bringing back the dead

[TJRoots]

the dead axe that is

i was recently helping my gran clear out her garage and found an old axe that belonged to my late granpa. i could tell straight away through the layers of rust and cobwebs that it is a good quality axe. sadly the blade was notched to hell and buried beneath more rust than you could shake a file at.

after many (many) hours of filing and frantically scrubbing with wire wool i have finally cleaned and reprofiled the head. now for the hard part, the old handle was very loose and unattractive so i've decided to rehandle it.

after much thought and consultation with my good friend peter t i have decided on using elm for the handle, strong and springy and a nice attractive colour.

so step one, acquire the wood, this is where being friends with a tree surgeon comes in handy

step two, split the wood, not easy to do with elm

many different wedges and much hammering later

then it was time to rough my chosen chunk of elm into a decent bit of wood to work with, the end result of that being this

and thats all my aching hands would allow me to do today, my next job is to mark out the shape i want and rough it out, i shall put pics and comments of that up once i have done it.

oppinions and advice more than welcome,

TJ

 

[Goatboy]

Good posting,
are you using the said axe to make it's new handle? Seems like a nice circle if you are.
GB

 

[welshwhit]

Sounds like a very nice project, I'll look forward to the next installment!

Drew

 

[Jack_D]

I'll be really interested to see how the next stage goes as I am in a similar position and I have tried to do one before but really struggled with the head alignment. It would be great to see how you manage that stage. Good luck

Jon

 

[Ruvio]

i'm waiting in anticipation for the next installment
good luck

 

[TJRoots]

Good posting,
are you using the said axe to make it's new handle? Seems like a nice circle if you are.
GB

Im afraid not, as nice as that would be said axe is currently without a handle.

I shall try and get some more done tomorrow to update for you all but after i've roughed it out i wont be able to do anything untill it has seasoned.

Thanks for all your support,

TJ

 

[woof]

Just yesterday, i was clearing out my dads shed, and came across a lovely little elwell axe, that is so light and well balanced its unreal. It does have what i think is the original handle, but it is much abused and in need of another.

Rob

 

[Tjurved]

Let it dry and make sure the wedge is bone dry. Nice work!

 

[TJRoots]

as i promised i got my **** in gear today and roughed it out, now all i can do is sit back and wait for it to season before i do anymore.

here it is ready for me to rough it out with the head on the left

here it is nearly done, just thought i'd snap up a pic whilst stopping for a smoke

and here it is roughed out and awaiting the harder parts

i really cant wait for it to season so i can get on and finish it, i know i could probably speed up the process somehow but i'd rather not risk it.

i'll let you all know when its ready for me to start work again,

TJ

 

[Willderness]

How long do you think it will take to season?

It's cruel to lead us on like this and then make us wait!

 

[TJRoots]

cruel to you? how do you think i feel?

im hoping no longer than a week now that i've roughed it out and minimised the amount of wood that needs to dry out and its being kept in a rather warm room.

i'll be back to work as soon as its ready,

TJ

 

[Scoffham]

make sure you seal the ends with wax/silicon. This gives a more even moisture loss... rather than it all from both ends- causing stresses within the wood- then splits.

 

[Mesquite]

......its being kept in a rather warm room.

I wouldn't keep it in a warm room as that'll make it dry out too fast and cause splits to form. Last thing you want is to do all the hard work and have it ruined by the wood splitting because it dried too fast.

Best bet is in a paper bag somewhere reasonably cool and airey and as Scoffham says treat the ends to get an even drying

 

[TJRoots]

ooh i didnt know about treating the ends, i'll seal them up with wax asap, and i'll see if i can relocate it to a cooler room, its in my bedroom at the moment which is always very warm.

thanks for the advice guys

TJ

 

[Colin.W]

I see you are using a cold chisel to split the trunk down, I use a couple of brick bolsters that I have put an edge on to get a nice straight line started, depending on the grain, knots etc it doesnt always stay straight but usually fairly good.

 

[TJRoots]

yeah i used that and a couple of wooden wedges, just whatever i had to hand really

TJ

 

[TJRoots]

hey, I'm really sorry about being so late to finish this post, during the long wait for the seasoning I completely forgot I'd started this post.

The axe is finished now and has been used a fair few times already, I'm afraid i didn't get any pictures of the rest of the process, but here is a few of it finished.

And here it is with some other items i've done, a long handled club hammer and a knife i handled.

 

[Chambers]

Love it, never seen a wedge/pin whatever you want to call it in the eye like that before. Can you tell me some more about it, how its shaped how long, how you put it in etc

 

[TJRoots]

Love it, never seen a wedge/pin whatever you want to call it in the eye like that before. Can you tell me some more about it, how its shaped how long, how you put it in etc

the wedge? its a steel hammer wedge, got it out of the eye of another hammer i'm working on, normally theyre a straight line but this one(as you can see) is circular.

this is what it looks like out of the eye.

all you need to do to use one is make sure the end is sharp, then just hammer it in like a nail untill it doesnt want to go any further then file whats left of it down flush with the rest of your eye.

you use these to stop your main wooden wedge from popping out when you use the axe, however you can also just put another wooden wedge going the other way but i forgot to do that untill i'd already fitted the head .

 

[milius2]

Well done, that's a cracking axe mate