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Reworking a couple of Axes:T
Recently a forum member asked about sourcing a couple of Axes from here in Norway.I restore old things as a Hobby and had picked up a couple of Axes recently.
He wanted somthing along the lines of a Grunsfors forest Axe,I have one myself so had something to work from.
One of the Axes is a Brannøxs,literally "Fire Axe" These were placed beside the fire fighting gear in all public buildings but as society degraded and these were stolen or used as weapons they have disappeared from all but the most obscure places.
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After removing the Axe heads and cutting off the Spike on the Fire axe,I gave them both a squirt of brake cleaner and put them in a Bucket of hot water with a handfull of Citric Acid Crystals.This stuff dissolves rust but not Steel,its magic for cleaning up rusty things.Its also Magic at finding little cuts and nicks on your hands.I buy it at Home Brew shops over here.
Time to make a handle.
I have quite a bit of Ash (Fraxinus Excelsior) I milled 5 years ago,it makes good strong Axe handles that are light and easy to work with.Choose a piece with nice straight grain,trace or free hand your desired shape,cut down to the outline every 10 mm or so (make your cuts 5mm apart on any details or fancey bits) and then just carefully chop out with and Axe or Chisel
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Some people like to fit the head to the roughed out shaft,I dont but cant see why it would be a bad idea,I shape the handle first.
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I have a couple of wee stanley hand planes I use to do the shaping,I also use a regular hacksaw blade with the back sharpened and held between both hands like a mini drawknife.If you dont have any special tools you can make a shaft using a pocket knife,its just going to take longer thats all.
Back to the Heads:Since its Acid you are dealing with,drain the bucket onto any Weeds on the drive you want to get rid of,rinse the Heads and sprinkle with baking soda to neutralise the Acid.The Heads will now be bare steel and begin to flash rust.I now go over them with a wire wheel on a angle grinder to pollish them prior to blackening.
Pop your shiny Axe Heads onto a baking tray,set the Oven to 245 deg C and go do something else for a hour.
Get half a cup of Linseed Oil and a couple of Tablespoons of Beeswax,warm it up in the Microwave or outside on a Primus untill your Was has dissolved in your Oil.Pour/Paint this over your Axe heads after they have been in the Oven for Half and Hour-Viola! Blackened Steel!
I have a Metal Bucket of Linseed Oil/ Beeswax Filthly Mixture I warm up and drop the heads into,before I came across enough free Oil and Wax I used the method above.
I took the shoulder off the Edges of the Blades once they had cooled down on a belt sander,a good file does the same,just takes you longer.
Fitting the heads to the Handles is a matter of trial and error,I used a bit of Epoxy on the Forest Axe since its going to get Arseholes and the profile of the Handle is more square than Oval.I fastened the Shafts to the heads with Oak Wedges,sometimes I used a little metal wedge as well or even half of a Washer.Just get it tight.
I went over the road into the forest and Chopped some things down with the Felling Axe,what a loverly thing to use! I swung the Forest Axe into the fallen Tree and stood on the Shaft,held 90kg loaded laterally so thats strong enough.
Both of these will be on their way to Taranaki on Monday.
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