What did you rehang today?

Miller '72 · Apr 6, 2019

Agent_H said:
Miller '72 , is that dark piece in there from filling a void left by a steel wedge?
Nice work on those, I especially like the lines on the Dunlop's handle.

Hi AgentH thank you and yes. I carved a piece of dark walnut to fit in place of the metal step.

The pictures do not do the handle on the Dunlap justice, thank you.

Yankee Josh · Apr 6, 2019

I know this is going to bug some of you but nice handles are rare enough so I decided to hang the craftsman on a new haft and save the one it came on.

Also it's a #4-3.1oz head so a tad large for a 30" haft in my opinion. I thinned out the ames haft (from HD) significantly and shaped a fawns foot on it. Here's a few wedge curls. (Yellow birch)

Another one hung! Thanks for looking. Take care all!

Fmont · Apr 6, 2019

It don't bug me at all! Your tools, your call is the bottom line. It's a nice looking haft, I probably would've made the same call.

Downwindtracker2 · Apr 6, 2019

Wood stretchers are getting hard to find. Looks good

Yankee Josh · Apr 6, 2019

Downwindtracker2 said:
Wood stretchers are getting hard to find. Looks good

Exactly! There's an over abundance of 36" hafts. And the longer I collect the more I appreciate 28"-32" hafts.

phantomknives · Apr 6, 2019

Yankee Josh said:
I know this is going to bug some of you but nice handles are rare enough so I decided to hang the craftsman on a new haft and save the one it came on. View attachment 1105508
Also it's a #4-3.1oz head so a tad large for a 30" haft in my opinion. I thinned out the ames haft (from HD) significantly and shaped a fawns foot on it. Here's a few wedge curls. (Yellow birch) View attachment 1105515 View attachment 1105516
View attachment 1105517 View attachment 1105518

Another one hung! Thanks for looking. Take care all!

that's half the reason i buy axes

Square_peg · Apr 7, 2019

I think you've done the right thing. Looks great!

Yankee Josh · Apr 7, 2019

Square_peg said:
I think you've done the right thing. Looks great!

Well thank you! It's nice to keep things original when possible but I just couldn't in this case. It's a good, solid axe with a high center line but I'm not all that crazy about this craftsman. The steel is good but not overly hard. It's nice to see a large craftsman! I don't seem to come across that many larger ones. Just came in from doing some chopping with it. The felled trees I'm chopping on are still frozen stiff but even so It did pretty well. I need to thin it out just a tad more. It's at 25° now. I'll bring it down to 22.5° which is about as sharp an angle as I want to go with this steel. I finally purchased an angle gauge last week. It's been fun to see where I ended up with all these axes I've been filing by eye alone. Most are between 20°-25°. With a micro bevel of course.

Flyrod444 · Apr 8, 2019

Found this axe under a house rusting in the dirt of the craw space when working on heating unit. The toe was worn back around 1/2" so much so that I decided to shape it into a rockway pattern since a lot of grinding was required for getting the bit in a little better shape. I've been trying to find a nice rockway for a while but they go for way more than I'm willing to pay. This council jersey pattern was perfect for this mod since I had zero money in it and it wasn't worth much in the shape it was in. Bit seems to be good. https://www.flickr.com/gp/151218421@N07/F63ut6
https://flic.kr/p/24RPLpP

Brian Rust · Apr 9, 2019

Recently went to an auction that is put on by an Amish community about an hour from my house. I found this axe and a Flint Edge badly worn. The flinty was $3 so I got it. But the red warrior was a great find. It had this replacement handle on it. I know it was a replacement because the way it was hung (smashed onto the tongue about 2” from the shoulders with a wood wedge that went about 1/2” deep). This handle has an amazing shape though. Very large swell very thin and a tapered oval. I used walnut as a wedge and cut this one off flush. Thanks for looking!

Brian Rust · Apr 9, 2019

Well like I said a few pages back, when I find one I usually find more. Here is another BSA hatchet. i think it is original handle but not sure. It does not have a knob end like the others I have but it had the screw in wedge. I had to repare a spot on the fawns foot. I made a small wood wedge opening up the splintered cracks and filled it with wood glue. After it dried I sanded it a little and filled some voids with glue and saw dust. Then sanded it again after it cured. Just hand sanded with 220. The color stayed pretty consistent which I was happy about. Thanks for lookin!

Downwindtracker2 · Apr 11, 2019

Do It brand ? With gas prices soaring on this side of the border, we gassed up her Jeep in Lynden Washington." Since we are down here, let's go to Hardware Sales in Bellingham". A truly great hardware store. I needed a 28" haft, copper rivets for a sheath and stainless steel pipe couplings. I was hoping to find a good haft at less than $30 they are around here. Instead they had Do It brand, a hardware chain brand I take it. Orangey, with grain at 45 degrees, at least it was only $10 USD. That was the best one by a long shot. The tag said for a 2 1/2#, which it was going on. A small eye, no woodwork was needed, in fact epoxy filler had to be used.

Frozen Bear Trading · Apr 11, 2019

Would making a walnut handle for a small axe or pick be a bad idea ? I just finished 2 and have a bunch of walnut. I know the standard is hickory

phantomknives · Apr 11, 2019

well, probably for a really small hatchet or a straight handle for a normal sized head

Yankee Josh · Apr 11, 2019

Frozen Bear Trading said:
Would making a walnut handle for a small axe or pick be a bad idea ? I just finished 2 and have a bunch of walnut. I know the standard is hickory

This is the second black walnut haft I made for this scout hatchet. The first one i messed up and did some testing with to see if I could break it. I was able to, with much abuse, break it off at the narrowest area right below the eye. But as phantomknives mentioned I also would suggest only a small head. I'm pretty sure a heavier head would've snapped it much sooner.

ithinkverydeeply · Apr 11, 2019

Yankee Josh said:
View attachment 1108837
This is the second black walnut haft I made for this scout hatchet. The first one i messed up and did some testing with to see if I could break it. I was able to, with much abuse, break it off at the narrowest area right below the eye. But as phantomknives mentioned I also would suggest only a small head. I'm pretty sure a heavier head would've snapped it much sooner.

Looks beautiful!

Brian Rust · Apr 12, 2019

I also have a large supply of black walnut locally grown in my area. I have made three or four hammer handles out of it. All of them have broke off at the bottom of the eye. It is a porous grain wood and pretty brittle. It’s nothing I would want to depend on but for a small hatchet that would not receive abuse or even hard use of any kind I’m sure it would work. I would use it for a wall hanger if I had a head I felt worthy to not be used.

Frozen Bear Trading · Apr 12, 2019

Brian Rust said:
I also have a large supply of black walnut locally grown in my area. I have made three or four hammer handles out of it. All of them have broke off at the bottom of the eye. It is a porous grain wood and pretty brittle. It’s nothing I would want to depend on but for a small hatchet that would not receive abuse or even hard use of any kind I’m sure it would work. I would use it for a wall hanger if I had a head I felt worthy to not be used.

Thank you. Saved me a ton of time and heart ache and maybe a foot or face lol

Brian Rust · Apr 13, 2019

I tried so hard because walnut is a beautiful wood. And a hammer handle is much easier than an axe handle but a full size axe handle would never last with use.

Yankee Josh · Apr 13, 2019

I've hung 4 axes since I've had time to take pics and post anything. Geez. Spring time in Maine. You better git while the gittens good work wise. This axes stamp is a rectangle with no legible letters in it at all. But it's an overlaid bit with an irregular shaped eye. So I'm willing to bet it's a Maine made head.

I saved this particular haft for this one due to the large eye.

Some wedge curls. Yellow birch.

And the finished product! This is hung on a New England handle co. haft.

This is one of those axes that even though you don't know who made it you can recognize it's quality. The steel is just about perfect. Just awesome! Thanks for checking out my newest one!