What did you rehang today?

A17 said:
I won’t delve into things too deeply, but due to a self-caused accident while torching off a burn pile I suffered 3rd degree burns to 45-50% of my body, specifically my torso/arms/hands. I ultimately ended up in the burn dept of the nearest Shriners as I was (barely) under 18. I’ve undergone 4 surgeries and will probably undergo several more in the next 2-3 years but, I’ve retained all my digits/limbs. So, that’s how a young guy ends up in such a lousy situation.
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Well I am so sorry to hear that bud. It's not fair that sometimes some people get to do stupid things and get away unscathed and other times people trying to accomplish things get hurt. Shit luck and a hard lesson learned. I wish you the very best and hope you have a full recovery. Again I'm sorry I didn't reach out. I noticed you weren't around much too and just didn't write you. Are you in much pain now?
 
A17 said:
I haven’t hung anything for +/- 6 months as I was hospitalized from mid January of this year till early April and I’ve just gotten mobile enough and strong enough to swing a 2-3lb sledge/axe. I’ve got a lot of axe heads to catch up on, though. I’m hoping in the next month or two I’ll be able to contribute to this thread again.
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Who needs full size axes!! You can do so much with boy's axe.
I am glad you are getting better.
 
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A17, glad you are back. I really enjoy your posts and have missed them. You have a very old soul compared to your chronological age. I am well known locally for having a story for every situation. I cut my thumb almost completely off in 2001 with a table saw. Found out how bad it was at our local hospital and decided to not let them work on it. My brother was upset and bitching at me as he drove me to University of KY medical center. He accused me of being accident prone. My reply was that people who lay on the couch don’t get hurt. Hang in there, already have your recovery in my prayers.
 
Collins Axe
Commander
3½lb Michigan, Bevels
Mann

29¾" long
4¼lbs

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I used a link replacement handle and left the blue paint where i could.
Sweet bevels

:cool:
 
Took my heavy Canadian Dandenong off this handle, it just didn't have a good feel; that one needs a more substantial handle. This handle has a really narrow profile on the blade side, which maybe you can see I tried to round off a little more for comfort. This head, which seems like a lightweight competition pattern (maybe 3 1/2 pounds, but a bit that's over 5 1/4"), was on another handle that just didn't work so it just sat there. Looks much better on here, and feels much better than that Dandenong. Whole axe is just under five pounds, vs five pounds for the head alone on the Dandenong. Black Locust wedge. Looking forward to chopping with this one. It came with most of that edge work done, just had to touch it up a bit. Wish it had a maker's mark but you can see it's had a long life and anything that was on there has been worn away. Another day I'll glue some scales to the foot of the handle a la Josh, it needs a bigger swell.

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I don't know if it really counts , but I used the end of an old cracked axe handle on one of those Incolma machetes that came in on Tuesday.
The 22" Latin is light and fast and the long blade started to seem useful to me so I decided to keep it as well, but the handle was just too small.
I threw together a quick and dirty handle from pellet wood earlier today and it failed, that's when I got the idea for this.

The orange duct tape is just there to lock down the string I used to cover the gap at the bottom, it's properly glued and pinned.
It's the second one down from the top.

This should be one awesome weed slasher around the yard.
I'm going to buy a gas string trimmer when and if that darn stimulus check ever arrives, but the machetes and even the 18v cordless trimmer will always have their place.
 
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I bought a 3 3/4 lb Kelly Works Flint Edge last year on Ebay and just got around to making a handle for it. Its white ash, though it was a smaller section from further up the trunk than I would like. I wanted it to have the french curve look, but just dialed back a bit to be more functional. Its octagonalized most of the way down and transitions to rounded at the end. The sweep did give it a little runout, but I think it will be fine.

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I spent quite a bit of time fitting so I could get these patented Yankee Josh bottom of the eye shots ;)

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Little bit of history in this head, it is stamped "S.P.CO." for the Southern Pacific Railway. This makes sense given the ebay seller was in California. Judging by the poll and the relatively full bit I would say whoever owned it used it more for pounding than chopping. I couldn't for the life of me get Imgur to upload this pic, so I went with another image hosting site.



On one of my other handles I experimented with crushed charcoal mixed with raw linseed and had some interesting results. For this one I ground the charcoal more finely and it absorbed really well into the early wood of the ash. The charcoal also absorbs much more readily into the end grain of the yellow birch wedge which darkened it significantly. I think it came out looking nice.
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Haha patented. Lol. :thumbsup::D Nice looking hang M Malus ! Came out great and nice and tight!

I acquired, lightly cleaned, polished and cold blued, this little Collins hatchet a year or so ago.
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I finally got around to filing and honing it a couple nights ago. And I hung it yesterday. It's nothing fancy but it dressed up nice I think. ;). Here's one pic of it sitting on the haft prior to hanging. Note how light the 18" N.E. Handles haft is.
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And here it is all done;
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A "patented" shot. :D
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The steel is typical for a hatchet. Not very hard but not horrible either. Thanks for checking it out gents! :thumbsup:
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On one of my other handles I experimented with crushed charcoal mixed with raw linseed and had some interesting results. For this one I ground the charcoal more finely and it absorbed really well into the early wood of the ash. The charcoal also absorbs much more readily into the end grain of the yellow birch wedge which darkened it significantly. I think it came out looking nice.
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I really like the effect of the charcoal on this one. Very cool.
 
I did this project this spring.... then my membership lapsed and I couldn't post photos. Then the world went crazy and I've been a little distracted, and finally got back around to posting about it.

This was the 1st axe handle I've ever made. Just decided to give it a try. It was a Thrane & Co premium hickory blank. It had a crack down at the very end so I had to cut more of a curve to the hand grip than I would have liked (should have sent the blank back, but oh well). It's surprisingly comfy anyway. I did the bulk of the rough cutting on my bandsaw then went at it with a rasp.

Keen Kutter 2#5oz boys, hung on a 28" (finishished out at about 27") handle. I used a potassium permanganate solution to stain the handle to get the aged patina look, then gave it a bath in BLO. Hung with a walnut wedge.

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jblyttle said:
It's been a while since I hung an axe, but I was in the mood today. This is an apparently Maine made head on a 24" ash handle.

IMG_20200606_140132 by Justin Lyttle, on Flickr
IMG_20200606_140137 by Justin Lyttle, on Flickr
IMG_20200606_140141 by Justin Lyttle, on Flickr
IMG_20200606_140145 by Justin Lyttle, on Flickr
IMG_20200606_140149 by Justin Lyttle, on Flickr
IMG_20200606_140154 by Justin Lyttle, on Flickr
IMG_20200606_140159 by Justin Lyttle, on Flickr
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Looks good! Very good. Nice helve choice for it. I've heard the razor blade name before but who made the axe? Do you know?
 
I rehung my Russian Topor. This thing has been sitting on my bench for a couple years while I debated fixing the spur. The spurs on these are only decorative since they don't make contact with the haft. I thought about what I would have to do at the forge to correct this and decided it wasn't worth it. This axe has a very well formed eye and it doesn't need the additional support of a spur.

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When I first received this axe it was coated in some sort of tar or dried cosmoline. This was a NOS axe, never used. It was a mess and a bit of a bitch to clean up. My SKS was coated in a similar substance.
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But underneath all that was a decent axe and handle. It's from 1955 when they still used decent steel in the Soviet Union.
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I cleaned off most of the tar. It soaked deep into the top of the haft and even after cutting off 5/16" of wood the top is still black. Walnut wedge.
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Grain is pretty good to excellent and the handle is well sized to the eye.
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A few stains of cosmoline remain on the haft.
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Just after I took these pics I decided to show it to my Russian neighbor. I heard hammering so I knew he was in his backyard. When I looked over the fence I saw he was making kindling by batoning a hunting knife. I called him over and passed him the axe. He recognized it immediately and his eyes lit up. I enjoyed that. He proceeded to ping the bit a few time to listen to the ring. This is exactly what Jake Pogg (or perhaps another forum member familiar with Russians) has said a Russian will always do. They have a firm belief that the ring indicates good steel. He looked at the date stamp and remarked that 1955 meant it had good steel.
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My neighbor brought the axe back about 10 minutes later. He showed me that he had sliced his finger on the bit. Kinda my fault. I hadn't warned him that it was shaving sharp.
 
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