What did you rehang today?

Siskiyou Woodsman said:
Didn't know your not supposed to destroy the patina, but it was really beat up with red paint for patina so I did the clean and polish thing.
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I think what you did here looks fantastic. The rule of thumb about preserving the patina (at least in my opinion) is because we've all seen too many nice old axes where some idjit decided to "clean it up" with an angle grinder, leaving an ugly mess of random swirled scratches and gouges all over the thing, mixed with plenty of pitting and some of the original patina showing through in places. If you take the whole thing down to bare metal and give it a consistent actual finish as you did, it looks nice.

I would not refinish a very old antique, but on a user, the slick polished metal should actually perform better, letting the head slide through wood easier.
 
SC T100 said:
Interesting. . . does anyone know the range of the =CRAFTSMAN= axes? I have tried a few times to date them, and it seems like the information is all over the place.
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You've probably seen this thread on Craftsman stamps:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1045932-Craftsman-stamps?highlight=craftsman

Seems like matching a stamp to a date is a difficult thing to determine. FWIW I bought this double bit from Sears in Kalamazoo, Michigan in the mid 1970's:
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Bob
 
Dad has been bringing me home a bunch of stuff from auctions lately, including this Hudson Bay pattern head. It is unmarked, but has some of the distinctive bronze colored finish I've seen on Norlunds. It weighs 35 ounces, and it just so happens that I had a decent boy's axe handle already.

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It needed some thinning and tweaking, but at least the grain was good.
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Because this pattern doesn't provide as much eye contact with the wood, I decided to use steel wedges right off the bat. I prefer to use 2 small wedges instead of one larger one- it seems to distribute the pressure more evenly which reduces the chance for splitting the handle.
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the possum said:
Dad has been bringing me home a bunch of stuff from auctions lately, including this Hudson Bay pattern head. It is unmarked, but has some of the distinctive bronze colored finish I've seen on Norlunds. It weighs 35 ounces, and it just so happens that I had a decent boy's axe handle already.

hb%20boys%201_zpsgwjrlrw8.jpg
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Dads are great! I like the head, and it looks great on that nice handle.
 
Good looking Hudson Bay possum. I have one of the ridged eye/boxier ones that makes swift work of limbs.

Any markings under the poll?
 
the possum said:
No markings anywhere that I could find. And yeah, my dad is great. :)
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It looks like probably a 1.75lb head based on that being a boy's axe handle. As far as I know the two most common vintage makers of that sized Hudson Bay are Collins and Snow & Nealley. All of the Collins heads that I have seen are clearly marked, and S&N heads are known for very light markings. It could be anything but S&N would be my first guess.
 
jblyttle said:
It looks like probably a 1.75lb head based on that being a boy's axe handle.
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I weighed it before mounting, and it's a smidge under 35 ounces. So I guess that's close enough to call it a two and a quarter pound head. The handle was 28 inches, but since the eye is so short it ended up more like 26.
 
This is a Collins Legitimus that made its way here from Maine (thank you JB). Don’t come across the Connecticut often – at least I don’t around here.

It had some mushrooming that kind of started at the top of the arm and hammer. Wasn’t that bad per say and it looked pretty neat but I kept going back and forth on whether to alter it. I used a 2.5lb hammer to knock some of it back into place. The head/eye was kept duct taped to not mess with the finish while I filed the remaining mushrooming out. The maker’s marks stayed intact. The patina is dark enough that I don’t feel bad about the quickie bluing I did on the poll.
Before
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Doesn’t look too bad on this side but on being on both sides, it made me think twice every time I picked it up from the poll end.
After
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It’s on a 32” octagonalized House Handle that I thinned out some just following the existing planes and then sanding. It is definitely octagonal but I can’t seem to catch the ridges with my camera (my phone) outside. BLO/Spirits/Danish oil mix brought out the grain some and dried smooth. Took me a while to figure out raising the grain with a spray bottle then sanding several times gives a good finish.

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It has some toe wear but I tried to remove enough to give it more of and even edge. A full re-profile would remove too much I think. It’s sharp enough to do work and has a more uniform shape. Still working on the edge some.

My only gripe is the piece of wood I was using as a punch to knock the handle out during fitting split into three pieces. I hit twice more not realizing it and it dinged the tongue. I kept the file dust from fitting in a small jar and used it to pack the small dings with BLO. They look deeper than they are. I don’t think it will hurt anything – maybe add character… Other than that I am excited to try it out.
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Agent H, that looks great! Looks like a little heart wood swirling through the swell. A Connecticut pattern is on my list, but they seem hard to come by these days. Very nice work!
 
These were fixes more than anything. The 3lb hammers (Warren-Teed and Klein-Logan) just had to be cleaned, tightened, sanded and oiled/waxed. The Collins axe head was half way off of the nice Hartwell Bros replacement handle. I was able to pull the wedge and get the head off, clean it and then resurface the handle a bit. I had to seat the head lower for a good fit, cut off a bunch of excess and re-wedged with a piece of oak. BLO/beeswax, done. It was too nice a handle to cut off and burn.




 
Got to hand it to you JB you caught the hand tool bug quite well rather than succumb entirely to trying to profit from other folk's catching the same thing. Good for you! Keep an eye out for an elusive "undercutter" for me out of one of those $100 wheelbarrow loads of sales auction loot you manage to bring home on a weekly basis.
 
jblyttle said:
The Collins axe head was half way off of the nice Hartwell Bros replacement handle. I was able to pull the wedge and get the head off, clean it and then resurface the handle a bit. It was too nice a handle to cut off and burn.

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This is a sweet looking handle. Glad you were able to save it.
 
300Six said:
Got to hand it to you JB you caught the hand tool bug quite well rather than succumb entirely to trying to profit from other folk's catching the same thing. Good for you! Keep an eye out for an elusive "undercutter" for me out of one of those $100 wheelbarrow loads of sales auction loot you manage to bring home on a weekly basis.
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It's definitely love first, sell second. If I didn't love this stuff I wouldn't be doing this. I could do the same thing with porcelain dolls, beanie babies, sports memorabilia, etc. etc. etc....I just have no interest in that stuff.

I don't think of it as profiting, I look at it as "funding my addiction". Honestly speaking, finding stuff is at least as much fun for me as having stuff. I keep my favorites and also other tools that I just need like saws and grinders, files etc. but everything else pays for the few I keep plus my time.

Also, it's especially fun to send something to a forum member and have them be thrilled with it. That has happened many times, and the shared appreciation is very cool.

What is an undercutter?
 
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