What Did You Sharpen Today?

[Yankee Josh]

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[Yankee Josh]

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[Yankee Josh]

Deleted. Sorry about that folks. I was having internet troubles and the post wouldn't load up. So I tried unsuccessfully 5 times. Then once the connection reestablished it posted 5 times! Haha.

 

[Fmont]

Lol.

It looks incredible! I love the way that white paint pops out from the silver background.

 

[Hairy Clipper]

If you have not seen this before you might find it interesting as how it relates to your Van Camp axe.

https://fishinghistory.blogspot.com/2011/06/52-trade-houses-part-10-van-camp.htmlJosh,

 

[Yankee Josh]

If you have not seen this before you might find it interesting as how it relates to you Van Camp axe.

https://fishinghistory.blogspot.com/2011/06/52-trade-houses-part-10-van-camp.htmlJosh,

That was fun reading. Thank you for linking it!
I have fond memories of the old, small hardware stores that were around when I was younger. Even those small concerns have all but vanished. I can only dream of walking into one of those major hardware stores back in the day. All wood display cases and everything wrapped in paper or sackcloth. Items arranged seemingly helter skelter from floor to ceiling. I'd be like a kid in a candy store! I know there's a few like that left for you fellas on the west coast cause I've seen pictures!

 

[Meek1]

I'm embarrassed to admit how long this axe took all said and done. Especially since I only put a glorified radial grind on it! There wasn't a lot of mushrooming but I spent a long time fixing the deformed mass of metal under the mushrooming. I used plain white paint for infill.

Here you can see some of my effort. After filing and honing with a diamond stone I took a fine regular stone and used short forward/backward strokes to try to blend the bright steel with the body of the axe.

The angle of the cutting edge is 23°-25° inclusive.

I wish I could parkerize it. Haven't made my mind up yet what I'll do. I very well may sink it in my pond for a couple weeks so I can wire wheel it. Anyway I've rambled enough! Have a good one!

You know, when you posted the pics this morning I was going to say what good shape the poll was in. But I guess it was not up to spec. Very nice! You are an artist for sure.

 

[Yankee Josh]

The D.R. Barton broad axe is ready for a haft. This tool was taken care of quite well. Whoever sharpened it over its life did it correctly and kept the back nice and flat. Nice for a change! The cutting edge measures 11-1/2" and its 8-3/4" overall and weighs 6lb 8.4oz.
First one pic of how it looked when I got it. Had just a few nicks in it.

Filed;

And honed;

In this photo you can see what I think is the remnants of an original paint line;

And on the back you can see plenty of bit steel left. Also since it was already flat I just honed 5/8" or so.

What surprised me is the size of the eye! Never seen one so large before. 3-5/16"!

I really do enjoy spending the time doing this. Especially when it's such good steel on a well made axe. Thanks for looking!

 

[Miller '72]

The D.R. Barton broad axe is ready for a haft. This tool was taken care of quite well. Whoever sharpened it over its life did it correctly and kept the back nice and flat. Nice for a change! The cutting edge measures 11-1/2" and its 8-3/4" overall and weighs 6lb 8.4oz.
First one pic of how it looked when I got it. Had just a few nicks in it.

Filed;

And honed;

In this photo you can see what I think is the remnants of an original paint line;

And on the back you can see plenty of bit steel left. Also since it was already flat I just honed 5/8" or so.

What surprised me is the size of the eye! Never seen one so large before. 3-5/16"!

I really do enjoy spending the time doing this. Especially when it's such good steel on a well made axe. Thanks for looking!

Truely a superb axe and i am glad it found you for its rebirth and saftey from a less experienced and or a less axe-passionate person.
Kudos on an excellent axe and your work at its resurrection

 

[Agent_H]

The D.R. Barton broad axe is ready for a haft. This tool was taken care of quite well. Whoever sharpened it over its life did it correctly and kept the back nice and flat. Nice for a change! The cutting edge measures 11-1/2" and its 8-3/4" overall and weighs 6lb 8.4oz.
First one pic of how it looked when I got it. Had just a few nicks in it.

Filed;

And honed;

In this photo you can see what I think is the remnants of an original paint line;

And on the back you can see plenty of bit steel left. Also since it was already flat I just honed 5/8" or so.

What surprised me is the size of the eye! Never seen one so large before. 3-5/16"!

I really do enjoy spending the time doing this. Especially when it's such good steel on a well made axe. Thanks for looking!

That is a lot of very sharp looking edge on that one! Nice execution!

 

[Yankee Josh]

Truely a superb axe and i am glad it found you for its rebirth and saftey from a less experienced and or a less axe-passionate person.
Kudos on an excellent axe and your work at its resurrection

That is a lot of very sharp looking edge on that one! Nice execution!

Thanks guys! I started on the other good one this evening. This one too was sharpened well over its life. But unfortunately the back has quite a few small pits.

Here's a close up of the worst area after 45 minutes worth of filing;

And where it's at now;

Making progress! This one's going to take awhile...

 

[Square_peg]

In this photo you can see what I think is the remnants of an original paint line;

That's pretty cool! It's in great shape and I love what you've done with it.

What's your plan to fill that big eye?

 

[Yankee Josh]

That's pretty cool! It's in great shape and I love what you've done with it.

What's your plan to fill that big eye?

Thank you! I'm not sure yet what I'll do. I think, unless I make a haft for it, I'll do a back wedge. I also like the idea of being able to remove it to switch sides if necessary.
If I could but source some hickory around here I would make a helve for it. I could of course use oak but I want hickory for this one.
It sure has a beautiful ring! It just keeps on ringing. Whatever I decide I'll post it up! I've since finished that other one. Just over 4.5 hours filing. Whew! And a sore back! Haha.

 

[Fmont]

With all that room in the eye you could use just about anything you wanted! I should think ash would be great too, if it's easier for you to find. I've found it takes to steam bending well, and I'd bet it's more than up to the task.

 

[Yankee Josh]

With all that room in the eye you could use just about anything you wanted! I should think ash would be great too, if it's easier for you to find. I've found it takes to steam bending well, and I'd bet it's more than up to the task.

You are absolutely right about ash. It didn't occur to me as I've used up the last of my seasoned white ash and only have green(it's seasoned though) ash and red oak on hand. I haven't yet tried to source white ash blanks as I've had them. Maybe I will use white ash! I have yet to bend any and It'll be a good project. Thanks for the suggestion!
I forgot to take pics during daylight of the other broad axe I finished yesterday. I hate to bogart the thread but I'll post it up tomorrow!

 

[A17]

Thank you! I'm not sure yet what I'll do. I think, unless I make a haft for it, I'll do a back wedge. I also like the idea of being able to remove it to switch sides if necessary.
If I could but source some hickory around here I would make a helve for it. I could of course use oak but I want hickory for this one.
It sure has a beautiful ring! It just keeps on ringing. Whatever I decide I'll post it up! I've since finished that other one. Just over 4.5 hours all said and done. Whew! And a sore back! Haha.

You could make a removable wedging system like S Square_peg 's broad axe did. The wedges could be made highly oversized to negate the smaller handle eye vs the larger head eye.

 

[Yankee Josh]

You could make a removable wedging system like S Square_peg 's broad axe did. The wedges could be made highly oversized to negate the smaller handle eye vs the larger head eye.

That giant eye is precisely why I decided I would back wedge this one. So that, though I probably never will need to, I can reverse it if I wish.
I've had this one finished for a few days but just took photos today. This one weighs #5-13.4oz. Heel to toe measures 11-1/2" and overall it's 7-7/8".
I've got over 6 hours between filing and honing on this one. I had to take a lot of material off to get rid of those damn pits!
A couple before and during pics;

This was the worst area;

Here it is all shiny!

Another hard earned reflection;

And lastly this is where the worst of it was.

Worth it to bring an old tool back! This one isn't quite as hard as the D.R.Barton but still it's quite good. I'm going to go file that new vanadium now. Have a great evening fellow axe heads!

 

[Agent_H]

That giant eye is precisely why I decided I would back wedge this one. So that, though I probably never will need to, I can reverse it if I wish.
I've had this one finished for a few days but just took photos today. This one weighs #5-13.4oz. Heel to toe measures 11-1/2" and overall it's 7-7/8".
I've got over 6 hours between filing and honing on this one. I had to take a lot of material off to get rid of those damn pits!
A couple before and during pics;

This was the worst area;

Here it is all shiny!

Another hard earned reflection;

And lastly this is where the worst of it was.

Worth it to bring an old tool back! This one isn't quite as hard as the D.R.Barton but still it's quite good. I'm going to go file that new vanadium now. Have a great evening fellow axe heads!

The back is the wood facing edge and short of it being new, I imagine it clean enough to put to work.

There are are some guys here that might know better but that is a valiant application of effort to the side that meets wood.

 

[Square_peg]

Looks great!

I've got over 6 hours between filing and honing on this one. I had to take a lot of material off to get rid of those damn pits!

That's just the thing. You can't put an edge on it until you have a uniform surface on the back for the front bevel to meet up with. Otherwise you'll always have a jagged edge.

And you have to push the back flat so far till it blends into the eye area. Otherwise it's like having a double-beveled tool. Not right for a broadaxe. Sweat equity is the only thing that can bring one of these old broadaxes back into usable condition.

 

[Yankee Josh]

Looks great!



That's just the thing. You can't put an edge on it until you have a uniform surface on the back for the front bevel to meet up with. Otherwise you'll always have a jagged edge.

And you have to push the back flat so far till it blends into the eye area. Otherwise it's like having a double-beveled tool. Not right for a broadaxe. Sweat equity is the only thing that can bring one of these old broadaxes back into usable condition.

I think I went far enough back with it. I could still go back further of course. I didn't use a straight edge while filing. Just by feel and by eye. I'm curious if you think it'll work fine as is. Here's a few pics of that;

The other end has an identical flare.
The end on the back that had the worst pitting isn't perfect but it's close. Here's the back with a square placed on it at varying distances;

Another thing I'm curious about is that black paint. I immersed this in evaporust twice! And it hardly touched that black paint. Could it be lead based? It's always removed any and all paints before but not this time.Tough stuff!
And I know it's not perfect but I think it's serviceable, no?
Edit; in the 3rd photo I had the square slightly tilted away from me. I just repeated that placement and it sits flat to the edge. The 1st one however is tapered down slightly. Almost!