Welding an axe head?

[ozzy1977]

I picked up this 4lb side axe head today for £1.50. It is cracked right down the eye, what would be the best way to sort it out?

 

[Mesquite]

Keep it as is and use it for a paperweight

 

[British Red]

When you say cracked down the eye, can you provide a close up photo?

 

[sunndog]

red, You can see it in the pic above if you zoom in

a close up pic and a top down shot would be useful though

 

[British Red]

I assume the line down the cheek to the front of the eye? Didn't look quit like a crack on my crummy tablet. If it is a crack, Steve has it right, its a paperweight!

 

[sunndog]

I assume the line down the cheek to the front of the eye?

Aye thars the fella, pretty sure thats a crack. And yeah it does seem to be fully in front of the eye....if it was just one side of the eye it might have welded up ok, if it is in front i wouldn't bother either

 

[Everything Mac]

If you're a good welder Ozzy it might weld up ok but there would always be that slight worry at the back of my mind.

I'd be tempted to cut the eye off all together and then use the body of the axe as a splitting wedge.

Andy

 

[Jared]

Yeah, old logger types (pre chainsaw) cut off the eye of broken axe heads to use them as bucking wedges.

As you saw through a large log, would drive the wedge in across the cut (90 degrees to saw cut) to keep the saw from binding and to prevent the the log rolling once it was free.

 

[mrcharly]

You'll only be able to get to one side of that crack, so to weld it you would need to grind out a V until you got to the bottom of the crack, then build back up.

 

[Dave Budd]

if your welding is OK then welding it up wouldn't be a problem at all. It could be made to look OK too, but never as new. Depending on how beefy your welder is, you will either need to grind a deep V to get a root bead, or just grind away the surface crack into a shallow V to get clean metal. Wrap the edge in a damp cloth to protect the temper. Preheat the weld area a bit with a blowtorch and then run several beads along the crack. The subsequent beads should help to normalise the HAZ from the weld. It's unlikely that you would ever break it again

People get too snobby about electrically welding tools and if done properly are just as strong as if welded 'properly'. Not that I do it in my makings, but if it were my own axe head to be used, then I would have no problem doing a quick and dirty weld on it!

 

[OldJimbo]

A side axe doesn't usually encounter the sudden shocks that a regular axe does, and since the head doesn't look abused, then the crack is due to an original defect. While it can be welded and used safely in this case - because of the way a side axe is used - it would be worth cleaning up and checking how deep that crack goes.

 

[ozzy1977]

I was thinking it was a defect as there is no wear to the edge, it even has the original paint on it. When i get my welder here i will have a go at welding it up, got nothing to lose.

 

[OldJimbo]

If you would be so good as to take the trouble to clean up the head to reveal all the stamps properly, and the nature of the crack and post some pictures it would be of great interest to me. It's actually rare in my experience, to see original defects in vintage axes.