle out.
I did some minor reshaping of the handle focusing on thinning the shoulders and the grip of the handle.
Tried to get full banana grinds going, especially on the chopping side... still not quite thin enough to fit the gauge from "An axe to grind" (thanks killa), but almost there. Man this steel is hard; I was using a brand new grobet double cut file and it was hard to get it to bite.
The kerf had to be deepened. Unfortunately it was cut off of centre, and I found this to be more significant to the outcome than in the case of single bit axes.. Maybe this was just on account of my lack of experience with double bits...
I think because of the off centre kerf I could not get this head to sit properly. I tried for a long time to make adjustments but it only seemed to be getting worse. In the end I hanged it anyway, which might have been foolish. I felt sort of sick putting in all that work and then driving it home when I was not happy with it.
Will have a chance to put it to work this weekend.
Thanks for looking,
wdmn.
I completely forgot I had this little mini hatchet in the bottom of my knife box. Spent the day making a handle for it and rehanging it. All I used was some old firewood that had a nice straight grain and no cracks (douglas fir). I figure the hatchet is small enough that this kind of wood would be alright... At least for a while. We will see!
PS- anyone know the maker? "FB" is marked on both sides.
nice, i would guess "FB" are the initials of the previous owner. looks like some nice tight gain fir, is that hart wood or sap wood? i haven't used Douglas-fir for percussion tools but i think the hart wood would be less likely to splinter. any way i would treat it with lots of thinned down oil so it can soak deep into the wood.
looks like a good hang to me, the center-line of the axe it perpendicular to the haft and has good contact with the eye. it can be tricky to get the cutting edge parallel with the haft but that's not very noticeable when chopping. you want to see if the edge is siting inline with the haft before its thinned down to much so you can remove some wood from the bottom of one of the hafts tongues and the top half of the other. it shouldn't matter if the kerf is off center just ignore it then adjust the wedge to fit once the head is siting good.