As some of you know I enjoy breathing new life into old British axe heads that I pick up from flea markets and car boot fairs. I don’t usually bother with anything that has been too abused but just occasionally I act against my better judgement and end up bringing home something that goes to the back of the workshop and forgotten about. So, when I decided I wanted a right-handed carving axe, I thought I’d have a go at reshaping the badly battered Gilpins axe below. Axes that have been abused as badly as this can sometimes have cracked eyes so my rather simplistic test is to hang them on a piece of string and tap them in a lot of places; if it rings like a bell for every tap I am satisfied. There are more sophisticated and, probably, more reliable methods but this has worked for me so far.
First thing I had to do was anneal the piece to make it workable. It was heated to 800oC in the kiln, held for half an hour then allowed to cool slowly; it was still at 45oC fourteen hours later! I drew the new shape on with a Sharpie. I wanted an axe with the toe well forward of the eye which meant removing the front lug completely but as that was the most damaged part I was quite happy with that.
I cut out the unwanted parts of the blade and ground out the distorted parts on the poll. Then I ground the right-handed edge. The edge was then sharpened; minutes spent on this now save hours after hardening.
Once I was happy with the overall shape and edge finish it was time to heat treat it. Again, it was brought up to 800oC, held for half an hour, then oil quenched – concentrating on cooling the edge as fast as possible. The piece is quite fragile at this stage and dropping it would almost certainly result in a chipped edge or even worse. So, as fast as possible, it goes into the oven to be tempered. Normally I would be looking for an end hardness of around the mid-fifties RC for an axe that may be used on a frozen oak log but for a carving axe I wanted something a bit harder and decided on 58RC so the tempering was done at 250 oC for an hour.
Once cooled I set about finishing the blade edge. This is the Zen bit that I enjoy the most – ending up with a fine sharp edge.
Finally a new handle. I had set aside a piece of plum for the handle but it was still a bit too green so for the moment it’s got a cherry handle. Overall I’m quite pleased and, on first test, it certainly seems to do what I wanted
First thing I had to do was anneal the piece to make it workable. It was heated to 800oC in the kiln, held for half an hour then allowed to cool slowly; it was still at 45oC fourteen hours later! I drew the new shape on with a Sharpie. I wanted an axe with the toe well forward of the eye which meant removing the front lug completely but as that was the most damaged part I was quite happy with that.
I cut out the unwanted parts of the blade and ground out the distorted parts on the poll. Then I ground the right-handed edge. The edge was then sharpened; minutes spent on this now save hours after hardening.
Once I was happy with the overall shape and edge finish it was time to heat treat it. Again, it was brought up to 800oC, held for half an hour, then oil quenched – concentrating on cooling the edge as fast as possible. The piece is quite fragile at this stage and dropping it would almost certainly result in a chipped edge or even worse. So, as fast as possible, it goes into the oven to be tempered. Normally I would be looking for an end hardness of around the mid-fifties RC for an axe that may be used on a frozen oak log but for a carving axe I wanted something a bit harder and decided on 58RC so the tempering was done at 250 oC for an hour.
Once cooled I set about finishing the blade edge. This is the Zen bit that I enjoy the most – ending up with a fine sharp edge.
Finally a new handle. I had set aside a piece of plum for the handle but it was still a bit too green so for the moment it’s got a cherry handle. Overall I’m quite pleased and, on first test, it certainly seems to do what I wanted
