What did you rehang today?

[junkenstien]

Second time for pictures

 

[AaronGP]

Last weekend, while doing some trail building work with a friend, we noticed that her smaller axe had a head that was ready to come off. Since she knows how much I like playing with these things, and that I'll do a more patient and thorough job than she would, she gave it to me to rehang. For those who will be curious, that axe is a Hultafors Agdor felling axe, 2.5#, on a 28-inch handle.

Even though the head was pretty loose that didn't mean it was ready to come completely off, at least not in a safe fashion, so I spent a while working the pieces of the wooden wedge out. Pieces, you say? Yeah, pieces, because Hultafors uses those steel ring wedges when they assemble the axe, and they're kind of a pain in the butt to get out. Eventually I had the two, outer pieces of the wood wedge removed, and then I drilled out the core of the ring wedge since the handle wood left in there was nothing to speak of.

Either from the initial assembly or through hard use on the trail there was some splitting of the handle, front and back, as well as a little damage to the lower front from over strikes. Consequently I decided to set the head about a quarter inch lower than where it had originally been at. I managed this through a little work with a rasp. I then cut the slot for the wedge lower as well.

With that all done I soaked a new wooden wedge and some wedge pieces in boiled linseed oil and then hammered them home.

It's now sitting in BLO, wrapped up in paper towels and plastic, until tomorrow afternoon when I'll trim the wedges and proud down to a reasonable length. After that I'll let the freshly revealed wood soak in BLO again and then I'll clean it up, fine tune the bit, and give it back to her.

 

[A17]

Last weekend, while doing some trail building work with a friend, we noticed that her smaller axe had a head that was ready to come off. Since she knows how much I like playing with these things, and that I'll do a more patient and thorough job than she would, she gave it to me to rehang. For those who will be curious, that axe is a Hultafors Agdor felling axe, 2.5#, on a 28-inch handle.

Even though the head was pretty loose that didn't mean it was ready to come completely off, at least not in a safe fashion, so I spent a while working the pieces of the wooden wedge out. Pieces, you say? Yeah, pieces, because Hultafors uses those steel ring wedges when they assemble the axe, and they're kind of a pain in the butt to get out. Eventually I had the two, outer pieces of the wood wedge removed, and then I drilled out the core of the ring wedge since the handle wood left in there was nothing to speak of.

Either from the initial assembly or through hard use on the trail there was some splitting of the handle, front and back, as well as a little damage to the lower front from over strikes. Consequently I decided to set the head about a quarter inch lower than where it had originally been at. I managed this through a little work with a rasp. I then cut the slot for the wedge lower as well.

With that all done I soaked a new wooden wedge and some wedge pieces in boiled linseed oil and then hammered them home.

It's now sitting in BLO, wrapped up in paper towels and plastic, until tomorrow afternoon when I'll trim the wedges and proud down to a reasonable length. After that I'll let the freshly revealed wood soak in BLO again and then I'll clean it up, fine tune the bit, and give it back to her.

Hey, did that TTFE double bit ever make it to you, or does the post office still have it?

 

[AaronGP]

Hey, did that TTFE double bit ever make it to you, or does the post office still have it?

It did not. Eventually USPS admitted defeat and just stopped sending me status reports.

 

[AaronGP]

Here's a couple of pictures of the axe from my above post, now finished with everything trimmed and cleaned up. The first picture gives you an "eye-on" view so you can see how the wedges came out. The second picture is "poll-on" so you can see how the handle spread nicely to lock the head in place. The third picture just shows the steel ring wedge and the tiny wooden wedge that came out of it.

 

[AaronGP]

After working on my friend's Hultafors axe I decided that mine needed some TLC as well, especially with regards to the handle, which had a whole bunch of paint on it. I started out by making sure that the bit had a good grind on it and was made nice and sharp.

From there I got to work on the handle. I first stripped all the paint off of it and then sanded it down further to get rid of the last of the paint as well as the old finishing on the surface of the wood. When it came time to refinish the handle I decided I wanted to add a little color to it, so I put on several coats of Minwax wood stain in a color called Sedona Red, and then did several coatings of Tung Oil.

I'm pretty happy with how everything came out!

Oh, and I used my rasp to add a little jimping to the pommel end of the handle since it didn't have all that much swell.

 

[Square_peg]

Oh, and I used my rasp to add a little jumping to the pommel end of the handle since it didn't have all that much swell.

That's a good idea.

Another less elegant but very effective way to increase the grip is with a little friction tape on the swell.

 

[AaronGP]

That's a good idea.

Another less elegant but very effective way to increase the grip is with a little friction tape on the swell.

Yeah, I thought of that, but I like to try to avoid things that can get worn out or torn up too quickly or easily in the field. I'm hoping that this, somewhat more minimalist choice, will hold up better while still being effective.

 

[Hickory n steel]

Finished scraping down and rehanging this Vaughan #99.

 

[Hickory n steel]

Did a standard clean up and rehang of another Vaughan #99.

 

[junkenstien]

1 lb14 oz head 25 inch ironwood handle.

 

[Flyrod444]

I've had this head for a while. It is the first head I've hung on a handle I made from hickory I cut and dried. Head weighed 3 pounds 4 oz. I made the handle 34" which works well for me being a little taller than average.

 

[Square_peg]

That turned out great! Good shape to it. Must have taken hours.

 

[Flyrod444]

Thanks, I probably have around 4 hours hands on in making it and hanging the head. Luckily I have a woodshop that helps. Used band saw to rough out, a oscillating spindle sander to rough shape, and hand scrapers to finish shaping.

 

[Charlie_K]

What do you do about the mushrooming on the back end of the axe head?

 

[Flyrod444]

What do you do about the mushrooming on the back end of the axe head?

I used a file to remove most of the mushrooming and then used a 3" disk sanding head in a angle drill to smooth it out. I used 180 grit sanding disc on the 3" head. I also use this 3" sanding head to touch up the edge after filing. It gives me a razer edge in seconds after spending some time filing the edge first. It's so quick that it doesn't heat up the edge any. The rest of the head was cleaned up with side grinder and wire cup attachment.

 

[AaronGP]

I've had this head for a while. It is the first head I've hung on a handle I made from hickory I cut and dried. Head weighed 3 pounds 4 oz. I made the handle 34" which works well for me being a little taller than average.

Beautiful work! Well done!

 

[Charlie_K]

I have an old 6 pound sledge hammer head that I'd like to put on a new handle. Eye size is 1" by 1.5". Any recommendation for what brand of hammer I should be looking for?

 

[Square_peg]

Welcome to House Handle Company

 

[Charlie_K]

So this is my rehanging attempt.

Here's what it used to look like:

And here's what it looks like now:

I didn't want to paint it, but I have no skill at hand polishing metal and couldn't make the surface look like it was brand new with all the pock marks it had underneath all the rust. And the naval jelly said to coat the surface within 24 hours.