It followed me home (Part 2)

This followed me home from the post office the other day. It's an R. King (old Collin's brand) axe with probably the nicest old handle I've ever handled. It's extremely thin and has a really nice fawns foot. It was nearly grey when I got it, but soaked up some linseed oil and brought out the rich brown patina. The fawns foot end has a few checks I don't like the look of. I'd like to fill them with titebond and clamp it, but the titebond is too viscous to get in the crack. Is there something you can thin wood glue with or does anyone have a better suggestion? The rest of the handle is solid. The edge will need a good bit of work, but there's lots of good steel left and the bit is thin enough to take it back behind the chips without it becoming a splitting maul lol.

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My other acquisition was from my brother who found a NOS carborundum puck for me.

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Thin the Titebond with water to any consistency.
 
This followed me home from the post office the other day. It's an R. King (old Collin's brand) axe with probably the nicest old handle I've ever handled. It's extremely thin and has a really nice fawns foot. It was nearly grey when I got it, but soaked up some linseed oil and brought out the rich brown patina. The fawns foot end has a few checks I don't like the look of. I'd like to fill them with titebond and clamp it, but the titebond is too viscous to get in the crack. Is there something you can thin wood glue with or does anyone have a better suggestion? The rest of the handle is solid. The edge will need a good bit of work, but there's lots of good steel left and the bit is thin enough to take it back behind the chips without it becoming a splitting maul lol.

Msb4r6T.jpg

0og1YFv.jpg

X0jGLgY.jpg

IpfwYpK.jpg

XWe1axe.jpg

eU1PCJh.jpg


My other acquisition was from my brother who found a NOS carborundum puck for me.

n5IBYtr.jpg
StXcGOG.jpg
What a gorgeous R King! And you're right, that helve is a-maz-ing!! Looks to me somewhat like a lumbermans pattern. Man is that sweet... Usually I don't worry about the checks in the palm swell. If they are too skinny to get glue in with a toothpick or needle, I wouldn't worry about it. Once oiled, I doubt they'll spread anymore. And it's not an integrity issue for strength either, in my experience at least. Man, great find there with that axe & haft. Both are very sweet! :thumbsup::D
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What a gorgeous R King! And you're right, that helve is a-maz-ing!! Looks to me somewhat like a lumbermans pattern. Man is that sweet... Usually I don't worry about the checks in the palm swell. If they are too skinny to get glue in with a toothpick or needle, I wouldn't worry about it. Once oiled, I doubt they'll spread anymore. And it's not an integrity issue for strength either, in my experience at least. Man, great find there with that axe & haft. Both are very sweet! :thumbsup::D
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I knew you guys would appreciate that old haft! I've got to include one of the auction pictures to show how it looked before getting some linseed. It might be one of my favorite things to give an old neglected handle oil. I have an adze I found in the old family barn with a handmade handle that did the same grey to beautiful brown turnaround.
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There are two cracks I'm worried about. They are exactly opposite each other on the knob right below where a chip has already came off before I bought it. If they were just checks I'd leave them, but I can tell they would like to split off, so I'm going to thin some titebond as suggested to fix it.
 
I suppose you are right! I've been able to acquire some nice ones over time. :D:thumbsup:. Thanks!
I put together some before and after pics of a light restore I did on it. Here it is almost finished!
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Here's a before on the back side;
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After;
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A rehang is obviously out of the question, so I'm applying blo to the tongue in hopes the wood will swell and tighten up just enough to stop it from rattling. Drives me nuts!
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Last photo is what this label looked like. This one does say "gas tempered" so it's at least as old as 1937. As they had already switched to electric tempering by then. Anyone know when Warren switched from gas to electric tempering? Anyhow thanks for looking! It's the second one up from the bottom;
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What a nice axe!
I refinished a little 2 1/2lber some years ago. It hangs behind a door in the kitchen, just incase of fire...

 
Yesterday's things.
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Abercrombie and Fitch hatchet;
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Underhill adze with inlaid steel(makes no sense to me, should be laminated from the bottom!) But it's still beautiful.
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And I can't load pics of the Snow and Neally pickaroon for some reason. Didn't have time for imgur this morning.
 
This followed me home from the post office the other day. It's an R. King (old Collin's brand) axe with probably the nicest old handle I've ever handled. It's extremely thin and has a really nice fawns foot. It was nearly grey when I got it, but soaked up some linseed oil and brought out the rich brown patina. The fawns foot end has a few checks I don't like the look of. I'd like to fill them with titebond and clamp it, but the titebond is too viscous to get in the crack. Is there something you can thin wood glue with or does anyone have a better suggestion? The rest of the handle is solid. The edge will need a good bit of work, but there's lots of good steel left and the bit is thin enough to take it back behind the chips without it becoming a splitting maul lol.

Msb4r6T.jpg

0og1YFv.jpg

X0jGLgY.jpg

IpfwYpK.jpg

XWe1axe.jpg

eU1PCJh.jpg


My other acquisition was from my brother who found a NOS carborundum puck for me.

n5IBYtr.jpg
StXcGOG.jpg

Heck yeah that's a nice one.
 
Got a Welsh miners/colliers axe straight from Wales. No makers mark but it can only be a handful of makers. Pitting is so deep that the hardened edge is pronounced compared to the rest of the surface area.
Total length is 12 inches, 5in blade width and 4 1/2in eye. Weight is just under 6lb.
I'm going to order an adrionack double bit blank from ThraneAxeAndSawCo.
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keesteel washboard axe and hatchet. Someone has put some unfortunate grind marks and fairly deep gouges in them trying to clean out the grooves with a flapper disk, mostly on the hatchet. I should be able to sand them out and smooth out the deepest ones.
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