Axe Refurbishing WIP: Round Two

Hi all,

Haven't had as much time to work on projects as I'd like - but I did find a few breaks to get another axe restoration done! This time around it's a Walter Black Diamond. Doing a little homework I found out that these were among some of the finest axes made in  their time, and made in Canada! In it's original condition it looked like the owner knew what they were doing as far as taking care of tools went - edge geometry was well maintained , pitting was not too deep and the head didn't have a trillion nails for wedges stuck in it.

The handle also seemed ot be in fairly decent condition - I'll have to admit I felt bad for destroying something that was likely over twice my age, but I didn't want to take any chances with cracks of any decay which may have been occurring inside.

Great grain orientation - I can't imagine how long it took for all that linseed oil to build up that deep into the wood

 After some light filing on the poll to remove some minor mushrooming. I used electrolysis to remove the bulk of the rust.

Clean up and sharpening were more or less the same as the previous axe restoration on the True Temper, and it was onto the fitting. I fitted the head with a shorter house axe handle (~19") so that I would be able to take it on long hikes and have it be too bulky. For the size of the head, the handle was a bit short, but I figured it would do. The only thing different I did this time from the previous axe was in the finishing, leaving it at 220 grit and applying a 50/50 mix of  paraffin melted into paraffin for waterproofing. I find this method is certainly faster than applying X number of layers of linseed oil, since it takes very little time to polymerize and is fairly robust.

The axe sheath was also done similar to the previous, with the exception being that I used double cap rivets instead of chicago bolts on the areas subject to the most stress and saturated the welt with acrylic resolene to increase its cut resistance. The final finishing was also tweaked from the previous, which only used paraffin.

My original plan in finishing of the areas subject to movement was to use something called Obenauf's Leather preservative, but  being a Canuck in Canada, specialty items are tougher to get unfortunately.  After doing some research on the product, it appeared to be a mix of beeswax, propolis (bee derived resin), and some mix of oils.  To make the next best thing, I improvised and melted up some mink oil, wax, and cleaned spruce resin collected from the front yard to make a balm like concoction. The mink oil was to act as  lubrication for the leather fibers, resin as a preservative and waterproofing agent (hopefully), and the wax was for waterproofing and to tie it all together. So far results have been promising, providing decent waterproofing and buffing to a high shine, but only time will tell. Gotta love the forest-y smell though!

about 3 oz of cleaned spruce resin - the original volume in raw form was about four to five times as much due to a large proportion of air in the sap - do not melt this stuff indoors!! 

final leather finish product after mixing resin with wax and mink oil- it looks solid but is still very soft at room temperature, think lip balm in terms of consistency

Cottage Trip + Recent work

After one and a half years of no vacation, I finally had the chance to get some downtime and spent a week at a cottage with the family up in Haliburton on Kennisis Lake. A little buggy for the time of year, but the weather held out for the most part to give ample time for exploring by kayak and some hiking, BBQ, and of course campfires!

The axe I refurbished a finally got a good workout from some impromptu woodcarving. This was after finding out that the only spatula in the cottage was a horrible worn out plastic one that was leaving plastic bits in whatever we made. Luckily there were plenty of decent sized seasoned maple logs to choose from and I selected a log with what I thought had fairly straight grain. I split off a 3/8" board from it, and roughed out the profile using light chops with the axe, then final carving and scraping with a knife to dial in the tapers and give it a smooth finish. Overall not too bad for a first effort I think, but in hindsight I think this would have been easier with a hatchet or smaller axe, maybe that'll be my next project.

Spatula after initial shaping with the axe.

Finer shaping using a knife (made by me a few years ago). 

The finished product.

Cottaging aside, I just finished my most recent request for a fire kit, and came up with a new design for a bottle opener/ striker/ pocket chisel (if anyone has any ideas for a better name please let me know haha).  The design evolved from an earlier bottle opener design I made from an off cut, but with the addition of a chisel to allow for cutting, scraping, or light prying.  The tool is 1/8" O1 tool steel and the firesteel is black canvas micarta with a bright red double stripe.  The sheath itself is vegetable tanned leather and patterned similar to an earlier piece, but with the addition of a brass dee ring to allow for more carry options.

On another note, I am almost finished tuning and setting up my 2x72" TDM belt grinder that I got from Canadian Knife Maker.  After getting some belts, making a stand, and modifying the platen I'll be putting up pictures of the finished product.

Cheers!

More Firesteels

Just a quick update, I've finished a batch of firesteels ready for sale! All are micarta with fiber liners with different options for lanyards. Get 'em while they're hot, enjoy!  In other news, my good friend Richard Gao has written a detailed review of the nessmuk that I made for him, check it out on his blog here.  I've been spending a fair amount of time doing some spring cleaning in the shop, but now that that's almost done, I'll have more projects coming soon!

Latest Knife (sort of) + new stamp

Hi all,

Not exactly a new knife, as I had made two of these several months back and only got around to finishing off this one as of recent. Both are EDC (everyday carry) style pocket knives in 1/8" triple tempered O1 tool steel and micarta scales. I'm happy to say that I've improved between that knife and the last one with respect to leather work at the very least though (both sides of the stitching look the same)! I recently had a custom laser cut delrin makers stamp made by Jeff Mosby from Grey Ghost Graphics down in South Carolina, and I have to say I am very impressed by the turnaround time and quality of the piece, and it didn't break the bank!

A substantial hand stamp - it has surprising heft for a piece of plastic.

I'm amazed that this level of detail actually showed up - not sure if something this intricate can be machined

It's really rewarding to be able to sign your own work, and think it adds a great touch to the pieces. Not too much to show here aside from some finished pics and a few pictures of the process ( whatever I could take without getting grime all over my point and shoot).

Below are pictures of the one I worked on about 5 months ago:

And the most recent one:

(sorry about the grimy fingers)