Following the last Couple of Axe projects, During break times at work I have been working on a short project of one of the two axes that I recently laid my hands on.
A quick reminder of the original Condition of the axe, it the one on the Right, it was in quite good condition apart from having a coat of paint at some time and the poll was a bit of a mushroom, and the helve was in good nick all apart from the knob, the wedge had fallen apart and more or lest fell out.
I took out the helve carefully as I could see it may have been a re-user, once it was out the Head went for a swim in vinegar for a couple of days until most of the rubbish was off, I finished the clean up with a Pan Scourer in the vinegar, a quick wash dry and a 30 buff up with autosol to stop the rust starting again, I then linished off the mushroom until I thought it looked correct.
I then worked on the cutting edge keeping as near to the original, but removing the couple of dinks it had.
The helve was the easy part to be fair, the whole thing got a good sanding to remove as much of the dirt, taking care to leave the Elwell Brand Mark in tacked as much as I could, I then cleaned up the knob as it was well featherd and someone had cut into it with a saw, so I cleaned it up with a goats foot knob.
It all came together with the help of a Cherry Wedge that I quickly made up and knocked in, a quick coat of oil for the Helve, and here it is.
Hope you like, and I have done it justice, it feels nice in the hand and well balanced, just got to finish off the sharping of it and will try it out at the weekend.
A quick reminder of the original Condition of the axe, it the one on the Right, it was in quite good condition apart from having a coat of paint at some time and the poll was a bit of a mushroom, and the helve was in good nick all apart from the knob, the wedge had fallen apart and more or lest fell out.
I took out the helve carefully as I could see it may have been a re-user, once it was out the Head went for a swim in vinegar for a couple of days until most of the rubbish was off, I finished the clean up with a Pan Scourer in the vinegar, a quick wash dry and a 30 buff up with autosol to stop the rust starting again, I then linished off the mushroom until I thought it looked correct.
I then worked on the cutting edge keeping as near to the original, but removing the couple of dinks it had.
The helve was the easy part to be fair, the whole thing got a good sanding to remove as much of the dirt, taking care to leave the Elwell Brand Mark in tacked as much as I could, I then cleaned up the knob as it was well featherd and someone had cut into it with a saw, so I cleaned it up with a goats foot knob.
It all came together with the help of a Cherry Wedge that I quickly made up and knocked in, a quick coat of oil for the Helve, and here it is.
Hope you like, and I have done it justice, it feels nice in the hand and well balanced, just got to finish off the sharping of it and will try it out at the weekend.
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