Well I found a manky axe in the local woods a week or so ago and I thought id clean it up and re-handle it, I'm not that familiar with axes I've been using my Martindale golok for any chopping so this is the first time I've re-handled one and I'm quite pleased with the result it feels great, I'm going camping for a few nights in a few days so ill try it out then.
First of all I knocked out the old handle and took the mushrooming off the back of the blade with a file then I left it in paint stripper over night to remove the remaining paint the soaked it in vinegar the next night to remove all the rust which there was a lot of, then started working on the edge, first I created a V grind so I could get it symetrical then I convexed the shoulders, I then got a piece of wood with some foam mattress stook to it pinned some sand paper to it and just went through the grits up to 2500 it now pops hairs very easily.
The handle arrived this morning which is a 24" hickory ebay special, it was a bit rough but it cleaned up well with sandpaper but it was absoultely solid it took me ages to shape it to fit the head, I finaly finished the handle with some dutch oil.
This is how it used to look:
Now it looks like this:
First of all I knocked out the old handle and took the mushrooming off the back of the blade with a file then I left it in paint stripper over night to remove the remaining paint the soaked it in vinegar the next night to remove all the rust which there was a lot of, then started working on the edge, first I created a V grind so I could get it symetrical then I convexed the shoulders, I then got a piece of wood with some foam mattress stook to it pinned some sand paper to it and just went through the grits up to 2500 it now pops hairs very easily.
The handle arrived this morning which is a 24" hickory ebay special, it was a bit rough but it cleaned up well with sandpaper but it was absoultely solid it took me ages to shape it to fit the head, I finaly finished the handle with some dutch oil.
This is how it used to look:
Now it looks like this:
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