What did you rehang today?
- Thread starter Irongun324
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- Mar 12, 2011
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Ack. Trying to post what should have been the first photo, with the handles on those two axes. The interweb doesn't like me today.
Thanks, G-pig. It'd be more beautiful if I'd cleaned it up before I took the photo. But the shape is awesome, I'm a big fan of that one.
Thanks, G-pig. It'd be more beautiful if I'd cleaned it up before I took the photo. But the shape is awesome, I'm a big fan of that one.
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Forgot these. 4 pound Craftsman Connecticut on a sweet salvaged old octagon handle, and a B&D hatchet rehung on its handle.
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- Nov 14, 2011
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love that John King. I have a KATCO boys axe but clearly yours looks older.
Love the octagonal handle and how it isn't octagonal at the end knob.
Love the octagonal handle and how it isn't octagonal at the end knob.
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Dang, Vintage! You've been a busy fellow.
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- Nov 11, 2011
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This old Plumb camp axe belongs to my wife's mother and she got it from her aunt years ago and there's some family history also. It was covered in rust and we both thought it was a no name until I cleaned on it some and found out it really was a plumb. I was pretty much able to just pull the head of the handle by hand and planned to put a new handle on it. That pretty much brought tears to her eyes because it was her aunt's handle also and she just wanted it cleaned up etc. Well there was no way I could save the handle since there was not enough wood left to fit in the eye. So, very carefully and with considerable trouble, I pulled the handle you see off of another camp axe I had here and put her head on it. It too had issues but with a new wedge, a metal wedge, and a couple of pieces of hickory to shim the fit in various places I came up with this:
It is now solid as a rock, and the handle looks pretty much the same as the original handle did. She has not seen it yet but I plan to give it to her and say nothing about the handle and see if she realizes that it is not the original one. It's the best I can do and the only alternative I know of was to put a new handle on it and that she did not want.
Of course I now have an axe with no handle but I would like to put an octagonal handle on it anyway.
It is now solid as a rock, and the handle looks pretty much the same as the original handle did. She has not seen it yet but I plan to give it to her and say nothing about the handle and see if she realizes that it is not the original one. It's the best I can do and the only alternative I know of was to put a new handle on it and that she did not want.
Of course I now have an axe with no handle but I would like to put an octagonal handle on it anyway.
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Good job. I bet she'll be pleased.
On this and another forum I was asked where I got the axe head....It was Avalon Forge from Tom White....I am in love with it after very little clean up...no makers marks, just good clean fun. Oh and it was like $18 plus shipping if I remember right.
http://www.avalonforge.com/
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Catching up on documenting some recent works. This is probably the more interesting two thirds of what I've got hung lately... Some need a little more touching up but I needed a break from rasping and filing and sanding
View attachment 361148
6.5 pound(!) Kelly World's Finest and a WC Kelly Rockaway on what was a beefy old straight handle that I cut off, reshaped and put just a bit of curve into.
That's a axe! Never seen anything that big.
You have a lot of nice axes, thanks for the pictures.
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- May 19, 2009
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2.25 lb Plumb on a 21.5" slim curved octagonal I carved from one of the hickory blanks I got in recently. Girlfriend happened to be over yesterday and took the odd picture as I worked:
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And the final product after I sharpened 'er up and wedged it with some cherrywood:
- Joined
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Yeah - I think it was originally a boy's axe head (maybe 2.5 lb), but enough of the edge had been filed away over the years to make it look silly on a 28". Believe I got it for $10 or $15 because it looked rather used and might not have had much good metal left. File testing it though, it seemed to have a decent 1-1.5" or so left of well-tempered metal. I had to remove a lot off the cheeks to compensate for the geometry, but now it seems solid. Plumbs are pretty dang nice and generally quite affordable (a lot cheaper than equivalent vintage axes with more famous stampings)
Ha - I actually had a very similar conversation with my elderly neighbor that same day on my way to the store: "You know - you're such a nice young lad, but that mop on 'yer head doesn't make you look it. When are you gonna get it cut?"
As to the questions, I used seasoned cherrywood for the wedge - you can see the remaining stump to the tree it came from in the background. Cherrywood has been working pretty well for me - it's hardwood yet still compresses a bit even when dry. The Keen Kutter Jersey pictured is also wedged with the stuff (without a metal crosswedge) and hasn't seen any loosening despite having been used for some splitting and chopping tasks.
Oh and I did all the initial shaping with my 3 lb 28" Keen Kutter, the majority of the carving with my GB wildlife hatchet (only really used a knife for the tight curves at the handle and behind the shoulder) then hung it in this state:
It wasn't until after I hung and wedged it that I rasped down a few high spots and sanded with 100 grit for the final pics above.
